We are the champions, my friends, and WEEEEEE’LLLLLLLLL KEEEEEEEP ON FIIIIIIIIGHTING TIL THE ENDDDDDDDDD! Not to beat a dead Stag (see what I did there) but for the 4th time in the last 5 years the National Champion has come out of my region. MINE! NOT YOURS!! The NESCAC now has the closest thing to a dynasty that exists in DIII, and I’m pretty damn happy about it. All through the year, I took a fair amount of crap from my other writers. What’s that, D3West? You have a lot of top-30 teams and something stirring in your pants for Trinity Tx? Well we have a national champion! Speak up, D3Central? WashU and Chicago will be nasty next year? Talk to me when you have a National Championship. What did you say, D3ASouth? You run this blog? Oh wait, that’s right, YOU DID NOTHING IN ANY TOURNAMENT! At least the Central boys took home some hardware in the doubles. Sheesh. Well now that I’ve aired out at least a few of my grievances (a Festivus miracle, I know), I’ll move on to recapping the NE season in the same format as the other writers. If I didn’t recap your team, I’m sorry. As Ice-T would say, “nothin personal, iz just businezz”. I’ll warn you right now, this is gonna be a long article. There are more NE teams in The Blog’s Power Reankings than any other region. This will be one of the last articles of the year, so hunker down, grab a light snack, and let’s get down to “businezz”. I’ll be going in reverse Power Ranking order…
NOTE: I’m starting to realize that this article is getting longer and longer. I’m going to save the All-NE-Teams (that’s right, plural baby) until tomorrow.
Vassar
Preseason Prediction: NR
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 15
Blog Finish: #42
Graduating Senior(s): None!
Best Win: 5-4 over RPI
Worst Loss: 6-3 to Rochester.
Quick Season Recap: Vassar entered the black hole with a nice win against RPI. However, they were the darkest depth of the hole. They have not replaced the Guzicks, and because of the Liberty League new bid the Brewers no longer get their yearly independent bid to NCAAs. Vassar will need to step up its recruiting if it hopes to compete with the likes of Skidmore for an NCAA berth.
Stevens
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=25 (ASOUTH’S PREDICTION)
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 18
Blog Finish: #42
Graduating Senior(s): None! They don’t even have a Junior!!
Best Win: 7-2 over Rochester
Worst Loss: 5-4 to TCNJ
Quick Season Recap: Yuck. I feel dirty even writing that Stevens’ best win came against Rochester. This was supposed to be a team with a place in the top 30. Graduation hit hard, and I’m sure Coach Gachko would like to label this season as “rebuilding” and move forwards. Close losses to top 20 teams like Mary Wash, Redlands, Kenyon, and Skidmore, don’t make up for close losses to teams like NYU, Swarthmore, and TCNJ, but they do provide positive take-aways. Stevens could be a team to watch next year, as they’ll look to move back into the top 30. Shout-out to Matty Heinrich for being a constant contributor.
Rochester
Preseason Prediction: NR
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 14
Blog Finish: #39
Graduating Senior(s): David Wolf, Boris Borovcanin
Best Win: 6-3 over NYU
Worst Loss: 6-3 to Chapman
Quick Season Recap: I’m gonna be honest with all of you, before this season the only thing I really knew about Rochester was that they were the bottom-feeder of the UAA. While they did finish in 8th place again, the Yellow Jackets impressed me this year. The depth of the UAA got much better this year, and Rochester ended their regular season playing some good ball. Rochester wasn’t even regionally ranked at the start of the season, so a top-15 finish is something to be proud of. Shout-out to Ben Shapiro for being a constant contributor
MIT
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=28th, Regionally=9th
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 13th
Blog Finish: #38
Graduating Senior(s): Edwin Zhang, Vlad Firoiu
Best Win: 5-4 over RPI (Fall)
Worst Loss: 5-4 to Bowdoin
Quick Season Recap: Somewhat questionable choices for best win and worst loss. Why does a fall win over a non-top-30 team count as MIT’s best? Well that’s an easy win, it literally their only good win. Why does a 5-4 loss to a top 15 team constitute the worst loss of the season? Well, the Engineers swept the Polar Bears, and went into singles knowing that Bowdoin was without their best player. MIT came out on the wrong side of 3 3-setters and dropped a match that would’ve kept them in the top 30. Tough year for a talented team. Shout-out to Mr. BlackSwanTennis for being a constant twitter contributor.
