NCAA Matches to Watch: Power 6 Breakdown

The first round of the NCAA Championships kicks off on Friday, with 128 of the best collegiate men’s and women’s tennis teams vying for the top prize in Wake Forest at the end of May. This year’s NCAA Championship features potential Cinderella stories, like the Arizona State men’s tennis team, back for their first year since 2008 when budget cuts forced the college to end its men’s tennis program, and tennis stalwarts like Duke, Wake Forest and UCLA in the hunt for the trophy on both the men’s and women’s side. Will the No. 8 ITA/Oracle ranked Florida women hang on to their title from last year or will No. 1 ranked UNC take the top prize? On the men’s side, will the top-ranked Wake Forest claim the title on their home turf or can equally strong Power 6 teams TCU, Texas A&M or UNC take the trophy this year? With so many exciting teams and matches happening this weekend, Team UTR took a look at the Power 6 rankings of each team to highlight some of the tough matchups happening in the first round. The Power 6 rating is the sum of the UTRs of the top six individual players, rounded to the nearest integer, which gives a real-time sense of the skill of each team. For the Women: William & Mary vs Mississippi State William & Mary enters the NCAA Tournament holding the No. 46 spot in the National Rankings and is coming off a four-win match streak, with a 17-9 record for a year that featured 11 matches against top-50 opponents. The Mississippi State women are at the No. 31 spot in the national rankings, holding a 2018 season record of 15-10. This is their school-record fourth year in a row that the Bulldogs have earned a bid into the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship. Both teams hold a Power 6 rating coming in at 64. The William & Mary vs Mississippi State match will take place on Friday, May 11th at 10 AM ET at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC and can be live-streamed here. University of Illinois vs Princeton The University of Illinois women are coming off a hot regular season, with the best start in the tournament in program history at 21-5. The 21 wins ranks No. 2 in the record books since the 1982 women’s tennis season and in February, achieved its highest ITA/NCAA ranking in Illinois women’s tennis history at No. 5. The Princeton Tigers’ 19-3 record ties for the second-most wins in program history, behind the 2010 women’s team. Princeton went 7-0 in the Ivy League for the fourth time in program history and regardless of the tournament outcome, the 2018 Tigers will have its fewest losses since 2000. Princeton is ranked No. 47 by the ITA and Illinois is ranked No. 19. Both teams have a Power 6 coming in at 65. The University of Illinois vs Princeton match begins at 11 AM ET from Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. Fans can live stream the match here. For the Men: Baylor University vs Arizona State The 27th ITA/Oracle-ranked Baylor men’s tennis team will take on the No. 36 ranked Arizona State on Friday at 10 AM CT at Texas A&M. This is Baylor’s 21st straight NCAA appearance but the team won’t enjoy home-court advantage only for the eighth time in program history. Five Baylor players were named to the Big 12 All-Tournament team this year and the team went 20-9 for the regular 2018 season. The Arizona Sun Devils are back since the program was disbanded in 2008 due to budget cuts, with a record of 16-15 this season. The Sun Devils had a solid finish to the season, winning three of their last six matches en route to the Pac-12 Tournament. Fans can tune into the match at 11 AM ET via this link. Dartmouth College vs University of Oregon The No. 27 ITA/Oracle ranked Dartmouth Men’s Tennis heads back to the NCAA tournament for the second time in the last three seasons, coming off of a regular season record of 20-5 with their fewest losses since the 2012 season. The Big Green went 6-1 in Ivy League play and won their first conference title since 1997. The No. 33 ITA/Oracle ranked Oregon men will be making their third straight appearance at the NCAA’s, entering the championship with a 17-9 regular season record. This will be the first meeting ever for Big Green and the Ducks. Both teams have a Power 6 of 81. The match will be held on Saturday, May 12th at 11 AM ET from Texas Christian University. You can check Power 6 of all teams participating here. Team UTR will be providing updates throughout the NCAA Tournament. Follow along @MyUTR on Twitter and Instagram and check out #RoadToNCAAs for real-time updates from the teams competing in the tournament!