Nott Returns to College Tennis at UT-Rio Grande Valley; Leustian Beats Top Seed to Reach Cancun Grade 1 Quarterfinals; More D-I NLI Signings

I recently had an opportunity to catch up with West Nott, the former University of Southern California women's associate head coach, who has taken the head coaching position at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. Nott, who has been out of college coaching for two years, explained what appealed to him about the UT-RGV position, how a Division I school outside the Power Five conferences handles its budget and recruiting, and what he learned in his ten years of collegiate coaching at USC and two years of private coaching that he's applied to his new position. He also told me what one thing he would change about Division I college tennis if he had the opportunity in this article at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

At the ITF Grade 1 in Cancun, two US boys and two US girls have advanced to the quarterfinals. After qualifier Adit Sinha beat the No. 2 seed yesterday, No. 16 seed Stefan Leustian took out the top seed today, with the recently signed UCLA recruit beating Santiago de la Fuente of Argentina 6-4, 6-4.  Recently signed Illinois recruit Hunter Heck, who is unseeded, defeated No. 7 seed Natan Rodrigues of Brazil 6-4, 6-1.  Unseeded Hibah Shaikh defeated No. 7 seed Darja Semenistaja of Latvia 6-0, 6-2 and qualifier India Houghton beat No. 6 seed Shavit Kimchi of Israel 6-0, 6-3.

It's been a week since signing day, and below are links to website articles from those that have come out since I posted an initial batch on November 14th. I'm trying to point out those who are starting in January, rather than next fall, but double check the ones you are interested in, in case I missed that information. Again, if no country is mentioned, the player is from the United States.

MEN:

Arizona has signed Jett Middleton.

Arizona State has signed Max McKennon, Spencer Brachman, Tom LeBlanc, Mortiz Hoffman of Germany and George Stoupe of New Zealand. LeBlanc and Stoupe are joining the Sun Devils in January.

BYU has signed Redd Owen and Alex Lin. Owen will be serving a mission prior to joining the team.

Clemson has signed Daniel Labrador, Spencer Whitaker and Ryuhei Azuma of Japan.

Kentucky has signed Joshua Lapadat of Canada.

Ohio State has signed JJ Tracy.

Oklahoma has signed Nathan Han, Welsh Hotard and Justin Schlageter of Germany.

Oregon has signed Quinn Vandecasteele.

Texas Tech has signed Isaac Arevalo of Mexico and Connor Johnson of Australia. Arevalo is a transfer from Utah State; both will start in January.

Tulane has signed Fynn Kuenkler of Germany.

UCLA has signed Stefan Leustian.

Virginia has signed Iñaki Montes de la Torre of Spain, Chris Rodesch of Luxembourg and Alexander Kiefer.

Virginia Tech has signed Ryan Fishback and Matthis Ross of Great Britain.

Western Michigan has signed Brogan Pierce, Joaquin Caballer of Spain, and Jackson Boone and Ben George of Canada.

WOMEN:

Baylor has signed Audrey Boch-Collins.

Georgia has signed Ariana Arseneault of Canada.

Iowa State has signed Miska Kadleckova of Slovakia and Ellie Murphy of Ireland.

Memphis has signed Sophie Abrams and Dolavee Tumthong of Thailand.

Mississippi has signed Kelsey Mize.

Missouri has signed Elys Ventura of New Zealand.

North Carolina has signed Fiona Crawley, Elizabeth Scotty and Reilly Tran.

North Carolina State has signed Abigail Rencheli.

Rutgers has signed Chloe Brown and Alisa Prinyarux.

SMU has signed Kiana Graham, Avery Hilbig and Winslow Huth.

Texas has signed Charlotte Chavatipon.

Washington has signed Yolanda Lin and Sarah-Maude Fortin of Canada.