ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

Next week the ITA pre-season team tennis rankingshttp://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRa...s_Rankings.htm will be published. There is some great expertise on this board, What do you predict??

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

The pre-season rankings will probably reflect the end of season rankings from last year. It is just a starting point and the 1st poll isn't very accurate outside the top 30. :help: Plus many international players don't make their debuts until the Spring or coaches don't like to display their team's full strength in the fall tourneys making it hard to gauge how good teams really are. However like the BCS in football the higher ranking you have to start the season with is an advantage in that the burden is on the teams under you to try and take your ranking away. The Team Indoors should start to shake up the rankings a bit.

When the rankings come out making a case for who's stock should rise or fall is where the predictions will come in. :lol:

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

Well, we all know the results, so it might be obvious..
I'm just a fan, but for fun on individual ranking;

up; Falconi, Chan, Petukhova(they misspelled it!), Marks, Thongdach, Ramos, Dy, Zheltova, Hein, Molnar, Pluskota, Nedeltcheva, Secerbegovic(she was very impressive at WAATC, especially against Pantic..),Hadziselimovic, Budiharto, Weatherholt, and of course the freshmen Will, Embree, Lao, Ellis, Colffer, etc. will make debut..

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

Who will be the sleepers from the top 35 teams from last May's final ranking? I see Texas, Michigan, Illinois being very good teams this year that should move up from last year. How they finished in May: Michigan #18, Texas #32, Illinois #33. The Big Ten should be a lot better this year especially at the top of the conference. I also think Florida looks to have the best team in the country based on the new players they brought in. A team that might fall from a year ago is Notre Dame. They only played 3 players most of the fall season so I assume they're dealing with a lot of injuries on that team.

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

NU also had losses. #2 Rose, #5 Ghazal, #6 Robison..wonder if Turvy is any good..

Duke; #1 Cecil, #5 Mang, #6 Robinson out

Florida, Baylor, Georgia, ND (if they're not injured), Stanford, UCLA had relatively less losses.

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

I'm surprised that Georgia Tech and Notre Dame weren't able to keep the momentum they had a few years back. They've struggled (relatively) with recruiting the last couple of years, which is odd considering the stellar years they had two years ago. Of course GT was severely hurt when Marino turned pro.

From a recruiting stand point of view its interesting to determine what the lag period is between NCAA success and when schools reap those rewards, especially for "second tier" recruiting schools. I define second tier schools as the great tennis schools that are less popular (California, Northwestern, North Carolina, Virginia, etc.) than perennial first choices (Stanford, USC, UCLA, Florida, etc.).

Based on interest in California, it looks like it takes 2-3 years after the success for it to register with new recruits.

You have to give a lot of credit to Michigan and Illinois who seem to making the most of their recent success and (possibly) have changed their recruiting strategy to gain better talent. It always puzzles me why North Carolina and Virginia can't get a constant flow of top talent.

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

I don't know ANYTHING about recruiting, but still, GT and ND got Falconi and Frilling, respectively :D
GT is continually producing stellar players like Miller, McDowell, Falconi..eh..ND getting Sanders is not good enough? :D I'm not rebutting, just saying what L~ITTLE info I have :lol:

And everybody's mentioning it and I've agreed before too, yes, Illinois & Michigan seems to have a bright future. Big 10 surely would be one of the most interesting regions in for a couple of years..

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

I will agree that both teams have top talent at the top of their line-up but the middle and bottom are quite weak (which should have been stronger due to attraction of better recruits via their NCAA success). Simply, schools that do well at NCAAs should be able to appeal to more recruits, thus strengthening the middle and bottom of the line up.

As we have seen in the past, NCAA tennis is no longer about having a strong top half of the line-up but perhaps more than ever No. 4-6 is even more important. All the top schools have virtually undefeated No. 4-6.

It also doesn't help that GT lost Johansson and Hickey (and Flower) all to transfers.

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

You're absolutely right, in winning the team tourney, having one or two elite players don't guarantee anything. You need DEPTH. After all, how did UCLA & Duke win. Clemson last year, they might've had the best one two punch in the nation in Mijacika & Bek, but they still lost.

And I 'think' that Baylor and ND's success last season was also due to their depth. Were the rankings of Ormond, Broosova, Tefft, Frilling high? nope. But they had depth, BU's no. 2~5 squad were REALLY solid, and ND had an excellent doubles program as well. (So I think doubles is...crucial)

And yes, wonder why GT is losing so many players..anyway, Happy New year, everyone. :wavey:

Potentially new conference champions
 

I can see the following conferences potentially having new champions for the 2009-10 season.

