The Texas A&M women’s tennis team is picked to finish 10th in the Southeastern Conference this season, according to a preseason poll of the league’s head coaches and announced today by the conference office.
Georgia is picked to win the conference regular season title, according to the preseason poll, which is based on a 14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 vote. Florida, the defending NCAA champion, is predicted to finish second, and defending SEC regular season and tournament champion Vanderbilt closes out the top three. The top 12 teams in the preseason poll all advanced to the NCAA tournament last year.
The complete results of the poll are as follows:
Team Points
1. Georgia 184
2. Florida 174
3. Vanderbilt 171
4. South Carolina 140
5. Auburn 138
6. Arkansas 116
7. Ole Miss 107
8. LSU 101
9. Kentucky 95
10. Texas A&M 73
11. Tennessee 61
12. Mississippi State 47
13. Alabama 34
14. Missouri 16
The SEC boasts a nation-leading nine teams listed in the Oracle/ITA Women’s Division I Women’s National Team Rankings top 25 released today, including three in the top 10: Vanderbilt (2), Florida (3) and Georgia (4).
The Aggies, under the direction of third-year head coach Mark Weaver, return three letterwinners from last year’s team that tied for eighth in the SEC with a 6-7 record but went on to reach the NCAA Championship round of 16, where they fell to the No. 1 seed and eventual national champion Gators. A&M was No. 16 in the final ITA top 25 poll, marking the sixth consecutive year the Aggies finished ranked in the top 20.
Weaver also welcomes four freshmen who formed a recruiting class that was ranked an all-time high No. 7 in the nation according to Tennis Recruiting Network (TRN).
The Aggies open SEC play by hosting Tennessee on Friday, March 2 and the preseason-favorite Bulldogs on Sunday, March 4 at the Mitchell Tennis Center. A&M upset then-No. 2 nationally ranked Georgia last year in Athens, marking the highest ranked win in school history.
Texas A&M is currently 2-0 after opening the spring season with 7-0 victories over the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Prairie View A&M in a doubleheader on Jan. 13 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. The Aggies return to the courts Friday for another doubleheader, playing host to Texas State at noon and Sam Houston State at 4 p.m.
General admission seating is free at all regular-season men’s and women’s home matches this season.
