National Signing Day Updates; Kennedy, Farzam, Exsted and Goode Advance to M15 Orlando Quarterfinals; Five Buckeyes Reach M25 Columbus Quarterfinals; Blanch Moves into Champaign Challenger Quarterfinals

Wednesday was the official National Signing Day for high school seniors as they commit in writing to the schools they have agreed to attend.

I usually do several of these posts each November; I know that many of the signings have been announced on social media, but I wait until they appear on the school's website just so there is a bit more information available on the student-athlete. Not all players are signing for next fall, so be sure to check out the link for information on some who may starting in January.

Below is the first batch, with the signee's country included only if they are not from the United States.

WOMEN:

Arizona has signed Ciara Moore and Sophia Christodoulou of Great Britain and Sara Mlenska of the Czech Republic.

Auburn has signed Kaya Moe and Australia's Stefani Webb.

Baylor has signed Ligaya Murray, Maria Ustic of Great Britain and Gabby Villegas of Australia.

Boise State has signed Valentina Vachkova of the Czech Republic.

Colorado has signed Louise Ternstrom of Sweden.

Denver has signed Caroline Daugherty.

Florida has signed Capucine Jauffret and Brooke Black and Allegra Korpanec Davies of Great Britain. 

Florida State has signed Joanna Kennedy, Nicole Okhtenberg and Ariana Gilbert.

Georgia has signed Bella Payne, Ava Rodriguez and Canada's Nadia Lagaev.

Iowa has signed Emerey Gross and Mia Sosa.

Iowa State has signed Alicia Dale of Australia.

Kansas has signed Caroline Manzi.

Kentucky has signed Georgia Kulevich, Donna Le Roux of South Africa and Norina Bak Szabo of Hungary.

Miami has signed Dominika Podhajecka of Poland, Ela Plosnik of Slovenia and Sofia Rocchetti of Italy.

Missouri has signed Daria Budko, Evelyn Whiteside and Peru's Leticia Bazan.

Nebraska has signed Katie Spencer.

Notre Dame has signed Aria Nina Abalos and Canada's Lily Rochon.

Oklahoma has signed Sara Shumate.

Texas A&M has signed Rachel Smith, Kori Montoya, Bulgaria's Yoana Konstantinova and Great Britain's Ruby Cooling.

Texas Tech has signed Valerie Shue, Reagan Farm and Great Britain's Teodora Prisadnikova.

Vanderbilt has signed Nicole Weng.

MEN:

Central Florida has signed Christian Gronfeldt-Sorensen of Denmark, Fanming Meng of China and Kai Thompson, Hong Kong.

Clemson has signed Noah Cherubino of Spain.

Duke has signed Ludvig Hede of Sweden and Sebastian Eie of Norway.

Florida has signed Roman Sancilio.

Georgia has signed James Weber.

Georgia Tech has signed Mason Taube.

Illinois has signed Jon Gamble and Nicholas Mekhael.

Kentucky has signed Volodymyr Gurenko of Canada and Oscar Lien of Norway.

Nebraska has signed Micah Ward and Germany's Vincent Dullinger.

North Carolina has signed Lachlan Gaskell, with Will Mayew transferring to join his younger brother Ian, a freshman, in Chapel Hill.

Notre Dame has signed Alexander Suhanitski and Czech Republic's Jonas Kucera.

Rice has signed Andrew Li.

Tennessee has signed Adrien Abarca.

Texas has signed Jeremiah Braswell.

Texas A&M has signed James Quattro and Poland's Jan Chlodnicki.

Texas Tech has signed Bautista Leguizamon of Argentina.

Virginia has signed Jack Kennedy.

Wisconsin has signed Jens Holger Nissen of Denmark.

At the M15 in Orlando, five of the eight quarterfinalists are juniors. 

Seventeen-year-old Gavin Goode beat Mehdi Benchakroun(Central Florida) of Morocco 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach his first Pro Circuit quarterfinal. He will play No. 5 seed Reda Bennani of Morocco, who is the only non-American junior to advance.

Two surprisingly lopsided all-junior matches in today's second round, with 18-year-old Max Exsted defeating qualifier Noah Johnston 6-0, 6-1 and 17-year-old Jack Kennedy beating Keaton Hance 6-0, 6-1. Exsted and Kennedy will play for the first time in junior or pro competition Friday.  It's the fourth Pro Circuit quarterfinal for Kennedy and the second for Exsted. Wild card Matisse Farzam, an 18-year-old freshman at Clemson, beat 15-year-old Jordan Lee 6-0, 6-4 to reach his first Pro Circuit quarterfinal, and he will face unseeded Christopher Li(UNC, Tennessee, Ohio State) of Peru next.

In the only all-veteran quarterfinal, No. 2 seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) will face No. 8 seed Stijn Paardekooper(St. Bonaventure, Utah State) of the Netherlands. Paardekooper beat 17-year-old qualifier Nikolas Stood 7-6(3), 6-1, while Corwin defeated 16-year-old wild card Andrew Johnson 6-4, 6-2.

Exsted, Stoot and Goode have all reached the doubles semifinals, with Exsted playing with Corwin, Stoot with 15-year-old Teodor Davidov and Goode with regular partner Ryan Cozad.

At the M25 in Columbus Ohio, five Ohio State Buckeyes are through to Friday's quarterfinals. Wild card Loren Byers, a transfer from Penn State, beat top seed Paul Jubb(South Carolina) of Great Britain 7-5, 7-5 today and will play Gavin Young(Michigan). Wild card Preston Stearns defeated qualifier Marko Mesarovic(Clemson) 6-3, 6-4 and will take on teammate Jack Anthrop, the No. 7 seed. Anthrop beat qualifier Jules Leroux(NC State) of France 6-2, 6-2.

In the other all-Buckeye quarterfinal, No. 3 seed Aidan Kim will play No. 5 seed Victor Lilov, who is joining Ohio State in January. Kim defeated Will Jansen(UNC, Ohio State, Georgia) 6-3, 6-4 and Lilov beat Vlado Jankanj(Ole Miss) of Serbia 6-2, 6-2.

No. 2 seed Henry Searle of Great Britain faces Cal sophomore Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski of Poland, the No. 6 seed.

At the Champaign Challenger 75, 2025 Kalamazoo 18s champion Darwin Blanch is through to the quarterfinals for the second straight week after beating Arda Azkara(Georgia) of Turkey 6-3, 6-4. He will play Stefan Kozlov, who defeated No. 8 seed Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State) 6-3, 6-3. Illinois senior Kenta Miyoshi of Japan, who made the semifinals at the Champaign Challenger last year, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over Micah Braswell(Texas). Miyoshi will play qualifier Taym Al Azmeh of Syria, a junior at Michigan State, in the quarterfinals.