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The NCAA Division I men’s and women’s championships begin this weekend with first and second round play at campus locations nationwide.

The brackets were released on Monday (men’s draw, women’s draw). Our panel of experts tackled a few questions about the tournament fields before all the action begins. Part II of our Roundtable will appear Friday morning.

What were the best storylines during the regular season?

Colette Lewis, Zoo Tennis

The undefeated season of the Oklahoma State women in the year the NCAAs are in Stillwater has to top the list.

Players thought to have turned pro returning to college, like UCLA's Govind Nanda, DePaul's Vito Tonejc and Texas A&M's Carson Branstine was an unexpected storyline with implications for the future of college tennis.

After a bumpy first half of the year for the North Carolina women and Texas men, the second half recovery of the two pre-season favorites has changed the narrative heading into the NCAA tournament. The loss of UNC's Reese Brantmeier to injury this February was a blow not just to the Tar Heels, but to college tennis in general, with one of its best players sidelined for the season.

An undefeated season for the Denver men, a first conference tournament title both for Arizona and Florida State men, and the Navy women's dramatic 4-3 win for their first conference title and first appearance in the NCAA tournament are also notable.

Julie Wrege, Tennis Recruiting Network

Coach Clancy Shields accomplished something last weekend that no Arizona team had ever done -- the Wildcats won their first-ever Pac-12 Championship with a shutout of Stanford. This is the first time that a team other than USC or UCLA has won this championship.

In the men's ACC, the Virginia Cavaliers had hoped to garner their fourth conference championship in a row — but they fell to Florida State in the finals. This defeat was the first conference loss for the Cavaliers since 2020. The match was close all the way through and it came down to the No. 1 court, where Chris Rodesch lost to No. 5 Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, who came back from a 5-2 deficit, taking the third set and the deciding tiebreaker.

Staying in the ACC, the UNC women losing in the National Indoors just "does not happen," but it did this year. The four-time defending National Indoor champs took the doubles point and it seemed to be an impossible task for NC State to take four singles matches. This thrilling match came down to the last singles match and a tiebreaker in the third set, where sophomore Anna Zyryanova delivered the championship for the Wolfpack.

Chris Haloris, College Tennis Ranks

I'll stick with some obvious and some maybe not so obvious. Certainly the best storyline has to be the Oklahoma State women entering the tournament undefeated in.a year they host NCAAs with the possibility of bringing the first women's title in any sport to Stillwater. For the men, it's the unfinished storyline of whether we see Virginia come to life as the Cavaliers did last year when it matters. That leads into one of the better storylines we saw that I can’t frankly remember seeing at the highest levels, and that was both Inaki Montes and Jake Fearnley playing while having to serve underhanded (and Inaki winning big matches).

Finally, a few of the fun storylines I was watching for all year were players that had been out of college that may or may not come back and we some some notable on both sides: Arthur Fery and Adrian Boitan not making an appearance, but Carson Branstine and Govind Nanda coming back (the former the last week of the season).

Joey Dillon, The IX Newsletter

I think the new level Chris Young's Oklahoma State squad has unlocked has to be the top one for me. I wouldn't have guessed earlier in the season that the Cowgirls would emerge with the ITA Indoor title AND enter the NCAA tournament undefeated. The men have also had a pretty dominant No. 1 in Ohio State. But for me, I really liked seeing Michigan State come into the picture as a contender with a new coach, and was inspired by Arizona's clutch Pac-12 tournament title. Those two are teams I expect to go past their seeding.

What Super Regional match-ups would you like to see?

Colette Lewis: Last year delivered the first Top 8 to fail to make the Super Regional, after the UCLA women defeated No. 6 Duke. But as that is the only such case in the three years of Super Regional play, I'll assume all hosts advance to the round of 16. I'd love to be in Los Angeles to see the rematch between No. 9 Texas and No. 8 UCLA women, after a short-handed Texas, forfeiting 5 and 6 singles, lost to host UCLA 5-2 back in January.

On the men's side, I'm intrigued by No. 7 seed Tennessee hosting No. 10 Florida State. The Seminoles were impressive in ending Virginia's streak of ACC titles in the conference tournament last month, while the Volunteers suffered a disappointing loss to South Carolina in the SEC conference tournament semifinals. Tennessee knows well the challenge of advancing to the final site, as they lost to South Carolina as a Super Regionals host last year.

Julie Wrege: I can't get past the first round! How can you not want to be in Tucson when Arizona's Clancy Shields welcomes his brother Luke Shields's Boise State Broncos to the first round of the NCAAs. Pepperdine and Auburn round out the foursome in Tucson.

On to the Super Regionals, I believe that Georgia’s Manny Diaz has a little magic left before his retirement so I would like to be in Winston Salem for the Super Regional. If any team is going to contest the UNC women early, it will be Texas A&M in its Super Regional. But I would like to be in Stanford for the round of 16 when the Cardinal meets NC State.

Haloris: There is zero doubt that the match I'm looking most forward to should we get it is North Carolina vs Texas A&M on the women's side. The Texas A&M story is just going to be a good one as long as Carson Branstine is around if she is healthy, and the Aggies can't look past Oklahoma in the regional first. The other that catches my eye on the women's side is Texas vs UCLA.

I'm honestly not all that enthused with any of the projected Super Regional matches on the men's side. I think Florida State vs Tennessee is the most intriguing and I'll be interested to see a TCU Super Regional depending on the health of the team and whether Seb Gorzny is playing.

Joey Dillon: For the women, UCLA-Texas and even slightly more, Texas A&M-North Carolina. Texas A&M getting Carson Branstine just in time for the postseason could be a massive game-changer. The winner of that is making it to the Final Four. For the men, Tennessee-Florida State stands out to me, while Harvard/Michigan State vs. Kentucky and Wake Forest-Oklahoma could be fun.

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About Rhiannon Potkey

Rhiannon Potkey is a veteran sportswriter with more than two decades of experience in journalism. Potkey has covered many sports at many levels and has a passion for finding great stories. Potkey has covered the U.S. Open, junior sectional and national events, college conference championships and Davis Cup matches. Potkey is currently Content Strategist for Tennis Recruiting. You can reach Rhiannon by email at [email protected].