Three Florida Clubs Represent State at Tennis on Campus National Championship

The Tennis on Campus National Championship was held on April 6-8 in Surprise, Arizona. The best college club teams were in attendance to battle It out for the National Title. 

Tennis on Campus (TOC) is club-level collegiate tennis organized by USTA that individual sections host leagues for these players to compete in. Throughout the Fall and Spring semesters, teams have been competing in tournaments and sectional events to earn their spot at Nationals. 

The University of Florida was the top team in the TOC Regular season.

Florida was able to hand out three bids for the event. Back in January, the University of Miami and University of Florida reserved their spot at the tournament thanks to their placing at the USTA Florida TOC Sectional Championship. Miami won the event, with Florida finishing in second. The top two teams from that tournament received automatic bids to Nationals.

The final slot was earned from the University of Central Florida. The club finished with the most points in the TOC Standings, which were earned for their performances throughout the season.

When it came to National Championship matches, the competition was fierce. Each team was put into pools of four teams, where the best would qualify for the Gold Bracket. This bracket is the top division, where the winner would be crowned National Champions. There were also Silver, Bronze, and Copper draws for other teams to compete in for finishing second, third, and fourth in the pool play stage.

UCF earned their spot at nationals by finishing in the top part of the standings.

Florida had one team in the Gold Bracket, and two made the Silver. UCF was Florida’s lone chance in the Gold Bracket after they swept all of their opponents in pools. Their first-round match was against the University of Notre Dame. UCF put up a good fight winning some of the lines, but in the end, Notre Dame was able to escape with a 26-20 victory. 

UCF then played through the lower bracket, taking down the University of South Carolina, before losing to the University of California, Berkely, securing the team a Top-12 finish on the season. 

In the other brackets, UF and UM both made the Silver Bracket. The University of Florida came out hot in their bracket matches, taking down Arizona State in a 28-23 effort and Michigan in a close 25-22 game. They matched up against Princeton in the semifinals, but unfortunately dropped that match, finishing fourth in the Silver draw. 

The University of Miami club team made the Silver Bracket.

UM dropped their opening match in bracket play and dropped down to the lower bracket, where the team caught fire. They rattled off two wins in a row, taking down Emory and Georgia by 3 points each. They lost their final match of the weekend and finished in tenth place. 

USTA Florida Tennis on Campus Coordinator, Dylan McDonald was happy for the Florida teams and said the state was represented well. “I’m very proud of the three strong teams that represented Florida in the Tennis On Campus National tournament,” he said. “Following a year that clubs were unable to be active due to Covid, it makes me very happy that Florida continues to have great participation with highly competitive teams in the national tournament.” 

With Nationals wrapped up, that means the 2022-2023 TOC season has come to a close. To learn more about when TOC will return in the fall of 2023, visit ustaflorida.com/toc.