Notes
The table above lists all recruits as of January 10, 2023. In addition to the Star Rating, we display the highest TRN and ITF junior rankings - as well as the best UTR and World Tennis Number (WTN) ratings - for each player since August 1, 2022. For international players we display the TRN ranking they would hold if eligible.
Also Receiving Votes
Other women's programs receiving votes are: Cornell (46), Old Dominion (43), Indiana (42), Wisconsin (37), Alabama (35), Arizona State (33), Dartmouth (32), Cincinnati (25), Georgetown (10), Wake Forest (10), UC Santa Barbara (9), Fordham (5), George Washington (4), Grand Canyon (4), Northwestern (4), Texas Tech (3), Maryland (2), Liberty (1)
Cardinal Direction
In women’s college tennis, Stanford and Head Coach Lele Forood are the gold standards. Forood has served as coach since 2001, and her teams have posted 512 wins with 15 Pac-12 titles and 10 NCAA team championships.
© Paul Ballard, ZooTennis.com
All those wins and titles require talent, and the Cardinal are always loaded. Since TRN began ranking recruiting classes in 2006, Stanford has posted Top 10 classes 15 out of 17 years - with four classes ranked No. 1 overall.
Make that five No. 1 classes.
Stanford has the top 2 senior prospects in America arriving on campus next fall in Eleana Yu (Mason, Ohio) and Katherine Hui (San Diego, Calif.). Yu, who has been the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2023 throughout high school, finished the 2022 summer season with a bang - winning the singles championship at the USTA Girls’ 18 Nationals and competing in the main draw at the 2022 US Open. Hui has competed at the highest level as well - finishing in the Top 4 in both singles and doubles at Nationals and qualifying for the US Open Juniors. The duo combined for a 16-5 record against Blue Chip opponents over the past year.
This pair earned 440 of a possible 450 points from our panel - including 14 of 18 first-place votes - to earn the top spot in our rankings. As usual, the future looks bright on The Farm.
Five Up High
Our panel liked many of the recruiting classes, including the duo heading to Vanderbilt next season.
Head Coach Aleke Tsoubanos is bringing in Canadian standout Kayla Cross who posted four singles victories at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open junior events last summer. In early 2023, Cross competed in ITF W25 tournaments across the state of Florida. Cross will be joined in Nashville by Top 10 senior Valeria Ray of Doral, Fla. Ray reached the Round of 16 at the Orange Bowl, and she has won many titles in ITF J2 and J3 events as well as UTR money events. Cross and Ray garnered 413 points from our panel to take the No. 2 position - the highest-ranked class in Commodore history.
The Harvard Crimson hold down the No. 3 spot. Head Coach Traci Green has a strong four-woman class coming in next season, including three Blue Chip athletes and one 5 Star. Harvard is the only school with three Blue Chip recruits - which drew first-place votes from two of our panelists.
The Georgia Bulldogs and UCF Knights round out our Top 5 in the No. 4 and No. 5 positions, respectively. UGA’s pair of recruits took home one first place vote.
Conference Call
The 25 teams in our rankings hail from 9 conferences, but two of them stand out - the Ivy League and Southeastern Conference - with five ranked classes apiece.
The Ivy League is relatively small with just 8 member programs - and Ivies do not grant athletic scholarships. That said, the league always punches above its weight on the recruiting trail, and 2023 is no exception - with over half of the programs in the Top 25. No. 3 Harvard is joined in our rankings by the Princeton Tigers (No. 8), Columbia Lions (11), Yale Bulldogs (12) and Penn Quakers (18).
The SEC is always a hotbed of recruiting, with many strong programs in talent- and weather-friendly areas. The Florida Gators (13), South Carolina Gamecocks (19), and LSU Tigers (21) complement Vanderblt (2) and Georgia (4) in the rankings.
The Pac-12 is next in line with 4 ranked classes.
Powering Up
Three programs with ranked recruiting classes come from conferences outside the six so-called power conferences. The Rice Owls (No. 15), Florida International (19) and Furman Paladins (24) come from the AAC, C-USA, and SoCon conferences, respectively. All of these programs operate at a high level - these three programs have combined for 5 NCAA Team Championship appearances over the past 2 years.
When we update our rankings in late spring, we will also publish mid-major ranking lists that discounts programs from the six power conferences. Rice, FIU, and Furman should feature prominently in those rankings.
Drop Shots
Scattershooting through the rankings …
- Blue Skies and Sunshine - Tennis is huge in the Sunshine State, and that includes college recruiting. Florida leads all states with 4 ranked classes. The Florida State Seminoles (No. 25) join UCF (5), Florida (13), and FIU (19) in the rankings. The only other states with multiple ranked classes are California and the Carolinas with 2 ranked classes each.
- Familiar Faces - All 25 programs on our list have had ranked classes before.
- Back-to-Back - 13 of the 25 teams in our rankings have their second ranked recruiting class in as many years - stocking talent and building for the future.
- Crimson Streak - Speaking of stringing together talent, the Harvard Crimson have no posted 12 straight ranked classes - a streak that started in 2012. Head Coach Traci Green has had ranked recruiting classes 14 times over her 16-year tenure.
- Welcome Back - Newly-hired head coach Michelle Dasso wasted no time at Furman. Dasso and her staff have given the Paladins their first ranked class since 2007.
- Historic Hauls - For four programs, 2023 marks the highest ranked classes in the history of their schools. Vanderbilt (2), UCF (5), NC State (6), and Oklahoma (7) all broke new ground with their recruiting class rankings.
Panelists for 2023
The 18 panelists for this voting period are shown below alphabetically. Please join us in thanking them for donating their time and talents to this effort.
- Sonny Dearth - Daily Press newspaper and dailypress.com Web site in Newport News, Va.
- Joey Dillon - TRN contributor, freelance writer
- Tim Donovan - Donovan Tennis Strategies, DTS College Prospects Showcases
- Larry Haugness - Former ITF and USTA National Tournament Director, PTR National Tester, USPTA, Junior Davis Cup Coach
- Granger Huntress - Texas College Tennis blog
- Pua Johnson - USTA National and ITA Collegiate Referee
- Bobby Knight - CollegeTennisToday.com
- Dave “The Koz” Kozlowski - Inside Tennis With The Koz, The Tennis Channel
- 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
- Rick Limpert - TRN contributor, freelance writer
- Parsa Nemati - Universal Tennis, Tennis Channel, Parsa Bombs
- 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.
- Jonathan Stokke - Former associate head coach at Duke University, High performance coach.
- 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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