British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

NC State women got a 4-2 win over Florida State in the first of 3 matches in Florida over the weekend (all including British opponents). At an individual level it was a good day for Millie Bissett(FSU). Florida State unexpectedly won the doubles point with wins for Millie+ over Jasmine Conway+ at 2 and over Kristina Paskauskas+ at 3. Eva Shaw+ was easily beaten by NC State's nationally ranked No2 duo at 1.

In singles, Millie got an excellent 4&2 win over NC States's No 2 whose ranked #68. Millie has been a bit indifferent this year and NCSU's No 2 has been one of their more consistent players for wins. I would not have expected Millie to have won that one, so very well done to get FSU's only singles point. Kristina was pulled from singles, giving sister Gabia a chance at 6 where she defeated Maelie Monfils, Gael's lil sis, 5&3 to give NC State a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately for Eva, the ACC don't play out their matches and with NC State having won, Eva's very tight match with #23 and mid-ranking WTA player Laki was left unfinished at 5-7 7-6(4) 5-5. Very encouraging performance for Eva, and shame it wasn't played to a finish. It would have been interesting to see which way it ended up.

NC State go on to play Miami on Sunday and in a non conference match Florida Gulf on Monday. Florida State go on to play Wake Forest on Sunday in a must win match, as all their remaining matches are if they are going to make the NCAAs.

Elsewhere, Given Roach got one of her easiest wins of the season at singles 4, as Georgia Tech won at Louisville 4-3. Isabelle Lacy was unfinished 6-1 5-4 at singles 4 as Virginia beat Boston College 4-0.

Alicia Dudeney got a very good 3&4 win over #34 Aulia at singles 2 but Talia struggled 2&1 against her #69 ranked opponent as Florida went down 2-5 to top ten ranked Tennessee. Florida are on the cusp of NCAA qualification by ranking, but are currently not eligible for the NCAAs by having more losses than wins (8-10) and it's difficult to see them overturning that with their remaining matches.

Luca Pow got a 3 & 1 win at singles 3 as Wake Forest defeated Boston College 4-1. Harry Thursfield was unfinished 6-3 2-3 at singles 6.

Jack PJ and Lui got wins at singles 1 & 2 as TCU defeated Texas Tech 4-1

Will Jansen was unfinished against Oscar Weightman 6-3 3-3 at singles 3. Ohio State defeat USC 4-0.

Isabelle Lacy got a 7-6 7-6 win and the clinch point for Virginia's 4-1 win at Syracuse

Kylie Bilchev got a 4 & 0 win at 6 singles but Given Roach lost in a 3rd set tie-break as Georgia Tech lost 4-2 at Notre Dame.

Gabia Paskauskas got a 0 & 1 win at No 6 singles. Kristina played doubles but not singles. I wonder if she withdrew herself from singles this weekend to give her sister some playing time. The only game Gabs lost was when her focus would have been on concern for NC State's No 1 who's distress and pain could be heard on all courts. I didn't see what happened but the aftermath looked and sounded very reminiscent of an ACL injury. Jaquelyn Ogunwale lost 3 & 2 at No 3 singles. NC State won 4-1.

Alicia Dudeney dropped the 2nd set and was down a break 1-3 in the 3rd set, but cameback to win 6-3 in the 3rd at No 2 singles. Talia played an excellent 1st set, but lost 6-1 3-6 1-6. Having watched some of the 1st set and some of the 3rd set, I am convinced it is the injury she is carrying that is affecting her and preventing her from carrying the momentum from the 1st set through the rest of the match. If she can spend the summer recovering from the injury and play like she did in the first set through the whole match she will be a very dangerous player next year.

Grace Piper lost 3 & 1 at No 1 singles, but Immi Haddad got a 6-1 4-6 6-1 win at No 4 singles. USC are on course to win, currently 3-1 up.

Ollie Tarvet is currently 6-0 4-2 up and San Diego 3-0 up against Pacific.

