BONUS! State of the Region Address: Northeast

Today is the DIII Tennis site’s lucky day.  I’ve decided to do a State of the Region address for the one and only DIII Northeast, a region that has gotten basically no coverage so far this season.  It’s not fair to them and it certainly needs to change.  From here on out, I’ll be taking on dual duties as D3 Northeast as well as Atlantic South, because I know you guys just can’t get enough of me.  Let’s address the region as a whole, team by team, and later on I can get into previews, expectations and recaps.

Williams Ephs

(I’m really upset that Williams doesn’t have the freaking box scores on their site. Maybe this is why D3NE doesn’t get any coverage….)

To me, there is only one result that matters to Williams right now.  They lost 5-4 to CMS.  Thing is, I mean that in an extremely positive way.  With the way CMS has been dominating, Williams came out their ON CMS HOME COURTS and took them the distance, coming one close match away from pulling the upset.  Looking at the team, Williams has four key seniors playing in the lineup – Richard “Trey” Meyer (#1 singles), Felix “The Magician” Sun, Bryan “Captain Clutch” Chow and Zach “All Business” Weiss.  This is nothing but an advantage for this team as they continue their quest for a national title.  What we know about this team is they are one of the most dedicated and hardest working in the country, and they will improve up until the end of the season.  Fact of the matter is we can already see improvement.  They beat Pomona 6-3 and lost to CLU 5-4 early in their West Coast trip, then went on to destroy Skidmore 9-0 (who brought Kenyon to the limit) and was this close to CMS.  Overall, the Williams strength is definitely doubles, as they are a threat to sweep any team in the nation on a given day.  All 3 teams are solid, and they’ve got Chow at 3 doubles – he’s a former All-American.  They’ve swept Redlands, and taken 2 of 3 from both CMS and UCSC.  The only thing that really worries me about their lineup is their top 3 singles players.  Trey Meyer is a tough out for any #1 based on his game style, but it’s really hard for him to pull off big time upsets (unless they’re dying of heat stroke at NCAAs…).  However, he’s definitely a gamer and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him grit a huge match out in his last year.  The really surprising results this year have come from Felix Sun.  Once regarded as one of the best in D3, Sun has lost to Redlands, CLU, and UCSC in straight sets.  However, he took out Dorn easily at CMS so maybe he’s simply finding his game from the offseason.  Williams has one of the best 4-6’s in the nation, with Z. Weiss, Chow, and Weiss’s younger brother, Howard, who was one of the better recruits in the nation this year.  These guys have really saved them as they lost the top 3 singles against Redlands and CLU.  Overall, Williams doesn’t have anything to worry about.  They go about things the right way, and they’ll be contenders at the end of the season.

Current State: In Contention

Middlebury Panthers

Middlebury has been one of the pleasant surprises of this season, and we may or may not be seeing the Bob Hansen effect coming through already.  Currently in the top 10, the Panthers have already beaten the likes of Bates, UCSC, Redlands, Whittier, Whitewater, and Trinity (CT).  They stand as the #2 team in the conference and I honestly think they will give any team in the NESCAC and potentially the nation a challenge.  The only blemish on their schedule happens to be an 8-1 loss against CMS on their home courts.  I’d say that match has the most to say about the Panthers lineup than any other match they’ve played so far this year.  Much like an old UCSC team, the Panthers are literally rock solid at every spot.  Every singles player can win at his spot.  CMS, unfortunately for them, is “strong” at every singles spot.  Therefore, they were able to win 5 of 6 from MIDD and easily put away the match.  If you don’t believe me, take a look at their other matches – the Panthers aren’t “consistent” winners at any spot, but as a team they are a consistent winner.  It just so happens that where another team is very strong, they’ll probably lose that match.  Not to say this is a bad thing, of course.  Depth can get you as many matches as top-tier talent.  And you can definitely bet that Hansen will have his boys ready come playoff time.  One thing I do want to note – Alec Parower, who played #2 singles for them last year, has been totally dropped from the lineup.  He’s played in a few non-important matches so I don’t believe he’s injured.  It’s crazy to see the jumps year over year in lineups.  Either way, MIDD is a very deep team that is basically hoping they don’t play CMS.  Expect a workmanlike mindset for the year, and the clear potential to pull some upsets for a playoff run.