RPI
Preseason Prediction: NR
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 16
Blog Finish: #36
Graduating Senior(s): Jarrett Regier, Andrew Vorbrodt
Best Win: 5-4 over Skidmore
Worst Loss: 5-4 to Vassar
Quick Season Recap: Same mascot, different story. Although MIT won the battle of Engineers in the fall, RPI should be proud of the year they’ve had. Not a necessarily program defining season, but pretty damn close. While not many of us expected RPI to have this type of season, RPI did. A couple of tough 5-4 losses kept RPI out of the top 30, but they did make their ITA rankings debut at one point in the season. Losing Regier will be tough, but look for LaBarre and the Engineers to come back strong next season. Shout-out to the fabulous RPI Women’s Twitter Account.
NYU
Preseason Prediction: NR
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 11
Blog Finish: #35
Graduating Senior(s): Steven Wu, Tim Wu, Bowen Xu
Best Win: 5-4 over Skidmore
Worst Loss: 6-3 to Rochester
Quick Season Recap: NYU really kicked off the crazy black-hole filled season of the NE with a 5-4 win over Skidmore. I’m sure the Violets believed they could win, but for the rest of us this win absolutely came out of nowhere. That was the match where Loutsenko hurt his wrist, but NYU really came through in the clutch. NYU also managed to sneak out 5-4 wins over Brandeis and Stevens. Their loss to Rochester kept the Violets from possibly being a top-20 team in the ITA rankings. Honestly, I don’t think this team was top-20 material, but a ton of credit is due to Coach Choy, Steven Wu, and the entire Violet squad.
Colby
Preseason Prediction: NR
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 12
Blog Finish: #32
Graduating Senior(s): Jason Ottomano, Sam Bachelder, Jack Bryant, Matt Carroll, Luke Martin, Max Pollinger.
Best Win: 6-3 over Bates
Worst Loss: 6-3 to Brandeis
Quick Season Recap: I don’t know why I’ve been so damn positive today. People often ask me, “hey D3NE, how do you stay so positive?” I’m just a happy-go-lucky sort of guy, so Uncle D3NE is going to continue to dole out the feel-goods. Along with NYU, Colby really was the surprise regional team of 2014. Their win over Bates shocked the world, and they proved it wasn’t just a fluke by taking down UWW and playing both Wesleyan and Tufts down to the wire. It was tough to see Ottomano out for so much of this season, but huge props are due to Carl Reid. Clearly the freshman of the region.
Wesleyan
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=22nd, Regionally=7th
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 10
Blog Finish: #31
Graduating Senior(s): NONE!!!!!!!
Best Win: 6-3 over Bates
Worst Loss: 8-1 to Tufts
Quick Season Recap: Wesleyan is a team that is clearly already looking ahead to next season. Their online schedule is already for the fall of 2014. Did anyone really think this team was gonna be that good this year? That person must look pretty darn foolish now. It was a tough year for the Cards who were chalk full of expectations after making NESCACs at the #5 seed in 2013. Wesleyan is a very young team, and unsurprisingly they failed to live up the astronomical expectations. Like the Sand People, they will be back, and in greater numbers. I will never stop hyping this team. Freshmen management and doubles play, the two big weaknesses for the Cards in 2014, will have to become their strengths in 2015. Shout-out to Sam Rudovsky for keeping us updated during the dark days of no Wesleyan Tennis Twitter account.
Brandeis
Preseason Prediction: NR
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 9
Blog Finish: #30
Graduating Senior(s): Adam Brown, Matt Zuckerman, Evan Berner.
Best Win: 5-4 over Trinity
Worst Loss: 5-4 to NYU
Quick Season Recap: Another great job from the Brandeis Coaching Staff as they steered a very young team to a very positive season. Like most teams in the NE, they will need to learn how to play doubles, but Brandeis fans should be pretty excited moving forwards. Before this year, I’d have had a better shot at going Vegan than saying Brandeis would be a legit shot at the top 25, but I could end up eating those disgustingly nutritious words. Granoff had a tremendous end to his season, and was probably the 2nd best freshmen in the region. Considering they don’t lose any starters, this Judges’ team could be a fun one to watch moving forwards. Shout-out to the Brandeis Twitter Account, you are one of the good ones.
Bates
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=25th, Regionally=7th
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 7
Blog Finish: #28th
Graduating Senior(s): Timmy Berg, Ben Bogard, Peter Yanofsky, Eric Ruta.
