Hello, all! We’re gearing up for the NCAA season and that means that power rankings are definitely in high demand. Below, you’ll find our updated rankings based on all the events that have happened up until this past weekend. Crazy things happened this weekend as you know, so there have been some big shake-ups. Let us know what you think, because your feedback is always appreciated! Please keep in mind that these are power rankings only. These are not meant to reflect how we think the ITA rankings will come out. Please also base any of your bracketology scenarios on the ITA rankings, not our power rankings. Thank you.
| New Ranking | Previous Rank | D3AS | D3West | D3NE | D3 Central | |
| 1 | CMS | 1 | CMS | CMS | CMS | CMS |
| 2 | Wash U | 3 | Wash U | Wash U | Wash U | Wash U |
| 3 | Trinity TX | 6 | Middlebury | Trinity TX | Johns Hopkins | Trinity TX |
| 4 | Carnegie Mellon | 8 | Amherst | Carnegie Mellon | Carnegie Mellon | Carnegie Mellon |
| 5 | Middlebury | 5 | Trinity TX | Emory | Middlebury | Middlebury |
| 6 | Johns Hopkins | 7 | Johns Hopkins | Johns Hopkins | Amherst | Amherst |
| 7 | Amherst | 2 | Carnegie Mellon | Middlebury | Emory | Emory |
| 8 | Emory | 4 | Emory | Amherst | Trinity Tx | Johns Hopkins |
| 9 | Case Western | 9 | Case Western | Case Western | Case Western | Case Western |
| 10 | Pomona | 11 | Pomona | Pomona | Pomona | Williams |
| 11 | Whitman | 12 | Whitman | Whitman | Whitman | Pomona |
| 12 | Williams | 13 | Williams | Williams | Williams | Whitman |
| 13 | Gustavus Adolphus | 14 | Gustavus Adolphus | Kenyon | Gustavus Adolphus | Gustavus Adolphus |
| 14 | Kenyon | 15 | Kenyon | Gustavus Adolphus | Kenyon | Kenyon |
| 15 | Mary Washington | 16 | Mary Washington | Mary Washington | Bowdoin | Mary Washington |
| 16 | Bowdoin | 10 | Skidmore | Skidmore | Mary Washington | UT-Tyler |
| 17 | Skidmore | 18 | Bowdoin | Bowdoin | UT-Tyler | Skidmore |
| 18 | UT-Tyler | 17 | Chicago | Chicago | Cal Lutheran | Bowdoin |
| 19 | Cal Lutheran | 19 | Cal Lutheran | Cal Lutheran | Skidmore | Chicago |
| 20 | Chicago | 20 | Redlands | Redlands | Redlands | Cal Lutheran |
| 21 | Redlands | 21 | UT-Tyler | UT-Tyler | Chicago | Redlands |
| 22 | UCSC | 22 | UCSC | UCSC | UCSC | Depauw |
| 23 | Whittier | 23 | Whittier | Whittier | DePauw | UCSC |
| 24 | DePauw | 24 | Washington & Lee | Depauw | Whittier | Whittier |
| 25 | Trinity CT | 29 | Trinity CT | Trinity CT | Trinity Ct | Washington & Lee |
| 26 | Washington & Lee | 26 | Tufts | Bates | Washington & Lee | Trinity CT |
| 27 | Tufts | 28 | DePauw | Tufts | Tufts | Tufts |
| 28 | Denison | 27 | Denison | Brandeis | Denison | Denison |
| 29 | Bates | 25 | Wesleyan | Denison | Brandeis | Bates |
| 30 | Brandeis | 30 | Bates | Washington & Lee | Wesleyan | Brandeis |
| 31 | Wesleyan | 31 | Sewanee | Wesleyan | Colby | Wesleyan |
| 32 | Colby | 32 | Colby | Colby | Bates | Colby |
| 33 | RPI | 33 | RPI | RPI | RPI | Sewanee |
| 34 | Sewanee | 34 | Brandeis | NYU | Sewanee | Swarthmore |
| 35 | NYU | 38 | NYU | MIT | NYU | MIT |
| 36 | MIT | 36 | MIT | UW-Whitewater | MIT | NYU |
| 37 | Swarthmore | 35 | UW-Whitewater | Pacific (OR) | UW-Whitewater | RPI |
| 38 | UW-Whitewater | 37 | Swarthmore | Swarthmore | Swarthmore | UW-Whitewater |
| 39 | Pacific (OR) | 39 | Pacific (OR) | Sewanee | Rochester | Rochester |
| 40 | Rochester | 40 | Rochester | Stevens | Stevens | Stevens |
| 41 | Stevens | 41 | Stevens | Rochester | Pacific (OR) | Pacific (OR) |
| 42 | Vassar | 42 | Vassar | Vassar | Vassar | Vassar |
Notable Moves:
Amherst, Down 5 Spots – Amherst falls as they were previously #2 in our rankings. They are now ranked at #7, inflated by my ranking of them at #3. This is obviously due to the loss to Middlebury. Amherst gets another shot at them this weekend in the NESCAC championship, most likely, so we’ll see what happens.