Current State: Working for Consistent Wins

Amherst Lord Jeffs

Potentially the most enigmatic team in DIII right now, the Lord Jeffs have basically coasted through this season.  It’s April and they haven’t won a big match – in fact, they’ve lost three big ones (Hop and CMU in the fall, and CLU in the spring).  However, they’ve beaten Bates, Whitewater, and Skidmore to avoid any huge losses so far.  What’s really funny about the Lord Jeffs is the inconsistencies in their lineups.  Half the time the lineup is Fritz/Yaraghi/Kahan/Fife and then random players in the bottom 2.  The top 4 are basically interchangeable, and the top 3 have gotten experience at #1 so far this year.  For Amherst, their clear strength is anything from 3-6 singles.  Not many teams are able to beat these guys at the bottom considering their amazing team talent and depth.  However, where teams can take advantage is at the top of the lineup and in doubles.  Looking at the team, I don’t see any true “doubles” players.  They’ve got talented guys, but that doesn’t always translate into doubles and we saw them go down against CLU pretty routinely 2-1.  CLU was actually a terrible matchup for them, considering they have a strong doubles lineup and a strong top.  However, I’m almost positive that Amherst did not give it their all lineup wise in that match and I’m not really sure they’ve done that this year.  To be honest, I can’t give a great assessment of this team.  But it seems to be common knowledge that the Lord Jeffs will turn it on at the end of the season and take out one of their NESCAC rivals to make it into Pool C (or quite possibly Pool A).  A team this talented and experienced is just not going to be denied.  I must say that they need to start winning as soon as possible, considering I’d assume they want to be at home for NCAA regionals.  It’ll be interesting to see their upcoming matches against Williams and Midd, as they will put a full lineup out there and we can see what they really can do.

Current State: Lurking in the Shadows

MIT Engineers

Surprise! You thought it was going to be Bates next, didn’t you.  (Unless you were Edwin Zhang, that guy retweets me like a boss)  Either way, MIT has been the quote unquote Cinderella Story of the year, as they’ve risen from an unranked team to an UNDEFEATED team, coming in at #20 in the country at the moment.  I think the funniest thing here is that this rise in the rankings is not correlated with a huge recruiting class.  They’ve only gotten one starter from their crop of freshmen.  It seems like the Engineers have put aside their TOUGH WORK LIFE (sorry, had to. It’s MIT. C’mon.) and put it all out on the practice courts, as they have a few players who are either playing over their head or just plain better.  One thing to note about MIT’s season is that they truly only have one big win, which was against Bates sans Rob Crampton.  But, a win is a win and right now the Engineers deserve to be where they are, and they are most definitely a team to watch down the stretch to see if they can pull out another season defining upset.  They’ve got Amherst today, so it’ll be their first true top 20 test.  Looking at the match against Bates, it’s clear that MIT is strong in singles.  They were able to pull out 5 of the 6 singles spots.  The thing to note about this is that they were able to get wins at the top 3 positions, known to be Bates’ strength, with or without Crampton.  Unfortunately for the Engineers, two of those top 3 were in three sets.  This match could have gone either way and Bates was missing their best player.  If they played again, I’d still be taking Bates.  Overall, this team will definitely make it into the tournament as a Pool B team, as I believe they are independent, and will be able to give a NESCAC team a scare in the regional.  Good season already for the Engineers, but hopefully they aren’t done.  Oh, and not to be racially insensitive… but look at the starters. Zhang, Pang, Wang, Oh, and Wu are the top 5 singles players on the team.  That’s pretty awesome.

Current State: Sitting Pretty

Bates Bobcats

How a season can change with just one match.  As we just read in the MIT write-up, Bates lost to an unranked team, basically destroying all their progress from last year, and now need an upset win to be considered for the Pool C ballot.  Tough times for a team that may have lost that match because their #1 player came down with a really bad case of the flu (or worse).  We all know the strengths and weaknesses of Bates, as they have a serious top 3 in singles, and a strong top 2 in doubles.  They’ve now added a very good #4 in Planche who has come up with huge wins this year (such as against Lim of Hopkins).  They are a very comparable team to Cal Lutheran, except they don’t have that stunning star power at the top.  It’s tough for this team to be giving up 3 spots at 3 doubles and 5/6 singles, as the better players essentially have to be perfect for Bates to come out with big wins.  We most recently saw this against Amherst, as Bates was able to win #1, 3, and 4 singles as well as #1 doubles.  Unfortunately, #2 doubles and #3 singles lost, simply because you aren’t going to sweep the top 4 spots against top 15 teams.  This was actually déjà vu, as they lost to Hopkins in similar fashion earlier this year, by the same score.  In that match, Hopkins took #2 and 3 doubles, as well as #1, #5, and #6 singles to give them the win.  Bates was able to take out the incredibly strong Hop 2-4, but still lost.  With Crampton at their top spot, it’s clear they can pull upsets.  However, they are definitely running out of time, especially with an MIT loss on their schedule.  Basically, they have a match against Bowdoin, which we’re not sure is going to count with a lot of strength, and the NESCACs where they are set up against Williams at the moment in the 1-4 matchup.  Both those matches are tough.  The Bobcats really need a HUGE day from the top 4 one of these days to get back into Pool C consideration.  It’s tough being a bobcat nowadays.

