All Things College Tennis …. Matches, players,coaches, etc.
Just like the tennis racket, college tennis has evolved over the years, so let us get you up to date. There are two types of college tennis on campus today, varsity and club teams. For a NCAA member school (most colleges) the varsity teams are the school’s official team that competes for league/conference and national championships per NCAA guidelines. Club teams are more recreational, fun with no athletic department oversight or funding with championships hosted by the USTA.
College varsity tennis is a spring sport that starts in mid-January and crowns its champions the last weekend of May. As in all college sports, there are 5 divisions – D1, D2, D3, NAIA, JUCO in college tennis, with D1 and D3 dominating Virginia colleges.A college tennis match consists of 6 singles and 3 doubles matches with the doubles being played first. (D1 – 6 game set; D3 – 8 game set). For D1, only one point is awarded for doubles, whichever team wins 2 of the 3 matches wins ‘the doubles point.’ For D3 each doubles match counts one point towards the team total.
D1 – 7 points available: 1 doubles, 6 singles …. Majority 4
D3 – 9 points available: 3 doubles, 6 singles …. Majority 5
Note: Coaches may agree ahead of time to stop the match once a team reaches a majority point total. This is always done in post season tournament play.
In an effort to make college tennis more exciting and fan-friendly, several rule changes have been implemented; no-ad scoring (each game is 4 points), no service lets (if the serve hits the net and still lands in the service box, ball is in play), coaching is allowed after every point and fan cheering during points is allowed and encouraged. ! !
Note: You will NOT hear ‘quite please’ at a college tennis match ! !
The season consists of 18-25 matches against league/conference opponents and schools from other leagues/conferences. A league/conference tournament is played at the end of the season to see which team earns the ‘automatic bid’ to the NCAA tournament where the national team champion is determined. At the conclusion of the NCAA national team championship, there is a tournament for singles and doubles players who had an outstanding season, the winners being crowned NCAA singles and doubles champion.
College verses the Pros ?
Many of the better college players play in Pro events during the school year and are winning matches against Pros ranked in the top 100. A big difference between viewing today’s college and Pro tennis matches ~ Pro – there is one court to watch; college – there are 3-6 courts to watch at the same time and more fan cheering ! !
How big is College tennis?
There are about 1500+ college varsity teams (men & women) with about 15,000+ total players.
One of our goals at promoteRVAtennis.org is to bring some of the top college tennis teams to RVA.
We hope this has been helpful and we encourage you to visit our school teams page where you will find a link to 90+ college tennis teams website pages.
If you have an idea for an article or you have written an article you want us to post, please email us at news@promoteRVAtennis.org
Hope to see you around the courts !
Tommy & Tammy Tennis
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All things ‘High School Tennis’ around RICHMOND
The high schools years are a very exciting time for girls, boys, parents, family members and friends as children become young adults. This transformation is in full view for the boys and girls who play high school tennis. The game of tennis will develop and sharpen one’s motor skills, decision making and competitive drive to excel.
At the high school level, players learn how to practice with a purpose, they begin to understand how points are constructed, to recognize the flow and changes that take place within a match. Players see the need to develop 2 or 3 ‘shots’ that help them ‘win the point’ and they work to improve those strokes that are weak. The value of momentum becomes a factor and the many places it comes from, a successful ‘shot’, an unsuccessful ‘shot’, your teammates and fans cheering for you, that ‘certain person’ you would like to impress (and maybe get a date with).
Personal development is important, however the greatest value is being part of a team. Learning to work together to reach the teams goals, seeing how different people react to different situations, traveling in the bus together and hearing comments about many subjects, how people handle winning and losing because that is what life is all about.
The RVA area has 40+ high schools (public & private) with girls and boys tennis teams, totaling about 1,000 players. The success of the various high school tennis teams can be traced to the ‘feeder system’ that has fostered the interest in tennis of these students. Over the years, RVA has had many good Pros/Coaches that made tennis FUN for the whole family. FAMILY is the key to the ‘feeder system’, as most of the better players who lead their teams have parents and/or siblings who play tennis. Two families that need mentioning here, the Hugh Waters family of the 70’s & 80’s and the Eddie Parker family 90’s to present. Thousands of RVA tennis players can trace their ‘tennis roots’, high school success and their enthusiasm for tennis to these two tennis families.
What does a high school tennis match look like ?
Six singles matches are played with each match worth one point towards the team score. Then, after singles there are three doubles matches played,each match is worth one point towards the team total. Depending on the skill level of team members,some players play both singles and doubles, some just play singles or doubles. Often times, if a team wins five singles matches and secures the team victory, the coach will allow the lower ranked players to play the doubles and get that valuable ‘match experience’.
How successful are RVA high school tennis teams ?
High schools sports are divided into various divisions based on the number of students enrolled at the school. Over the past 60 years, a team or player from RVA has reached the state championship match in one of the divisions 90% of the time.
Note: see our list of past champions by clicking here.
Each high school team is listed on our ‘school teams’ page where you will find schedules, rosters and more ! !
Our High School Reporter
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ALL THINGS ‘MIDDLE SCHOOL’ TENNIS AROUND RICHMOND
Middle school sports can and should be an awesome thing for 6-8th. graders to be a part of. Middle school is when most boys and girls really start to become aware of the outside world around them, that the world and sports they have seen and heard about, does exist and has rules they must learn.
As we must keep reminding ourselves, middle school is a collection of girls and boys who are at different stages of their mental and physical development, therefore getting them all working together is a real challenge. Since size does not matter as much in tennis, a player can retain their individual ‘style’ and yet still be a valuable member of the ‘team’, it is the best of both worlds.
Of the 40+ middle schools in the metro RVA area, 90% have courts yet less than half field a school team that competes against other schools. Henrico and Hanover counties have middle school tennis teams and it should not come as a surprise that these are the counties where the high school state champions come from.
Here at promoteRVAtennis we have two goals regarding middle school tennis. First, we want to report on the tennis being played and feature some of the players in our articles. Second, we would like to lead the effort to have middle school tennis teams at every middle school in the metro RVA area by supplying the needed resources, money and coaching..
If you have an idea for an article or a person we should feature, please email us at news@promoteRVAtennis.org
BECOME A MEMBER OF promoteRVAtennis today ! !