I’m going to start this preview off with a little anecdote: during my travels in the latter part of 2018, I found myself in Baltimore staying across the street from the Johns Hopkins campus. I had a few minutes to kill before my scheduled activities so I decided to walk around by my hotel. Lo and behold I found myself at the tennis courts watching some dude Blue Jays hit, wondering if I should challenge them to a mini-tennis match to the death, as per the normal tennis greeting between bros back in my day. But as I stood there watching one of the young men gave me the shifty eyes, and it was then that I realized that I had become *that* person – the creepy old lady of no relation to any of the players that watches the college kids practice just a little too intently. I promptly left. I guess the moral of the story is that us bloggers are old and creepy. Just kidding (sort of).
Anyways, I am back for my LAST preview of this season. I’ve admittedly been putting this preview off, since the Hopkins Blue Jays have been kind of quiet in recent years and I’m not sure what to make of it. Not even 10 years ago, the Blue Jays were briefly ranked No. 1 in the nation after winning ITA Indoors, so it’s a little surprising to see them currently ranked No. 23. Hopkins is a notoriously challenging school academically, but most D3 schools are so I don’t think we can attribute it to that alone. The Hopkins name alone will continue to draw strong recruiting classes, so maybe this year the Blue Jays can focus on rebuilding their program and jump back into the top 20. Let’s take a look.
Location: Baltimore, MD
Coach: Dave Woodring (entering 9th season as head coach)
ITA National Ranking: 23
ITA Regional Ranking: 6
Twitter Handle: None! This is such a tragedy. However, the Women’s Tennis Record Book found on their website is seriously amazing and up to date. One stop shop for this preview. 10/10
2017-18 finish: After winning the Centennial Conference tournament, the Blue Jays fell to Williams in the NCAA Sweet 16 by a score of 0-5. Throughout the season, they struggled against their typical regional rivals, taking losses to #12 Washington and Lee (2-7), #18 Mary Washington (3-6), and #21 Skidmore (3-6, not in ASouth Region but good example of the struggle).
Key additions: There are seven freshmen listed on the roster, and all of them played matches in the fall: Evelyn Chang (3 star from KS), Meg Chien (2 star from NJ), Anya Gunewardena (2 star from FL), Jessica Liang (3 star from WA), Lillian Oliver (2 star from KS), Amanda Ruci (3 star from FL), Sophie Saland (1 star from TX). Based on regionals, the freshmen to watch is most likely going to be Evelyn Chang.
Key departures: None! There were ZERO seniors on the roster last year.
Bold prediction: With a few new faces in the lineup, Hopkins will find a way to squeak out a win against Mary Washington, launching themselves back into the top 20 in rankings. They will once again dominate the Centennial Conference and use the end of season momentum to propel themselves to another Sweet 16 finish.
Lineup analysis:
Like a lot of my other regional teams, there are a few obvious picks for the top of the lineup, but once you get to #4 singles, there are a lot of solid but not outstanding players to choose from. If Hopkins wants to get back into the top 20 this year, these players are the ones that will need to step up.
- Anjie Kashyap, range: #1
Kashyap was a solid #1 singles player for the Blue Jays last year and ended the year ranked No. 49 in the nation. She struggled a bit against nationally ranked teams but that’s the nature of playing #1 singles. Fortunately she’s a year older and wiser, and has a lot of room to improve this year. She had a pretty successful fall, making it to the finals of regionals before losing to Taylor from CMU.
- Sophia Strickland, range #2-3
Strickland is a junior this year and saw all the action at #2 singles last year, posting a 9-7 record at that spot in the 2017-2018 season. She picked up wins against CNU and Mary Washington last year. I can see her and Zhou (see below) potentially switching spots this year.
- Kimberly Zhou, range #2-3 (or not playing)
Zhou is a senior listed on the roster who played #3 singles last year and was quite successful, finishing the year with a 12 match winning streak (not counting the unfinished match against Williams, which probably would have broken that streak but who’s counting). She wasn’t in fall action this year but I’m guessing she will be back for spring tennis.
- Dhanya Asokumar, range #4-6
Most of Asokumar’s action last year was at #4 singles, and she very well may stay at that spot this year as well. She picked up a win against Washington and Lee and CNU during regular season play last year but also had losses to Mary Washington and Skidmore. This is her sophomore campaign.
