There was lots of women's action yesterday, much of it happening at the same time. The top match for our interest was Florida visiting South Carolina. Talia Nelsen-Gatenby (UF) at No 4 singles had a topsy-turvey 1st set, recovering a break to level before losing it 3-6. She raced to a 4-0 lead in the 2nd but then lost the next 6 games to lose the set and the team point. Alicia Dudeney (UF) at No 2 singles was unfinished at 6-1 6-6(3-3) against No 68 raked Carnicella. South Carolina won 4-0. Difficult to know what to a make of this. Overall, probably a bad loss to be swept without a point to an indifferent South Carolina side that has losses to Georgia Tech and Clemson this month. The top 3 courts were tight with the bottom 3 courts all finishing, which perhaps shows a lack of depth in the Florida side. I don't know why Talia is struggling, hopefully with the help of her coaches she can turn it around as we know she is better than her results show.

Virginia, who became the No 1 ranked team this week played No 61 SMU. SMU are playing their first season in the ACC, explaining why the 2 teams have only ever played once before, 21 years ago. Isabelle continues to struggle at Virginia. She made her doubles debut last week standing in for the injured Chervinsky in Doubles 1 and yesterday partnered Chervinsky at doubles 1. Both matches were lost 1-6. It was interesting choice to have Isa play doubles as Collard, who is Chervinsky's regular doubles partner, played singles. So were they protecting Collard or is this a try of a change in doubles. The latter is hard to see, as why would they break up the NCAA doubles champions and No 1 ranked doubles team. Isabelle at No 4 singles did not have a good day. She did recover a double break to come back from 2-5* to *5-5 but then played 2 bad games to lose the set and was never in the 2nd set, losing 5 & 1. Millie Skelton (SMU) at No 5 singles had a good start to go 3-0* up against Collard but Collard showed her experience to come back to win 6-4(4) 6-2 and clinch the dual for Virginia 4-3. Millie has mostly played at No 6 singles and is 7-4 for dual play, 12-9 for the season. SMU can take this as a moral victory as Virginia should be winning this more easily as the No 1 ranked team. The match was played outdoors.

NC State opened their conference season with a 4-1 win indoors at Louisville. Kristina was absent yesterday (she has travelled) with Jasmine replacing her in No 3 doubles and Gabia returning at No 6 singles. Jasmine's doubles was unfinished at 5-0. Gabia finished 2nd in singles with a 4 & 4 win. Surprisingly, NC State's No 1 Laki lost in 3 sets and all the remaining matches went to 3 sets. This should have been a match NC State wrapped up quickly so for 4 singles courts to go to 3 sets and their No 1 to lose is poor. They continue their road trip at Notre Dame on Sunday.

Florida State travelled to Boston College to open their conference season and won 4-2. Eva Shaw (FSU) at Doubles 1 and Millie Bissett (FSU) at doubles 2 both won. Eva appears to have claimed the No 1 singles from Millie who played at No 2 singles. Eva lost her 1st set but came back strong to win 2-6 6-2 6-1 to get the clinch point for FSU. Millie was dominant winning 2 & 0. It's difficult to judge where Florida State are at having only played weaker teams other than at the kickoff weekend. Their conference schedule pits them against the weaker teams for the next couple of weeks which they'll need to take advantage of before the tough second half of the conference season.

Lastly on my British watch list for yesterday, Jaquelyn Ogunwale (Miami) lost at No 2 singles 4 & 3. Last May's NCAA singles champion Alexa Noel, who surprisingly announced a return in January after going pro in the summer, finally played her first match for Miami yesterday, winning 0 & 5 after being down 0-5 in the 2nd.

While waiting for our players to start their matches, I watched a bit of Nao Nishino (Ohio State). Man, I had no idea she was this good. I was aware of her from various domestic British events but I don't recall her doing anything special in them. Perhaps I was just not paying attention. She's impressed so much she's moved up to No 3 singles from when she played Gabia at No 5 singles at kick off weekend. She was denied a 1 & 2 win when 2 points away from victory, her team mate clinched the win for Ohio State.

An excellent comeback from Gabia Paskauskas who kept her place at No 6 singles following Kristina's return for NC State at Notre Dame. Gabia looked out of the 1st set at *2-5 but came back to win 11 of the next 12 games to win 7-5 6-1. Kristina unfortunately lost a tight 1st set tie break and then the 2nd 3-6. NC State won 4-2. Notre Dame are ranked 24 so that will be NC State's 3rd best ranking win and some decent ranking points for the next team rankings.

Florida women travelled to Georgia who will regain the No 1 ranking in the next rankings. Alicia Dudeney was moved up to No 1 singles with the absence of Florida's No 1 to play Vidmanova, without doubt the best woman currently in US college tennis. She got a little frustrated at times in the 2nd set but she shouldn't as she was in this match all the way, when she came into it with nothing to lose and could easily have been steam rolled. Her match was abandoned at 4-6 2-3, a very good scoreline against a top 350 WTA player. Florida played with only 5 available players so defaulted No 6 singles and Georgia won the doubles and 2 other singles to win 4-0.

Meanwhile Florida men played a non-conference match at home to Texas. Henry Jefferson at No 4 singles defeated Jonah Braswell in straight sets, the only singles win for Florida as Texas won 5-2.

