Florida Southern College women’s tennis will start the spring with a No. 18 national ranking and a No. 6 south region ranking, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced in its Oracle/ITA Division II poll on Wednesday.
“This is a good recognition of our potential,” Head Coach Trish Riddell said. “We are excited to compete against those teams ahead of us and we are always looking to move up.”
Fellow Sunshine State Conference members Barry (No. 1), Lynn (No. 2), Nova Southeastern (No. 5), Saint Leo (No. 6) and Tampa (RV) join the Moccasins in the national rankings. Two more 2020 opponents, West Florida (No. 7) and North Georgia (No. 10), also made the top 25.
Riddell’s squads have started the season nationally ranked 11 of the past 12 seasons, claiming a top 20 spot for 10 of those seasons and starting as high as No. 10 for both the 2012 and 2015 seasons. The Moccasins have also received a south region ranking for the past nine seasons.
The Moccasins are ranked No. 6 in the south region, joined by SSC members Barry (No. 1), Lynn (No. 2), Nova Southeastern (No. 4), Saint Leo (No. 5), Tampa (No. 7), Rollins (No. 9) and Embry-Riddle (No. 10). The conference earned eight of the ten south region spots, with West Florida (No. 3) and West Alabama (No. 8) being the sole non-SSC members to be ranked in the region.
Last season the Moccasins compiled a 15-8 record in route to a third-straight appearance at a NCAA regional, Riddell’s 11th in 14 seasons at the helm. The team climbed as high as No. 9 in the ITA rankings and completed the biggest upset in school history over No. 2 West Florida (4-3) in addition to taking down Division-I foe New Jersey Tech (4-3).
Head coach Trish Riddell is in her 15th season with the Moccasins, having just eclipsed the 200-win mark last season. The Mocs will look to build off of a strong returning squad that includes a dominant senior trio of Gabby Hesse, Lola Asis, and Magda Stepnik. Hesse was the 2019 Team MVP. Asis last season led the team with 14 singles wins and is currently ranked No. 14 in the south region by the Oracle/ITA Rankings. Stepnik is nine doubles wins away from reaching 50 career doubles victories.
The Moccasins will start the season with the UT Round Robin (Jan. 31-Feb. 2) at Tampa, following with the home opener on Feb. 10 against 2019 Gulf South Conference Champion West Florida. The Moccasins will then take on Flagler on Feb. 13 before the conference home opener on Feb. 15 against Lynn. In total, the Moccasins will compete against four teams that competed in the 2019 NCAA Championship and eight that participated in the regional brackets.
Last season the Moccasins compiled a 15-8 record in route to a third-straight appearance at a NCAA regional, Riddell’s 11th in 14 seasons at the helm. The team climbed as high as No. 9 in the ITA rankings and completed the biggest upset in school history over No. 2 West Florida (4-3) in addition to taking down Division I foe New Jersey Tech (4-3).
Oracle/ITA Division II women’s tennis team national and regional rankings can be found here.