With most teams having 1 week of the regular season left, I thought I'd have a look at where "our" teams stood in their conferences and with respect to NCAA qualification or seeding, which will also answer Jon's questions. Starting with the men

As a reminder, following the regular season are the conference championships. After the conference championships, the NCAA selections and seedings are made. These generally follow the rankings although the selection panel may swap a small number in positions in the selections to their ranking. The top 40ish should qualify, the exact number depending on how many places are needed for conference championships winners that aren't already in on ranking. The top 8 seeds play all their NCAA matches before the final site at home(3 rounds), the 9 to 16 seeds play the opening weekend (2 rounds) at home. NCAA selections I think are announced on 28th April.

The rankings here are the projections for tomorrow's update.

Wake Forest (Robertson, Pow) lead the rankings by some distance. I don't know if it's mathematically possible for them to lose the No 1 ranking before the NCAA selections but it seems remote if at all. They are the only unbeaten men's team over the semester with a 32-0 record. The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season title will come down to their final match on Saturday away to NC State who are also unbeaten in conference play. Wake Forest defeated NC State at the National Indoors. For the title decider, they will need Charlie back from his Challenger event and probably Dostanic who has missed most of the conference season through I think playing pro rather than being injured. They will be a top 8 seed and have home advantage in all the NCAA rounds before the final site.

TCU (JPJ, Pow) are 2nd in the rankings and have a 19-2 record. As the Big 12 conference is relatively weak, opportunities for ranking point improvements are scarce and they may be overtaken by Texas over the conference championships. With yesterday's win, they secured, as a minimum, a share of the Big 12 conference regular season title. They play 2nd place Baylor (Bowden, Koenig) on Sunday at home for their final regular season conference match to secure the title for themselves. They will be a top 8 seed and have home advantage in all the NCAA rounds before the final site.

Ohio State (Jansen) are 4th in the rankings and lead the Big Ten conference. They have 2 weekends and 4 matches of Big Ten regular season action to play and should win yet another Big Ten regular season title. They will be a top 8 seed have home advantage in all the NCAA rounds before the final site.

San Diego (Tarvet) are 7th in the rankings and lead the West Coast Conference with 2 weekends and 3 matches remaining. They have a 19-3 season record and 4-0 conference record. Whether they win the regular season outright or share it with Pacific or Pepperdine may come down to their final match against Pepperdine in a couple of weeks. They should be a top 8 seed with home advantage in all the NCAA rounds before the final site.

Stanford (Basing) are 8th in the rankings with a 18-5 season record. They are 4th in the ACC and finish their regular season at home to 3rd place Bay Area rivals Cal (Chen) on Saturday. Cal are 9th in the rankings with a 18-2 season record and whoever wins it will be a big boost their chances of a top 8 NCAA seed, though not guaranteed with the conference championships to come before seeding selections.

Baylor (Bowden, Koenig) are 13th in the rankings and 2nd in the Big 12 conference. As said, they play at TCU on Sunday for a chance to share the Big 12 regular season title with TCU. As with TCU, opportunities for ranking point improvements through the conference championships may be more limited than those in other conferences and so may struggle to hold on to a top 16 position. They may be a top 16 seeding and play the opening weekend of the NCAAs at home.

Florida State (Connel) are 19th in the rankings and 6th in the ACC. They will need to get some wins against the higher ranked teams in the ACC Championships to have a chance of a top 16 seeding and home advantage in the opening weekend of the NCAAs.

Others that should have done enough to qualify are USC (Weightman) ranked 28th, Florida (Jefferson) 29th, UCLA ( Revelli) 31st, Georgia (F Blaydes) 32nd, Alabama (Jones) 33rd and Auburn (B Blaydes, Nolan) 34th. North Carolina (Wright) are 48th and will need a big scalp in the ACC championships to sneak in to the NCAAs.

Denver ( Papajcik, Coats) are ranked 66th, outside of the NCAA qualification places but they are 2nd in the 6 team Summit League conference, unbeaten, and can still qualify if they win the Summit League Championships. That looks as though it will be between them and North Dakota.

The women's rankings are led by last year's NCAA finalists Georgia and Texas A&M, who are favourites for the final again this year although Duke with the addition of Liv Hovde are getting stronger and stronger as the season goes on and may spoil the chances of a repeat final.

