And we’re back. Last time, I didn’t get these Power Rankings in at the appropriate time and people were all like “wtf, didn’t (insert team) beat (insert team) yesterday?” Only thing I have to say to that is, you try having a job and a blog to run. As I am sure you are all aware, it is now time for another edition of the famous Division III Tennis Power Rankings. If you have suggestions on how to make this more interactive or fun, please let me know. I just want to have everyone involved. Call me a crowd-pleaser.
Notable Movers
Williams, up 6 spots to #9 – Williams has burst onto the scene to move into the top 10 in Power Rankings for the first time since their National Championship season in 2014. While I’m not the biggest believer in their team, I really have no choice but to rank them #9 because of their big win over Pomona (it was an impressive one too). They get a shot to prove everyone they are even better as they play CMS today at 7PM ET. I don’t think this will be a win, but it’s going to be a close one. Williams is a tough team that needs every win they can get to make the tournament and they have the guys that are tired of missing out on the big dance.
Redlands, up 4 spots to #14 – Well, Redlands beat Tufts, who beat Whitman, who beat Redlands. Yuck. I personally think all of the teams after #14 are basically going to beat each other up unless one team has home court or an injury or something like that, which explains why this is all happening. At this rate, the “black hole” we experienced back in 2014 and 2015 is becoming the norm. D1 is experiencing it too a little bit as a ton of top 10 teams went down last week. Bobby Knight of CollegeTennis2Day even tweeted that he thinks everyone below the top 4 are basically susceptible to upsets to anyone else within the top 50 or something. It’s not a blackhole. It’s just that there really aren’t that many standout schools anymore. Any given day, right.
Chris Newport, up 11 Spots to #20 – Do I want to live in a world where Christopher Newport is my 3rd ranked team in the region? No, I do not. But, Sonny Dearth does, and that means I can let it happen for the greater good. Newport came in and took Hopkins by surprise (sound familiar) by beating them 5-4 over the weekend. Newport breaks into our top 20 for the first time ever in my career and it is well-deserved. While I don’t believe they are top 20, some of the other bloggers do. I personally ranked them #22 behind UT-Tyler and Bates because let’s be honest, those teams should be better than the Captains at this point. However, CNU is now the favorite to win the CAC over Mary Washington. Insanity.
Johns Hopkins, down 10 spots to #22 – Welcome to the 2016 Season Hopkins! You have already have disappointed us all in your first big match of the season, in true Hopkins fashion. I would like to call out that Hopkins also cancelled their match with Bates because they apparently “forgot” to book Indoor courts against them. Who forgets to book courts? Sounds fishy. I personally ranked Hopkins below Bates because at this rate, Bates is a better team. Would have loved to see that match go down. I don’t know what’s going on in Baltimore, but Hopkins has just been on the downhill for a couple years now. I miss Warren Elgort.
W&L, down 4 spots to #30 – Well, this was just a case of some bloggers being slow on the uptake. W&L should have fell last week due to the injuries they’ve sustained, but some people, particularly from the Central region, particularly D3Central and D3Greek, ranked them at #20. Well, they got smoked by Swarthmore expectedly and now are back down to #30. God giveth, god taketh away. This is a good team that’s run on some really bad luck. We’ll get them back when they come back around.
Things to Note – Note that we don’t have anyone at #42, because no one else gained a point in the Power Rankings. Ithaca was there last week with 0 points but only because of MS Excel sorting reasons. This week, no one gets a free pass. Also, I would like to point out that ASW and Greek have UMW above F&M, causing UMW to inexplicably be ranked ahead of the team that beat them. And lastly, of course ASW comes in and knocks Case’s ranking down 2 slots because he isn’t a believer of the Spartans. To each their own, champ.
There you have it. Go to town. ASouth, OUT.