Emory, Down 4 Spots – Emory drops with their loss to previously #8 CMU. Emory looks vulnerable right now in doubles and that has really hurt them this year staving off upsets.
CMU, Up 4 Spots – See Emory. CMU may have found the doubles connection and they are looking like a pretty strong team right now. They have been rewarded with their highest ranking of all time in our power rankings.
Bowdoin, Down 6 Spots – Bowdoin has continued to put out weak results lately, with their loss to Bates and getting easily beaten by Williams. Bowdoin is really struggling right now and it’s pretty crazy to me that they’ve dropped so far from being a recent Elite 8 team. We’ll see where Bowdoin is ranked in the next update.
That’s all, folks. Please as always, debate amongst yourselves in the comments and we will usually chime in!
Insane that Amherst drops to 7 after their lose to Midd and I’m a supporter of a different NESCAC team.
Three best teams in the country right now are CMS, Wash U, Amherst, and Midd.
I also for the life of me can’t figure out why Trinity is #3. Their best win is Case. Whoever gets them in the Elite Eight will be quite happy.
I think you’re right about Amherst being better than their ranking. The problem right now is that we can’t exactly rank them higher because their best win is a 5-4 W over Williams. (We don’t take Fall results into account).
Your shot is Trinity is completely misguided because their best win is better than Amherst’s, and they didn’t need to eek out a 5-4 to beat Case.
I fully expect Amherst to avenge themselves in the NESCAC finals, but until that happens, it’s hard to justify keeping them in the top 3, as much as I would like to.
While I agree that if you’re the NCAA or ITA you can’t justify ranking Amherst too high, but you’re just putting together power rankings. Aren’t they inherently subjective and left to the discretion of the ranker? If you think they’re better then their ranking, as you say they are, shouldn’t you just rank them higher? Also, I don’t mean to come off snobby, I’m just making conversation.
I guess my argument for Trinity, which admittedly could also be made for Amherst and I’m sure a few other teams, is that if they had started the season at #20 or so would they be #3 right now? And the answer is no way. Their high ranking is based almost entirely off past results and their high pre-season rank.
You’re right. I should’ve ranked Amherst higher.
The reason I ranked Trinity so high is because I thought that they would get put at 8 by everyone else, and I wanted them to end up closer to where they should be, which is 5 or 6. The thing about Trinity is that they’re currently being punished by the ITA for not playing a good enough schedule. They seem to be a notch above the 9-15 teams, many of whom they have beaten (Case, Whitman, P-P), but they just haven’t played any matches against the 3-8 crew. The ITA is sticking them on the bottom of that list because of that. My “Power Rankings” argument is that if they played all five of those teams (Hopkins, Amherst, Midd, CMU, Emory), they would win at least two matches. If I could do it over again, mine would probably look more like D3AS’
Seriously??? Amherst loses 5-4 at Middlebury indoors at Midd’s funky courts and they drop 5 spots. Does anyone not think that Amherst will make Final 4 at nationals (unless they get bad draw and play CMS in quarters)? Are they really losing to CMU, Trinity or Hopkins? Maybe there’s the transitive property at work here (CMU beat Emory who beat Middlebury who beat Amherst), and you are letting the racquets do the talking but shouldn’t the rankings reflect entire body of work which should put Amherst/CMU (assuming Alla plays)/Middlebury in some order of 3/4/5? #WaitTillNationals
Hey, I agreed with you! By the way, Alla is playing for CMU – him sitting out the UAA final was a short term thing from what I have heard. But anyways, I ranked Midd and Amherst 3rd and 4th respectively.