British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Lambda · ATP level

General college chat 2024/25

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

There are some good names in that list .....

Kylie was 18U National finalist in 2021 (so nearly won it too) - and won the 12U nationals, and I don't know what else

Alicia and Sally P have excellent games for grass

As you say, Grace and Sofia are two names that jump out

I don't know about doubles but it always seems to me that doubles is a 'natural' path for US college players - they've received so much more specific coaching and so much more experience at it than other non-college players

Chris · Junior player

Thank you for that

Lambda · ATP level

Max Basing was named the men's ACC Championship Most Valuable Player as he clinched the Championship for Stanford in their inaugural season in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Max had got the clinch point in all 3 of Stanford's wins in the Championship.
Virginia's No 1, Jodar, was defaulted but I haven't found an explanation of why yet.

That moves Stanford up to 5 in the projected rankings and a projected NCAA seed of 4 (although Ohio State are likely to go above them next week in ranking and NCAA seeding) having been uncertain if they were going to be a top 8 seed for the NCAAs going into the ACC Championships.

Lambda · ATP level

Award season has started. The conference awards are voted on by the Head Coaches in the conference. They are not allowed to vote for their own players.

The honour role so far

Oliver Tarvet (San Diego) - West Coast Conference Player of the Year
Hannah Read (San Diego) - West Coast Conference co-Freshman of the Year

Oliver Tarvet (San Diego) - West Coast Conference All-Conference 1st team singles and doubles
Luca Bluett (Santa Clara) - West Coast Conference All-Conference 2nd team doubles
Sally Pethybridge (Portland) - West Coast Conference All-Conference 2nd team singles
Hannah Read (San Diego) - West Coast Conference All-Conference 2nd team singles
Sally Pethybridge and Alaia Rubio Perez (Portland) - West Coast Conference All-Conference 2nd team doubles

Grace Piper (USC) - Big Ten All-Conference 1st team
Danielle Hack (Maryland) - Big Ten Sportsmanship honoree

Alicia Dudeney (Florida) - Southeastern Conference All-Conference 1st team

Sofia Johnson (ODU) - Old Dominion University Female Athlete of the Year

Congratulations to all.

Lambda · ATP level

There is another weekend of conference championship action, starting today. Of the championships this weekend, the Big Ten, the West Coast and the Sub Belt conference championships interest me.

On the men's side there is little to play for other than the championship title and they will include Will Jansen (Ohio State), Oscar Weightman (USC) and Giacomo Revelli (UCLA) in the Big Ten and Ollie Tarvet (San Diego) in the WCC.

On the women's side it is much more interesting with several NCAA implications on the line.
In the Big Ten there is USC (Grace Piper, Immi Haddad), Maryland (Danielle Hack), Michigan State (Ellie Blackford, Issy Purser, Oriana Parkins-Godwin) and Iowa (Jess Matthews). USC, UCLA and Washington are all vying for the final top 16 seeding position that will give them the last 1st and 2nd round host position for the NCAAs. They are currently placed 16th, 17th and 18th in the rankings with less than 0.3 ranking points between them. UCLA are in Michigan's side of the draw who they would play in the SF, Michigan being strong favourite for the title. USC and Washington could potentially meet in the QF tomorrow with the winner likely playing Ohio State in the SF. USC are only seeded 6 so have to play an extra round than UCLA and Washington, which is against Michigan State tonight. The LA schools have an advantage as the tournament is being played outdoors in Ojai, which is a venue they know just outside LA. Whichever of these 3 teams get the final hosting position will be the only host west of Texas, leaving the other 2 with a long journey to a higher ranked team.

The West Coast championships are of interest as San Diego sits just outside a NCAA qualification place. Winning the championships will give them an automatic place. Reaching the final may put them just in or just out of the qualification places and needing results elsewhere to go their way. The WCC include Hannah Read at San Diego and Sally Pethybridge and Alaia Rubio Perez at Portland. They are being held on San Diego State courts.

The Sun Belt championships include Sofia Johnson (ODU), Savannah Dada-Mascoll (App State) and Sophia Hurrion and Aisling McGrane (Marshall). ODU are top seeds and App State are 2nd seeds. No team from this conference has qualified for the NCAAs through ranking so all teams are playing for the automatic NCAA qualification for winning the conference championships. ODU won the regular season title unbeaten.

Lambda · ATP level

USC women won their opening match to set up the QF match against Washington that will eliminate one of them from the race to the last NCAA opening round hosting spot.

