MILWAUKEE, Wis. (naccsports.org) --- Defending league champion Concordia University Wisconsin has been named the favorite to capture the 2024 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) women's tennis crown according to the annual preseason poll released Thursday.
Concordia Wisconsin secured 192 points and 14 of 20 first-place votes in the poll, which consists of votes from the league's head women's tennis coaches and athletics communications professionals. The Falcons were 21-7 overall and a perfect 9-0 in league play, edging rival Edgewood College, 5-4, in the schools' regular-season meeting.
CUW also won the 2024 NACC Tournament, topping Edgewood in the final by a 5-1 score. The Falcons fell to Sewanee, 5-0, in an NCAA championship first-round match.
Edgewood sits second in this year's poll with 184 points and the six remaining first-place votes. Milwaukee School of Engineering edged Wisconsin Lutheran College, 144-141, for third place, while St. Norbert College is fifth with 129 points.
Illinois Institute of Technology (97), Lakeland University (88), Concordia University Chicago (64), Marian University (39), and Alverno College (22) round out this year's poll.
Fall 2024 Schedule: Concordia Wisconsin and MSOE are the first programs to get underway with both programs taking to the courts on Friday, Aug. 30. CUW hosts Carroll (Wis.), while MSOE faces Lake Forest at Wheaton, Illinois.
Illinois Tech and Edgewood follow on Saturday, Aug. 31 with the Scarlet Hawks hosting Wartburg and Edgewood facing UW-Stout and Cornell College in Iowa.
The first conference match will be held Thursday, Sept. 5 as CUW hosts Wisconsin Lutheran in what will be the Warriors' season opener. That same day, Lakeland opens its season at Lawrence.
The rest of the league opens their seasons on Saturday, Sept. 7. Marian (vs. Edgewood), Concordia Chicago (vs. MSOE), and St. Norbert (vs. Wisconsin Lutheran) all open the year with conference matches, while Alverno travels to Jacksonville, Illinois, to face Rose-Hulman and host Illinois College.
NACC to Participate in ITA/NCAA Pilot: Avid followers of NACC tennis will notice a significant change in match format during the 2024-25 season as teams will participate in a joint Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA)/NCAA pilot project that will see NCAA Division III schools participating in 7-point matches as opposed to the usual 9-point matches.
All nine flights - three doubles and six singles - will be contested as in the past. However, only one team point will be on offer for doubles, which will be awarded to the team winning at least two of the three doubles matches. Accordingly, the number of team points required to win a match has been reduced from five to four.
The format of doubles matches themselves has also been adjusted to three 6-game set doubles matches with a 7-point tiebreak at 6-all.
NACC Tournament: The round-robin portion of the NACC slate is slated to conclude on Saturday, Oct. 12, with the top six programs in the final Fall 2024 standings advancing to next spring's NACC Women's Tennis Tournament. The tournament champion will receive the NACC's automatic berth in the 2025 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship.
2024 NACC Women's Tennis Preseason Poll
| Institution |
Points |
2023-24 Record |
| Concordia Wisconsin (14) |
192 |
21-7, 9-0 NACC |
| Edgewood (6) |
184 |
15-7, 8-1 NACC |
| MSOE |
144 |
7-11, 5-4 NACC |
| Wisconsin Lutheran |
141 |
9-9, 7-2 NACC |
| St. Norbert |
129 |
9-13, 5-4 NACC |
| Illinois Tech |
97 |
4-13, 3-6 NACC |
| Lakeland |
88 |
7-6, 5-4 NACC |
| Concordia Chicago |
64 |
2-13, 2-7 NACC |
| Marian |
39 |
1-10, 1-8 NACC |
| Alverno |
22 |
0-13, 0-9 NACC |
Note: First-place votes in parentheses