News & Features

My Players

|

My Lists

|

My School

|

My Notifications

Team Home

Last week, TennisRecruiting.net ranked the men's recruiting classes. It's time for the women to have their turn.

We have talked with many college coaches and high school senior players, and the vast majority of top American college-bound seniors have reported commitments. Commitments continue to roll in every day, but they are unlikely to impact the top classes.

Today, we take a look at the top women's recruiting classes for next year in the Spring Recruiting Class Rankings.

Media Poll

A panel of junior tennis experts has once again volunteered to help us determine the top classes. Journalists, tournament directors, referees, and ranking chairmen from across the country have taken the time to vote on these recruiting classes. The panelists for this list are shown later in the article.

Each panelist submitted his/her list of the Top 25 recruiting classes. Schools received 25 points for each first-place vote, 24 points for each second-place vote, on down to 1 point for each 25th-place vote. Because data for transfer students is so hard to come by, we asked the panelists to not consider transfer students in the voting process.

Top 25 Women's Recruiting Classes (through May 15)

Here are the Spring Rankings of the top women's college recruiting classes, presented by the Tennis Recruiting Network. The Top 25 classes are shown in order, with the point totals and previous ranking from the winter in the two columns at right. The number of first-place votes is shown in parentheses next to the school name.

New recruits for schools are shown in bold italics. These lists are based on all commitments reported through May 15, 2008.

Also Receiving Votes

Other women's programs receiving votes are: Columbia (25), TCU (23), Illinois (21), Washington (14), Wisconsin (13), Central Florida (11), Tennessee (5), Air Force (4), Akron (3), Chicago (3), St. Mary's (CA) (2).

Three of these programs were ranked in our Winter poll: Columbia (#21), TCU (#25), and Central Florida (#24).

Moving Up... and Moving Out

Two teams that made big moves up the rankings are Florida and UCLA.

The Gators recently added highly-regarded Jessica Alexander to their recruiting class. Alexander, a junior, plans to enroll in January and play alongside her older sister Megan in Gainesville. Alexander and Joanna Mather together make up the #9 recruiting class, up from #20 in February.

The Bruins have a strong class headlined by Nina Pantic. The Canadian phenom has won 41 matches on the women's professional circuit, achieving a career-high ranking of #530 in April 2007. Alexandria Walters and Jordan Heitzner round out the #15 class in the nation.

At the other extreme, Georgia Tech dropped from #3 down to #20 when Rebecca Marino announced that she was taking a year off before joining Bryan Shelton's Yellow Jackets.

Conference Call

Four conferences have multiple teams in the rankings, and those conferences boast 18 of the Top 25 recruiting classes: ACC (6), SEC (5), Pac-10 (4), and Ivy League (3).

Four of the 25 schools come from mid-major conferences: BYU (Mountain West), UC Irvine (Big West), Boston University (America East), and Tulane (Conference USA).

Panelists for May/June 2008

The panelists for this voting period are shown below alphabetically. Please join us in thanking them for donating their time and talents to this effort.

• Joseph Braden, Director of Tennis at Schwartz Tennis Center, USTA/Midwest Tournament Director.
• Adam Carey, Director of Tennis Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, Former NCAA Division I Head Coach, Nevada Tennis Junior Competition Committee.
• Sally Grabham, National Tournament Director, USTA Winter Nationals, Southwest Section and Central Arizona Board of Directors, Southwest Section Volunteer and Advocacy Committee.
• Marty Hennessy, Director of Tennis at The Stirling Club, 35 year USPTA professional, National Tournament Director
• Larry Jackson, Director, Dayton Center Courts and Tennis Academy, National Tournament Director
• Adam Jasick, Director of Tennis-Miller Tennis Center, National Tournament Director, PTR National Tester and Clinician, USA Tennis High Performance Coaching Program Graduate
• Ernie Katko, Director of Herrmann Tennis Academy, USTA High Performance Coach, USPTA, USPTR
• Patty Lambropoulos, Junior Tennis Coordinator, College Park Athletic Club, National Tournament Director, Chicago District Board of Director and Endorser, Midwest Junior Competion Committee.
• Peter Lebedevs, National Tournament Director, USTA Clay Courts
• Colette Lewis, ZooTennis.com, USTA Hardcourts
• Marc Lucero, Contributor to TennisRecruiting.net, Former Princeton assistant tennis coach
• Phil Parrish, Tennis Director, The Longfellow Club, National Tournament Director, Former College Coach
• Clayton Taylor, Tennis Director, The Atlantic Club, National Tournament Director
• Julie Wrege, TennisInformation.com, TennisRecruiting.net, National Tournament Director, former USTA ranking chair

Mid-Major Rankings

Over the next week, the Tennis Recruiting Network will present the top men's and women's recruiting classes for mid-major colleges. The mid-major rankings will include all colleges in all divisions except for those in the so-called "major conferences". The major conferences for tennis include schools affiliated with Bowl Championship Series conferences - the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, and SEC - as well as the Ivy League.

Come by later this week for a look at the men's mid-major rankings.

Leave a Comment