USTA Press Release, February 21, 2019
Ohio State lived up to its No. 1 men’s ranking over the weekend by winning the ITA National Men’s Team Indoor Championship in Chicago, though a veritable musical chairs played out underneath the Buckeyes in Week 4 of the Tennis Channel / USTA College Tennis Top 25.
The four semifinalists at the Men’s Team Indoors indeed occupy the top four spots in this week’s men’s poll, but Virginia, TCU and Columbia all made big moves either into or within the Top 10 with their performances in Chicago. Virginia re-entered the Top 5 for the first time since the 2017 season with its first-round victory over Stanford and consolation-round win over USC. The Horned Frogs took out last week’s No. 2 Mississippi State in the first round to climb to their highest ranking of the season, and the Lions returned to the Top 10 for the first time since March of last year after taking out Baylor and Notre Dame following their 4-2 defeat to Wake Forest.
The California women were responsible for the noticeable adjustment within the women’s Top 20 this week, as the Bears upset Pepperdine in Malibu, 4-3, handing the former No. 7-ranked Waves just their fourth home loss in the last four seasons and debuting in the 2019 Top 25 at No. 19. The rest of the women’s Top 15 remained in order from last week.
Each team’s point total, specified below, is the sum of its ranking points from the USTA’s panel of 14 voters (listed below). Each voter ranked 25 teams from Nos. 1 to 25, with the first-place team receiving 25 points and the last place team receiving one. For control, the highest and lowest outlying ranking for each team on the ballot was removed. First-place votes were not tallied. Note: One member of the voting panel was unable to turn in a ballot this week. Therefore, the maximum number of points a team can receive below is 275. The maximum will return to its usual 300 next week.
The full list of voters participating in the 2019 rankings are: Casey Angle (former Intercollegiate Tennis Association Director of Championships); Jordan Bishop (The News Press; Stillwater, Okla.); Virgil Christian (USTA Collegiate Tennis); Richard Croome (The Eagle; Bryan, Texas); Sonny Dearth (Daily Press; Newport News, Va.); Granger Huntress (Texas College Tennis); David Fish (Universal Tennis Ratings); Andy Katz (NCAA.com); Bobby Knight (College Tennis Today); Brandon Moglen (Tennis Channel); Shannon Wrege (Tennis Recruiting Network); Michael Patrick (former University of Tennessee women’s head coach), Lisa Stone (Parenting Aces) and Caitlin Thompson (Racquet Magazine).
MEN’S POLL
Rank (Last Week) – Points
1. (1) Ohio State – 275
2. (5) Wake Forest – 262
3. (4) Texas – 252
4. (7) North Carolina – 237
5. (9) Virginia – 219
6. (8) Stanford – 210
7. (15) TCU – 196
8. (3) Florida – 193
9. (14) Columbia – 181
10. (6) UCLA – 171
11. (10) Baylor – 169
12. (2) Mississippi State – 168
13. (12) Illinois – 164
14. (11) USC – 148
15. (16) Tennessee – 101
16. (17) Michigan – 89
17. (13) Notre Dame – 87
18. (18) Florida State – 81
19. (19) Oklahoma – 76
20. (20) Alabama – 62
21. (22) Minnesota – 45
22. (21) Texas A&M – 38
23. (24) South Carolina – 34
24. (23) LSU – 32
25. (NR) Oregon – 26
Receiving Votes: NC State 17, Tulane 13, Texas Tech 3, California 2.
Dropped Out: NC State (25).
WOMEN’S POLL
Rank (Last Week) – Points
1. (1) Georgia – 275
2. (2) North Carolina – 264
3. (3) Stanford – 253
4. (4) Duke – 242
5. (5) UCLA – 227
6. (6) Vanderbilt – 221
7. (8) Texas – 204
8. (9) South Carolina – 189
9. (10) Michigan – 180
10. (11) Ohio State – 177
11. (12) Florida State – 160
12. (13) Kansas – 144
13. (7) Pepperdine – 143
14. (15) Virginia – 126
15. (16) LSU – 101
16. (17) NC State – 92
17. (14) Miami (Fla.) – 81
18. (20) Florida – 71
19. (NR) California – 61
20. (21) Oklahoma State – 60
21. (18) Northwestern – 47
22. (23) Syracuse – 41
T23. (22) Boston College – 20
T23. (NR) Kentucky – 20
25. (NR) Washington – 19
Receiving Votes: Oklahoma 18, Texas Tech 17, Texas A&M 13, UCF 12,Wake Forest 10, USC 8, Georgia Tech 3, Illinois 2, Old Dominion 2,Tennessee 1.
Dropped Out: Oklahoma (19), Texas Tech (24), Texas A&M (25)
