Florida Tops Women's Recruiting Class Rankings; Texas Blanks A&M in Texas Cup; Who Really is in Women's Top Four?
On Friday, the Tennis Recruiting Network released their 2009 winter recruiting class rankings, with Florida barely edging out Harvard for the No. 1 spot. Both got seven first place votes (mine went to Florida), with No. 3 Stanford getting the final first place vote. In my opinion, Lauren Embree is the bluest of blue chips, tipping the scales in the Gators' favor.
There have been several interesting dual matches this week, in both men's and women's competition.
Last night in Houston, Texas, the ITA's No. 2 ranked men's team, shut out No. 15 Texas A & M in the Texas Cup. In Dale Robertson's Tennis Notebook entry in the Houston Chronicle prior to the match, A & M is said to be waiting for NCAA clearance on Alexei Grigorov and Alexis Klegou of France. Their participation may have made a difference in the score, but probably not the outcome, as the Longhorns won at Nos. 1, 2, and 3, where the Aggies are strongest. For more on the match, see the Texas website.
Another men's intrastate rivalry went to the favorite on Thursday, when the ninth-ranked University of Mississippi beat No. 52 Mississippi State 4-2 in the Mississippi Cup (creative names for these competitions aren't they?) held at an indoor club in Jackson. One of Mississippi State's points came at No. 1, where Devin Britton and Ryan Farlow, both from suburbs of Jackson, went to a third set tiebreaker before Farlow prevails. The Jackson Clarion-Ledger attended and focused, understandably, on that match in this story.
Next week's ITA Team Indoor championships will help sort out some of the favorites for the May NCAAs, and on the women's side, I'm looking forward to seeing how No. 14 Notre Dame and No. 9 Duke fare. After Notre Dame upset Arkansas to earn a spot in Madison, Razorback coach Michael Hegarty said the Fighting Irish "really looks like a final four team to me." And after losing 7-0to the Blue Devils yesterday, No. 30 ranked Indiana coach Lin Loring, is quoted as saying, "they are probably top-four right now and they showed why." Even without Tara Iyer playing, Duke won every set of the nine matches against the previously undefeated Hoosiers. The current top four in the women's rankings are Northwestern, California, UCLA and Baylor. If these two coaches are right, who stays and who goes if Notre Dame and Duke move in?
6 comments:
USC will be in the top 4 at year's end along with Stanford and Florida. No idea who the last one will be but I don't think it's going to be Northwestern, Notre Dame, Baylor, Cal or Duke.
Andrew -- doesn't surprise me that you don't have an idea of the other top team if you are putting NU, ND, Baylor, Cal and Duke all in the same bucket........
I personnally think NU or Duke would be the other top 4 team.
I don't think Florida has the depth to be top 4. Top to bottom, their lineup is basically playing 2 spots higher than they should be. I think they are really going to struggle this year. Next year, however, they should be very good. Assuming no one else transfers out.
Duke, USC, Stanford, Cal, maybe Georgia. I think Duke, on paper, is the team to beat.
John,
I don't think ND has the depth to go top 4.
I feel the same way about Cal.
Northwestern has the sheer talent to win the entire thing but I have serious reservations about their ability to handle pressure. Perhaps they'll enter the NCAA event in the top 4 or even on top, but I think they'll lose in the quarters.
Baylor need someone to spark at 1 and 2. If they get that, they'd have good depth 3-6 but I don't see who is going to be that spark.
I'm only going on a hunch that Duke will have a minor slump after being last season's dark horse.
I'll also throw Miami (Florida) into the mix for the top 4.
End of the day, it's just a guess for any of us. Thankfully there aren't absolute powerhouses like we saw a few years back with Stanford so the top spots aren't quite so obvious.
Florida women lost to UNC 4-3 today. I don't know if Florida is even a top 15 team this year. Thornqvist needs to do a better job of recruiting players who will actually stay at Florida, or change whatever he's doing that is causing players to leave. No way in the world at a school like Florida should you only have 6 players on roster, and this is the 2nd time in his tenure that has been the case.
Notre Dame was one match away (3-set tiebreaker)from losing at home friday night against Michigan. Notre Dame is a very deep team and probably top 5 but there are a lot a very good teams in the top 20 this year. I think Arizona State at 19 and Michigan at 18 will make a lot of noise this year.
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