General college chat 2024/25

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

US College signings and general college chat 2024/25

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Yep.
There are three Okwonko brothers (that I know of)
All into sport
All went to the US on scholarships
One is basketball (i think his name is James?)
Again, great family, great dad
(And I still take credit for one match where Alex won - he played a cat and mouse first match and won by a whisker, and before his second match, his dad asked me what I thought, abd I said if my player were the size and strength of his son, I'd want him basically to blinkin HIT the ball, not dink it around. And he came out in his second match and leathered it a bit more! And won more easily :)
That's how I remember things anyway )

biggrin

Lambda · Challenger level

I see CD has already answered.

-- Edited by Lambda on Tuesday 29th of October 2024 08:00:55 AM

Lambda · Challenger level

The selections for the Conference Masters have been released and, frankly, they are a joke and not fit as a qualifying competition for the NCAAs.

The British selections are
Sofia Johnson (ODU) and Cheri Daley (Stetson) in womens singles
Alex Okonkwo (Tulsa) and Jack Batchelor (Bellarmine) in mens singles
Millie Bisset+ (FSU) and Sally Pethybridge+ (Portland) in womens doubles
Jack Batchelor & Matthew Nice (Bellarmine), Luc Koenig+ (Baylor), Ben Johnson+ (Drake)
Good luck to all.

Sofia and Millie give up their qualifications for the Sectionals to play here.

There are LOTS of names I don't recognise and I could only find 4 players in the pre-season rankings in both the mens and womens selections. Sofia's chances are not as bad as I thought they would be, although have to be careful of the unranked players selected from the Power 4 conferences and the stronger mid-majors.

The ranked women are #31 Oyinlomo Quadre (FIU), #33 Katja Wiersholm (Cal), #37 Sofia Johnson (ODU), #39 Claudia de las Heras (USD)
The ranked men are #13 Sebastian Dominko (Notre Dame), #14 Thomas Paulsell (Georgia), #49 Zsombor Velcz (Baylor), #99 Anton Arzhankin (W Michigan)

Competition starts on 7 November and both mens and womens will be held at Rome, Georgia - they were originally due to held in San Diego but were moved a couple of weeks ago due to a scheduling conflict. The 4 singles semi-finalists and final 3 doubles teams qualify for the NCAAs.

The entry lists for the Sectionals taking place at the same time haven't been released yet.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Lambda wrote:
The selections for the Conference Masters have been released and, frankly, they are a joke and not fit as a qualifying competition for the NCAAs.

The British selections are
Sofia Johnson (ODU) and Cheri Daley (Stetson) in womens singles
Alex Okonkwo (Tulsa) and Jack Batchelor (Bellarmine) in mens singles
Millie Bisset+ (FSU) and Sally Pethybridge+ (Portland) in womens doubles
Jack Batchelor & Matthew Nice (Bellarmine), Luc Koenig+ (Baylor), Ben Johnson+ (Drake)
Good luck to all.

Sofia and Millie give up their qualifications for the Sectionals to play here.

There are LOTS of names I don't recognise and I could only find 4 players in the pre-season rankings in both the mens and womens selections. Sofia's chances are not as bad as I thought they would be, although have to be careful of the unranked players selected from the Power 4 conferences and the stronger mid-majors.

The ranked women are #31 Oyinlomo Quadre (FIU), #33 Katja Wiersholm (Cal), #37 Sofia Johnson (ODU), #39 Claudia de las Heras (USD)
The ranked men are #13 Sebastian Dominko (Notre Dame), #14 Thomas Paulsell (Georgia), #49 Zsombor Velcz (Baylor), #99 Anton Arzhankin (W Michigan)

Competition starts on 7 November and both mens and womens will be held at Rome, Georgia - they were originally due to held in San Diego but were moved a couple of weeks ago due to a scheduling conflict. The 4 singles semi-finalists and final 3 doubles teams qualify for the NCAAs.

The entry lists for the Sectionals taking place at the same time haven't been released yet.

Thanks Lambda - Jack Bathchelor and Matthew Nice and Ben Johnson are all new names to me. Did they have any sort of careers before college?

Lambda · Challenger level

Not names I'm familiar with either so over to others.

They all barely played any ITF juniors.
Jack is from York, Matthew from Newcastle. Nothing on their college profiles about pre-college. They won the Northumberland Open doubles this summer.
Ben is from Exmouth and his college profile proclaims he was Devon County player of the year twice.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Lambda wrote:
Not names I'm familiar with either so over to others.

They all barely played any ITF juniors.
Jack is from York, Matthew from Newcastle. Nothing on their college profiles about pre-college. They won the Northumberland Open doubles this summer.
Ben is from Exmouth and his college profile proclaims he was Devon County player of the year twice.

I see Jack played York League tennis - I used to play that league back in the day and teams like Dunnington where he is apparently from - although he played for one of the David Lloyd Centres as an actual team.

York League, though, was always quite a mixed standard so hard to tell anything about a player from that, my club won the league a couple of times when I played and we were hardly setting the world on fire!

Lambda · Challenger level

Running the same time as the Conference Masters are the Sectional Championships. Each sectional is made up of 3 Regions, except the east which is made up of 4 regions. The draws are 32 singles and 16 doubles. All singles semi-finalists and 2 losing quarter-finalists (via play-off) will qualify for the NCAAs and the top 3 doubles teams will qualify for the NCAAs.

