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Tournament Information | NCAA Qualifiers | Watch On ESPN+
Lake Nona, Florida – The 2025 NCAA Division I Individual Tennis Championships have arrived as the nation’s best singles players and doubles teams will converge at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Florida for a week full of must see college tennis matchups.
Marking the second and final year of a NCAA pilot program in which the NCAA Individual Championships are held in the fall rather than after the team championship in the spring, this year’s championship will take place from November 18-23 with both the singles and doubles national championships being played on Sunday, November 23rd.
As one of the most storied championships in college tennis, past singles champions include Ben Shelton (Florida, 2022), Emma Navarro (Virginia, 2021), Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA, 2016), Danielle Collins (Virginia, 2014 & 2016), Steve Johnson (USC, 2011 & 2012), Jill Craybas (Florida, 1996), and Bob Bryan (Stanford, 1998) to name a few.
Coming into the 2025 NCAA Division I Individual Championships there are numerous names and storylines fans are keeping an eye on as anticipation for this championship as well as the spring dual match season continues to grow. Below are just a few notable storylines as we get ready to kick off play in Lake Nona on Tuesday:
Can Michael Zheng Repeat as the Men’s Singles Champion
As one of the most prolific names within college tennis, Michael Zheng has been one of the top players in the country throughout his first three years at Columbia. Making history last fall, Zheng became the first Ivy League player to claim the NCAA Singles Championship since 1992 and continued to dominate throughout the spring season as well, finishing as the No. 2 ranked player in the country. This summer Zheng has displayed a similar dominance on the ATP Challenger Tour where he won three straight Challenger Titles and held a 15 match winning streak during this stretch. Climbing up to a career best ranking of No. 180 in the ATP Singles Rankings in late October, Zheng surprised many by returning to Columbia for his senior season competing 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 is set to 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 has been the breakout star of the fall season, going 10-1 across all competition and earning the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Women’s Singles Championship. From Yorkshire, England, Dada-Mascoll has been one of the most dominant players in the Sun Belt Conference over the past three years and this fall has shown to be one of the most dominant players in all of college tennis. Having wins over five players in the NCAA Singles field already this fall, Dada-Mascoll began her senior season with a win over the ITA Preseason No. 1 ranked singles player in DJ Bennett (Auburn) en route to being a consolation draw finalist at the ITA All-American Championships. As the lone player to hit NCAA qualification benchmarks at two separate fall events on either the men’s or women’s sides of play, 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 players in the women’s singles field from outside the Power Four Conferences and is the highest seeded player out of the eight.
Will the ITA All-American Singles Champions Continue Their Success In Orlando
Entering as the top seeded players in both the men’s and women’s singles draw, Valerie Glozman (Stanford) and Jay Friend (Arizona) both have high hopes for their time in Orlando as they look to build on success found earlier this fall. In what many will argue is a close second in prestige to the NCAA Singles Championships, the ITA All-American Championships is a good precursor to the fall to come with a vast majority of both the men’s and women’s fields being comprised of the same athletes competing for an NCAA title this week. Both entering as seeded players, but not the top seeds, Glozman and Friend each reached new heights in their collegiate careers at the All-American Championships which ultimately propelled them to being the top seeds in Orlando. Now with the target on both of their backs, each will look to keep their form this fall at the highest of levels with Friend looking to become the first NCAA Singles Champion in Arizona history, while Glozman looks to become the first NCAA Singles Champion from Stanford since Nicole Gibbs went back-to-back in the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
The Sister Act: Three Pairs of Sisters Set To Compete in the NCAA Women’s Singles Draw
In one of the more unusual developments as the fall progressed, three separate pairs of sisters are set to compete in the NCAA Women’s Singles Draw, each representing different schools. All having one sister being a seeded player as well, 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). In the draw, both the Charney sisters and the Paskauskas sisters will be on opposite sides of the draw meaning a possible matchup wouldn’t be in the cards until the final. However, for the Xu sisters, they have the potential to meet in the quarterfinals if both win their first three matches. Throughout all of their collegiate careers, none of the sisters have faced each other in either fall or spring competition.
Which Teams Will Look Most Ready for the Spring Season After the Fall
As a testing ground for the spring season to come, the NCAA Individual Championships always provide fans a preview of which teams might be in store to take a jump during the spring dual match season. On the men’s side of play, Ohio State leads all programs with four players in the Men’s Singles draw. Coming off a season in which they went 28-4 and reached the NCAA Round of Sixteen, Ty Tucker and his crew look locked and loaded 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 have each placed four players in the Women’s Singles draw. Showing the depth in the ACC, all of these programs have been near or at the top of college tennis in recent years and look poised to remain there this season. Just behind these schools were Georgia, Ohio State, and Vanderbilt who each had three players qualify to compete.
The ITA will be covering 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 all of the latest updates. For even more college tennis content, we suggest subscribing to the ITA on YouTube where you will find player features and much more from many of our sports biggest events.
