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Wednesday, April 21, 2021

New Division I Team and Individual Rankings Released, with Big Ten Prospects Precarious; Brooksby Beats Top Seed Seyboth Wild to Reach Tallahassee Challenger Quarterfinals

UNC's Sara Daavettila 

The new team and individual rankings for Division I are out today, and because we're getting so close to the NCAA selections, I'm posting the Top 25 in all three: one ITA computer ranking, one ITA poll and one USTA poll.

The Top 10 in both of the ITA men's team rankings is now pretty closely aligned, with the only divergence the flipping of No. 5 and No. 6 between Virginia and Tennessee. The two ITA women's rankings are not as closely aligned, with Texas No. 2 in the poll and Georgia No. 2 in the computer rankings. The No. 1 team in all three polls is the same for both men and women, with the North Carolina women and Florida men at the top.

The USTA voters are much more impressed with the Big Ten than the ITA rankings show.  Those voters have the Illinois men, the Ohio State men and the Michigan men all in the Top 10, while the ITA polls don't have any Big Ten team listed until Illinois at No. 12 in the coaches poll. It's interesting that the NCAA approved all three of those schools for regional sites, but only Illinois would be considered if they were going by the usual method of selecting the Top 16 teams to hosts.  

In the women's USTA poll, Ohio State and Michigan are No. 6 and No. 7, with Northwestern dropping to 14 after their loss to Illinois last weekend. In the ITA polls, Ohio State is 15(computer) and 10, with Michigan at 19(computer) and 14. 

The problem with the individual rankings continues, and again with a focus on the Big Ten, there are no men from that conference in the Top 50 and just three women: Irina Cantos Siemers of Ohio State[13], Alexa Noel(who is undefeated this year) of Iowa[15] and Michigan's Kari Miller[48].  UCLA's No. 1, Keegan Smith, the 2019 NCAA doubles champion, is currently at 61 in singles, and Ohio State's Cannon Kingsley is at 124.

Sara Daavettila of North Carolina has moved into the top spot in the women's singles rankings, with Liam Draxl of Kentucky keeping the No. 1 singles spot for the men.

Below are the Top 25 team rankings and the Top 10 and Top 5 in singles and doubles. Click on the headings to go to the complete lists.

Division I men's team, April 21, 2021:


1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Baylor
4. North Carolina
5. Tennessee
6. Virginia
7. TCU
8. Texas A&M
9. Wake Forest
10. Georgia
11. Central Florida
12. South Carolina
13. Mississippi
14. Kentucky
15. Southern California
16. Illinois
17. Mississippi State
18. Oklahoma State
19. Tulane
20. Alabama
21. Texas Tech
22. Ohio State
23. Stanford
24. Arizona
25. NC State

Coaches Poll

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Baylor
4. North Carolina
5. Virginia
6. Tennessee
7. TCU
8. Texas A&M
9. Wake Forest
10. Georgia
11. Central Florida
12. Illinois
13. Southern California
14. South Carolina
15. Ohio State
16. Kentucky
17. Mississippi
18. Mississippi State
19. Stanford
20. Arizona
21. Michigan
22. Oklahoma State
23. Tulane
24. Texas Tech
25. Alabama

USTA

1. Florida
2. Virginia
3. North Carolina
4. Baylor
5. Texas
6. Tennessee
7. Ohio State
8. Illinois
9. TCU
10. Michigan
11. Wake Forest
12. Central Florida
13. Georgia
14. Texas A&M
15. Southern California
16. Kentucky
17. South Carolina
18. Stanford
19. Arizona
20. Mississippi
21. UCLA
22. Mississippi State
23. Pepperdine
24. NC State
25. Oregon

Division I women's team, April 21, 2021:

Computer

1. North Carolina
2. Georgia
3. Texas
4. NC State
5. UCLA
6. Florida State
7. Pepperdine
8. Central Florida
9. Baylor
10. LSU
11. Florida
12. Texas A&M
13. Virginia
14. Duke
15. Ohio State
16. Georgia Tech
17. Tennessee
18. Northwestern
19. Michigan
20. Auburn
21. Mississippi
22. Vanderbilt
23. Oklahoma
24. Miami
25. Kentucky

Coaches Poll

1. North Carolina
2. Texas
3. Georgia
4. UCLA
5. NC State
6. Pepperdine
7. Florida State
8. Baylor
9. Central Florida
10. Ohio State
11. LSU
12. Virginia
13. Florida
14. Michigan
15. Northwestern
16. Duke
T17. Georgia Tech
T17. Texas A&M
19. Tennessee
20. Miami
21. Auburn
22. Mississippi
T23. Cal
T23. Vanderbilt
25. Stanford

