Kansas tennis concludes season at No. 13 in final ITA weekly poll

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas tennis team is ranked No. 13 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) final poll of the season, the Jayhawks’ highest season-ending ITA ranking since 1994, when they were ranked No. 7.

Earlier this week, Kansas was ranked No. 8 in the final Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top-25 poll of the year.

The Jayhawks, who were ranked for the entire spring 2019 season (16 weeks), compiled an overall record of 21-5, including 7-2 in Big 12 Conference play. Before Stanford ended the team’s season in the NCAA Sweet 16 on May 10 with a narrow 4-3 victory in California, KU had won 10-straight matches dating back to March 29. In addition, the Jayhawks were undefeated on their home courts this season, going 16-0 at the Jayhawk Tennis Center.

In his sixth season at the helm of the program, head coach Todd Chapman led the team to many accolades and achievements not seen by Kansas tennis in quite some time. Last month, Chapman guided the Jayhawks to their first-ever Big 12 Conference Tournament championship by consecutively beating TCU, then-No. 12 Oklahoma State and then-No. 7 Texas over three days at the Jayhawk Tennis Center. With the conference title in hand, KU earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tennis Championships. Kansas, the No. 14 seed, earned the right to host first- and second-round matches for the first time since 1997. After defeating two ranked teams, No. 44 Denver and No. 24 Florida, No. 14 Kansas earned the program’s first trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 since 1998.

“The 2018-19 Kansas tennis team accomplished many things for the first time in program history and some for the first in many years,” Chapman said. “This team has so much to be proud of and also has much to look forward to in the future. The standard for Kansas tennis has been raised once again, and we look forward to what the 2019-20 team will do next season.”

Oracle/ITA Division I Women’s Collegiate Tennis Rankings (Kansas Archive)