UNC Women and Oklahoma Men Hold Top Spots in ITA Rankings
The North Carolina women remain ranked number one for the second straight week, while the Oklahoma men are the top-ranked team for the eighth consecutive week in the ITA Division I National Team Rankings. The 26-0 Tar Heels clinched their fourth regular season ACC title in the last six years when they beat archrival Duke 4-1 last Wednesday.
The number two USC women also clinched a perfect regular season conference record with a comeback victory over crosstown rival UCLA on Thursday. The number six Bruins led the match 3-0 before USC rattled off the final four points for a 4-3 win, completing the Trojans' second perfect Pac-12 season in the last three years.
Number three California defeated rival Stanford in their regular season finale and moved up one spot this week. Cal is the second seed in the Pac-12 Tournament, while UCLA is the three seed and Stanford is fourth.
Number four Vanderbilt, which had been hovering around the number 10 spot all season and ranked ninth last week, won the SEC tournament outright by beating 14th-ranked Alabama, number six Georgia and number five Florida on consecutive days. The wins gave the Commodores their first SEC tournament title in program history, and registering wins over Florida and Georgia in the same season was another program first for Vanderbilt.
Number 11 Michigan continued its stranglehold on Big 10 hardware by clinching a sixth-straight conference championship this week. Wins over nemesis Ohio State and Penn State gave Michigan a second straight perfect Big 10 season, and the Wolverines have lost just two conference matches during their six-year conference championship streak.
On the men's side, the Big 12's grip on the top two spots continues as Oklahoma and Baylor sit at number one and two, respectively, for the fifth straight week. Texas A&M climbed the ladder to the number three spot by knocking off a trio of top 25 opponents in claiming its second-straight SEC Tournament championship.
The Aggies cruised to the title match, shutting out both number 25 LSU and number 20 Mississippi State to set up a final with number five Georgia. Texas A&M won and avenged its only conference loss of the regular season, with senior Jeremy Efferding clinching the 4-2 win on court one.
Also taking down a top five opponent this week was Minnesota, which scraped out a 4-3 win over number three Illinois. Number 94 Matic Spec & Jack Hamburg posted ranked wins at second and fifth singles for the Gophers and senior Mathieu Froment capped off the upset by winning a third-set tie-breaker at sixth singles. Minnesota then topped Northwestern on Sunday to claim a share of the Big 10 regular season title for the first time since 1995. The Gophers rose 10 spots in the rankings to number 23, their highest position this season.
Georgia Tech earned its highest ranking this season, shooting up to 55 from outside the top 75. After narrowly missing a few major upsets this season, the Yellow Jackets finally broke through in a 4-3 triumph over number eight Duke. Texas at San Antonio earned a place in the top 75 at number 58, after capturing the crown at the Conference USA Tournament. The Roadrunners recorded consecutive wins over number 58 Old Dominion and number 54 Rice to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Team Championship.
In the individual rankings, UCLA's Robin Anderson, Georgia's Austin Smith and Ben Wagland, and Alabama's Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe all held their number one rankings. Baylor's Julian Lenz moved back to the top of the ITA Division I National Men's Singles Rankings with a pair of top 40 wins, including a victory against number five Søren Hess-Olesen of Texas.
