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Lake Nona, Florida – The 2025 NCAA Division I Individual Tennis Championships have arrived as the nation’s top singles and doubles teams converge on the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Florida for a week of must-see college tennis matches.
The championship marks the second and final year of an NCAA pilot program in which the NCAA Individual Championships will be held in the fall instead of after the team championship in the spring. This year’s championship will take place from November 18-23, with both the National Singles and Doubles Championships being played on Sunday, November 23.
Among the most storied champions in college tennis are Ben Shelton (Florida, 2022), Emma Navarro (Virginia, 2021), Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA, 2016), Danielle Collins (Virginia, 2014 and 2016), Steve Johnson (USC, 2011 and 2012), Jill Craybas (Florida, 1996), and Bob Bryan (Stanford, 1998) to name just a few.
At the 2025 NCAA Division I Individual Championships, there are numerous names and storylines on fans’ minds as anticipation for this championship and spring dual season continues to grow. Below are just a few notable storylines as we get ready to start play at Lake Nona on Tuesday:
Can Michael Zheng repeat as men’s singles champion
One of the most prolific names in college tennis, Michael Zheng was one of the top players in the country during his first three years at Columbia. Zheng made history last fall, becoming the first Ivy League player to claim the NCAA Singles Championship since 1992 and also continued to dominate throughout the spring season, finishing as the No. 2-ranked player in the country. This summer, Zheng has shown similar dominance on the ATP Challenger Tour, where he won three straight Challenger titles and went on a 15-match winning streak during the stretch. Zheng rose to a career-best ranking of No. 180 in the ATP Singles Rankings in late October and surprised many by returning to Columbia for his senior season, where he competed in the Ivy League Fall Conference Championship and the ITA Conference Masters Championship to qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship. Now looking to defend his title, Zheng will face Hugo Car (USF) in the first round on Tuesday.
Will Savannah Dada-Mascoll continue to be the story of the fall season
In her senior season at Appalachian State, Savannah Dada-Mascoll was the breakout star of the fall season, going 10-1 in all competitions and earning the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Women’s Singles Championship. Dada-Mascoll, a native of Yorkshire, England, has been one of the most dominant players in the Sun Belt Conference over the past three years and this fall has shown himself to be one of the most dominant players in all of college tennis. After already winning over five players in the NCAA Singles field this fall, Dada-Mascoll opened her senior season with a win over No. 1 ITA Preseason Singles player in DJ Bennett (Auburn) on her way to becoming a consolation finalist at the ITA All-American Championships. As the only player to meet NCAA qualifying benchmarks at two separate fall events on the men’s or women’s side, Dada-Mascoll backed up her run at the All-American Championships by being a finalist at the ITA Carolina Regional Championships. Dada-Mascoll is just one of eight women’s singles players from outside the Power Four Conferences and is the highest-ranked player of the eight.
Will the ITA All-American Singles Champions continue their success in Orlando?
Valerie Glozman (Stanford) and Jay Friend (Arizona) are the top-seeded players in both the men’s and women’s singles draws and both have high expectations for their time in Orlando as they look to build on the success they had earlier this fall. In what many will argue is a close second in prestige to the NCAA Singles Championships, the ITA All-American Championships are a good harbinger of next fall, with a large majority of both the men’s and women’s fields made up of the same athletes competing for an NCAA title this week. Glozman and Friend both came in as seeded players, but not as top seeds. They each reached new heights in their collegiate careers at the All-American Championships, ultimately leading them to become the top seeds in Orlando. With the target on both backs, each will look to maintain their form at the highest level this fall, with Friend looking to become the first NCAA Singles champion in Arizona history, while Glozman looks to become Stanford’s first NCAA Singles champion since Nicole Gibbs went back-to-back in the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
The Sister Act: Three pairs of sisters will compete in the NCAA Women’s Singles Draw
In one of the more unusual developments as the fall progressed, three separate sister pairs will compete in the NCAA Women’s Singles Draw, each representing different schools. They all have one sister who is also a ranked player. The trio of sisters includes Piper Charney (Michigan) and Emma Charney (USC), Gabia Paskauskas (Florida) and Kristina Paskauskas (Alabama), as well as Annabelle Xu (Virginia) and Naomi Xu (California). The draw will see both the Charney sisters and Paskauskas sisters on opposite sides of the draw, meaning a potential matchup wouldn’t be in play until the finals. For the Xu sisters, however, they have the potential to meet in the quarterfinals if both win their first three matches. Throughout their entire collegiate careers, neither sister has faced each other in fall or spring competition.
After the fall, which teams will look most ready for the spring season
As a testing ground for the upcoming spring season, the NCAA Individual Championships always give fans a preview of which teams may make a splash during the spring dual season. On the men’s side, Ohio State leads all programs with four players in the men’s singles draw. After a season in which they went 28-4 and reached the NCAA Round of Sixteen, Ty Tucker and his team look to be one of the top programs in college tennis once again this year. Just behind Ohio State, with three entries each, were North Carolina, Arizona, Mississippi State, Virginia and Wake Forest. On the women’s side, California, NC State, North Carolina and USC each placed four players in the Women’s Singles draw. All of these programs show the depth of the ACC: All of these programs have been near or at the top of college tennis in recent years and appear poised to stay there this season. Right behind these schools were Georgia, Ohio State and Vanderbilt, each of which had three players qualify to compete.
The ITA will span the duration of the NCAA Division I Individual Championships across our social media channels. Fans can follow along by searching @ITA_Tennis on both Instagram and X for the latest updates. For even more college tennis content, we recommend subscribing to the ITA on YouTube where you can find player features and much more from many of our biggest sporting events.
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