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The USTA announced on Tuesday that it will be debuting a new set of college tennis rankings beginning on February 8th. A nine member panel (including myself) will vote on the D1 Men’s and Women’s Top 25 each week with the poll released on usta.com each Wednesday – the USTA’s full release is available here. The USTA also recently announced that it was expanding its College MatchDay series to a few sites outside of National Campus in Orlando. The full schedule is available here but the highest profile matches will be Stanford/Oklahoma State (W) in Orlando on February 17th, Ohio State/Florida (W) in Orlando on March 14th, and Virginia/Wake Forest (M) in Winston-Salem on March 31st. All MatchDay matches will be shown on ESPN3. 

The Florida Gulf Coast women’s team opened up its season with a 5-2 win over South Florida which was the first time in program history that the Eagles had defeated the Bulls. FGCU took the doubles point after winning a tiebreak at No. 1 and then they took four opening sets in singles with two of those coming in a tiebreak. Julia Ascua and Laura Falceto Font won in straight sets at No. 3 and No. 6 to put FGCU up 3-0 before USF got on the board with a straight set win from Juliana Cardoso at No. 5. Breana Stampfli would seal the deal for FGCU by winning two tiebreak sets over Nicole Dzenga at No. 2. The remaining matches were played out with USF’s Ana Roman winning at No. 1 and FGCU’s Julianna Curtis winning at No. 4.

 

 

Post-Match Quote from FGCU’s recap
“The girls were very focused this afternoon, and I’m proud of the way they stepped up and showed courage,” said FGCU head coach Courtney Vernon. “They trusted themselves, enjoyed the moment and were able to make program history. We’re looking forward to getting back to work Thursday in preparationg for FSU next weekend.” 
Florida Gulf Coast 5, South Florida 2
Jan 24, 2017 at Fort Myers, Fla. (FGCU Tennis Complex)
Singles Results
1. Ana Roman (USF) def. ORNBERG, Maja (FGCU) 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 10-8
2. STAMPFLI, Breana (FGCU) def. Nicole Dzenga (USF) 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (8-6)
3. ASCUA, Julia (FGCU) def. Olga Martinez (USF) 6-4, 6-1
4. CURTIS, Julianna (FGCU) def. Vera Bessonova (USF) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
5. Juliana Cardoso (USF) def. KELLY, Sara (FGCU) 6-3, 6-4
6. FALCETO FONT, Laura (FGCU) def. Hailey Grillo (USF) 6-1, 6-1
Doubles Results
1. ASCUA, Julia/CURTIS, Julianna (FGCU) def. Jessica Chaves/Juliana Cardoso (USF) 7-6 (7-2)
2. Ana Roman/Nicole Dzenga (USF) def. STAMPFLI, Breana/ORNBERG, Maja (FGCU) 7-6 (7-4)
3. FALCETO FONT, Laura/KELLY, Sara (FGCU) def. Olga Martinez/Hailey Grillo (USF) 6-2
Match Notes:
South Florida 0-1
Florida Gulf Coast University 1-0
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (6,3,5,2,1,4) 
 
Men’s Dual-Match Results
  • #3 Ohio State blanked both Butler and Xavier with nine different Buckeyes seeing the court in singles.
  • Tulane opened up its season with a doubleheader sweep over Alcorn State 

Women’s Dual-Match Results

  • #20 Kentucky won a doubleheader over Marshall 5-2 and Eastern Kentucky 7-0
  • North Florida shutout Florida A&M 7-0

 

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The NAIA released it’s preseason coaches poll with defending national champion Georgia Gwinnett on top of both the men’s and women’s polls. Below are the top 10 in each;

Men’s Top 10 

Rank Last Season School Record Final Points
1 1 Georgia Gwinnett (13) 26-0 343
2 2 Xavier (La) 17-8 332
3 3 Lindsey Wilson (Ky) 17-4 321
4 7 Keiser (Fla) 20-4 305
5 5 Northwestern Ohio 16-4 304
6 8 Coastal Georgia 13-4 287
7 9 William Carey (Miss) 13-8 275
8 13 Westmont (Calif) 10-9 261
9 12 Cardinal Stritch (Wis) 16-7 242
10 NR San Diego Christian 0-0 234

 

Women’s Top 10

Rank Last Season School Record Final Points
1 1 Georgia Gwinnett (13) 18-2 343
2 2 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) 21-5 332
3 4 SCAD Savannah (Ga.) 17-1 321
4 5 Brenau (Ga.) 17-7 310
5 6 Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) 15-2 297
6 7 William Woods (Mo.) 17-2 289
7 8 Indiana Wesleyan 13-0 276
8 10 Middle Georgia State 15-8 263
9 11 Davenport (Mich.) 25-6 244
10 13 Northwestern Ohio 14-10 230