Hello D3 tennis fans! As the season (sadly) has now come to a close, we on the women’s side wanted to bring you somewhat of a recap/hot takes/stream of consciousness mashup of an article. This article has a little bit of everything, and we apologize in advance if it is all over the place. Between the three of us, we’re touching on things from NCAAs, Individuals, the season in general, philosophical questions – you name it, we’ve probably covered it in some way, shape or form. So feel free to take a look at the inner workings of our minds and all our random, final thoughts on the year as we wrap up yet another year of successful tennis!
ASW: Nameless with the flawless intro as usual. You all probably don’t want to see the inner workings of my mind — it’s a scary place. But what you do want to see if D3Nameless finally getting a name and becoming an official blogger! She is so incredible and I can’t believe that we had the good fortune of having her help with NCAA coverage. She’s really helped bring the women’s side to life. That one person who kept commenting about the lack of women’s coverage should be happy.
NEW: Totally agree with ASW on my first thought here – Nameless has saved us all! We were pretty lucky that she appeared out of nowhere at the most important part of the season and not only wrote excellent articles but gave us direction and energy. I am excited for where the women’s side of the blog is headed. Hopefully with a couple more women’s bloggers (west writer anyone?), we will be in full force next year.
Nameless: The underdog story never fails to impress. Again, a massive congrats to the CMS Athenas for taking home the title and breaking the Williams-Emory dominance!! What was most impressive about this team to me was their grit and fight. Though I did say any of the top four teams could’ve won the tourney, I think we all expected Emory and Williams to duke it out in the finals. Plus, CMS had lost to BOTH these teams in the regular season (albeit in two close 5-4 matches). CMS came out fighting and it was so much fun to watch these women play with heart and grit. You could just see how badly they wanted it, and I will never tire of hearing women’s tennis players cheer each other on and pump each other up during matches. CMS avenged their losses, and they deserve a huge job well done. Congrats, again, ladies, on a fantastic season and for playing some of the most spirited tennis I’ve seen in years. And for a much better, in-depth write-up on this CMS team, see the article that ASW posted over the weekend!
ASW: Is it the end of an era? When the #3 team in the country is considered an underdog, doesn’t that just mean that the top teams are too stacked? Would that make them overdogs? It doesn’t matter. But what does matter is whether Emory and Williams will retake their collective slug of NCAA championships. Either this is a small blip in the Emory/Williams story, or the mental flood gate has opened and every other team starts to believe that they can beat the Emory/Williams juggernauts. My coach back when I was a wee high schooler used to tell me that tennis is all about belief. At the time I obviously didn’t listen to him because I was a teenager and I hated authority but unfortunately for me he was right. Now that everyone knows that Williams and Emory can be beaten, will they start to think, “If CMS can do it, why can’t we?” I hope they do because that will make for some very close matches.
NEW: Will the NCAA ever make the bracket so that Pomona (if they earn it) has a path to the Elite 8 that doesn’t have CMS in it?? I thought that this year’s bracket was as fair as it’s been in recent history. The teams that might beg to differ are WashU, Tufts, and Pomona. WashU got sent to the Emory pod at Sewanee; Tufts was a #1 seed at home but had MIT as the #2 seed (while Amherst, who lost to Tufts 2x, got sent to UMW for a much easier path to the Elite 8); and Pomona, ranked #7, was sent to #1 seed CMS as a #2 seed. For as long as I can remember, Pomona has been in the same pod as CMS. How high does Pomona need to be ranked in order to be sent away? In any case, I think we are headed in the right direction in terms of bracket fairness. Having 5 teams from the Northeast make it to the final site looks odd but I do think many of the strongest teams (NESCACs) are concentrated in that region.
Nameless: Do players whose teams don’t make it deep into the team tournament have an absolute edge at Individuals? Ah, yes, the age old question of fresh legs vs. exhaustion. This is not a new topic of conversation, and I’m sure if I dug back into the archives, someone on the men’s side has written in-depth on this, but I really do think that those whose teams do not make it as deep in the team tournament do have an advantage at Individuals. Take a look at Harding and Gonzalez-Rico – their team made it to the finals,and both women (who were expected to go deep into the tournament) fell in the first round. On the other hand, you have Catherine Allen, who made it to the semis following the thrilling CMS win in the team tournament. And, on top of that, Raventos (whose team made it to the Final Four) also made the semis. Essentially, it seems that there is not a huge correlation – I think a lot of it does, however, come down to mental exhaustion. If your team did well (a la Allen), you might be hungry for more; whereas if you were disappointed (a la Emory, perhaps), you might just want to go home. Nonetheless, Individuals brought us some FANTASTIC tennis, and it was so fun to watch some stellar matchups we normally wouldn’t have seen!
ASW: Next year there will be a Eudice sized hole. She was truly a great competitor and champion and even liked my tweets every once in a while. It was like interacting with a celebrity. Best of luck to her and I wish her continued success in all her future plans! But back to tennis, who the heck is going to fill this Eudice sized void? Will Victoria Yu step up? Will some newcomer take over? There always seems to be some dominant force (remember Gabby Clark? Lok Sze Leung?) but it’s time for that transition to occur and I have no idea who will take up the crown.
