by Neil Gardner

National Security

In recent years, Texas A&M and Cal-Berkeley stand out as having consistently finished in the top 6 at nationals. While Texas A&M has proven they are the perennial powerhouse by capturing the prize multiple times, Berkeley’s effort has been unwavering and they took runner-up this year, knocking out A&M in the process. 2008 Champion the University of Texas’ stay near the top has also been impressive, reaching the finals 5 times in the last 9 years.

Surprise, Surprise

As yet another successful college club tennis season comes to a close, there was nothing predictable about the national tournament held in Cary, NC. Most notably, the event featured 22 new teams that did not take part a year ago, a new champion was crowned for the first time in more than 4 years, and all 6 teams from the state of California that entered reached the gold bracket. Teams finishing in the top 10 that were most improved since nationals ’07 were Stanford and Wisconsin, both finishing +11 places higher than last year. Other schools that were most improved a year later were Clemson (+38), Oregon (+28), Rutgers (+25), South Carolina (+20) and UC-Davis (+19). Teams that finished considerably lower than last year included Cornell (-36), Virginia Tech (-33), Colorado (-26) and UW-Milwaukee (-26).

Golden State Schools Go For Gold

Severely underrated in the national rankings leading up to nationals, all six schools from the state of California (Cal-Berkeley, Stanford, Southern Cal, UCLA, UC-Davis and UC-Irvine) reached the gold playoff bracket and finished in the top 15 out of 64 teams. They also occupied 3 of the top 5 spots. Brown University (Providence, RI) was also a huge underdog that posted an impressive result, grabbing 10th place overall.

Orange Is In

In 2008, teams across the nation must bow down to Texas and coordinator George Chen, who captured gold for the first time in their history. Congratulations are also in order for nationals newcomers Syracuse, who finished 12th overall and also won their sectional event this year. Evidently captains Justin Betti and Anne Magellan have done a great job organizing a strong team. Finally, the Clemson Tigers team and captain Lisa Felder also deserve praise for their 16th place finish. Keep it up guys!