US College Signings 2018 (and general college chat)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

RE: US College Signings 2018 (and general college chat)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

New rankings out

Women

22 - Emily Arbuthnott - Stanford

56 - Eden Richardson - Louisiana State

105 - Megan Davies - South Carolina

Dubs

3 - Emily Arbuthnott - Stanford

21 - Sabrina Federici - Texas Tech

35 - Camille Verden-Anderson - Denver

43 - Emily Smith - Vanderbilt

47 - Serena Nash - Missouri

48 - Megan Davies - South Carolina

Men

23 - Alastair Gray - Texas Christian

40 - Aswin Lizen - Virginia

43 - Henry Patten - North Carolina-Asheville

72 - Ricky Hernandez-Tong - New Mexico

82 - Josh Goodger - Tulsa

92 - Dan Little - Utah

112 - Ewan Moore - Tulane

121 - Sam Philp - Merver

124 - Ben Clark - Drake

Dubs

9 - Josef Dodridge - Wiconsin

12 - Alastair Gray - Texas Christian

29 - Alex Sendegeya - Texas Tech

30 - Julian Cash - Oklahoma State

46 - George Hedley - Louisville

47 - Hamish Stewart - Tulane

56 - Giles Hussey - Georgia State

Emily and Alastair clearly riding high but also nice to see some of the freshmen making an early mark - Eden R, Megan D, Josh G and Hamish S. Julian C seems not to have made much of a mark so far this year. Also surprised not to see either of the Auburn girls - Alannah G and Georgie A - anywhere. Likewise Holly Hutchinson.

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

Wow, thanks for the info on the setup...my mind is well and truly boggled. Sounds like an absolute minefield...and all based on how good/rich their american football team is! There I was assuming there was some logical, progressive structure from lower tier divisions to some national champions league type division. So is there no annual competition that decides who is the best college team out of the whole of the United States?

paulisi · Tennis legend

In the new year, there are regional champs who then progress to the nationals

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Emily has obviously had a decent start to the season. From seeing the general standard at the PAC 12 tournament there is definitely scope for further improvement through this year. Emily has always been very close to Ena Shibahara who was the number 1 player in the PAC 12 last year, the difference being consistency although Emily has the greater weight of shot, she is much more explosive with more moving parts make things slightly less consistent. Michaela Gordon already as a freshman ranks at 13 nationally and is the new number 1 girl in the PAC 12 as one would expect from such a highly ranked junior. She is a step ahead in that she has weight of shot and consistency. In conference Stanford now have 3 of the top 5 ranked girls all in the top 40, this gives a great environment for high quality practice. The standard outside the top 4 or 5 girls drops off quite quickly and clearly with such a close knit and tight practice group Emily has a great opportunity to get right in amongst it this year. The high rank if she can keep or increase it will do her no halm in respect to at large selection for national tournaments.

College doubles is a bit of a lottery for a number of reasons. At most national tournaments hopefully both Emily and Michaela will be playing singles through most of the week and as we saw in the National fall championship they scraped through the early rounds on a series of championship tie breaks. Once they were both out of the singles they romped the doubles, hammering the no 1 ranked pair nationally (at UNC) as things stand. Team play is just one set so its always a lottery as any opponent can just get a flier, you blink and its done, but in contrast they will always be fresh, the doubles point is the first part of any college match.

I am also excited for Nell Miller and Olivia Peet who are joining the excellent programme that has been built at Texas Tech, both I think will have a great opportunity to grow within what is a very nurturing set up. Neither accumulated easy points travelling the world to boost their rankings indeed Olivia who is the lower ranked hardly played competitive junior ITF Tennis outside the U.K. so lots of potential to improve in the right programme.

I think both Emily Appleton and Jodie Burrage have done exactly the right thing for their talent level
by not going to college if Tennis development is their number 1 priority and I sense it is. They are just a bit too good for this level and would not be tested week in week out.

Watching Cam dominate college tennis was fun, this year should be equally interesting but for different reasons. Good luck to them all.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Saturday 18th of November 2017 08:27:16 AM

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Saturday 18th of November 2017 08:36:37 AM

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Saturday 18th of November 2017 08:41:28 AM

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Born2WinTennis wrote:
Wow, thanks for the info on the setup...my mind is well and truly boggled. Sounds like an absolute minefield...and all based on how good/rich their american football team is! There I was assuming there was some logical, progressive structure from lower tier divisions to some national champions league type division. So is there no annual competition that decides who is the best college team out of the whole of the United States?