Links to draws, streams, etc will be at https://wearecollegetennis.com/ita-division-i-sectional-championships/

The women's lists are now available and there is British representation in 3 of the 4 women's sectionals. Still waiting for the men's lists.

East sectional (Host: UNC, Chapel Hill)
Singles: Dani Hack (Maryland)
Doubles: Dani Hack (Maryland), Gabia Paskauskas (NC State)

South sectional (Host: Georgia)
Singles: Alicia Dudeney (Florida), Talia Neilson-Gatenby (Florida)
Doubles: Given Roach (Georgia Tech), Hannah Rylatt (Central Florida)

West sectional (Host: USC)
Singles: Immi Haddad, Grace Piper (USC)
Doubles: Immi Haddad (USC)
[Grace has already qualified for NCAA in doubles]

Dani and Grace were the only ones to have qualified for singles; Hannah had qualified for doubles although the partner she qualified with is not entered. The others have got in by their WTN (Doubles by combined singles WTN). USC have a host WC so its possible Immi may have got in by WC, but with 9 of the 10 on the USC roster entered in singles or doubles its difficult to tell.

I didn't expect to see Gabia in doubles. With 4 regions the east sectional is the most difficult to get in without direct qualification and all spaces should have been taken by direct qualification. There wouldn't be many spaces freed up and I would have thought they would be many eligible higher ranked doubles teams than Gabia and Mia. Gabia is also entered in an ITF this week.

Lambda · Challenger level

And these are the men's selections

Central (Host: TCU)
Singles: Will Jansen (Ohio State)
Doubles: Will Jansen (Ohio State), Lui Maxted (TCU)
This is the strongest section out of all the sections in either men's or women's.

East (Host: UNC, Chapel Hill)
Singles: Luca Pow (Wake Forest)
Doubles: Connor Thomson (S Carolina)

South (Host: Florida State)
Singles: Billy Blaydes (Auburn), Hugo Coquelin (Vanderbilt), Roan Jones (Alabama)
Doubles: Freddy Blaydes (Georgia), Jamie Connel (FSU), Roan Jones (Alabama), Luka Petrovic (Tulane)

West (Host: Pepperdine)
Singles: Max Basing (Stanford), Derrick Chen (Cal)
Doubles: Derrick Chen (Cal)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Isabelle Lacy has announced that she's going to play for the Uni of Virginia starting in January

Good move, Isa

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Lambda wrote:
And these are the men's selections

Central (Host: TCU)
Singles: Will Jansen (Ohio State)
Doubles: Will Jansen (Ohio State), Lui Maxted (TCU)
This is the strongest section out of all the sections in either men's or women's.

East (Host: UNC, Chapel Hill)
Singles: Luca Pow (Wake Forest)
Doubles: Connor Thomson (S Carolina)

South (Host: Florida State)
Singles: Billy Blaydes (Auburn), Hugo Coquelin (Vanderbilt), Roan Jones (Alabama)
Doubles: Freddy Blaydes (Georgia), Jamie Connel (FSU), Roan Jones (Alabama), Luka Petrovic (Tulane)

West (Host: Pepperdine)
Singles: Max Basing (Stanford), Derrick Chen (Cal)
Doubles: Derrick Chen (Cal)

The sectionals, based on British players, feel much stronger than the masters events?

Lambda · Challenger level

Coup Droit wrote:
Isabelle Lacy has announced that she's going to play for the Uni of Virginia starting in January

Good move, Isa

I thought as much when she posted from there recently. I think she might also have been considering a college in the San Francisco area, as she posted from there a few days before.

Lambda · Challenger level

JonH comes home wrote:
Lambda wrote:
And these are the men's selections

Central (Host: TCU)
Singles: Will Jansen (Ohio State)
Doubles: Will Jansen (Ohio State), Lui Maxted (TCU)
This is the strongest section out of all the sections in either men's or women's.

East (Host: UNC, Chapel Hill)
Singles: Luca Pow (Wake Forest)
Doubles: Connor Thomson (S Carolina)

South (Host: Florida State)
Singles: Billy Blaydes (Auburn), Hugo Coquelin (Vanderbilt), Roan Jones (Alabama)
Doubles: Freddy Blaydes (Georgia), Jamie Connel (FSU), Roan Jones (Alabama), Luka Petrovic (Tulane)

West (Host: Pepperdine)
Singles: Max Basing (Stanford), Derrick Chen (Cal)
Doubles: Derrick Chen (Cal)

The sectionals, based on British players, feel much stronger than the masters events?

Agreed. The central sectional is brutal.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Daft question - no North section? Whyd they call it Central or does central spread up to the North? Midwest states?

Lambda · Challenger level

JonH comes home wrote:
Daft question - no North section? Whyd they call it Central or does central spread up to the North? Midwest states?

All the sectionals stretch up from the south to the Canadian border, including the so called South sectional.
East is Carolinas up to north east states
South is Florida, Georgia through Kentucky and up to Ohio
Central is Texas up to Minnesota and N Dakota.
West is western coast and mountain states