Current State: Living on a Prayer

Skidmore Thoroughbreds

Skidmore’s season can be likened to the family member that continues to live through his 20 year old son.  Basically, the Thoroughbreds have one true thoroughbred on the roster, and that is nationally ranked singles player Oliver Loutsenko.  Loutsenko is a national qualifier from last year, and has had his share of wins and close calls against some of the best players in all of DIII.  (Okay seriously, WTF is up with the Northeast teams and posting scores?)  He’s beaten Kenyon and Case #1’s so far this year, and is en route to another national qualifier.  Unfortunately for him, his team has not been able to capitalize on his great success at #1.  They’ve had their chances, as they were up 3-0 after doubles against the then #1 Kenyon Lords.  With a win at 1, Loutsenko made it 4 wins, but the rest of the team could not eek out a singles win.  I can’t really point out many positive things for Skidmore lately as they’ve gotten steamrolled by Amherst and Williams, as well as lost to Pomona-Pitzer, so I’ll make that a wrap for this team.  Basically, they’ll win the Liberty League and make the tournament.  But after that, it’s going to be a pretty big struggle.

Current State: Front Row Seats to Loutsenko

Bowdoin Polar Bears

Think I wouldn’t get in a nice Bowdoin Polar Bear section in D3Northeast?!  This is going to be the easiest write-up, as I really don’t even have to talk about results.  If you haven’t heard, the Bowdoin team has been rocked by a “hazing” scandal (dubbed #GoldfishGateBridge) and has sacrificed matches against Amherst, Williams, MIT, and Colby.  They’ve also been stripped of all postseason play, meaning there will be no NESCACs or NCAAs for the Polar Bears this year.  This is obviously a disappointment to the school and team, as they were sitting at #5 in the nation at the time of the suspensions.  I’ve been brought up to try and look at the bright side of things, and there are a few rays of sunshine coming through the Maine clouds.  First off, they’re only losing one senior, Casey Grindon.  Grindon plays #2 singles for Bowdoin, and although he’ll be missed, they will definitely be able to replace him going into next year.  Second off, they have a great coach.  Coach Conor Smith has completely changed what Bowdoin tennis is all about, and they’ve pulled off some incredible comebacks this year against CMU and Case Western, as well as plenty of legit wins for their resume.  This is not going to be a bad team anytime soon, regardless of off-the-court activities.   There is no way in hell that Coach Smith lets the team go through the motions for the rest of the season, and they would impress me that much more if they beat Bates on April 24^th.  I’ve got that date circled, as Bowdoin can basically end Bates season on that day.  This is a proud team that may come back with a vengeance next year as they prepare for a long offseason.  One thing I must say – maybe the penalty was too harsh, as you guys called out in the comments.  However, the University has a reputation to keep up, and apparently there have been past incidents.  Whether or not the actual act was “that bad” doesn’t matter for shit to the school officials.  Please understand where they come from, because that is their job.  It’s not their job to make your young college ego happy.  It’s to prevent anyone from potentially getting harmed and keeping school values.  Bowdoin players should only blame themselves for even putting themselves in this situation, and they set themselves up to get caught.  They are the only team out of the top 30 to get themselves into this, and you can’t blame anyone but yourselves for this.  Finish this season strong and come back next year even stronger.

Current State: Gone Fishin’

Overall, DIII Northeast really has a lot to offer in terms of talent and contender status.  They’ve got three teams (used to be 4) that had the opportunity to make the final 4, and I guarantee one of those teams makes a run.  Each one of the top teams has something to hang their hats on.  Williams has a senior core hungry for a championship.  MIDD has a championship coach and a strong resume.  Amherst has as much talent as anyone in the country.  Other regions should be very, very scared of what these teams can do if they get hot.