The NCAA championships in May both team and individual decide which university is the best team and who are the best singles and dubs players. Only Div 1 though and entry is based on ranking.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Interestingly last year the likely best college player on the mens side played the team event purely to support his colleagues and then left to go pro as a junior ie a year early without bothering with the individual NCAA event. Hes presently ranked 115 in the world!

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Added Aleksandra T and Lewis Scott to the list of those going

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The O, you've said 'can I suggest that we treat the 2015 thread as closed' and then closed it? (Or someone has).

That's not really a suggestion

The post about the award Tom C won was put there deliberately because it was the year he won it. Where else should it go?

Can I suggest (genuinely suggest) that you re-open the thread (there may well be other things relating to that year that should go there) but move the later posts that moved off the subject of Tom and onto college tennis in general?

wolf · Tennis legend

Unfortunately you cannot move individual posts. I will reopen it in time, but I don't think anyone will mind if you discuss previous years college exploits in the current years thread.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Fair enough but there's no point discussing a 2015 award in the 2018 thread - how ever can you find it later on? You'd never know where to look. Surely just leave it open and ASK people to post their general posts in the current thread.
(Although, to be honest, the general points are no better off here than they are in 2015. They're 'general').

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Not guiilty! No idea how to close a thread....that's why I suggested it be treated as closed. TBH, since I started posting about college tennis, posts have always gone into the current year even if they have related to exploits in a previous year. I start a new thread each year as it's easier to update the reference lists on page 1 that way (and probably easier for others to use them as well). My own view (as you can probably guess) is that as it is a fairly wide subject in one thread it probably makes more sense to just have one going at a time, otherwise if a post about past achievements/activities prompts discussion relating to current college players it gets lost/doesn't relate to the old thread.

Kenneth · Lower Club Player

The Optimist wrote:
Not guiilty! No idea how to close a thread....that's why I suggested it be treated as closed. TBH, since I started posting about college tennis, posts have always gone into the current year even if they have related to exploits in a previous year. I start a new thread each year as it's easier to update the reference lists on page 1 that way (and probably easier for others to use them as well). My own view (as you can probably guess) is that as it is a fairly wide subject in one thread it probably makes more sense to just have one going at a time, otherwise if a post about past achievements/activities prompts discussion relating to current college players it gets lost/doesn't relate to the old thread.

Totally agree, and really appreciate the information that is posted on here.

-- Edited by Kenneth on Friday 1st of December 2017 04:51:09 PM

-- Edited by Kenneth on Friday 1st of December 2017 04:51:30 PM

-- Edited by Kenneth on Friday 1st of December 2017 04:51:59 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The Optimist wrote:
Not guiilty! No idea how to close a thread....that's why I suggested it be treated as closed. TBH, since I started posting about college tennis, posts have always gone into the current year even if they have related to exploits in a previous year. I start a new thread each year as it's easier to update the reference lists on page 1 that way (and probably easier for others to use them as well). My own view (as you can probably guess) is that as it is a fairly wide subject in one thread it probably makes more sense to just have one going at a time, otherwise if a post about past achievements/activities prompts discussion relating to current college players it gets lost/doesn't relate to the old thread.

It's a very good point of yours smile And my post was NOT personal.

My gripe - and excuse the rant but it runs deep! - is that it seems to me that we've become a society now where you only need one person to make a point/complain/take offence/whatever and there's an immediate knee-jerk reaction.

Whereas, of course, there may be thousands of other who were perfectly happy. Again this is NOT about this specific thread thingy but just in general: i.e. one parent takes offence that Year 5 are reading whatever set text, and so it is immediately changed, and apologies issued, even though all the other parents (who haven't been consulted first) may approve of the text and - furthermore - may well find it offensive themselves that the other parent was offended by the set text in the first place!

So, your point was well made in the 2015 thread. And your opinion (in my view) carries a lot more weight than the average, too, because you add so much info and value on the college thread.

BUT there were other people posting happily in the 2015 thread (such as Spectator) who is also very interested in college tennis, who - to the best of my knowledge - was not consulted before it was closed.

[Hence, my view (still held) that the thread should be re-opened and the arguments for everyone posting in the current year's thread (which do make sense) should be discussed BEFORE the thread is summarily closed on the back of one post].

Again, sorry for the rant (and now THIS thread has gone off topic too..... cry ) and AGAIN AGAIN, it is not personal to anyone at all, but the principle is just something that gets my goat smile

wolf · Tennis legend

I already re-opened the thread earlier today. The reason why I closed it was because I agreed with The O's point of view and I didn't think anyone would care this much.