Easter Bowl, International Spring Acceptances; McNally Reaches Another Quarterfinal at Tampa $15K; New ITA Rankings for D-III, NAIA, JUCO

The acceptance lists for the upcoming Easter Bowl and International Spring Championships have been up since early this month, and with the tournaments switching places on the calendar this year, I'll be starting my onsite coverage with the Easter Bowl.  The 12s, 14s and 16s will again be a gold ball event this year in the Palm Springs area, with the 12s and 14s beginning on Saturday, March 24.  The 16s begin on Monday the 26th, ending on Saturday March 31st, and ITF B1, which also begins on Monday, ends on Sunday, April 1st. 

The TennisLink site lists the participants; it appears wild cards have been distributed as the competitors' lists all contain 63 or 64 players.

Tristan Boyer, who qualified for the $25,000 Futures in Bakersfield this week but fell short in his attempt for his first ATP point today against fellow qualifier Isaiah Strode, leads the boys field, along with Drew Baird and Andrew Fenty, also in the ITF junior Top 15.

Alexa Noel, No. 10 in the current ITF junior rankings, leads the girls field, followed by Orange Bowl finalist Margaryta Bilokin and Caty McNally. Coco Gauff is not entered nor are Elysia Bolton and Dalayna Hewitt, who had good results at the Australian Open Juniors this year.

16s Easter Bowl champions Emma Navarro and Brandon Nakashima are both playing the ITF tournament this year.

The complete acceptance lists are at the ITF Junior tournament website.

For more on the tournament schedule, practice and competition sites and the Team USA meeting for coaches on Sunday March 25, see the Easter Bowl website.

The International Spring Championships in Carson, usually the week before the Easter Bowl, is now the week after, running from April 2-8. Unlike the Easter Bowl, which is allows only US players, the ISC is a Grade 1 tournament open to all.  Uisung Park of Korea, who trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton is the top-ranked ITF player as of the acceptance date, with Baird, Boyer and Fenty next on the list.  In the girls entries, Noel is missing, with Bilokin and Lea Ma the top ITF players.  Taylor Johnson, who hasn't played since last year's US Open Juniors, is on the acceptance list, but she entered and withdrew from the Easter Bowl, and the Carson withdrawal date isn't until next Tuesday.

Caty McNally, who is not entered in Carson, is warming up for the Easter Bowl at the $15,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Tampa this week, where she has reached the quarterfinals. The 16-year-old from Ohio, who is the No. 8 seed, defeated former Georgia Tech standout Rasheeda McAdoo 6-3, 6-4 to advance to her third $15K quarterfinal of the year and fourth of her career. She will look for her first semifinal appearance when she takes on No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula on Friday.  Ingrid Neel[7] and Katarina Stewart[2] will face off in another all-USA quarterfinal, with No. 6 seed Amanda Rodgers the fifth American to advance to the final eight.  McNally and Natasha Subhash have advanced to the semifinals in doubles, as have the teams of McAdoo and Stewart and Neel and Quinn Gleason.

The ITA released its new Division III team rankings, along with NAIA men's and women's singles and doubles rankings and JUCO men's and women's team rankings. Emory remains No. 1 in both men's and women's D-III rankings, but Bowdoin has moved into the No. 2 position in the men's rankings.

Division III Men’s Top 10 Rankings, March 15, 2018 (previous ranking of March 8 in parentheses)

1. Emory University (1)
2. Bowdoin College (4)
3. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (2)
4. Middlebury University (3)
5. University of Chicago (6)
6. Amherst College (9)
7. Gustavus Adolphus (10)
8. Carnegie Mellon University (12)
9. Washington University-St.Louis (7)
10. Wesleyan University(5)

Division III Top 10 Women’s Rankings, March 15, 2018 (previous ranking of March 8 in parentheses)

1. Emory University (1)
2. Williams College (2)
3. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (3)
4. Middlebury College (4)
5. Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (6)
6. Carnegie Mellon University (9)
7. Bowdoin College (5)
8. Tufts University (7)
9. Wesleyan University (8)
10. University of Chicago (10)