Tag: Women’s Collegiate Tennis

Midseason Women’s Division One ITA Rankings

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The January 5th ITA rankings provided a rough guide about which D1 women’s teams would be ranked at midseason. When comparing the January 5th and April 5th ITA rankings it can be seen that only 3 of the top 10 teams in January improved their rankings while 7 teams had lower rankings. In fact 5 of the original top ten teams had fallen out of the top 10. The most notable was USC which was no longer ranked.

January 5th Ranking School Conference April 5th Ranking
1 Vanderbilt SEC 5
2 USC PAC-12 NR
3 Florida SEC 6
4 North Carolina ACC 2
5 Georgia SEC 4
6 California PAC-12 1
7 Virginia ACC 15
8 Stanford PAC-12 18
9 UCLA PAC-12 23
10 Texas A&M SEC 18

The newcomers to the April 5th top 10 were Ohio State, Miami, Duke, Pepperdine, and South Carolina.

The April 5th rankings featured 4 SEC teams, 3 ACC teams, and 1 team from the WCC, Big 10, and PAC-12

April 5th Ranking School Conference January 5th Ranking
1 California PAC-12 6
2 North Carolina ACC 2
3 Ohio State University Big 10 18
4 University of Georgia SEC 4T
5 Vanderbilt University SEC 1
6 University of Florida SEC 3
7 University of Miami (Florida) ACC 13
8 Duke University ACC 16
9 Pepperdine WCC 19
10 University of South Carolina SEC 28

A similar drop off can be seen when comparing the January 5th and April 5th top 10 singles rankings. Two players dropped out of the top 10.

Only 3 of the athletes improved their rankings, 6 had lower rankings, and 1 athlete had the same ranking as in January.

January 5 2016 Ranking Player School April 5 2016 Ranking
1 Joana Eidukonyte Clemson 24
2 Francesca Di Lorenzo Ohio State 4
3 Belinda Woolcock Florida 9
4 Danielle Collins Virginia 3
5 Maegan Manasse California 10
6 Hayley Carter North Carolina 1
7 Sinead Lohan Miami (FL) 7
8 Julia Elbaba Virginia 17
9 Stephanie Wagner Miami (FL) 5
10 Klara Fabikova California 12

The newcomers to the April 5th top 10 ITA rankings were Luisa Stefani, Pepperdine; Ellen Perez, Georgia; and Brooke Austin, Florida.

April 5 2016 Ranking Player School January 5 2016 Ranking
1 Hayley Carter North Carolina 6
2 Luisa Stefani Pepperdine 14
3 Danielle Collins University of Virginia 4
4 Francesca Di Lorenzo Ohio State University 2
5 Stephanie Wagner University of Miami (Florida) 9
6 Ellen Perez University of Georgia 12
7 Sinead Lohan University of Miami (Florida) 7
8 Brooke Austin University of Florida 11
9 Belinda Woolcock University of Florida 3
10 Maegan Manasse California 5

Stay tuned, we’ll see what the top 10 looks like at the end of the season.

 

Title IX – Opportunities for Men and Women Tennis Coaches

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The adoption of Title IX in 1972 created opportunities for women athletes and coaches.

Currently, 8 of the 11 head coaches in the PAC 12 women’s’ tennis programs are female. The USC, Oregon, and Utah programs have male head coaches and Oregon State is the lone school without a tennis program.

Four of the 10 assistant coaches are female and 2 of the 6 volunteer coaches are female. Overall 14 of the 27 coaches for women’s’ teams are female.

It is a much different story with the men. There are 8 schools with programs (OSU, WSU, CU, and ASU do not have men’s programs.)  All 23 coaches (head, assistant, and volunteer) are males.  This is a bit surprising, given there are qualified women who are capable of coaching men.

Given there are differences in coaching men and women, it makes sense that a majority of the head coaches are female. The fact that a majority of the assistant and volunteer coaches are male is an indication that men have learned the subtleties of coaching women.  It is also an indication that

there is a larger labor pool of male coaches and teaching professionals than women. Finally, many head coaches, including women head coaches, prefer to have men on their staffs because they can hit the ball harder in workouts with the women players.

Overall, the PAC 12 ratio of male to female coaches is 72% men/28% women. This is not significantly different from the male/female ratio of the teaching/coaching profession. The good news is that because of Title IX, more qualified women coaches are working in coaching positions and more men have become qualified to coach women.