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Both MSU Tennis Teams in the Preseason Top 30

If these rankings are accurate, both teams will easily get in the NCAA tournament.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association released their preseason rankings a few days ago, and both MSU teams were ranked in the top 30.  If both teams are as good as predicted, they should easily get into the NCAA Tournament, but not advance past the first few rounds.  To compare it to college baseball, they are expected to be a two seed in regionals.

The ITA ranked the Men's team 27th.  They finished 23rd last season.  That would put MSU as sixth in the SEC, behind Texas A&M (5th), Georgia (7th), Mississippi (19th), Florida (24th), and Vanderbilt (25th).  The SEC teams ranked behind MSU are LSU (30th), Tennessee (40th), South Carolina (50th), Auburn (61st), Alabama (65th). and Arkansas (72nd).  Missouri does not have a Men's tennis team.

Roughly half of MSU's starting lineup will be freshmen.  One of the highlights of their season should be playing Tulane, because they have a player who is ranked number 1 in the nation.  Unfortunately, that match will be in New Orleans.  Their first home match is on January 30th against UNC-Wilmington.

The ITA ranked the Women's team 29th.  They finished 32nd last season.  That sounds fairly high, but like SEC football recruiting rankings, being 29th in the nation isn't that high compared to the rest of the conference.  They are ranked 10th in the SEC preseason, behind last year's national champion Vanderbilt (1st preseason this year), Florida (3rd), Georgia (Tied for 4th), Texas A&M (10th), Alabama (15th), LSU (21th), Kentucky (24th), Mississippi (25th), and South Carolina (28th).  Behind MSU is Arkansas (36th), Auburn (42nd), Tennessee (61th), and Missouri, who is the only Men's or Women's team to not make the ITA's top 75, and is therefore unranked.

Jasmine Lee is currently ranked 15th in the nation.  She went 8-4 against top 100 nationally ranked players this fall, including a 6-1, 6-4 win over a player currently ranked 8th in the nation.  Anastasia Rentouli is also ranked 36th in the nation.  Doubles team Jennifer Brown and Kristina Vozniak are ranked 53rd.  Their first home match is January 16th against Alcorn State.