Northwestern, Virginia remain No. 1 in Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings

Northwestern, Virginia remain No. 1 in Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings
Mijacika, Brugues top spots in singles, Fresno State and Wake Forest No. 1 in doubles

Top spots: For the ninth consecutive week, the Northwestern women remain No. 1 in the Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings and are joined at the top spot by the Virginia men for the second straight week. The Wildcats have been ranked No. 1 in 19 of the past 20 rankings while the Cavaliers have claimed the top spot in 19 of the past 25 rankings. Virginia (18-0) picked up its fifth win against a top 10 opponent with 4-3 victory over then 10^th-ranked Texas on the road. Northwestern (13-1) recorded a 6-1 win over No. 32 Illinois followed by a 7-0 sweep over No. 34 Indiana, its third sweep in the last four matches since starting conference play.

Point Race: Both Virginia and Northwestern have created a cushion at No. 1 in this week’s computer rankings. The Cavaliers (86.14) lead No. 2 Stanford (74.90) by double digits. The Wildcats (93.24) have extended their lead over their closest opponent, No. 2 Notre Dame (73.58), with a difference of almost 20 points.

Rounding Out the Top 10: On the women's side, Northwestern is followed by (in order): Notre Dame, Georgia, Baylor, California, Georgia Tech, Duke, Miami (FL), UCLA and USC. For the men, following Virginia is: Stanford, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Ohio State, Baylor, Florida, Illinois and USC.

Conference Count: Men's Top 25: SEC – 7; Pac-10 – 5; ACC and Big 12 – 4; Big Ten – 2; Big East, WAC and WCC - 1. Five different conferences placed at least one team in the top 10, with the SEC claiming four of the top eight spots. Women's Top 25: SEC – 7; ACC – 6; Pac-10 – 5; Big Ten – 2; Big 12, Big East, Conference USA, Mountain West and WAC – 1. Six different conferences placed at least one team in the top 10, with the ACC and Pac-10 each claiming three of the top 10 spots.

Twice as Nice: Ten schools have both their men’s and women’s programs ranked inside this week’s top 25.

Top 25 Newcomers: For the women, Fresno State and SMU made the biggest jumps, climbing 19 and 17 spots, respectively. They are joined by Arkansas (No. 21) and San Diego State (No. 25). On the men’s side, Oklahoma State rose nine spots from No. 34 to rejoin the top 25. Joining the Cowboys is Boise State at No. 22, who just missed the cut at No. 26 last week.

March Madness: Selection Sunday and Monday revealed this year’s NCAA Division I collegiate basketball brackets. One of the four top seeds in both men’s and women’s hoops also boasts a Top 25 tennis program as the Louisville men’s tennis team is currently ranked No. 16 while the Duke women’s tennis team is ranked seventh. The last time the same school produced the NCAA men’s tennis and basketball champions was UCLA in 1975 while the last time it happened for the women was in 1990 with Stanford.

Singling Out No. 1: Tulsa’s Arnau Brugues is back on top in the men’s singles rankings after a losing the spot to Robert Farah of USC. Leading the way in men’s doubles are Cory Parr and Steven Forman of Wake Forest for the second consecutive week. Clemson’s Ani Mijacika remains No. 1 in women’s singles while the Fresno State duo of Renata Kucerkova and Anastasia Petukhova are once again the top-ranked women’s doubles team.

Next Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings: The next weekly team rankings will be released on Tuesday, March 24 while the next singles and doubles rankings will be released on Tuesday, March 31. These rankings reflect results through Sunday, March 15. It is important and factually accurate to include “Campbell” in the title so please remember when referring to the ITA Rankings to cite as Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings.

Campbell/ITA College Tennis rankings can be found at www.itatennis.com.