Qualifiers Schuman, Vandecasteele Defeat Top Seeds at Los Angeles $15Ks; Crawley Wins All-Tar Heel Battle to Reach Wichita $25K Quarterfinals; Inside College Recruiting with Tanner Stump

Both No. 1 seeds were ousted by qualifiers today at the SoCal Pro Series events in Los Angeles, with 15-year-old Aspen Schuman defeating top seed Maria Fernanda Navarro of Mexico 6-4, 6-1 in the women's tournament and Oregon rising junior Quinn Vandecasteele beating top seed Nathan Ponwith(Arizona State) 6-3, 6-3 in the men's tournament.

Schuman, who reached the Easter Bowl 18s final in April, reached the final of the SoCal Pro Series event in San Diego two weeks ago, so this isn't exactly a surprise. Schuman lost in that final to NCAA singles champion Fangran Tian(UCLA), who is again in the opposite half and seeded No. 5. Tian, who defeated qualifier Taylor Cataldi(Wisconsin) 6-3, 6-1 in today's second round, will face No. 2 seed Savanna Ly-Nguyen(Washington State), who beat 14-year-old wild card Thea Frodin 6-4, 6-4. Schuman is one of three qualifiers in the top half; she will play the only seed, Cal rising junior Jessica Alsola of Canada, No. 8, who defeated Anna Campana(Wake Forest/Pepperdine)  6-1, 7-6(4).

Vandecasteele defeated last week's champion in San Diego, Lorenzo Claverie of Italy, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round; his quarterfinal opponent is No. 6 seed Stefan Dostanic(USC), who beat Derek Pham of Australia 6-1, 7-5. Vandecasteele is one of three qualifiers to reach the quarterfinals, with Ryan Seggerman(Princeton/UNC) and Jonas Ziverts(Arizona) of Sweden the other two.

At the women's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Wichita Kansas, ITA Play of the Year Fiona Crawley defeated North Carolina teammate Reese Brantmeier 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals. Crawley, who needed a wild card into qualifying due to her limited play on the USTA Pro Circuit, especially since she began her college career, will face No. 4 seed Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine) next. Lahey, who has a penchant for lengthy matches, defeated qualifier Alexa Noel(Iowa/Miami) 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-4 in three hours and 47-minutes. 

Former Florida All-American Mccartney Kessler advanced to the quarterfinals when top seed Karman Thandi of India retired trailing 6-4, 4-2. Kessler will face Grace Min, who defeated No. 5 seed Maria Mateas(Duke) 6-4, 6-2 today, in the quarterfinals. The fifth American in the quarterfinals is Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech), who plays No. 6 seed Gabriela Lee(Texas Tech) of Romania in the quarterfinals.

At the men's $25,000 tournament in Tulsa, Wichita champion Ethan Quinn continued to add to his winning streak, with Georgia's NCAA champion, seeded No. 7, advancing to the quarterfinals when lucky loser Braden Schick(NC State) retired after losing the first set 7-5. Quinn will play top seed Adam Walton(Tennessee) of Australia, the 2022 NCAA singles semifinalist, who beat Murphy Cassone(Arizona State), a 2023 NCAA singles semifinalist, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The only other non-American in the quarterfinals is No. 3 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain, who beat Ozan Baris(Michigan State) 6-3, 6-1 today. McHugh will play Garrett Johns(Duke), who defeated Mac Kiger(UNC) 7-5, 6-4 in the second round. 

An American finalist is assured from the bottom half, with No. 6 seed Alfredo Perez(Florida) taking on wild card Adam Neff(SMU) and No. 8 seed Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State) facing No. 2 seed Nick Chappell(TCU).

Six Americans have also reached the quarterfinals at the $15,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in South Bend Indiana, including 18-year-old Aidan Kim, the No. 4 seed. Kim, who recently committed to Florida, will face No. 6 seed Blaise Bicknell(Florida/Tennessee), who reached the final last week at the $15K in San Diego. Top seed Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) will play qualifier Colton Smith(Arizona), in the other quarterfinal in the top half. 

Wild card Ryan Fishback(Virginia Tech) will face JJ Tracy(Ohio State) in the all-US quarterfinal in the bottom half; Axel Nefve(Notre Dame/Florida) will play No. 2 seed Edward Winter of Australia, a rising freshman at Pepperdine.

A week ago, on June 15, rising high school juniors could be contacted by college coaches, and that date marks the true kickoff of the summer recruiting season. On his No-ad No Problem podcast, John Parsons interviewed former University of Florida associate head coach Tanner Stump about the recruiting timeline, providing valuable information about what to expect as a prospective student-athlete during this process. Stump, who left Florida last year and now is offering a recruiting consulting service, College Tennis Crash Course, for coaches, also addresses the impact of the Name Image and Likeness rule on Division I college tennis recruiting. Unless you are a college coach yourself, I'm confident you'll learn something you didn't know about the process; I've been observing this activity for over 15 years and have talked with countless players about their recruiting journey in that time, but I am now much more familiar with the coach's perspective than I was before I listened.