Best Win: 5-4 over Bowdoin
Worst Loss: 6-3 to Colby
Quick Season Recap: Bates somehow managed to salvage what was on track to be an awful season. Their win over Bowdoin didn’t actually come out of nowhere, but was still surprising. This team has always played good doubles, and continued to throughout the season. Led by Berg/Planche, the 2nd best doubles team in the country, the Bobcats had their ups and downs all through the season. What looked like a horrendous loss to the Mules didn’t end up so bad, and they were without their #3 when they fell to Trinity and Wesleyan at the end of the season. I still don’t like the Bobcats’ California trip, but I respect how Coach Gastonguay’s guys recovered after a disastrous start to their season. Like the rest of the NE, the Bobcats have a good class coming in. Berg is the only graduating senior that will really hurt Bates, but I expect Bates to be a little bit better in 2015.
Tufts
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=T-30th, Regionally=9th
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 8
Blog Finish: #26
Graduating Senior(s): AUSTIN BLAU, Zach Ladwig, Matt Pataro, Jake Lazarus.
Best Win: 8-1 over Wesleyan
Worst Loss: 7-2 to Bates
Quick Season Recap: Tufts’ season was likely the most textbook of any NE team. They basically beat the teams that they were supposed to beat, and lost to the teams who were better than them. There were a few swing matches (Denison, Trinity, Wesleyan, Bates) and they split them evenly. Tufts isn’t going to wow you with their doubles or their depth, but they are a motivated team and will fight till the end. Their 8-1 demolition of Wesleyan was almost as surprising as their 7-2 drubbing at the hands of Bates. Both matches saw singles sweeps, which is very hard to do. Of course, the Jumbo’s season can’t be talked about without mentioning their bad luck. Telkedzhiev quits, Jacobson gets hurt in a freak accident, Glickman is just plain old injured, Tan is out for NESCACs, pretty unlucky. The Telkedzhiev and Tan situations are somewhat mysterious, but the loss of the Bulgarian, if permanent, hurts more than anything else. In fact, it will likely hurt them for years to come. Let’s hope the Jumbos get a bit luckier next season. Shout-out to Brian Tan for winning the Ojai Bracket Challenge, and to both Tan and Austin Blau for being constant contributors.
Trinity Ct
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=31st, Regionally=10th
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 6
Blog Finish: #25
Graduating Senior(s): Kayong Lee, Alec Leavitt, (there must be more?).
Best Win: 6-3 over Tufts
Worst Loss: 5-4 to Denison
Quick Season Recap: I do want some props for calling the Trinity resurgence. I may not have predicted them to end up 5th in the NESCAC (that spot was definitely reserved for Wesleyan) but I did say they would be in the hunt and have a legit shot at the #6 spot. They aren’t losing much in the way of regular lineup contribution, and will be a very senior-laden team next year. Like most of the NE, their doubles has to get better, but another year of development will likely do the Bantams some good. Look out for Trinity to make a repeat NESCACs appearance next year.
Skidmore
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=23rd, Regionally=5th
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 5
Blog Finish: #17
Graduating Senior(s): Oliver Loutsenko, Jimmy Sherpa, Danny Knight, Gabe Steerman.
Best Win: 5-4 over Williams
Worst Loss: 5-4 to NYU
Quick Season Recap: Talk about your ups and downs. No NE team was nearly as fluctuating as the Thoroughbreds. 5-4 losses to NYU and RPI? A 5-4 win over the defending champs? I’d call that up and down. Granted the bad losses came with an injured Loutsenko, but this Thoroughbred team was very talented and totally senior-laden. The Loutsenko injury was unfortunate, but I was somewhat disappointed with what happened afterwards. Once Skidmore got back to full health, they played some brilliant tennis, including their 5-4 win over Williams. Coach Simms had to be licking his chops when he saw his guys would get Williams, a team they had already beaten, in the 2nd round of NCAAs. For a while it looked like Skidmore was really going to pull it off, but freshmen nerves got the better of them. Next season we’ll see just how hard graduation hits the Thoroughbreds, as they’ll lose 4/6 singles starters. Shout-out to Oliver Loutsenko for being a constant contributor.
Bowdoin
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=9th, Regionally=4th
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 4
Blog Finish: #15
Graduating Senior(s): Sam King, Chris Lord, Peter Davis, Eric Chien
Best Win: 5-3 over Pomona
Worst Loss: 5-4 to Bates
Quick Season Recap: People, myself included, gave Bowdoin a very hard time this year. And while they certainly deserved it, perhaps there was simply too much expectation. They were coming off an NCAA sanction and who knows what state their team camaraderie was in at that point. It would’ve been nearly impossible for Trinka to live up to his Fall performance, and with so much of the team missing the entire fall I should’ve been more wary from the start. All that being said, Bowdoin really only has one bad loss on the year (Bates). While they do have a bunch of other losses, they (except for Williams) all came against top 8 teams. Bowdoin is losing a couple of talented seniors, but they have an excellent class coming in. Next year will be a big year for Coach Smith and we’ll get a better idea of whether Bowdoin’s past Quarterfinal performance was a fluke or something to expect more of in the coming years.