Again, the rankings used are the projected rankings for tomorrow's official release.

For "our" teams
Virginia (Lacy) are ranked 7th and are 3rd in the ACC table. They will win their remaining matches but are not going to improve their ranking with them. There's a possibility that they could fall outside of the top 8 by the time the NCAA seedings are selected. They will at least be a top 16 seed and play the opening weekend of the NCAAs at home.

NC State (K Paskauskas, G Paskauskas, Conway) are ranked 12th and 4th in the ACC table. They are unbeaten at home, but that might come to an end on Friday when they host Cal and they'll be needing the bottom of the order if they are to win against Stanford on Sunday. If their No 1 is out for the season then that is a blow to the post season chances for a team that was seen by some as dangerous and that could have caused an upset against a top 8 seed. They will be a top 16 seed and be at home for the opening weekend of the NCAAs.

USC (Piper, Haddad) are ranked 16th and are 6th in the Big Ten conference. They've struggled away from home. That they moved to the Big Ten for the big bucks football media deal has severely disadvantaged their tennis programmes as the Big Ten is largely an indoor conference in Ohio, Michigan states area which for a Pacific coast outdoor team is not ideal. The chances of them being a top 16 seed for the NCAAs will depend on how deep they go in the Big Ten Championships. They will have an advantage for the Big Ten Championships in being familiar with the venue as the championships venue for their previous conference, and not requiring to travel great distances with it being in California. With a lack of west coast teams in the top 16, they are likely to be in the Texas or Oklahoma regionals in the opening NCAA rounds.

UCF (Rylatt) are ranked 20th and are in a 3 way tie at the top of the Big 12 conference. They travel to the altitude of Utah for their final 2 matches, where many have come a cropper this season. A top 16 seeding is unlikely, but maybe possible if they win the Big 12 championships.

Florida Atlantic (Matthews) are ranked 27th and are the only remaining unbeaten women's Div 1 team this semester with a schedule that includes wins over Miami and UCF. They will be the American Athletic Conference regular season winners. Millie-Mae has gone 8-1 at No 6 singles and 8-3 at No 2 doubles. Georgia Tech (Roach, Bilchev) are just behind them ranked 28. Both will qualify for the NCAAs.

Florida (Dudeney, Neilsen-Gatenby) are ranked 36 and are 12th in the Southeastern conference (SEC). But they are 8-11 for the season meaning with a less than .500 record they are not eligible for the NCAAs. With a loss guaranteed at the SEC Championships, they need at least 4 wins to get to the .500 record. This weekend they play #11 LSU and #32 Ole Miss. A win against LSU would be an upset and is unlikely so unless they hastily arrange a few winnable non-conference matches it looks like Alicia's college career will end at the SEC Championships. It will be the first time for almost 40 years (1986) that Florida women have missed the NCAAs. It's been a turbulent season for them with their long standing coach suddenly "retiring" a couple of weeks into the fall season, numerous injuries and 1 player leaving the programme mid season leaving them short of players and needing to play a walk on.

On the borderline of making the NCAAs are Clemson (Davies) 37th, Furman (Dawson) 41st and Old Dominion (Johnson) 46. Old Dominion could qualify by winning the Sun Belt Championships if they don't make it by ranking.

Missing out will be Miami (Ogunwale) 55, SMU (Skelton) 56, San Diego (Read) 57, Michigan State (Blackford, Purser, Parkins-Godwin) 58 and Florida State (Shaw, Bissett) 64.

Both men's and women's Miami programmes have lacked depth, and the women's team only has 6 players on it this year with no recruits for next year yet announced to strengthen the squad and replace the departing Alexa Noel. It makes you wonder what commitment Miami have to tennis in the new college sports world. Florida State's failure to qualify was laid in the non-conference part of the season with a schedule against very weak opposition. It's all very well scheduling a weak non-conference programme to get a .500 win pct to be eligible for the NCAAs, but that is no good if those wins don't get any decent ranking points to give you a ranking. They needed a few matches against stronger opposition in the non-conference part of the season to get their ranking up and to get some exposure to tight matches that in the conference season they could have won had they been "battle tested". There's a possibility San Diego could qualify by winning the West Coast Conference Championships, although the favourite for that will be Pepperdine. They currently lead the WCC with Pepperdine with them playing in the regular season title decider on Saturday. They are 9-8 for the season, so the .500 eligibility rule shouldn't come in to play if they to qualify via winning the WCC Championships.