For Wake Forest, Charlie and Luca got doubles wins over Cal. In an all GB singles match, Luca defeated Derrick Chen (Cal) at No 5 singles 2 & 4. Charlie at No4 singles was a set to the good and on serve at 5-6 when Wake won 4-0 and Charlie's match was abandoned. The near freezing temperature in North Carolina forced this match to be played indoors.

Elsewhere, Max Basing lost in what looks like a 3 set thriller that gave NC State a 4-2 victory over Stanford. Jamie Connel won as Florida State men won over Boston College. Eva Shaw got a straight sets win for Florida State women, but Millie Bissett lost a tight 3 setter and Florida State lose at Syracuse. Things go from bad to worse for Miami women as they lose at Boston College. Jaquelyn Ogunwale had just started a 3rd set after turning around her match from being breadsticked in the 1st set.

Singles rankings

Connor Thomson moves up over 50 places, largely thanks to Jodar (Virginia) climbing the rankings which in turn increases the ranking points Connor gets for his January win over Jodar. Henry Jefferson and Alex Okonkwo enter the top 125.

ranking (last ranking)
8. (4) Oliver Tarvet (San Diego, position 1) 14-2 season; 10-1 spring semester
15. (11) Lui Maxted (TCU, position 3) 18-6; 7-1
20. (22) Jack Pinnington-Jones (TCU, position 1) 5-3; 5-3
46. (43) Jamie Connel (Florida State, position 2) 16-7; 9-5
57. (110) Connor Thomson (South Carolina, position 3) 5-2; 5-2
71. (80) Max Basing (Stanford, position 2) 9-7; 6-3
75. (59) Roan Jones (Alabama, position 2) 18-6; 7-3
90. (126+) Henry Jefferson (Florida, position 4) 16-6; 7-4
94. (79) Raffaello Papajcik (Denver, position 2) 14-5; 5-3
102. (126+) Alex Okonkwo (Tulsa, position 1) 16-10; 6-6
123. (114) Anthony Wright (North Carolina, position 4) 13-11; 4-5

Sofia re-enters the top 10, although her ranking points total goes down. Without doing any detailed analysis, I suspect Gabia's large fall in the rankings is down to changes in the rankings of the opponents she has beaten. Isabelle's loss on Friday to a player outside the top 125 will have hurt her ranking a fair bit.

10. (11) Sofia Johnson (Old Dominion, position 1) 16-5; 6-1
47. (43) Grace Piper (Southern California, position 1) 10-9; 3-4
73. (63) Imogen Haddad (Southern California, position 4) 13-8; 3-3
104. (60) Isabelle Lacy (Virginia, position 4) 4-2; 4-2
117. (73) Gabia Paskauskas (North Carolina State, position 6) 14-6; 6-2

A couple of men's top 5 matches in the coming days as #1 Wake Forest travel to #5 Virginia on Sunday and TCU host Texas on Tuesday as they seek revenge for last month's loss in their final non-conference match. TCU come off a 6-1 win over South Florida on Monday, with the only loss being Lui at No 1 singles. JPJ and Vives were rested. San Diego co-host the Ed Collins Classic Invite with San Diego State. They open against UC San Diego tomorrow and there are no teams in the draw that should trouble them.

Fri
Wake Forest (1) at Virginia Tech (57)
Florida State (25) at Cal (26)
Miami (29) at Stanford (9)

Sat
Florida State (25) at Stanford (9)

Sun
Wake Forest (1) at Virginia (5)

Tue
TCU (2) vs Texas (4)

I'm sure you've mentioned this before, Lambda, but what is your interest in and/or connection to college tennis?

Lambda wrote:

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LordBrownof wrote:

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I'm sure you've mentioned this before, Lambda, but what is your interest in and/or connection to college tennis?

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No connection. Just a fan.

It was mostly wanting to see how Millie R got on in her final year after her success in her 3rd year that I started following it. And then I noticed the boys having a successful year and as those that posted on here who are connected through family and friends had moved on I didn't want the achievements of our players to not go unnoticed so I started posting about it. And somewhere along the line I just got the bug. I find it genuinely more interesting and exciting than pro tennis at the moment. I don't know why, maybe its the team aspect.

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 As a former college tennis parent, I dont recognise as many of the names now, but I always enjoy reading your updates 

Charlie Robertson was in complete control at No 3 for Wake Forest, winning 2 & 2 and getting the simultaneous clinch as Wake Forest defeated Virginia Tech 5-0. He played some nice tennis but there is still a bit too many wild UEs. Wake were without their No 1 Dostanic again meaning Charlie partnered Suresh in doubles and they remain unbeaten as a pair with 5 wins from 5. Charlie can't have been happy with his serving as he was immediately back out on court practicing serves after singles.

NC State women also defeated Virginia Tech 4-0. Kristina played No 4 singles and Gabia No 6. Both were unfinished. Kristina was 6-2 3-6, Gabia was 5-7 3-1. I'm not sure if it is intentional in order to give Gabia some game time or whether there is a injury/illness as NC State have been missing a different 1 of the usual 6 singles in each of the last 3 matches.

-- Edited by Lambda on Friday 7th of March 2025 09:22:28 PM