Unlike last year, we are getting these awards out as promptly as possible. In order to celebrate two things – Bowdoin’s surprising, amazing, unexpected National Championship, and the fact that we just hit 2,000,000 all-time views on the blog. Check any other tennis site that has that many views. Not sure if there are many. Anyways, it’s been a great day for us, and again, congrats to the Bowdoin Polar Bears. I will commemorate their journey soon enough as I always do for the champion at the end of the season. “The Bowdoin Journey,” anyone? I was so shocked by the Polar Bears run that I just can’t stop talking about it. But, this article is for all the other great performers we had this season. Let’s get down to business. After this article, we’ll have a few more articles to come as well as the Bracket Challenge that D3NE just posted, so all is not yet done in NCAA land. Watch out, there might be some t-shirts being handed out at NCAAs. First, let’s crown our MVP.
MVP
#1 Sam Geier, Kenyon
#2 Rafe Mosetick, Emory
#3 Skyler Butts. CMS
#4 Noah Farrell, Middlebury
#5 CJ Krimbill, Case Western
#6 Matt Heinrich, Stevens
Others Receiving Votes: Paxton Deuel (Trinity), David Liu (Chicago), Luke Tercek (Bowdoin), Michael Holt (W&L), Mark Fallati (Swarthmore)
This was one of the more agreed upon picks, surprisingly. Sam Geier got the vote of a lot of our bloggers, simply because he was amazing this year. With wins over almost everyone in the country, Kenyon would be nowhere without Sam. What a senior year for Geier. The rest of the MVP candidates did well this year and many are the big names we expected in this race. Some honorable mentions are also provided for those who had stellar years at their positions.
MIP
#1. Aman Manji, Emory
#2. Luke Tercek, Bowdoin
#3. Graham Maassen, Pomona Pitzer
#4. Ben Rosen, Bates
#5. Johnny Wu, Wash U
Others Receiving Votes: Michael Liu (Kenyon), Glenn Hull (CMS), Jay Glickman (Tufts), Steven Chen (Wesleyan), Noah Farrell (Middlebury)
One of my favorite awards in DIII when we don’t restrict ourselves to just seniors. All these guys took a step up this year. Manji was another pick that was almost unanimous across the board as he arguably became the best #3 player in the country. Despite a loss in NCAAs, that does not take away from Manji’s amazing play this year. Shoutout to Bates player Ben Rosen for moving up from #5 singles to a national qualifier at #1 singles. Impressive stuff.
Freshman of the Year
#1. Jonathan Jemison, Emory
#2. Alex Cauneac, MIT
#3. Daniel Levine, Carnegie Mellon
#4. Arthur Fagundes, UT-Tyler
#5. Charlie Pei, Chicago
#6. Adrien Bouchet, Emory
#7. Jerry Jiang, Bowdoin
#8. Nicholas Paolucci, Kenyon
I don’t know why people are so enamored with the first and last of every team (seniors and freshmen), but I guess we have to do it. Freshman of the Year is basically Rookie of the Year except without Derbani, who has played professional tennis in the past, apparently. Great job by the commentator today to point that out. Anyways, you all know who my pick for this was. Jonathan Jemison, and it’s not even close.
Coach of the Year
#1. Conor Smith, Bowdoin
#2. Mike Fried, Wesleyan
#3. John Browning, Emory
#4. Frank Barnes, UW-Whitewater
#5. Bob Hansen, Middlebury
Others receiving votes: Scott Thielke (Kenyon), Paul Settles (CMS), Roger Follmer (Wash U), Karl Gregor (Tufts), Andrew Girard (CMU)
After today’s performance, there really wasn’t anyone else that go at the top spot. Congratulations to Coach Smith on the most amazing season Bowdoin has ever seen. And an incredible NCAA run that we’ve never seen before. Others worth noting are Wesleyan’s Coach Fried and UWW’s Coach Barnes, who led their teams to seasons that were previously unprecedented. Hats off to you guys.
Senior of the Year
#1. Rafe Mosetick, Emory
#2. Skyler Butts, CMS
#3. Sam Geier, Kenyon
#4. CJ Krimbill, Case Western
#5. Matt Heinrich, Stevens
#6. Paxton Deuel, Trinity TX
#7. Luke Trinka, Bowdoin
#8. Palmer Campbell, Middlebury
Deja’ vu, anyone? This is basically like our MVP voting.
Match of the Year
- Bowdoin def Hopkins, 5-4, NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals
- Bowdoin def. Emory, 5-4, NCAA Tournament Semfinals
- CMS def Tyler, NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 Match
- CNU def Hopkins, Regular Season Upset
- W&L def NCW, NCAA Tournament Round of 64
- Kenyon def Case, NCAA Tournament Round of 16
- GAC def Tyler, Stag Hen Invitational
- Nichols def Colby-Sawyer, NCAA Tournament, Round of 64
Kudos to all the teams that participated in these matches. Every single one left me on the edge of my seat glued to my computer screen. What an effort from so many teams this year, and you all deserve to be recognized.