NEW: Coaching Carousel!!! OK there is no coaching carousel in Division 3 Tennis because coaches stay where they are. That’s mostly a good thing but it makes this part of the article very uninteresting. Anyone know of any movement on the women’s side? Anyone retiring? Anyone moving to another division?
Nameless: It’s never any fun when the live stream video cuts out in the middle of match point. Ok, I really don’t want to whine since CMS is AWESOME for even having live video streaming like this, but it’s super frustrating when the feed cuts halfway through match point – clearly I could figure out who won, but my favorite part of watching live is the team celebrations! Sorry for being picky, and maybe it’s just me and the janky internet I may or may not steal from my neighbors…
ASW: Do people still drink those salt tabs? Back when I was playing my coach made me drink salt tabs in a cup of water to fight off cramps. I would rather just cramp. Its 2018, surely we can think of ways to get electrolytes into the body without the “drowning in an ocean of your tears” experience. What are the cool kids using these days?
NEW: Who will be the next batch of seniors to step up? And who in the incoming freshman class will make an impact on their teams? This past class of seniors seemed to be an extremely strong group, but once they are gone, it will leave room for the rising seniors to take some space and do their thing. Who will those people be and which teams will benefit from this? Looking forward to seeing it all play out!! As for the incoming freshman class, just at first glance that class looks like an extremely strong class! I’ll be curious to see how tennisrecruiting.net ranks the recruiting classes as they usually do their recruiting class rankings sometime in June.
Nameless: Why does no one call out the score anymore? At least while watching NCAAs and also from what I’ve seen in dual matches, no one calls out the score anymore – what gives? If you’ve got the answer, I’d love to know.
ASW: ^^^^ This. How are people keeping track of the score without calling it out? How are they not getting hooked by those people who argue with you that it’s 30-40 when its actually 40-30 so guess what? Now its 30-30. Sucker. Same goes for calling the ball out. I know this makes me sound like your mom when you were 13 but let’s not leave any room for ambiguity people. I work hard for my points, I’m going to call out the score.
Nameless: Shoutout to all those teams who had phenomenal seasons, but didn’t make NCAAs! At the end of the season, we tend to focus on the tournament, Individuals and all the hype in between. However, there were some teams who had phenomenal seasons despite either a) not making NCAAs or b) not making it deep. There were many teams who won their conferences for the first time or had unprecedented success (see: Millsaps), and these teams deserve some credit – so congrats, ladies!
ASW: Not to get sappy but I want to thank the readers, coaches, and my fellow bloggers for a wonderful first year of blogging! What a fun experience it has been. A lot has happened in my personal life over the past year and I wish I could have had as much presence and offered as much coverage as I did towards the end here, but I am so grateful to be part of this community. Thank you for all the kind words and I will be working hard to gain more D3 tennis knowledge. I don’t actually know who most of the bloggers are still (except my new best friend D3NE) but they are such a fun and supportive group who care a lot about D3 tennis. Like a lot. Seriously, guys, it’s weird.
NEW: ^^ ASW!!! You are great! I hope all the stuff that happened in your personal life are happy events! I too am grateful for the entire D3 tennis community!!
Nameless: A tribute to the seniors. We are losing a very talented group of seniors this year (see: Eudice (4x NCAA Singles Champ), Juli Raventos (3x NCAA Doubles Champ), Bridget Harding (a REALLY talented player who went from playing #5 singles her freshman year to top of the lineup for a formidable Emory team), among many, many others). So, to all the seniors out there: THANK YOU for an incredible four years of tennis. We hope you all go on to do amazing things and enjoy the occasional tennis match.
NEW: Already thinking about the next big event, which is Indoor Nationals in March. Who will make the field? Will CMS decide to accept entry? Will Sewanee host again? If CMS accepts entry, then the teams would likely be: CMS, Emory, MIT, Pomona, Chicago, CMU, Sewanee, WashU. If CMS declines, then another team will get in and I’m not sure who that team will be – maybe Case or UMW. In any case, it will be another exciting year.
Nameless: Calling it right now – Midd to take home the title in 2019. Ya heard it here first.
NEW: ^^ That’s a good call Nameless!!
Nameless: I’ve already probably contributed too much, and you all are pretty bored/sick of me/not reading anymore, but we wanted to put out a CALL FOR NEW WOMEN’S WRITERS! I just reached out to NEW on a whim because I missed D3 tennis so much, and you can do the same thing! We are in desperate need of a Western region expert, but honestly, anyone willing to write or join us is totally welcome – the more the merrier!
NEW: And lastly, what should NAMELESS’s blogger name/twitter handle be? Personally “Nameless” has grown on me.
If you’ve made it this far, you are committed to D3 Women’s tennis and should seriously consider writing for us. d3asouthwomens@gmail.com or d3northeastwomens@gmail.com. Please reach out to us, I promise we are not scary or mean. It’s not a huge commitment and you get to be friends with us so it’s fun. You don’t even need a lot of insider knowledge about D3 tennis, just look at me! (D3ASW)
It has been a fun year filled with a lot of quality tennis, but alas it is time to take a break for the summer to work on getting rid of my farmers tan. This is most likely it for us for the year but I’ll be around so email me or tweet me @d3asouthwomens if you ever want to talk about tennis or the blog or the best snacks or anything! As always, give us your thoughts in the comments below!
-D3Tennis Women’s Blog Team