- Katie Gauch, range #4-6
Gauch will be one of three seniors in the lineup this year. Last year she played mostly #5 singles, where her biggest win was against #16 Skidmore. However, she took losses to Mary Washington, Washington and Lee, Wash U, and Pomona.
- Chrissy Simon, Evelyn Chang, range #4-6
Simon is another senior who saw a lot of playing time at #6 singles last year. She picked up wins against Skidmore, Mary Washington, and CNU. Chang is a freshman who will be looking to crack the lineup this year. She made the second round of the Championship draw at Regionals. It’s tough to justify putting her in over seniors Simon and Gauch but I think Chang will see a decent amount of playing time this spring as she is just starting her college tennis career and needs the match experience.
Schedule analysis:
This schedule is pretty notable for total lack of top 15 opponents, and unless they pull off a miracle at NCAAs, the Blue Jays are basically already committed to a year end ranking in the low teens at the highest. Hopkins’ spring season begins the latest out of all my teams, with their first match occurring on March 2 against D1 Navy. Their first D3 matches don’t occur until mid-March. That weekend they will be traveling to Mary Washington presumably to compete in the Blue-Grey invitational, where they may get a shot against higher ranked Skidmore and Mary Washington. However, the exact schools they are playing aren’t listed on their schedule so I’m not sure what’s going on with that.
The Blue Jays then embark on what is probably the world’s most underwhelming spring break to Texas, though it’s a little bit nice to see a team that isn’t going to California or Florida. Beaches and sunny weather are over rated – give me the humid Texas air any day. I’m not actually sure this is their spring break, since they only have one day of matches scheduled, so it might just be a trip for the sake of taking a trip. I’m also a little confused by their official schedule, which lists two matches on Wednesday March 20 – one is in San Antonio against #20 Trinity (TX) and the other is in Houston against Rice. Last time I checked, these aren’t exactly matches that Hopkins can split squad, and even if they do split team, San Antonio is a good 3 hours from Houston by bus so one team is going to have a heck of a commute.
After the Texas trip, Hopkins continues their season by playing a bunch of Centennial conference foes. They have dominated the Centennial conference since 2007, and this year, despite being a down year for Hopkins, will be no different. Aside from their conference matches, there are noteworthy matches in April against CNU and Mary Washington. I’ve talked about these matches in my prior previews, but I’ll summarize here. Although Hopkins is ranked 22 and CNU is 23, I don’t think the match will reflect those rankings – CNU might get a few matches but they’re not quite there yet and Hopkins will win convincingly. Mary Washington is also a big question mark this year – Rachel Summers didn’t play singles in their opening match, which really hurts their depth. I actually think the Hopkins/Mary Wash match will be very close – Hopkins is going to be essentially the same team as last year but now I’m thinking Mary Washington will actually be a weaker team than last year. This is a big chance for Hopkins to avenge their loss last year. With a full team, I currently put the advantage with Hopkins.
After being crowned Centennial Conference champions and earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, Hopkins will probably get shipped to Mary Washington or Carnegie Mellon as a #3 seed (or #2 seed, depending on results vs. Trinity, Skidmore, Mary Wash). They may pull a tank and tree and upset the #2 seed, but I don’t think they can tree hard enough to make the Elite 8. The Blue Jays should count this season successful if they make it to NCAA Round of 16.
And with that, I end the preview and my Atlantic South women’s previews. I think it will be interesting to see who comes out on top between Mary Washington, Washington and Lee, and Johns Hopkins this year. I’m predicting some very close matches between the three of them. I hate to admit it but Atlantic South region seems generally a little bit weaker compared to NE this year.
Let me know what I missed in the comments! I have to return to the real world this week but I’ll be back in a few weeks for Indoors coverage. Until then, I highly anticipate the upcoming articles from my co-bloggers on the women’s side (and men’s too of course). They have been phenomenal so far this season and I think we’re really starting to gain momentum. Hopefully we can keep it up.
-D3ASW
Rice has them playing on the 19th, so that is the likely explanation.
That makes more sense. Thanks for checking!