The collegiate tennis schedule is nothing short of lengthy, spanning the course of both semesters of the school year. For teams that have their fair share of success, the spring time is very important as it signifies the conference championships, and if you're lucky enough, the NCAA tournament. Just like March Madness, these tournaments are huge, encompassing 64 teams for the men's and women's sides. In May, there are also separate tournaments for the exceptional singles players that are highly ranked nationally. 

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May 5th-7th saw the first two rounds of action for the Men's team competition. Large Power 5 schools, paired in regions with smaller conference champions, just like basketball. Similarly enough, the top 4 teams in the rankings headline their own regions. The rankings are very top heavy this year, as the University of Texas at Austin, Texas Christian University (TCU), and Ohio State University (One, two, and three respectively) all are extremely tight in the rankings with just over 81 points for all of them. Then, there is quite a dropoff when we hit number four in the country (Kentucky) who entered the pre-tournament rankings with just 70 points. Unlike March Madness, this tournament does not have regional names like East, West, South, or Midwest, so we will refer to the regions as to their location on the bracket. 

Top Left Region: 

This region features the Texas Longhorns as the number one overall seed. The three other seeded teams in this region are (8) Tennessee, (9) South Carolina and (16) North Carolina. Weirdly enough, the rankings actually have Tennessee and South Carolina flipped, but luckily this seeding occurrence doesn't change the round in which one of them would have to potentially play Texas. Texas played up to their expectations in the first two rounds: clean sweeping both matchups 4-0 (first round against fellow Texas school Texas A&M Corpus-Christi and then the second round matchup against unseeded but #32 ranked Pepperdine). Only 16 teams out of the 64 are seeded, so this region also caught the last of spots with the Tar Heels. 

In the matches against both Corpus-Christi and Pepperdine, the final scoreline was 4-0, but there were unfinished matches where Texas lost a set or were down in a set. Texas will now face North Carolina on Saturday in the super regionals, which is the sweet sixteen of college tennis.

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The last seeded, and #14 ranked Heels have had a great start as well. They had a slight hiccup (relative to Texas) against barely ranked Drake (#72 of 75) in the first round by losing a match, but they put the 4-1 win in the rearview mirror as they beat #17 Utah 4-0. The bottom half of this region is highlighted by the top 10 Southeastern Conference schools–the South Carolina Gamecocks started their campaign with a 4-0 sweep against in-state rivals South Carolina State. Next came a very impressive victory against the #18 Florida State Seminoles with a scoreline of 4-1. They will now face-off against the Volunteers on Saturday as well. The boys from Knoxville have beaten Belmont 4-1 and swept #22 Wake Forest 4-0 in the second round. This matchup will be enticing, as its a rematch from April 9th where the Volunteers picked up a convincing 6-1 road win in Columbia when the Gamecocks were #5. With that in mind, I believe that Tennessee will get the win again on neutral soil, with the winner most likely playing Texas unless a huge upset shakes up the bracket.  

Bottom Left Region: 

This is the interesting part of the bracket, as none of the three powerhouses are located here. While not featuring a goliath, this region has balance to it as it includes (4)  Kentucky, (5) Virginia, (12) Duke, and (13) Columbia. The defending champion Virginia Cavaliers sit at the top of the region with their national ranking and seed matched at #5. They have started their team defense with clean sweeps over the Naval Academy and #26 Ole Miss. They will face Duke in their super regional match on Saturday. 

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The 12 seeded Blue Devils have been relatively pretty average to start this competition. They won 4-2 against unranked University of North Carolina-Wilmington and 4-1 to #41 Cornell. On the bottom half of the region comes the Kentucky Wildcats. They started off with a routine 4-0 win against unranked Presbyterian, but then in the second round showed that they are not as talented as the other regional leaders by barely scraping by fellow wildcats #28 Northwestern 4-3. The Wildcats from Lexington will face off against Stanford on Saturday. 

Stanford is having a great tournament so far. The #21 ranked Cardinal swept unranked St. Johns and then upset 13 seeded Columbia in the second round 4-2. Stanford is actually the only unseeded team in the tournament to make it to the super regionals. Looking towards our matches on Saturday, Virginia is too strong for Duke, so I believe the Cavs will come through that one. I also believe that the Cavs will end up playing Stanford in the quarterfinals on May 18th, as Kentucky is not playing as good tennis as they should and Stanford is hot off of one upset, so why should a second one be out of the question?

Top Right Region: 

The (3) seed Ohio State buckeyes headline this part of the draw. They are coupled with (6) Georgia, (11) Harvard, and (14) Arizona. Just like Texas, another team in the top of the rankings have held their nerve so far with 4-0 wins over East Tennessee State University and #37 Louisville. They will face Arizona on Saturday, who also has swept both of their opponents so far: #63 Boise State and #44 Oklahoma State. 

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On the bottom half of the region lies the #6 team in the country: the Georgia Bulldogs. They are the only one of the four super regional teams in their part of the draw to not sweep both rounds. Georgia swept Florida Gulf Coast University in round 1, but the #33 Oklahoma Sooners nicked a match in round 2. Georgia will play Harvard, who has swept unranked Siena and #47 Arizona State, on Saturday. I think that day of the tournament will see both of the higher seeds win, as the Buckeyes will prove to be too talented for the Arizona Wildcats and the Bulldogs have played slightly better teams even though Harvard is playing flawless tennis so far in this campaign. 

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Image Credit: Intercollegiate Tennis Association

* Originally published on May 12, 2023, by AJ Rosenberg