USTA

1. North Carolina
2. Texas
3. Georgia
4. UCLA
5. Pepperdine
6. Ohio State
7. Michigan
8. NC State
9. Florida State
10. Baylor
11. Virginia
12. Central Florida
13. Duke
14. Northwestern
15. Stanford
16. Florida
17. Texas A&M
T18. LSU
T18. Georgia Tech
20. Cal
21. Tennessee
22. Miami
23. Oklahoma
24. Mississippi
25. Auburn

To 10 men's singles:

1. Liam Draxl, Kentucky
2. Daniel Rodrigues, South Carolina
3. Duart Vale, Florida
4. Valentin Vacherot, Texas A&M
5. Hady Habib, Texas A&M
6. Sam Riffice, Florida
7. Gabriel Decamps, Central Florida
8. Matias Soto, Baylor
9. Carl Soderlund, Virginia
10. Henri Squire, Wake Forest

Top 5 men's doubles:

1. Tim Sandaulen and Finn Reynolds, Mississippi
2. William Blumberg and Brian Cernoch, North Carolina
3. Adam Walton and Pat Harper, Tennessee
4. Will Davies and Oliver Okonkwo, Iowa
5. Trent Bryde and Tyler Zink, Georgia


Top 10 women's singles:

1. Sara Daavettila, North Carolina
2. Emma Navarro, Virginia
3. Katarina Jokic, Georgia
4. Estela Perez-Somarriba, Miami
5. Anna Rogers, NC State
6. Kenya Jones, Georgia Tech
7. McCartney Kessler, Florida
8. Abigail Forbes, UCLA
9. Natasha Subhash, Virginia
10. Giulia Pairone, Florida State

Top 5 women's doubles:

1. Akvile Parazinskaite and Fiona Arrese, Kentucky
2. Victori Flores and Kenya Jones, Georgia Tech
3. Sara Daavettila and Cameron Morra, North Carolina
4. Jaeda Daniel and Adriana Reami, NC State
5. Marlee Zein and McCartney Kessler, Florida

At the ATP Challenger 80 in Tallahassee today, No. 8 seed Michael Mmoh advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-3 win over wild card Ryan Harrison, and Orlando Challenger champion Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) continued his winning streak with a 7-6(6), 6-4 win over top seed and 2018 US Open boys champion Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil. Brooksby, who is now 20-4 on the year, will get a day of rest before he faces Mmoh in Friday's quarterfinals.

3 comments:

Fair? said...

Anytime there is a human element into the rankings, there will be bias. People are blaming the ITA for the rankings but its actually each Conference that made those decisions of what schools can play and who they can play. And people want everything to be fair? Big example, You have opinion journalists voting on the usta ranking poll, absolute bias. Do others only look at final team results, or the box score to make sure everyone had starting lineups playing or someone out because of covid? NO chance. The only true ranking that is consistent from the start is the computer, especially in April. Is it correct, NO but at least it takes away from biased rankings. This year is the furthest thing from fair....what about 5th year seniors? Is that "fair"? Some teams have 3-4 5th year seniors and some only 1 or none. This year has a big asterisk on it anyway. I would feel bad if UNC women or another first time school won their first championship this year because all the rules are not the same for everyone, including the rankings. That's more of an issue - UNC women playing with 11 scholarships where other schools are playing with 8 or 9. There is no equal treatment this year. The conferences who were allowed to play also had more opportunities, not just win but also to lose. Stanford lost to Oregon and California lost to Colorado but they are still in the running to host? You can blame the ITA on many things, the biggest is bad leadership, but you cannot blame them on schools being ranked low because that is that schools conference decision. Sorry for the one paragraph.

fan said...

'I would feel bad if UNC women or another first time school won their first championship'

What does this mean, that only the ones who have already won it should win? How many teams have won it anyway lol, Stanford >>>>> UF >> UCLA, UGA, UT > DUKE, GT, USC

And it's not like 9 or 10 players are actually playing matches anyway. At best 8, but very few(or none?) teams do that actually, realistically 7.

You mentioned Pac 12 teams losing, but let's be fair. For example UCF lost to WF which was without Caro Campana and Omirou during Kickoff, and just now have struggled a bit against Houston.

Stanford actually could've beaten Pepperdine. Granted it was AT Taube, the Graveyard of the opponents lol, but for Lisa Zaar's heroic effort;

5) Lisa Zaar (PEPP) d. Sara Choy (STAN) 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6)

Pepperdine is ranked, what, 6th or 7th?

And Cal. lost to Stanford 3-4, also AT Taube.

fan said...

Should've added VU to the roster of Champions(USC, UGA, and UT won a long time ago)?

BU; defeated Washington, WSU, TCU, Oklahoma, Kansas by 4-3 scores. And they're ranked 9th.

And if Stanford and Cal. aren't that good, does it matter whether they host or not, shouldn't higher ranked teams able to beat them anyway.