Sofia's ranking has held up surprisingly well despite her not playing opponents that are ranked. I really thought she would have dropped down a bit more as the number of wins that count increased through the spring. That she has been able to get through the spring with only a couple of losses to highly ranked players has helped not reduce her ranking score too much. Alicia is a bright spot in Florida's horrid season as she makes further progress up the rankings and overtakes Grace to be the 2nd highest ranked British female in the singles rankings. Gabia makes a surprise return to the rankings - I would like to see the detail to see how that has occurred.

16. Sofia Johnson (Old Dominion)
57. Alicia Dudeney (Florida)
62. Grace Piper (USC)
96. Gabia Paskauskas (NC State)
103. Immi Haddad (USC)

Doubles
7. Grace Piper (/Fairclough) [USC]
11. Alicia Dudeney (/Gailis) [Florida] (fall partner)
22. Hannah Rylatt (/Lincer) [UCF]
32. Alicia Dudeney (/Spee) [Florida] (spring partner)
43. Lily Hutchins (/Berlanga) [Tulsa]
62. Millie Bissett (/Putz) [Florida State]
67. Dani Hack (/Lu) [Maryland]
76. Eva Shaw (/Juliana Parra Romero) [Florida State]
78. Given Roach (/Cruz) [Georgia Tech]
79. Hannah Smith (/Goncharov) [DePaul]
82. Kylie Bilchev (/Nicholson) [Georgia Tech]

Teams
1. Georgia
2. Texas A&M
3. Duke
4. Oklahoma
5. Michigan
6. UNC
7. Virginia (Lacy)
8. Auburn

12. NC State (K Paskauskas, G Paskauskas, Conway)
16. Southern California (Piper, Haddad)
20. Central Florida (Rylatt)
27. Florida Atlantic (M-m Matthews)
28. Georgia Tech (Roach, Bilchev)
31. Iowa (J Matthews)
36. Florida (Dudeney, Neilsen-Gatenby)
37. Clemson (Davies)
41. Furman (Dawson)
46. Old Dominon (Johnson)
49. Maryland (Hack)
55. Miami, Florida (Ogunwale)
56. SMU (Skelton)
57. San Diego (Read)
58. Michigan State (Blackford, Purser, Parkins-Godwin)
64. Florida State (Shaw, Bissett)
68. Marshall (Hurrion, McGrane)
74. Appalachian State (Dada-Mascoll)



-- Edited by Lambda on Wednesday 9th of April 2025 07:36:52 AM

Sofia Johnson played her last match on Old Dominion's courts but on her senior day, her team mates rather selfishly didn't wait for Sofia to win as they finished off the singles in under an hour and she was left at 6-1 4-2. She did dish out a bagel in doubles though. With the win Old Dominion win the Sun Belt regular season title outright for the third consecutive year, unbeaten with 1 match remaining. Ranked at 46, they are on the bubble for NCAA selection and may still need to win their conference Championships next week to qualify for the NCAAs.

Lambda wrote:

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Kristina Paskauskas (NC State) gets an excellent 3 & 2 win at No 4 singles to put NC State 2-0 up after they won the doubles point earlier against California. KP's opponent in singles has 20 wins this season and was on a 8 match win streak. Gabia is at No 6 singles but may have some time to wait for an available court (NC State have only 4 indoor courts) as the top 2 singles have gone to a 3rd set and No 3 singles is tight in the middle of the 2nd set. This looks like being their order for the remainder of the season with their No 1 on crutches.

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Gabia didn't get to start as NC State wrapped this up at No 2 and No 3 for a 4-0 win although all matches other than Jasmine's+ doubles and KP's singles were tightly contested. That's a very good win against a much improved Cal side from earlier in the semester to maintain their unbeaten home record. NC State move up to 4th in the ACC standings.