USC defeated Michigan State 4-1
Grace Piper+ (USC) won their doubles against Ellie Blackford+ (MSU) 6-2 at No 1
Issy Purser+ (MSU) was unfinished in their doubles at No 2
At No 1 singles #45 Grace Piper won 2 & 3
At No 2 Ellie Blackford lost to #64 Emma Charney 2 & 1
At No 3 #98 Immi Haddad (USC) lost 3 & 1
At No 6 Oriana Parkins-Godwin (MSU) lost 1 & 4

Immi had been playing at No 4 for most of the season, but Grace's doubles partner Lily Fairclough has been struggling at the No 3 singles position, so a couple of weekends ago USC swapped Immi and Lily around.

Lambda · ATP level

Big 6-7 6-3 7-5 win for Dani Hack (Maryland) over #41 Lily Jones (Michigan) at No 3 as #60 Maryland gave #3 ranked Michigan a scare in the Big Ten championships, but Michigan squeaked through 4-3.

Lambda · ATP level

Lambda wrote:
Award season has started. The conference awards are voted on by the Head Coaches in the conference. They are not allowed to vote for their own players.

The honour role so far

Oliver Tarvet (San Diego) - West Coast Conference Player of the Year
Hannah Read (San Diego) - West Coast Conference co-Freshman of the Year

Oliver Tarvet (San Diego) - West Coast Conference All-Conference 1st team singles and doubles
Luca Bluett (Santa Clara) - West Coast Conference All-Conference 2nd team doubles
Sally Pethybridge (Portland) - West Coast Conference All-Conference 2nd team singles
Hannah Read (San Diego) - West Coast Conference All-Conference 2nd team singles
Sally Pethybridge and Alaia Rubio Perez (Portland) - West Coast Conference All-Conference 2nd team doubles

Grace Piper (USC) - Big Ten All-Conference 1st team
Danielle Hack (Maryland) - Big Ten Sportsmanship honoree

Alicia Dudeney (Florida) - Southeastern Conference All-Conference 1st team

Sofia Johnson (ODU) - Old Dominion University Female Athlete of the Year

Congratulations to all.

Charlie Robertson (Wake Forest) - Atlantic Coast Conference All-Conference 1st team doubles
Jamie Connel (Florida State) - Atlantic Coast Conference All-Conference 2nd Team singles
Max Basing (Stanford) and Eva Shaw (Florida State) got 3rd team honours

Sofia Johnson - Sun Belt Player of the Year, All-Conference 1st team singles and doubles
Sophia Hurrion/Aisling McGrane, Marshall - Sun Belt All-Conference 1st team, doubles
Savannah Dada-Mascoll (App State) - Sun Belt All-Conference 2nd team doubles

Holly Fischer (Harvard) - Ivy League All Conference 1st team singles (unanimous) and doubles

Connor Thomson ( South Carolina) - Southeastern All Conference 1st Team

Still waiting for TCU's conference to announce their awards.

Strongbow · All-time great

Thanks for putting the list of Seniors up - It will be interesting to see how many try to go Pro. I seem to remember Kylie Bilchev and Olivia Rook as prospects - presumably they have not flourished.

-- Edited by Strongbow on Thursday 24th of April 2025 11:34:34 PM

Lambda · ATP level

I don't know what to make of Kylie. She was on a path to go pro, and I would have said that would be her path a year ago, but seems to have regressed these last couple of years.

She started her college career as No 3 and was moved up to No 2 half way through her freshman year, where she played exclusively during her 2nd and 3rd years. But for some unknown reason this year instead of moving up to No 1 she has been Georgia Tech's No 7. Given Roach, who was their No 7 last year, among those moving ahead of her.

In her 1st year she reached the QF of the NCAA doubles Championships. Her 2nd year was her best year with a 26-9 record, vying with Millie Rajecki and Angelica Blake for the highest ranked British women. She finished ranked 36 that year behind Millie at 17 and Angelica at 21 She reached her career high of 23 in early April 2023 and was the highest ranked British woman in that week. She made the NCAA Singles that year, her only appearance in singles. It was all looking very good and looking like she was going to have a very successful college career.

Last year, at No 2, she was 16-17 and finished the year ranked No 100. This year, as I say, she has been her team's No 7 and played very few singles matches. The few occasions she has managed to play singles this year have generally not been good, barring 1 or 2 matches. She is playing better recently than in January, and at times shows the quality of a No 2, but she is still losing to players at No 6 she would be expected to beat. She has been playing doubles at No 1 that last couple of months, although she was even excluded from that in the early Spring season.

