Review of Division I Signings Include No. 1 Recruit Qavia Lopez Committing to Florida; Michelsen Advances to Winston-Salem $15K Quarterfinals; Nakashima Reaches Semifinals at ATP Next Gen Finals

High school seniors could sign National Letters of Intent for the fall of 2023 beginning yesterday, and social media has been buzzing with announcements the past two days. 

The biggest signing is Qavia Lopez, No. 1 in the girls class of 2023, who had initially committed to Pepperdine, but signed today with the University of Florida. Below are the announcements that have been made on the athletic department websites; not all are NLI signings for 2023, some are beginning in January, and I will note if a player is a transfer. If a country is not provided, they are from the United States.

WOMEN:

Auburn has signed Ava Esposito Cogan.

Alabama has signed Priya Nelson.

Clemson has signed Leigh Van Zyl of South Africa for January.

Indiana has signed Nicole Teodosescu of Italy, Sarah L'allier of Canada and Li Hsin Lin of Taiwan. Teodosescu is starting in January.

Kansas has signed Heike Janse Van Vuuren of South Africa, who will start in January.

LSU has signed Kinaa Graham.

Michigan has signed Piper Charney and Reese Miller. 

Northwestern has signed Autumn Rabjohns.

Rutgers has signed UC-Davis graduate transfer Yana Gurevich.

South Carolina has signed Anna Kantor of Hungary.

Tennessee has signed Leyla Britez Risso of Paraguay, who will start in January.

Texas Tech has signed Arina Oreshchenkova and Andreea Lila of Romania; both will start in January.

Washington has signed Alexia Jacobs of Canada and Eleni Louka of Cyprus, who will finish her fourth year at Clemson this spring.

MEN:

Brigham Young has signed Caden Hasler, who will complete his Mormon mission prior to joining the team in 2025.

Clemson has signed Marko Mesarovic.

Duke has signed Alex Visser.

Florida has signed Olek Orlikowski and Borys Zgola, both from Poland. They will join Florida in January.

Florida State has signed Justin Lyons and Azariah Rusher.

Georgia Tech has signed Owen DeMuth.

Indiana has signed Liam Drover-Mattinen of Canada.

LSU has signed Brock Anderson.

Mississippi State has signed Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes.

Tennessee has signed James Newton of Australia.

Texas has signed Lucas Brown, who will start in January.

Texas A&M has signed Brayden Michna, Ritesh Patil and Lathan Skrobarcek.

UNLV has signed Creed Skinner.

While the Lopez, No. 1 girl in the Tennis Recruiting Network Class of 2023 has signed, the No. 1 boy, Alex Michelsen, hasn't been announced yet by Georgia. Michelsen is currently competing in the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Winston-Salem NC and has advanced to the quarterfinals. The other three junior players in the draw--Learner Tien, Kyle Kang and Aidan Kim--are out, with No. 5 seed Michelsen joined by No. 6 seed Pedro Rodenas, the Duke freshman from Spain, who beat Tien 7-5, 6-4 today. Michelsen beat Mitchell Harper(Virginia Tech) of Australia 7-6(4), 6-2 in the second round today and will face British qualifier James Story, a junior at South Carolina, in the quarterfinals. Story had beaten top seed Garrett Johns of Duke in the first round.

No. 4 seed Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) is through to the semifinals of the Next Gen ATP Finals semifinals, with a perfect 3-0 record in group play. The 21-year-old from San Diego, who also made the semifinals in Milan last year, plays Jack Draper of Great Britain, the No. 3 seed, Friday. Draper finished second in his group.

The other semifinal features No. 7 seed Dominic Stricker of Switzerland and No. 5 seed Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic. Stricker won his group, with Lehecka the runner-up in the group Nakashima won.