SEC - Florida (Georgia champs last year)
- FL gets blue chippers Lauren Embree, Allie Will and transfer Claire Bartlett. Also gets Caroline Hitimana WTA 1053
- FL makes up for losing #6 Megan Alexander & #5 Barbara Pinterova
- GA gets Alexandrina Naydenova WTA 612
- GA loses #4 Monika Dancevic

Ivy League - Yale or Harvard (Princeton last year)
- Yale gets blue chip Elizabeth Epstein plus 5 stars Sarah Guzick & Stephanie Kent
- Yale loses #1 Janet Kim & #8 Lauren Ritz
- Har. gets blue chippers Hideko Tachibana & Kristin Norton. Plus 5 stars Sophie Chang & Alex Lehman
- Har. makes up for losing #1 Beier Ko & #2 Laura Peterzan
- Prin. gets blue chip Monica Chow but loses more than they're getting
- Prin. loses #1 Lauren McHale for this season, #4 Rebecca Parks & #9 Sarah Huah

WAC - Hawaii (Fresno St. last year)
- HI gets Maraike Biglmaier WTA 694, Barbara Pinterova ITF 78, Katarina Poljakova WTA 824
- HI loses #1 Ellen Linsenbolz, #3 Anja-Vanessa Peter and #5 Melinda Wong
- FSU gets Olga Kirpicheva WTA 1032, Melissa McQueen Canada U18 #11, Anna Mikhaylova, Julia Gragera-Cano and 4 star Bianca Modoc
- FSU loses #1 Melanie Gloria, #4 Tinesta Rowe, #6 Bruna Paes, #7 Danon Beatty

Big West - UC Irvine (Long Beach St. last year)
- UCI gets April Bisharat WTA 962 and 5 star Kristina Smith
- UCI loses #4 Clare Fermin, #6 Heidi Kaloi, #7 Ali Borowicz
- LBS gets Klaudia Malenovska WTA 575 Jaklin Alawi WTA 884 & Anna Jeczmionka Poland U18 #5
- LBS loses #1 Hannah Grady, #6 Lisa Sutton, #7 Jessica Weeks

Mid-American - Akron (Miami-Ohio last year)
- Akron gets Angelina Jogasuria ITF 196, Angelika Jogasuria & Prang Pantusart ITF 173
- MO loses #1 Monica Gorny


If the 1st rankings are really accurate than the potentially new conference champs should have about the same or better ranking than the champs from last year. But I suspect the better ranking will only happen maybe for Florida over Georgia.

Re: ITA tennis rankings published
 

Women’s National Team Rankings
Administered by the ITA
NCAA Division I Tennis
January 5, 2010

Rank Team LY Final
1 Duke (21) 1
2 Northwestern (9) 2
3 California (3) 4
4 Georgia (4) 3
5 Baylor (2) 6
6 Notre Dame 5
7 Miami 7
8 Florida (12) 14
9 USC 9
10 Georgia Tech 8
11 Tennessee 10
12 UCLA 12
13 Stanford 13
14 Clemson 11
15 Florida State 19
16 Fresno 16
17 South Carolina 17
18 UNC 20
19 Arkansas, Fayetteville 15
20 Michigan 18
21 Mississippi 21
22 Vanderbilt 22
23 SMU 23
24 Washington 27
25 Alabama 26
26 Virginia 28
27 TCU 29
28 Kentucky 25
29 LSU 24
30 Arizona State 31
31 Texas 32
32 Florida International 30
33 Illinois

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

12 first place votes for Florida but only ranked 8th? Interesting. I definitely think on paper they are the team to beat this year. Women's tennis must be pretty deep if GaTech and Stanford are that far down, too.

Who are the other players on #1 ranked Duke?
 

The Duke webpage roster shows only five players, Is there a certain date by which they need to announce their full roster?

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

These rankings and pre-season are really not an accurate reflection of what the final rankings will be. Rankings will fluctuate greatly between now and the next set of rankings, and become more accurate as the season goes along.

Re: ITA tennis rankings published next week, what do the TF experts say
 

Falconi 8 ->1
Chan 16 11
Petukhova 22 4
Marks 29 46
Thongdach 47 43
Ramos 53 39
Dy 58 3
Zheltova 56 26
Hein 68 68
Molnar 72 65
Pluskota 84
Nedeltcheva 90 50
Secerbegovic 92 24
Hadziselimovic 99 113
Budiharto 120 28
Weatherholt 110 116

Marks, Pluskota (not even ranked? )Hadziselimovic, Weatherholt actually went down in, contrary to my prediction :confused:
and where's the Cal double?