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Tennis is one of the most popular college sports around. There are almost 2,500 programs across the country playing intercollegiate tennis at some level.

With so many programs, it is not surprising that there is significant depth when it comes to talent and ability. Many of these talented programs come from so-called "Mid-Major" programs - programs outside of the few NCAA Division I conferences that regularly play football on ESPN national broadcasts.

Top 25 Mid-Major Women's Recruiting Classes (through May 25)

Today, the Tennis Recruiting Network is excited to present the Top 25 Mid-Major Women's Recruiting Classes for 2017. The mid-major conferences for tennis include programs from the AAC, Atlantic 10, Atlantic Sun, Big East, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, CAA, C-USA, Horizon, MAAC, MAC, MEAC, MVC, Mountain West, Northeast, OVC, Patriot, SoCon, Southland, SWAC, Summit, Sun Belt, WCC, and WAC conferences from NCAA Division I - as well as all programs outside of NCAA Division I.

These rankings include players who will be incoming freshmen during the 2017-18 school year. We did not include transfers or players who enrolled in Spring 2017. This list is based on commitments reported on or before May 25, 2017.

So here they are... your Top 25.

Honorable Mention

Other women's programs that received strong consideration from our experts are (listed alphabetically): East Carolina, Lipscomb, Navy, San Diego, Wofford, Wyoming.

Knight Time

Central Florida Head Coach Brian Koniecko just finished up his first season in Orlando, but he has already made a dramatic impact on the recruiting trail. The first-year coach is bringing in four players for 2017-18 with experience in professional and top-level junior tournaments.

This coming fall, Rebeka Stolmar of Hungary, Spaniards Silvia Bordes and Maria Martinez, and Ksenia Kuznetsova of Russia will be competing for the Knights.

"We are very excited to add these four young women to our UCF family," said Koniecko in a school release. "Not only are they tremendous tennis players, but they come from great families who I have had the pleasure of spending time with."

This list of accomplishments for this quartet is impressive. Stolmar is a five-time Hungarian singles champion with six pro doubles titles. Bordes has ranked as high as No. 36 in Spain. Martinez, whose career-high ranking in Spain is No. 22, also has career highs on the WTA circuit of 728 and 598 in singles and doubles, respectively. Finally, Kuznetsova has been a singles and doubles semifinalist at pro events in Madrid and Mallora, respectively.

With a strong recruiting class to go with outstanding facilities at the USTA National Campus, the future looks bright for UCF.

Checking the Top Five

The Pepperdine Waves have a very strong class as well, and several of our experts made a case for the Waves at No. 1. In the end, we placed Pepperdine as a close second in the No. 2 spot.

Pepperdine coach Per Nilsson is bringing a very strong pair of international recruits to Malibu this Fall in Russian Evgeniya Levashova and Adrijana Lekaj of Croatia. Levashova has one of the highest UTRs in our rankings at 11.27, and she reached a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 12 last year. In 2017, Levashova has switched over to competing on the ITF pro circuit - posting many wins at the $25K level. Lekaj brings a wealth of pro experience to the party as well - with 78 career wins in ITF pro Circuit main draw matches to go with 58 pro wins on the doubles side.

Rounding out the Top 5 are the Loyola Marymount Lions at No. 3, followed by the Rice Owls and Cincinnati Bearcats at No. 4 and 5, respectively.

State Breakdowns

This year's mid-major rankings come from a wide variety of schools from all across the country. The 25 recruiting classes come from institutions in 15 different states.

Only two states feature more than two ranked recruiting classes in our lists, and they are the two states you might expect - California and Florida.

California leads all states with a whopping six ranked recruiting classes overall and four of the Top 10. Pepperdine University leads the way at No. 2, and they are joined in the rankings by fellow California schools Loyola Marymount (No. 3), St. Mary's (6), CSU Fullerton (9), Long Beach State (11), and Fresno State (21).

The Sunshine State has three ranked classes of its own with Central Florida (1), Florida International (7), and Florida Atlantic (13).

Other states with multiple classes in our rankings are Ohio, Texas, and Virginia with two ranked classes each.

Conference Call

Although there are many states represented in our rankings, conference representation is a bit smaller. The 25 programs come from just twelve different NCAA Division I conferences and one Division III conference.

Two conferences stand out above the rest with four recruits apiece - the Amercian Athletic Conference and Conference USA.

Top-ranked Central Florida is a member of the AAC, and they are joined in our rankings by fellow conference members Cincinnati (No, 5), Memphis (18), and Tulane (22).

The only other conference with more than two programs in the rankings is the West Coast Conference with three ranked recruiting classes.

One final note ... only one program outside of NCAA Division I has a recruiting class in our mid-major rankings - the Emory Eagles, who are a Division III powerhouse.

Ahead... NCAA Division III Rankings

With the mid-major rankings wrapped up, TennisRecruiting.net will next turn to ranking the top recruiting classes in NCAA Division III. On Monday we will see the top D-III men's rankings - and we will wrap up our spring recruiting class rankings with the top D-III women next Friday.

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