NCAA Update: Kupres the Leader Amongst Canadians

Photo : Texas A&M Athletics

As the NCAA season heats up, Mia Kupres continues to excel at the head of the Canadian pack. She features on an exclusive list of Canadians to hold a ranking in multiple disciplines.

Meanwhile, a pair of Canadian men keep are duking it out to see who is the best Canuck in the collegiate singles ranks.

Let’s catch up with the latest news from Canadians competing in the NCAA.

Women

At No. 5 in the NCAA women’s doubles rankings, Mia Kupres of Texas A&M is still the highest-ranked Canadian in any discipline in the American collegiate system. She is also one of three Canadians to hold both a singles and doubles ranking.

Regularly playing in the No. 1 doubles spot with Mary Stoiana, Kupres has gone 4-2 over the last month, with one of her losses coming in a tiebreak (in the NCAA, doubles is normally just one set).

Kupres has had a similar run in singles, going 4-2 over the last four weeks with her two losses both coming in the deciding set. The sophomore is also the top Candian in the women’s singles rankings at No. 36.

Ariana Arseneault is the only other Canadian woman to appear on both the singles and doubles rankings. She joins Kupres in the doubles Top 10, coming in at No. 9 for Auburn.

Alongside DJ Bennet, Arseneault is on a seven-match winning streak in the doubles (with one abandoned match in the middle). Her last loss was in a tiebreak on Feb. 24. Overall she is 9-1 in doubles over her last ten matches.

Arseneault has been playing well in singles as well, where she is ranked No. 74. She has won five of her last seven matches, including a victory in the No. 1 position against Missouri on Mar. 9.

The University of Virginia is the only school in the women’s Top 10 to feature Canadians. Virginia is ranked No. 6, with Mélodie Collard and Annabelle Xu on their roster.

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Three schools just outside of the Top 10, No. 11 Berkeley (Jessica Alsola), No. 12 Ohio State (Teah Chavez and Alessia Cau), and Kupres’ 13^th-ranked Texas A&M all have Canadians on the team.

Men

Justin Boulais and Taha Baadi have been trading the top Canadian singles spot over the last month.

In the latest rankings, Boulais of Ohio State currently sits on top at No. 25, the highest singles ranking of any Canadian male or female. Baadi is just behind at No. 36.

Boulais overtook Baadi in the last month, going 4-3 while bouncing between the No. 1 and No. 2 positions for Ohio State. He has a 2-1 record playing in the top spot.

Baadi has had a similar run to his fellow Canadian, going 4-3 over the last month (with two abandoned matches) but has faced a tougher road by regularly playing in the No. 1 slot for the University of Kentucky. He has played in the top spot in eight straight matches and 12 of his last 13 dating back to January.

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As well as being the top Canadian in singles, Boulais is the lone Canadian man to appear in both the singles and doubles rankings. He has won four of his last five doubles matches with two different partners. He won all four of his matches in the No. 2 position but lost the one time he played in the top spot.

Coming in at No. 8 in the doubles rankings, Cleeve Harper remains the top Canadian. However, he has dropped recently on the Texas depth chart. Having spent the first two months of the season playing in the No. 1 doubles spot with Eliot Spizzirri, he was moved to the No. 3 slot with Micah Braswell in early March after he and Spizzirri lost three straight.

Harper and Braswell have excelled as a pair, dropping just seven total games in their four matches together, all victories.

Once again, Canadian presence was prevalent in the team rankings, with four of the Top Five teams featuring Canadians, led by Boulais’ No. 1-ranked Ohio State.

TCU, which features Duncan Chan, comes in at No. 3. Harper’s Texas has been climbing the rankings all season and now sits at No. 4, while the Canadian-heavy Kentucky team is at No. 5.

Click here to view all the Canadian rankings in the NCAA.

Written By

Pete Borkowski