MELBOURNE, Fla. (January 26, 2023) – The Sunshine State Conference has released the 2023 Women's Tennis Coaches' Poll. Barry University, the five-time defending national champions, received 81 points and nine first-place votes in this 2023 edition of the poll. Rollins is predicted to finish 8th with 29 points.
The Top-4 teams remain unchanged from the 2022 preseason ranking. Following Barry is Nova Southeastern with 72 points and the final first-place vote, Saint Leo with 62 points, and Lynn in fourth with 61 points. Tampa garnered 47 points and landed in fifth place, the program's highest ranking since the poll was established in 2014. Embry-Riddle (39 points), Florida Southern (33 points), Rollins (29 points), Palm Beach Atlantic University (17 points), and Eckerd College (9 points) make up the second half of the coaches ranking.
Rollins returns eight of nine players from last year's roster, including
Georgina Groth, who played out of the first position all of last year. To make up for the loss of graduate
Alexandra Borg, the Tars added a pair of promising freshmen in the form of
Sydney Eckstein and
Milla Falster. The middle of the lineup will be bolstered by
Maria McKay,
Natalia Collado Cordon,
Polina Vlasova and
Katie Groves, who combined for 32 singles wins last year.
Barry is the reigning NCAA Division II Women's Tennis champion five times over and accounts for seven of the league's 11 titles, winning it all in 2011, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022 (The 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID-19). Lynn won back-to-back national titles in 1997-1998, followed by a third in 2001. The remaining championship belongs to the University of North Florida (1994).
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association has Barry, Nova Southeastern, and Saint Leo as the preseason Top-3 in 2023. Lynn (6th), Tampa (14th), Embry-Riddle (16th), Rollins (23rd), and Florida Southern (24th) also represent the SSC in the preseason ranking.
Rollins will begin their season on February 3 with a home match against Florida National. SSC competition will begin on February 11 with a home game against Palm Beach Atlantic.
The composite schedule for 2023 can be found here.
Below are the full results of the 2023 SSC preseason coaches' poll. Coaches may not vote for their teams (points: 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, first-place votes in parentheses).
| 2023 SSC WOMEN'S TENNIS PRESEASON COACHES POLL |
| Rank |
School (FPV) |
Total Points |
| 1 |
Barry (9) |
81 |
| 2 |
Nova Southeastern (1) |
72 |
| 3 |
Saint Leo |
62 |
| 4 |
Lynn |
61 |
| 5 |
Tampa |
47 |
| 6 |
Embry-Riddle |
39 |
| 7 |
Florida Southern |
33 |
| 8 |
Rollins |
29 |
| 9 |
Palm Beach Atlantic |
17 |
| 10 |
Eckerd |
9 |
