Notes
The table above lists all recruits as of May 7, 2024. In addition to the Star Rating, we display the highest TRN, ITF junior, WTN, and UTR metrics for each player since August 2023, and for international players we display the TRN ranking they would hold if eligible.
Also Receiving Votes
Other women's programs receiving votes are: Duke (35), Florida (34), Baylor (31), Georgia Tech (30), SMU (28), Missouri (27), North Carolina (19), Tulane (18), Illinois (17), Northwestern (15), Boise State (13), Navy (12), Seton Hall (11), Texas A&M (11), Dartmouth (9), Maryland (5), Tufts (2)
Hooked Up
Sometimes the rich get richer.
© Contributed Photo
Back in February, we tabbed the University of Texas as the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation based on early recruiting results. The Longhorns had three recruits - Blue Chip recruits Maya Joint (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) and Ariana Pursoo (Westbury, N.Y.) along with 4-Star athlete Lucy Schmeil (Austin, Texas).
But Head Coach Howard Joffe wasn’t done - adding another Blue Chip senior and a top international recruit to his haul to solidify the Longhorn’s hold on the top spot. Ashton Bowers, a Blue Chip senior from Alpharetta, Ga., has earned wins at the highest level - participating in junior slam events, winning singles titles at ITF junior events, and reaching the semifinals in both singles and doubles at the W35 Petit-Bourg in France. Romanian recruit Carmen Herea is one of the top juniors in the world, earning a career-high ranking of No. 82 in ITF juniors and reaching the singles final of the W15 Heraklion in Greece.
With these five recruits all arriving to the 40 Acres in August, our panel unanimously voted Texas as the No. 1 class, giving them all 13 first-place votes and a perfect 325 points.
Coach Joffe is understandably excited about his incoming class.
“In Maya, Ashton, Carmen and Ariana we believe we have the skills and interpersonal resources to achieve similar results to those produced with our last No. 1-ranked class back in 2020.”
Give Me Five
With so many colleges changing conferences, the college tennis landscape has been changing quickly. One leader who has been taking advantage of that change is UCF Head Coach Brian Koniecko.
© Morocco World News
The Knights made the move to the Big 12 this past season, and Koniecko’s recruiting improved, with UCF bringing its first-ever Top 10 recruiting class in Fall 2023 - including Big 12 Freshman of the Year Olivia Lincer. The program has had similar success on the recruiting trail this year, with the No. 2 recruiting class in the nation once again heading to Orlando. International recruits Olivia Bergler (Poland), Aya El Aouni (Morocco), Jade Psonka (France), and Hannah Rylatt (Great Britain) earned 297 points from our panel to comfortably control the second spot.
The Oklahoma Sooners - moving from the Big 12 to the SEC next season - took the No. 3 spot with a strong international trio of recruits consisting of Emma Ghirardato (Italy), Cara Maria Mester (Romania), and Salakthip Ounmuang (Thailand). Cohen’s class garnered 280 points in the voting to post the highest-ranked class in school history - as well as stringing together back-to-back Top 10 classes for the first time ever.
Rounding out the Top 5 are the USC Trojans and Pepperdine Waves at No. 4 and 5, respectively. The Trojans debut at No. 4 in the rankings after not appearing in the Top 25 at all back in February.
Moving In
In addition to USC (No. 4), five more programs show up in our list without a presence in our Winter Rankings - starting with the Columbia Lions at No. 6. Columbia added Malak Allami (Morocco) to their class with Blue Chip Emily Baek (Suwanee, Ga.) and 5-Star Amber Yin (Ballwin, Mo.).
Other programs new to the class rankings this spring are the Vanderbilt Commodores at No. 17, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Iowa State Cyclones back-to-back at No. 19 and 20, respectively, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at No. 24.
Conference Call
The 25 teams in our rankings come from just 7 conferences - with four conferences featuring 5 teams apiece.
As usual, the Ivy League has the strongest showing with 5 of its 8 member institutions on the list. Joining Columbia (No. 6) in the rankings are fellow Ivy programs Princeton (16), Yale (18), Brown (21) and Penn (22).
The usual suspects - the ACC, Big Ten, and SEC - each have 5 ranked programs.
The ACC is represented by Clemson (7), N.C. State (8), Stanford (12), Miami (13) and Notre Dame (24). Big Ten programs USC (4), Michigan (9), UCLA (11), Penn State (14), and Rutgers (19) all appear on this list. From the SEC we have Texas (1), Oklahoma (3), South Carolina (10), Vanderbilt (17), and Tennessee (25).
No other conference had more than two programs in these rankings.
Beyond the Power 5
Three teams on the list come from programs outside of the five so-called “power conferences”. The West Coast Conference has 2 of the 3 with Pepperdine (No. 5) and the San Diego Toreros (23). The Waves are a fixture in our recruiting class rankings with ranked classes in 6 of the past 10 years.
The Georgia Southern Eagles show up with the No. 15 recruiting class in the country - Georgia Southern’s first-ever ranked class. Head Coach Sean McCaffrey has the only ranked program in the state of Georgia - outshining traditional powerhouse programs from Athens and Atlanta.
Drop Shots
Scattershooting through the rankings:
- State by State: The 25 programs in our rankings hail from 16 different states. Talent-rich California leads the way - comfortably - with 5 ranked recruiting classes - USC (No. 4), Pepperdine (5), UCLA (11), Stanford (12), and San Diego (23). No other state features more than 2 classes.
- Streaking: The Stanford Cardinal (12) make their 10th straight appearance in our recruiting class rankings. The next-best streak comes from Columbia with 5 straight ranked classes.
- You Again? Nine programs have made 10 or more appearances in our recruiting class rankings over the years. UCLA (11) and Stanford (12) have each made 18 overall appearances, leading all others. Princeton (16) is close behind with 16 appearances.
- New Kids: For two programs, 2024 marks the first-ever year with a ranked recruiting class. We already mentioned Georgia Southern at No. 15 - they are joined by Rutgers at No. 19.
- Welcome Back: The University of Tennessee (25) has a ranked recruiting class for the first time since 2015 - a nine-year hiatus. Miami is next with their first ranked class since 2016.
- Historic Classes: We mentioned earlier that Oklahoma (3) has its highest-ranked class in school history - and that Georgia Southern and Rutgers have their first-ever ranked classes (which is also historic). Also of note is Iowa State - their No. 20 ranking marks the highest-ranked class in Cyclone history. Congratulations to all!
Panelists for 2024
The 13 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
- Sonny Dearth - Daily Press newspaper and dailypress.com Web site in Newport News, Va.
- David Donn - Donovan Tennis Strategies, Mental Game Coach
- Tim Donovan - Donovan Tennis Strategies, DTS College Prospects Showcases
- Ernie Katko - Junior Development Coach in the Quad Cities Area, USTA High Performance Coach
- Patty Lambropoulos - Junior Tennis Coordinator, College Park Athletic Club, National/Sectional/Local Tournament Director, Chicago District Board of Director, USTA National Jr Competition Committee, Midwest Junior Competition Committee
- Colette Lewis - ZooTennis.com
- Danielle McNamara - DLM Coaching, former coach at Yale University
- Phil Parrish - Tennis Director, The Longfellow Club, National Tournament Director, Former College Coach
- Robert Sasseville - National Tournament Director, USTA Junior Competition Committee Member, USTA National Referee
- Peri Sheinin - Host of On the Rise podcast, Sports Anchor and News Reporter at WHSV in Harrisonburg, Va.
- Lisa Stone - ParentingAces.com
- Julie Wrege - TRN principal, former National Tournament Director, former USTA junior ranking chair and USTA Tennis Rules Committee member
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