March Aces; No. 2 Texas A&M Women Defeat No. 4 Georgia 5-2; NC State's Shnaider, UNC's Crawley Competing in WTA 500 in Charleston

After a fantastic three weeks of junior tennis and a welcome day of rest at Joshua Tree National Park, I'll be heading home Monday, ready to get back to covering tennis from my home office rather than in person, at least for several weeks.

I managed to find the time to write my monthly Aces column for the Tennis Recruiting Network, which highlights as many of the top performances by former collegians and juniors as I can squeeze in. With 18 pretty much the limit, due to time and space considerations, I can't feature everyone, but I try to spotlight the important ITF junior titles for Americans, all the ITF J500 junior champions and breakthrough ITF World Tennis Tour and USTA Pro Circuit titles. Two Challenger titles, for former collegiate stars Alex Kovacevic(Illinois) and Nuno Borges(Mississippi State), lead off the March Aces here.

College tennis is heating up, with conference play in full swing now, so expect much more emphasis on that in the coming weeks.

Today's big match in Division I women's SEC action saw No. 2 host Texas A&M defeat No. 4 Georgia 5-2, extending their SEC dual match winning streak to 25. Texas A&M recently lost its No. 1, Carson Branstine, to a season-ending injury, but the Aggies' depth has so far proven up to the task.

In men's SEC play today, No. 14 Tennesse defeated No. 4 Kentucky 4-0, after the Wildcats had fallen to No. 8 Georgia 5-2 Friday. In the Pac-12, No. 9 USC lost to No. 18 Arizona 4-3 (still no Learner Tien for the Trojans), with Gustaf Strom defeating USC's Wojtek Marek 7-5, 3-6, 6-0 at line 3 to clinch for the Wildcats.

The WTA's Credit One Charleston Open, a 500-level tournament, begins Monday, with two current collegians competing in the main draw. NC State freshman Diana Shnaider received entry based on her WTA ranking of 95, while University of North Carolina junior Fiona Crawley received a wild card. Shnaider faces Alycia Parks and Crawley plays WTA veteran Alize Cornet of France in first round action. Crawley and Cornet are meeting in the first round Monday.