The Blog’s 2016 1st Team All-Blog Selections
#1 Doubles – CJ Krimbill/Louis Stuerke, Case Western
#2 Doubles – Jonathan Jemison/Rafe Mosetick, Emory
#3 Doubles – David Omsky/Andrew Harrington, Emory
#1 Singles – Noah Farrell, Middlebury
#2 Singles – Jonathan Jemison, Emory
#3 Singles – Aman Manji, Emory
#4 Singles – Adrien Bouchet, Emory
#5 Singles – Luke Tsai, Chicago
#6 Singles – Grant Urken, Bowdoin
Ah, the first team selections. With an undefeated season, Emory dominated 5 spots in the lineup to pick up All-Blog 1st Team Selections. Now, this didn’t get them a championship, but it got them pretty darn close. Emory put up a battle against Bowdoin and were one match away from taking out the national champions. It sounds weird to say. Surprising to see Bowdoin only have one player on the first team, but that just speaks to the incredible run they had as well as the great up and down team they had as well.
The All-Blog 2nd Team Selections
#1 Doubles – Eric Roddy/Jack Gray, Sewanee
#2 Doubles – Ari Smolyar/Noah Farrell, Middlebury
#3 Doubles – Chase Savage/Gil Roddy, Bowdoin
#1 Singles – Sam Geier, Kenyon
#2 Singles – David Liu, Chicago
#3 Singles – Palmer Campbell, Middlebury
#4 Singles – William De Quant, Middlebury
#5 Singles – Gil Roddy, Bowdoin
#6 Singles – Peter Leung, Chicago
Good to see an under the radar team like Eric Roddy and Jack Gray make the All-Blog 2nd team. The rest of the players were all part of Elite 8 teams and for good reason. All of these guys played huge parts in their team’s success and deserve a lot of credit for what they did this year. Bowdoin and Middlebury are well-represented in this go-round as we continue on to our 3rd Team.
The All-Blog 3rd Team Selections
#1 Doubles – Skyler Butts/Daniel Morkovine, CMS
#2 Doubles – Jonathan Kim/Jake Yasgoor, Pomona Pitzer
#3 Doubles – William De Quant/Kyle Schlanger, Middlebury
#1 Singles – Rafe Mosetick, Emory
#2 Singles – Ari Smolyar, Middlebury
#3 Singles – Daniel Morkovine, CMS
#4 Singles – Jerry Jiang, Bowdoin
#5 Singles – Hamid Derbani, Middlebury
#6 Singles – Kyle Schlanger, Middlebury
A lot of familiar names as expected to round out the 3rd team selections. Middlebury really saw a big participation here as they took the bottom spots in singles and doubles. Good to see a couple of newcomers in Jiang and Derbani make the list as well. Two seniors in Rafe Mosetick and Ari Smolyar go out with some hardware as well.
The All-Blog Honorable Mentions
#1 Doubles – Palmer Campbell/Hamid Derbani, Middlebury & Luke Trinka/Luke Tercek, Bowdoin
#2 Doubles – Kyle Wolfe/Jerry Jiang, Bowdoin & Steven Chen/Michael Liu, Wesleyan
#3 Doubles – Joachim Samson/Peter Rudovsky, Wesleyan & Abhishek Alla/Yuvraj Kumar, CMU
#1 Singles – Skyler Butts, CMS & CJ Krimbill, Case Western
#2 Singles – Arthur Fagundes, UT-Tyler & Glenn Hull, CMS
#3 Singles – Luke Trinka, Bowdoin & Tyler Barr, MIT
#4 Singles – Joachim Samson, Wesleyan & Max Macey, CMS
#5 Singles – Josh Goodman, Emory & Cameron Daniels, Wesleyan
#6 Singles – Lestter Yeh, CMS & Deepak Indrakanti, Williams
I love me some Honorable Mentions. We get a lot of players from a lot of different teams including Wesleyan, Case Western, Williams, and MIT. Good to see all of these teams have standout performers that should be recognized for their accomplishments. Wesleyan sure looks like a team on the rise, don’t they?
As a blog team, we would again like to thank you for your participation in the blog this year. You still have all summer to provide feedback to us, so please do so in the feedback thread, linked here. We still have individuals to go and D3NE is trying to end his battle with bracketmaker.com in order to get you the Bracket Challenge you want and need. Without further ado, ASouth, OUT.
Great men’s article! I’d love to see one for the women’s side, particularly the honorable mentions and third teams so that we can get past the Emory and Williams usual business. I think what you’ve been doing is awesome and much appreciated, but do know that the demand for women’s coverage exists, even if a little in excess of supply