Savannah is 4th seed and Gabia is 9-16 seed. The seedings are based on unpublished rankings from this season's results only.
Top seed for both men and women draws are the winners of the All Americans, Jay Friend and Valerie Glozman. Pre-season No 1 and defending mens champion Michael Zheng is unseeded because he didn't play any college matches until the end of October and his opponents that he has played are relatively weak in terms of the rankings points they are worth. The women's pre-season No 1 and runner-up last year didn't qualify.
The first match of the spring season starts today and with it comes the pre-season team rankings. Without any match data these are based on a coaches poll that give us an idea of who coaches think will be the top 25 to watch based on known rosters.
They've largely copped out by giving Wake Forest for the men and Georgia for the women to retain their no 1 spots. There's not too many surprises here. They have given the benefit of the doubt to Wake Forest and TCU, for me the Jury is out on whether they willbe as strong as last year with who they've lost and brought in. On the women's side LSU with 4 top 600 WTA players on their roster in Brace, Cross, Mcdonald and Kuhl on paper should be strong and this is reflected in them being moved up to 5. Virginia have moved quite away down the rankings behind NC State and Ohio State which is a little surprising and Florida have been given a top 25 placing with an almost complete revamp of their roster after last year's disappointing season. I think they are a stronger team then the 5 teams immediately above them but their position perhaps reflects uncertainty over the new roster. It may also be a reflection they are in the very strong SEC conference, who have 5 of the top 6 teams in the rankings. It will be interesting to see how they line up.
The ITA site is not fully up to date with movements and incomings so forgive me if I miss anyone. for teams with British players Men 1. Wake Forest (Robertson, Pow) 3. TCU (Bonding) 6. Ohio State (A Okonkwo) 8. San Diego (Tarvet) 14. Central Florida (Ampaw) 16. Baylor (Koenig, Bowden) 18. South Carolina (Swaine)
Women 5. Louisiana State (Mcdonald) 11. North Carolina State (Conway) 13. Ohio State (Oluwade, F Johnson) 14. Virginia ( Lacy) 18. Vanderbilt (Pearce) 19. Southern California (Haddad) 23. Florida (G Paskauskas, Black) 24. Central Florida (Rylatt)
Mr. Pow isn't going to let being in between ITF tournaments stop him from playing for Wake Forest. In the time it took for the first set of the ITF final to be completed on an adjacent court Luca won his doubles and then playing at No 1 his singles O & 1 in the first of a home double header today as Wake open their season.
Oli Bonding opened his college career at TCU with a comeback win 4-6 7-6(4) 6-1 over Tomas Quesada (East Tennessee) [ITF1118], playing at No 2. Before that he won his doubles playing at No 1.
Isabella Wong (UC Santa Barbara) came so close to getting a huge ranking win in her debut match. She had 2 MPs to defeat #12 Emma Charney (USC) but netted them both after long tentative rallies. The match was frustratingly abandoned at 6-4 5-6 40-40* when USC won the dual match. She may have had the match wrapped up earlier if she hadn't lost 10+ straight points on serve at the end of the first and beginning of the second sets.
TCU were comprehensively beaten 6-1 by Virgina last night for their first home loss since 2023, losing all 6 singles; 5 of them in straight sets.
Oli Bonding played in doubles at No 1 with Cooper Woestendick and were 6-6 against the No 1 ranked pair and NCAA doubles champions of Dahlberg and Dietrich when TCU clinched the doubles point on the other 2 courts.
In singles he played at No 3 against the former junior No 11 Jangjun Kim and lost 4-6 4-6.
TCU are a young side and are lacking a standout No 1, and arguably No 2, as head coach Roditi refuses to play the game of bringing in an established 20 something highish ranked pro as many other top sides have done. He's a traditionalist but did bring in a rare transfer to get a much needed and only senior on the team following JPJ's decision to forgo his senior year. It's also their first year without their MVP of the last 2 years, Luke Swan, and his brilliance in motivational skills and team bonding.