3/23 Power Rankings

Another day in the books, ladies and gentlemen. What a great day at the office. If you haven’t heard, there was an incredible match today between Williams and Pomona Pitzer that had massive implications for who is going to make the tournament later on this year.  If you weren’t following, Williams took the 5-4 win and put themselves in contention for a final Pool C spot.  Unfortunately, we did our power rankings last night, so that match is not reflected in the below Power Rankings.  Also not reflected is D3ASW, who has gone MIA once again, but to no one’s surprise this time around.  Enjoy the Power Rankings and please feel free to lambast any of the writers in the comments.  That includes me.PowerRankings323

Notable Moves

Bowdoin, up 3 Spots to #3 – What a move for Bowdoin as they went out and swept CMS (like Emory did) and took the final match 7-2.  They did this on the CMS home courts and they did it fairly easily too. Bowdoin was actually ranked #2 by D3TennisGreek, who I guess really likes Maine Lobster Rolls because that’s the only reason why I’d put them over Middlebury at this point.  But, these are power rankings and people will do as they please (as you will see later).  Bowdoin deserves to be in national championship conversations now and the Power Rankings reflect that.

Tufts, up 7 Spots to #15 – A good week for the NESCAC I see.  Tufts moves up 7 spots in the rankings as they have taken their Spring Break by storm, beating Whitman as well as Cruz, very handily.  They also took out a pesky Stevens team.  Tufts lost to Chicago today (not reflected in the rankings even if it wouldn’t change anything) but were able to give them a quick scare before bowing out 8-1.  Tufts is a clearly talented team who is finally putting it altogether.  Unfortunately, they are on the very outside looking in when it comes to Pool C.  However, I’m sure they would appreciate their top 15 ranking.

W&L, down 6 spots to #26 – It’s almost unfair to drop W&L in the Power Rankings due to injuries, but we have to face the facts.  W&L recently lost two of their top guys to various injuries and they will be out at least a month.  It’s terrible timing because the Generals are coming off their first big win in years and were officially in the top 20.  Now, they get an upstart Swarthmore team that is licking their chops for this matchup.  While I think W&L is the better team at full strength, they are probably going to take some lumps with their best guys out.

Mary Washington, down 11 spots to #34 – UMW was all over the map for the bloggers in these Power Rankings, with me ranking them at #39 or something and D3Central actually going all the way down to #40. It really has been a slippery slope for the Eagles and they need to stop the bleeding.  When you lose to an unranked team in F&M 6-3, you’re lucky to get a ranking.  I was seriously considering dropping them since they lost their best player and have 0 depth at the bottom of the lineup right now.  Apparently, the Eagles have two believers in D3TennisGreek and D3Regional, but whatever. I’m not one, and that’s all that matters.

F&M, Ithaca enter the rankings – Welcome to our newest entries, F&M and Ithaca.  F&M beat the previously mentioned UMW Eagles and I have no idea what Ithaca did but apparently the other bloggers do.  Congratulations to these two teams on their hard work – now it’s time to compete with the big boys and keep that Power Ranking.

Alright, that’s all we’ve got for the day.  Feel free to check back tomorrow morning for a D3Central celeb shot cameo State of the Region.  Ah, it’s good to get the old guy back.  Here’s to hoping he’s around to stay.  Please also stay tuned as I update the Pool C analysis either today (Thursday) or tomorrow.  It should be interesting!  ASouth, OUT.

One thought on “3/23 Power Rankings

  1. D3 TennisGreek

    Since I was called out, I wanted to shed some light as to why I ranked Bowdoin at #2 over Middlebury. Before I get to specifics, let me first say that I was considering dropping Middlebury, but in my process of determining rankings, I never punish a team for a win. So, although the Panthers’ performance against Wesleyan wasn’t the best in my opinion, they still won. Therefore, the only way Middlebury would drop would be if another team performed better over the past week, and that’s exactly what Bowdoin did. From March 16th-22nd, the Polar Bears defeated Whitman 8-1, Skidmore and CMS 7-2, and Chapman 8-1. I was especially impressed with the Whitman and CMS matches. Whitman is a fine team, but the Polar Bears were playing without a No. 6 singles player due to illness. Apparently, most of the team was not feeling well for the match. So, for Bowdoin to make light work of Whitman signaled to me that they were the real deal. Then, the Polar Bears went on to roll past a very strong CMS squad (who we will have at #5). If they had beaten CMS 5-4, I probably would have ranked them #3 or #4, but Bowdoin proved over the past week that they could be national championship contender.

    Overall, there isn’t too much of a difference between Nos. 2-6 in the power rankings, so it will be exciting to see how things pan out. Just wanted to throw my two cents in. Thanks ASouth 🙂

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