Williams
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=6th, Regionally=3rd
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 3
Blog Finish: # 14
Graduating Senior(s): Matt Micheli, Adam Reich.
Best Win: 5-4 over Skidmore
Worst Loss: 5-4 to Skidmore
Quick Season Recap: We all knew the Ephs would drop a bit this year, we just didn’t know quite how far. The best win and worst loss might be a bit misleading. Certainly Williams’ worst loss was to Skidmore, but they had some other great wins including a 5-4 last match on win at Pomona and a 7-2 handling of Bowdoin. But the NCAA tournament match really speaks volumes about this young Williams team. The Ephs were down, and close to out, but Raventos, the same dude who clinched at Pomona, came back from a set and 4-3 down to win the match in 3 sets. The Ephs should be stronger next year. While they are losing their top dog in Micheli, Harron looks ready to take over the #1 position. Only losing one lineup player must seem like heaven for Coach Greenberg and the Ephs after last year.
Middlebury
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=3rd, Regionally=1st
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 1
Blog Finish: #4
Graduating Senior(s): Alex Johnston, Brantner Jones, Andrew Lebovitz, Teddy Fitzgibbons, Zach Bruchmiller, James Burke.
Best Win: 5-1 over Amherst
Worst Loss: 5-2 to CMS
Quick Season Recap: You know you’ve had a great season when your worst loss is a loss to the Stags. Middlebury really turned a corner this year, and this was clearly the best Panther team since their 2010 National Championship team. While Coach Hansen should get some of the credit, much of the rest needs to go to the Panther seniors. The seniors in the lineup all helped to carry this team at one point or another, and none more so than Branter Jones. BJ really stepped his game up in the 2nd half of the season, and was a big part of why the Panthers did so well at the end of the year. Again, not to toot my own horn but I did call Middlebury winning the regular season crown. The Panthers deserve a lot of credit for how far they pushed the Stags in the Semifinals. For a while there I really believed they were going to win. They had a shot to win 3rd dubs, could’ve closed out 2 in straight sets, and were on the road to winning at #5. Don’t even get me started on the Frons breaker to decide the #6 spot. Midd will be one of the more interesting programs next year, as they lose their top 2 singles players and top 3 doubles players. They do have depth, but it will extraordinarily difficult to replace their seniors.
Amherst
Preseason Prediction: Nationally=4th, Regionally=2nd
ITA Regional Ranking (as of May): 2
Blog Finish: #1st DUHHHHHHHHHHH
Graduating Senior(s): Joey Fritz, Chris Dale, Justin Reindel, Brenton Arnaboldi, Eli Mlaver, Justin Hendrix, Karan Bains.
Best Win: 5-1 over Middebury, 5-3 over Trinity Tx and 5-3 over CMS
Worst Loss: 5-4 to Middlebury
Quick Season Recap: I’ve been so good about keeping each team to one “best win” and “worst loss”, but I had to make an exception for the Jeffs. Their 5-4 loss to Middlebury left them questioning just how good of a team they really were. It was their 2nd match vs. the Panthers that really got the Jeff-Train a-rollin (choo-choo, am I right?) Their 5-1 dismantling of the Hansen-led Panthers in the NESCAC finals helped this team find their confidence. After NESCACs, Amherst easily took out a quietly dangerous Bowdoin team and destroyed a fiery Emory squad. That brings us to their NCAA Semifinal against Trinity Tx. Everybody knows that the Tigers went up 3-0 after doubles, but what some people (obviously not D3West) forget is that the Tigers also had 3 1st sets. Not only did they have 3 1st sets, but they almost had a 4th, Skinner was up a break on Zykov and served for the 1st set. This match looked just about done, but the Jeffs stayed tough and fought like there was no tomorrow (duh). They almost became the team of destiny after that match. All the writers believed that Amherst had the best shot against CMS, and low and behold the NE came out on top again. I don’t need to re-tell the story of the Finals, as much as I’d like to. Amherst scored their 2nd trophy in the last 4 years, and to cap it all off, Fritz went on to beat Wood again and claim the NCAA Singles title. This senior driven team really deserves all the credit in the world! Shout-out to Brenton Arnaboldi for winning the Bracket Challenge and being a constant contributor.