First Computer Rankings Keep Ohio State Men, Duke Women at No. 1; Loeb, Thompson Stay at Top in Singles; UCLA Men Avenge Indoor Loss to USC

The ITA's first rankings of the season generated via computer were released today, with the Ohio State men and the Duke women retaining the No. 1 positions they were granted by the polling method used until now.

Ohio State defeated then No. 10 Notre Dame 4-2 last Saturday (my account of the match is here) and has yet to lose this season, but the Duke women were upset 5-2 last Friday by Virginia.  Virginia moved up to No. 3 in the rankings, while the men's team dropped all the way down to No. 10.  If that doesn't sound quite right, and I agree it doesn't, wait for at least another set of rankings before putting too much stock in the computer.  For the ITA's Frequently Asked Questions about the singles, doubles and team rankings, see this document.  For an alternative set of rankings for the men, see the Texas College Tennis blog, which deviates quite a bit from the ITA's after No. 1 and No. 2.

The Top 10 ITA men's teams:

1. Ohio State
2. Southern Cal
3. Oklahoma (according to their website, the Sooners highest ranking ever)
4. UCLA
5. Texas
6. Notre Dame
7. Illinois
8. Baylor
9. Cal
10. Virginia

The Top 10 ITA women's teams:

1. Duke
2. UCLA
3. Virginia
4. Stanford
5. Florida
6. Southern Cal
7. Northwestern
8. Vanderbilt
9. Texas A&M
10. Alabama

Odd not to see North Carolina and Cal in the Top 10, with the Tar Heels falling to 11, and Cal from 4 to 14. The Bears did lose to Southern Cal 6-1 last Saturday in Los Angeles.

The individual rankings didn't change either, at least the singles No. 1 didn't, with North Carolina's Jamie Loeb and UCLA's Clay Thompson once again at the top.

The women's Top 10:
1. Jamie Loeb, North Carolina
2. Trice Capra, Duke
3. Robin Anderson, UCLA
4. Julia Elbaba, Virginia
5. Kristie Ahn, Stanford
6. Hayley Carter, North Carolina
7. Olivia Janowicz, Florida
8. Jenny Jullien, St. Mary's
9. Chanelle Van Nguyen, UCLA
10. Lauren Herring, Georgia

Stanford has all six of its starting lineup--Ahn, Taylor Davidson, Carol Zhao, Caroline Doyle, Ellen Tsay and Krista Hardebeck--in this ranking period's Top 40. Davidson, Zhao and Doyle are freshmen.

The men's Top 10:
1. Clay Thompson, UCLA
2. Guillermo Alcorta, Oklahoma
3. Axel Alvarez Llamas, Oklahoma
4. Mitchell Frank, Virginia
5. Marcos Giron, UCLA
T6. Ray Sarmiento, Southern Cal
T6. Julian Lenz, Baylor
8. Jared Hiltzik, Illinois
9. Peter Kobelt, Ohio State
10. Yannick Hanfmann, Southern Cal

The Top 5 men's doubles teams :
1. Junior Ore and Jackson Withrow, Texas A&M
2. Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese, Tennessee
3. Peter Kobelt and Kevin Metka, Ohio State
4. Tim Kopinski and Ross Guignon, Illinois
5. Gonzales Austin and Ryan Lipman, Vanderbilt

The Top 5 women's doubles teams:
1. Robin Anderson and Jennifer Brady, UCLA
2. Lauren Herring and Maho Kowase, Georgia
3. Kendal Woodard and Megan Kurey, Georgia Tech
4. Trice Capra and Hanna Mar, Duke
5. Whitney Kay and Caroline Price, North Carolina

For complete rankings, see the ITA ranking page.

The Southern Cal and UCLA men met again today, just nine days after meeting in the semifinals of the ITA Team Indoor in Houston.  The Trojans won that match 4-3, but today it was the Bruins coming out on top at home 5-2.  Giron and Hanfmann played No. 1 singles, with Thompson and Sarmiento at No. 2 singles.  The Trojans won the doubles point, but UCLA took every first set in singles, and Gage Brymer clinched the match for UCLA with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Connor Farren at line 4.  Box score: