No-Ad, No Problem

Earlier this week, I published the men’s edition of “ Transferpalooza: COVID-19 causes transfer portal chaos. ” Now, let’s discuss some impactful transfers on the women’s side. While there isn’t any scholarship jockeying happening for the women (they're either on a full-ride scholarship or nothing), there are still a lot of impactful transfers who will make an immediate difference at their new programs. No list discussing impactful transfers is complete without Janice Tjen, the rising sophomore who has transferred from Oregon to Pepperdine. I can’t recall any recent transfers ranking as high as #6 at the season’s finish; that’s extremely rare to see. She’s not listed here because she made my “ 5 women’s players to watch this season ” article last week. With that said, let’s discuss three other women who will have an immediate impact on their new programs. 1. Ayana Akli (Maryland → South Carolina) Ayana Akli was recruited by South Carolina in high school, but decided to stay in her ...

Back in March of 2020, the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to all student-athletes in spring sports . This applied to student-athletes of all years, not just seniors who had their final seasons cancelled. They also allowed schools to exceed the scholarship limits for the 2021 season. This meant that, for example, a women’s tennis team could have more than 8 scholarship athletes (the normal limit), contingent upon the school being able to fund it. This resulted in several “super teams,” like the UNC women who were able to have 3 super-seniors pursuing a fifth year (grad degree) along with their incoming recruits. The normal scholarship limits will be adhered to for the upcoming season. With the extra year granted to 4 classes of students, we now have essentially 5 years of student-athletes playing within the same season. We’ll continue to see this until the class of freshmen from the 2020 season graduate. While this had a noticeable impact on the quality of play, particularly ...

It was just 3 months ago we were crowning NCAA champions in Orlando. But as you all know, tennis is an evergreen sport and with All-Americans kicking off in less than 2 months, it’s already time to look ahead t o the 2021-2022 season. Here are some players and storylines I’ll be keeping an eye on. I’ve given myself the follow criteria to pick 5 players based on season-ending ITA rankings: Top 10 #11 - 50 #51+ Incoming Freshman Wild card 1. Top 10: Janice Tjen (#6), Pepperdine (transferred from Oregon) Behind NCAA singles winner Emma Navarro (UVA), Janice Tjen had the most successful debut of any true freshman in the country. The Oregon freshman finished her debut season at #6 in the ITA rankings which is the highest ever final ranking for an Oregon player. In addition she was: 22-3 in singles play Named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year NCAA singles semi-finalist Tjen’s run to the NCAA semifinals was a shock to most, but in reflecting on her season’s results, perhaps it shouldn’t have been....

I’ve been fortunate to attend every NCAA tennis team championship in-person since 2010. I was a student at UVA during the early years of my attendance streak, so, while some of those first few years ended in heartbreak at the hands of USC, I got hooked cheering on the Hoos deep into the tournament, and it became an annual tradition for me. I’ve now been to 7 host sites: Georgia (4x), Orlando (2x), Stanford, Illinois, Baylor, Tulsa, and Wake Forest. Caveat: One big change that was introduced in 2019 was the reduction of teams at the final site from 16 to only 8. Selfishly, I’m not a fan of the change (who wants to see less tennis and less teams?), but logistically I understand it. Anyone who’s followed college tennis knows how brutal those R16 match days can be, particularly if there are weather challenges. These rankings are based on these sites hosting the R16 and my experience attending. This matters because, for many sites, there’s a big disparity between their primary bank of cour...