Cal Women, Virginia Men Enter NCAA Division I Championships as Top Seeds; Gibbs on How College Prepared Her for WTA Tour; Dolehide Qualifies in $75K

The Division I fields, seeds and first round matches were revealed today on the NCAA's selection shows, with the Cal women and Virginia men earning the No. 1 seeds for the tournament, which begins Friday May 13th at sites around the country. The team tournament is May 19-24 in Tulsa, with the women starting their first round on the 19th, the men on the 20th.

Cal, which was ranked No. 2, was given the top spot over No. 1 Florida, based on the Bears' 4-3 win over the Gators in Berkeley, but the committee was not consistent in using head-to-head results to make seeding adjustments.  Michigan, seeded No. 10, had beaten Duke, seeded No. 9, in Durham earlier this year, but no adjustment was made to their seedings.  To be fair, these adjustments make very little difference in the overall scheme of things, but with that being said, why tinker with some and not others?  Here are the women's seeds, with all seeded teams hosting the first two rounds of regionals on their home courts.

1. California(Indoor champion)
2. Florida
3. North Carolina
4. Ohio State
5. Georgia
6. Vanderbilt (defending NCAA champion)
7. Miami
8. Pepperdine
9. Duke
10. Michigan
11. Auburn
12. Oklahoma State
13. South Carolina
14. Virginia
15. Stanford
16. Texas Tech
The complete women's draw is here.

I'm sure you'll agree that it's very odd not to see USC and UCLA on this list. And congratulations to the Syracuse women, who will be playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time.

Following Virginia in the men's seedings is another ACC team, Indoor champion North Carolina, which has actually beaten Virginia two out of the three times they've played this year.  The committee made no move based on that, because they had already bumped the Tar Heels over No. 2 ranked UCLA, based, I'm assuming, on North Carolina's 4-2 win over UCLA in the Indoor semifinals.  But again there was no consistency, with Illinois not moving ahead of Northwestern despite a 2-1 record against the Wildcats this year, nor did Texas Tech move ahead of Georgia, despite their win over the Bulldogs.  But USC was moved up over Oklahoma based on head-to-head, so there's just no clue as to when that might be a determining factor.

But again, all this will be settled on the courts of the Michael D. Case Tennis Center later this month, so it's best not to get too bogged down in the minutiae, particularly when there have been so many upsets this year on the men's side.

Here are the men's seeds, all of whom are hosting regionals:
1. Virginia (defending NCAA champion)
2. North Carolina (Indoor champion)
3. UCLA
4. TCU
5. Ohio State
6. Wake Forest
7. Georgia
8. Texas Tech
9. Florida
10. Southern Cal
11. Oklahoma
12. Texas A&M
13. Cal
14. Northwestern
15. Illinois
16. Oklahoma State
Complete men's draw here.

The master lineups are available here (men and women), which are still subject to challenges, due to the committee by Wednesday evening.  The various Championships manuals, with important dates, are available here.

For more on the NCAA Division I team championships, see College Tennis Today.

Nicole Gibbs, the two-time NCAA singles and NCAA doubles and team champion while at Stanford, suggests, in her latest blog for the WTA, that every junior consider college tennis as an option for an eventual career on the pro tour.  Gibbs gives a humorous look at a typical day for her as a student-athlete, then seriously addresses the issues that some consider a reason to skip college.  She also says college is not for everyone. But any top junior weighing their options for the next few years, should definitely read Gibbs' post for a better understanding of the pros and cons, and why she believes it was right for her.

Qualifying was completed at today's $75,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, with Caroline Dolehide the sole junior to advance to the main draw. Dolehide, who needed a wild card into qualifying, defeated Justyna Jegiolka of Poland 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the main draw, where she'll play Jennifer Brady. Former Ole Miss star Julia Jones and Bernarda Pera were the other Americans to qualify.  Raveena Kingsley, Usue Arconada, Sanaz Marand and Sonya Kenin received wild cards.  Kenin, the only one to play a first round match today, defeated Conny Perrin of Switzerland 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.  Other American teens in the draw are CiCi Bellis, who plays top seed Shelby Rogers tomorrow night, and defending champion Katerina Stewart, who won her first round match today over Susanne Celik of Sweden 6-2, 6-0.  Kingsley drew No. 2 seed Lauren Davis for her first round opponent.  Matches are being streamed at usta.com.