The Guru’s Elite 8 Recap

A recap of the eight teams that participated this week. I’m still speechless 48 hours later…

Johns Hopkins – I don’t think the Blue Jays have received enough credit for reaching four Final Eights in the past five years. That’s something teams like Bowdoin, Kenyon, Williams and Trinity (TX) have failed to do. Due to the Jays not playing a ton of top teams, they sometimes go unnoticed through the season, only to emerge as a very strong team at the end of the season. It’s worth noting that Hopkins graduated four starters from their 2015 Elite 8 team, so to return to the same place with such a young team is a great accomplishment and a credit to their upperclassmen. The bloggers took notice of what JHU did to Kenyon in last year’s Sweet 16 and several of us picked them in the Sweet 16 over CMU. I’m going to write a book this offseason called “Perks of Being a Pool A Team: The Hopkins Story” because it summarizes their last two seasons very well. I mentioned on Twitter a few days ago that prior to 2012, Hopkins used to struggle in the post-season after having really good regular seasons. The identity of this team has completely changed and they are a force to be reckoned with in the coming years. Despite the unfortunate end to their season this year, I believe Hopkins has a ton to be proud of and the future is bright for the Jays. #TankAndTree.

Kenyon – I think everyone including Kenyon can agree that the past couple years have not brought the same glory that the Lords saw in 2012 and 2013. However, these recent Kenyon teams are incredibly gritty and this looks like the second year in a row the Lords will find their way to a Top 10 finish. I said after 2014 that 2015 will be a challenge for Kenyon, and I said after 2015 that 2016 will be a challenge for Kenyon. Well, after 2016 I’m saying that 2017 will be a challenge for Kenyon due to the Lords losing two of their top three players, including Blog Season MVP Sam Geier who was on another planet for the majority of this season. Much like Hopkins, I think Kenyon has a lot to be proud of and they remain as one of the most well-coached and best programs in the country. The Lords really looked down and out for the majority of the year after their 8th place finish at Indoors, but Kenyon improved throughout the year and won the biggest match of their season in impressive fashion. I said in the preseason that a top 10 finish this year would be a huge victory for the Lords. The scrappiness of this team is extremely admirable, so my hat goes off to everyone involved with this program.

Wash U – Another shaky start to the season for Wash U, but another strong finish. The Bears began their season with their first ever Indoors quarterfinal loss and that turned into a 7th place finish. I’ll be interested to see if Wash U accepts an Indoors invite next year, because the last time they finished below 3rd at Indoors (2012), they skipped the following year. However, they rallied, won some big matches and ended up finishing second in the UAA after winning an absolute war against eventual Final Four team Chicago in the semis. The end of this season for the Bears was the same as the past seven seasons. They lost to a better team by a pretty wide margin. Wash U is arguably the most consistent program in the country but they have continually run up against really good teams late in NCAAs and not come close to a win. It’s pretty incredible to think Wash U has a very good shot at finishing in the Top 5 for the sixth consecutive year, but they haven’t been to an NCAA Final in any of those years. Despite not hoisting the trophy since 2008, Wash U is still viewed as arguably the most consistent, clutch and classy program in D3. Congrats to the Bears on another good recovery and I look forward to seeing what they can do in 2017 returning five starters from this year’s team.

CMS – The Stags had a very good season. As we’ve seen several times, it is really hard to make a deep run in NCAAs the year after winning a championship. As I noted on Twitter a few days ago, CMS is the 7th consecutive national champion that has failed to make it past the quarterfinals of NCAAs the following year. We aren’t talking about repeating as national champions, we are just talking about making the Final Four, and no one has done it. The Stags were young this year and entering the tournament as the #2 overall seed while having a regular season win against Midd was an outstanding accomplishment. They ran into a hot Chicago team on the wrong day. I’m very interested to see how CMS does next year after the loss of Skyler Butts. Pomona will have a strong core of upperclassmen and should challenge CMS. The West in general suffered from a tough year in 2016 as the Stags were the only team who will finish top 8 after the West had three last year. Overall, a pretty good rebuilding season for the Stags and with a good recruiting class coming in, they have a lot to look forward to if they can sure up doubles and the top of the lineup.