To go from been ranked 23 two years ago to being the No 7 singles player in the team now is strange. My guess would be that she has, or has had, an injury. Her serve does not seem to be what I remember it as (I'm sure I remember it being a weapon if it a little wayward at times), now it's just pushed in with no potency. She clearly has a good tennis brain as she works the court well, but all too often her rallies break down with her hitting an UE.

If she doesn't have a permanent injury that has been the cause of her not carrying through the early success, then, with the right coaching, perhaps at somewhere like Bath, to improve the serve and reduce the unforced errors she could make a go of going pro but it would be a long slow path I feel. I would just add, having watched her on the court and in some reels on social media, she seems like one of the nicest people that I'm rooting for her to have success in whatever she does.

pauliscot · Junior player

Does anyone have any further insight on Holly Fischer? I remember her being no 1 ranked in the World at one point for her age group (13 or 14 I think) ahead of Emma. I can see she is no 1 at Harvard and winning some singles but doesn't appear to be ranked very highly in the overall rankings? Is there any chance she might, or should, go pro? I know she also has a very successful career as a high fashion model. Talk about high achiever lol - tennis star, supermodel, Harvard...

Tennpar · Club Coach

Lambda, I have no insight re Kylie or her college, just some general thoughts.

If Kylie intends to continue her tennis then she potentially has the option to do a graduate transfer perhaps. Otherwise, yes, the best idea is somewhere where you have a different coaching set up like Bath, where you have good support including physios etc.

I'm sure it differs between US colleges, but sometimes you're encouraged to play through injury rather than looking to diagnose, and hopefully, fix. This results in a player who cannot perform as well as they, or the coach, would like and you gradually slide down the order as newer, fitter players get their chance.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

This website came highly recommended by Jeff Sackmann in his latest newsletter

"The college tennis season is hotting up, which means it's time to point you to CollegeTennisRanks. Chris does an impressive job, from upcoming schedules to his mind-bogglingly complex What-If scenarios"

collegetennisranks.com/

I am sure Lambda has this already on his favourites list!

Lambda · ATP level

Conference Championships round up

The Big Ten and West Coast championships have gone with seeding
Men:
Ohio State were surprisingly pushed 4-3 by Illinois, with the men's championships being held on Ohio State's indoor courts. There was no Will Jansen in singles for Ohio State and he lost his doubles. They play Washington in the SF.
UCLA were 4-1 winners over Michigan. Giacomo Revelli (UCLA) winning his No 1 doubles and No 6 singles. His singles win clinched for UCLA.
USC lost 4-2 to Michigan State. Oscar Weightman (USC) didn't play.

San Diego cruised to a 5-0 win over Pacific. It could have been a very rare 6-0 win with at 3-0 San Diego having match point on 3 courts simultaneously, including Ollie's. Ollie won his to officially clinch the tie, and the other 2 were split. They will play Pepperdine in the final.

Women:
USC lost 1-4 to Washington in the QF, Grace and Immi's matches the only ones unfinished. Grace was 2-0 up in the 3rd, and Immi was 5-5 in the 3rd.
In the race to 16, Washington and UCLA both lost which puts Washington in the 16th spot and final hosting position. USC and UCLA will face a long trip for the NCAAs. As there are no hosts within 400 miles (NCAAs mileage preference to minimise flights) they could be placed anywhere, but one of them will probably end up at Texas Tech (probably USC being marginally closer) and one at Louisiana State as they have no eligible teams within 400 miles either (but that's only my guess, we'll find out on Monday).

San Diego got revenge on Washington State, after they got a bollocking after losing to them last week. Hannah Read getting a 0 & 3 win to finish first over the same player she lost 6 & 0 to last Friday. Washington State did win 4 1st sets, so San Diego did need to do. it the hard way. Predictably they play Pepperdine in the final. Although yesterday's win have put USD in a NCAA at large position, they will fall out again if they lose to Pepperdine putting them with a ranking of 41 and the cut line being 40, so they need to win.

The Sun Belt championships haven't gone with seeding with 2nd, 3rd and 4th seeds all falling in the QF. Top seeds Old Dominion won comfortably with Sofia Johnson not being troubled winning 0 & 1. They next play 5th seeds James Madison.
In the other half of the draw, 6th seeds Marshall took out the 3rd seeds. Aisling McGrane and Sophia Hurrion (Marshall) winning No 2 doubles 6-0. Aisling won her singles at No 4, but Sophia was the wrong side of a 3-6 6-3 3-6 decision at No 5. They play 7th seeds Troy who had a surprise win over 2nd seeds App State. Savannah Dada-Mascoll (App State) won her singles at No 1. App State have been without their No 2, who Savannah had that remarkable doubles run with in the fall, for some time.