NCAA champs USC, Duke Remain No. 1 in Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings

SKILLMAN, N.J. - The 2009 NCAA Champions, USC men and Duke women, opened the 2010 season right where they finished – sitting atop of the Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings. Two weeks and two matches into the spring season, both teams were able to hold a grip on the top spot.

Still the One:USC opened up their first dual matches of the year, hosting Loyola Marymount and UC Santa Barbara for nonconference action. The Trojans recorded a 7-0 sweep of LMU, falling in only one doubles match while amassing straight-set wins down the line in singles play. Against UC Santa Barbara, USC swept the doubles and got singles wins at the Nos. 1-3, enough to edge the Gauchos, 4-3. The top-ranked Duke women turned in a dominating performance in its 2010 season opener, sweeping Memphis 7-0. The Blue Devils sacrificed just 16 games in the nine matches played. Duke followed the victory with a 6-1 win over Old Dominion, even though 20^th ranked Reka Zsilinszka was forced to retire midway through the No. 1 singles match due to illness.

Follow the Leader:For the men, following USC is (in order): Virginia, Ohio State, UCLA, Tennessee, Baylor, Georgia, Texas, Stanford and Ole Miss. On the women's side, Duke is followed by: Northwestern, California, Georgia, Baylor, Notre Dame, Miami (FL), Florida, USC, and Georgia Tech. 

Conference Count:Men's Top 25: SEC – 7; ACC – 5; Big 12 and Pac-10 – 4; Big Ten – 2; Big East, WAC and WCC - 1. Five different conferences placed at least one team in the top 10, with three Pac-10 schools from the state of California (USC, UCLA and Stanford) claiming three of the top 10 spots. Women’s Top 25: SEC – 8; ACC – 6; Pac-10 – 5; Big Ten – 2; Big 12, Big East, Conference USA and WAC – 1.  The top six spots are each filled by a team from a different conference while four Pac-10 schools from the Golden State (California, USC, UCLA and Stanford) are among the top 13.

On the Move:On the women's side, 24 of the top 25 remained in order with Florida State dropping from No. 15 to No. 25 after suffering a 5-2 loss to in-state rival South Florida, who barely made the preseason rankings cut at No. 75. However, the win over the Seminoles propelled the Bulls up 32 spots to No. 43. Winthrop joined the top 75 rankings this week with wins over two ranked teams, College of Charleston and Furman, which dropped out of the rankings. In men’s play, Alabama was edged 4-3 by Northwestern, causing the Tide to drop from No. 18 to No. 25. Denver, New Mexico State, and Western Michigan each picked up upset wins to join the rankings at Nos. 63, 68 and 75, respectively.
 

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

Kicking Off 2010:  The second annual ITA Men’s and Women’s Kick-Off Weekend will take place January 29 – February 1, 2010 at select campus host sites. This year’s Kick-Off Weekend Draft took place June 3-4 as teams selected which route they would take to get to the 2010 ITA National Team Indoor Championships.

The ITA Kick-Off Weekend features 15 men’s and 15 women’s host sites with four teams at each site vying to advance to the Team Indoor Championships. The 15 men’s teams to win both of their matches at these events will be invited to play in the Feb. 12-15 ITA National Team Indoor Championship at the Boar's Head Sports Club (hosted by the Univ. of Virginia) while the 15 women’s teams to win both of their matches will be invited to play in the Feb. 12-15 ITA National Team Indoor Championship at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium (hosted by the Univ. of Wisconsin).  

Next Up: The next weekly team rankings will be published Feb. 4 along with the draws for the ITA Men’s and Women’s National Team Indoor Championships. Singles and doubles rankings are published every other week starting Feb. 18. Campbell/ITA College Tennis rankings can be found at www.itatennis.com.