Chicago – For a good portion of the season, I believe Chicago suffered from the weight of high expectations. The Maroons started the season well with convincing wins at Indoors before being brought back down to earth by Emory. Then Chicago started a rough patch. They had an unimpressive California trip, a loss to Case Western at home and then a fourth place finish at UAAs after losses to Wash U and CMU. Many thought the Maroons were limping into NCAAs, but I believe all those people knew how dangerous Chicago really was. This was almost the identical team that beat a great Amherst squad in the quarters last year. After getting by Gustavus, Chicago was a trendy pick to upset CMS and that’s exactly what they did. The Maroons dominated a very good CMS team in singles and wound up in their second consecutive Final Four, which means that outside of Middlebury, Chicago has the longest Final Four streak in the country. Just like this year, I expect Chicago to enter next year as a popular national title pick in the preseason. However, next year I expect the Maroons to play at an extremely high level all season and once again be a presence in the final days of the NCAA tournament. They bring in an outstanding recruiting class and graduate no seniors, so I see no reason why they can’t take the next step in 2017.

Emory – We’ve seen recently in D3 that after a truly dominant regular season in which you look untouchable, it’s often very difficult to finish it off with a national title. We saw this from Amherst in 2012 and CMS in the two subsequent years. The CMS versions were painful to watch for me as a spectator and the Emory version in 2016 was almost as difficult. I will admit that some past Emory teams were not very likeable, but I found myself cheering for this year’s Emory squad more often than not. They played with energy and won with courtesy. The Eagles made four of six finals between 2007-2012 and won one national title. Since that title, Emory has yet to make it back to the national title match, but this 2016 team was something special. I feel bad for them, but with five of six starters back next year, they have a great base to make another deep run in NCAAs. Much like Midd who I’m about to discuss, the Eagles have to be scratching their heads a little bit about what happened this past Tuesday. I said in my NCAA Preview Q&A that Emory would not lose if they took a doubles lead, but Bowdoin somehow managed to find a way to win. Congratulations to Emory on a great season, but it just wasn’t meant to be this year.

Middlebury – Back to back runner up finishes is nothing to be ashamed of, but this one stings for the Panthers. Having a national title match against a team you beat easily a few weeks prior is about all you can ask for. Uncharacteristic of a Hansen-coached team, Midd did not play their best match in the NCAA final, and as I said in their season preview, I think this was their best chance to win NCAAs and things won’t get any easier. They just ran into a buzzsaw in Bowdoin and they can’t be faulted for that. Along with Chicago, Midd was a popular preseason pick to win nationals. I think there was little doubt throughout the season that the Panthers would make the Final Four, and if their quarterfinal and semifinal matches were any indication, they looked poised to continue the “Hansen Climb” and turn their 2015 Runner-Up into 2016 Champion. But it didn’t happen and I’m still scratching my head a little, particularly about the doubles results. This is a team that seemingly had all the pieces for a title, so I think this loss will haunt the coaching staff and the program for a while. Midd will need a lot of resilience to win a 3rd consecutive NESCAC title in 2017 with Bowdoin confident as ever, Amherst bringing in a huge recruiting class and Wesleyan on the rise. It’s going to be a long summer for the Panthers, but you know they will be hard at work again come September.

Bowdoin – I don’t even know where to start. My apologies to Bowdoin for my NCAA Q&A Preview, in which I said that the tournament was a three horse race between Emory, Midd and CMS. Clearly I was wrong, but as I mentioned on Twitter, Bowdoin is by far the most improbable national champion we’ve ever had. I always get a little sad at the end of these three and half months as the season ends, and this past Wednesday morning I was feeling a little down. I was thinking that Midd would win and this season would be “same old, same old.” About six hours later, I felt 100% better. It’s because Bowdoin won and we saw something that we’ve never seen before. In the fall of 2007, I was sitting in my apartment when I decided to create a website devoted to D3 Men’s Tennis. It began with an email to 15 coaches and a handful of players. It’s now nine years later, we have a team of amazing writers, women’s coverage and we just passed two million views. And I’m still as hooked as I’ve ever been on D3 tennis because of things like the Bowdoin Polar Bears run this week. I spent most of the other paragraphs in this article talking about team specifics and recapping seasons. Bowdoin doesn’t need a season recap. A 5-4 comeback after a doubles sweep then a 5-4 comeback against the heavy national title favorite followed by a 5-0 demolition of your conference rival that’s beaten you twice this season speaks for itself. Conor Smith came to Bowdoin at the same time Bob Hansen came to Middlebury from small Bridgewater College. No one would have predicted Smith to get the national championship first. That’s why I love D3 tennis and I always will.

As I’m writing this, Branden Metzler is making an incredible run on his home courts at Kalamazoo. Here’s to an amazing 2016 season from the players, coaches, fans and bloggers. Can’t wait for 2017!