4/8 Division III Power Rankings

Told you guys I’d get this thing in on time this week.  As always, here are our weekly power rankings for the second week of April.  Remember, these are power rankings, not necessarily how we believe the ITA Rankings will be.  Obviously, I don’t believe that Emory will be ranked ahead of Wash U – they lost to them earlier in the year.  The beauty of the power rankings is we can reward teams that are hot at the moment or have gotten things together after a potential rough start.  Also, power rankings are meant to cause some debate! So if you believe something’s up with our rankings, we are always willing to discuss.  Without further ado… we present the 4/8 Power Rankings.

Notable Movers:

Johns Hopkins, Down 2 Spots – Hopkins moved down to a season low #6 after this week’s performance in Atlanta.  They definitely got a wake-up call down there and are hit with a slight drop in the rankings due to the 7-2 loss.  While losing wasn’t that big of a deal, the way they lost was a bit concerning.  We know they still have great doubles and a solid singles lineup, so I’d say that this was just running into the wrong team at the wrong time.  Hopkins is still one of my contenders for a Final 4 spot when its all said and done.

Chicago, Up 2 Spots – Chicago keeps doing absolutely nothing and keeps moving up in the rankings.  They are benefiting from teams shitting the bed (like Redlands) and are staying the course.  This is a team that could have an outside chance of getting in the tournament with the way everyone else has been playing.  Big match against Case this weekend.

Redlands, Down 4 Spots – D3West fought hard for the drop of Redlands and rightfully so.  They were destroyed by CLU 8-1 this past weekend.  They were missing their second best player and an almost automatic win in Cummins at #2, but that is no excuse for losing 8-1 to a team that has a billion losses on the year already.  Redlands Pool C chances just got dropped to a minimal percentage and they will need a big win (probably CMS) to be considered in the conversation.  Good luck with that.

Wesleyan, Up 12 Spots – Amazing how things change in a week.  Wesleyan came off a shellacking by Tufts by coming back and beating Colby to get back in our good graces.  All of the teams in the 20-30 range are basically interchangeable at this point on any given day.  Wesleyan did enough this week to get back in the top 30.  Look for more matches from them in the near future.

“The Black Hole,” Up 1 Spot – The area now known as “The Black Hole” (dubbed by me) continues to creep up the rankings and has now claimed another team in Redlands.  Officially, this area of the rankings begins at #18 with Chicago.  “The Black Hole’s” has been making steps to claim some more teams as Gustavus recently dodged a nail biter and Bowdoin escaped MIT, both by scores of 5-4.  The pull from this region is strong at the moment and we can only hope it doesn’t claim another top 20 team.  Let’s hope Neil Degrasse Tyson goes more in depth about “The Black Hole” so we can understand this strange phenomena.