The Spring Break Final Chapters: UMW Eagles Fly Home

I had meant to make Mary Washington my first Spring Break recap of the season, but I got a bit busy with all the craziness of last week.  I hope you can forgive me for my slacking, I assure you it won’t happen again.  Mary Washington’s Spring Break was another eye-opener as they really surprised me this year and have recently continued their trend for a pretty solid win against Washington & Lee.  After a long time out of the top 20, they’ve finally migrated back home (see what I did there?) to where this proud program truly belongs.  Although this doesn’t necessarily make a big impact on the Eagles season, it certainly does a great deal for them in terms of confidence as well as more focused training the rest of the year.  This is a team that has gotten back to its hard-working ways by taking unheralded recruits and turning them into something better than we thought they’d all be.  I don’t think I can really do the “Anonymous Team Analysis” for Mary Washington, so I’ll break this Spring Break down into a few different sections.

Historical Facts

Welcome to History class! I’m going to start off with a bad note, however this will turn into a good note because it shows how far Mary Washington has come this year to get back in the blog’s (and my) good graces.  Below is a recap of how Mary Wash has performed against Spring Break teams.  I’ll date the records back to 2009-2010 season so you can really get a good picture of their performance.

• 2009-2010 – Defeated Redlands, Lost to CLU, Lost to PP
• 2010-2011 – Lost to Redlands, CMS, CLU, PP, Whittier, and Trinity TX
• 2011-2012 – Lost to Whitman, Redlands, PP. Defeated CLU
• 2012-2013 – Lost to Redlands, PP, CLU

Overall, I’d say that’s a pretty weak showing from a team that usually lands around #20 or so.  This is a program that has a lot of pride and history, so you’d think they’d get a few more wins on Spring Break (especially that 2010-2011 year, jeez).  Now, if you take a look at this year you’ll see a pretty similar result.  They beat CLU, lost to Redlands, and lost to PP.  What is different this year is really the way they lost.  In the past 4 years (which I didn’t show), they have not been competitive against Redlands and PP.  Maybe a few close ones here and there, but nothing special.  This year, they go 5-4 against both of those teams down to the final match, and one of them goes down to an epic tiebreaker as well.  It was a real eye-opener for the Eagles as they have proven they can compete against those teams.  These are all teams that are competing for a Pool C spot – Pomona has taken a ton of tough teams to 5-4, as has Redlands.  Does this mean Mary Wash is close? Maybe not, but overall these are pretty decent results.

The Players

As you all know, I do like to point out good performances from players over matches.  We oftentimes focus on what’s good and bad as a whole, but I think the players deserve some analysis of their performance, plus it keeps you all more interested because I know that it’s nice to be recognized when you do well.  Obviously, one of the players that was already recognized was Brandon Griffin, who filled in at #2 doubles as well as #6 singles.  Despite a heart-breaking loss, Griffin was one of the stars of the Eagles show and he really has a bright future if he continues to work hard (and dem locks doe).  Another player that I think I should mention is of course, Alex Blahkin.  Blahkin took a lot of heat from me last year, and deservedly so in my opinion.  Blahkin has now moved to #3 doubles and #5 singles as I’m sure some of his priorities have moved away from tennis now that he is a senior.  That doesn’t mean he hasn’t done a fantastic job in those spots, as he went undefeated at #5 singles (like we know he should) and notched a nice match-defining win at #3 doubles against Cal Lutheran.  Lastly, I’d also like to recognize Stratton Gilmore, who happens to be a junior.  Honestly, I hadn’t heard too much from Gilmore the past two years as he was a minimal competitor.  Now, he’s being placed at #2 singles after a strong win over Conor Treacy at #3 against CLU.  That’s a big shift from a previously bottom of the lineup player, and that’s how good teams start to form.  If you look at any good team, you’ll see a guy that almost doesn’t belong at the top of the lineup.  The first person that comes to mind is Burgin of Kenyon, but there are so many other examples.  Having Gilmore step up shows that this program can still develop players.

The Result

Of course, I have to give some of my thoughts on the result on Spring Break.  I think there are two themes of the break.  First off is encouraging.  This is a team that I had dubbed as a low 20s team heading into the season.  They have now found a solid #2 player in Gilmore, which pushes every player down to their more natural position (Charles has never been a #2 in my eyes, more like a higher tier #3).  They’ve got three doubles teams that can potentially win a match, instead of weakness at the bottom of the lineup.  Overall, this team looks so so so much better than where they were at the end of last year.  That’s awesome news for the Eagles.  However, despite an encouraging trip…. There were still two losses on the docket and countless missed opportunities.  One 5-4 loss is hard enough to swallow.  But another one against a top 15 team in the third set breaker?  That’s even worse.  I guess we can’t get too greedy considering the expectations weren’t there, but Mary Wash could have really shook up the landscape and even quite possibly gotten into Indoor Nationals next year had they won both those matches!  That’s a bigtime loss for a team that doesn’t get enough top tier wins.  We all know that Indoors is an opportunity to take down a tired giant.  Maybe next year, Eagles.  Again, overall this was a successful trip.  Mary Washington still has a ton of pretty good matches the rest of  the year and they should hold serve and keep their top 20 ranking.  It’s good to see the Eagles back in the top 20 where the program belongs.

Bonus Recap: Mary Washington defeats W&L, 7-2

This was a match that went under the radar this weekend and that was totally my miss.  Luckily, I have eyes around the ASouth and was able to get some thoughts on this match from some people.  Overall, the match scores really tells us a lot.  These two teams used to be tough rivals that would split home-and-homes against each other almost every year.  Now, UMW just shellacked W&L.  One of the matches of the day was Carey vs Shamshiri, obviously.  This is a match that I mentioned would be absolutely huge for Carey if he wants to sneak his way into nationals as he is no longer highly likely to make it with his performance so far this year.  After two close sets, Carey and Shamshiri went to 5-5 in the third set where Carey just played a couple of great games to finish off his rival and potentially win his way into nationals.  At a few of the other matches, Holt looks like a serious #2 player as he destroyed Stratton Gilmore, and of course the man Brandon Griffin won easily at #6.  Both those spots look like strengths for their respective teams.  One result I thought was also interesting was the match at #1 doubles.  Holt/Shamshiri seemed not to have it that day and this is another big loss for regionals.  They need to find their game and beat a couple of in-region teams to get their confidence back.  With a ton of close matches, UMW showed W&L that they are simply the tougher team right now, both mentally and physically.   This is why UMW is in the top 20 and the Generals are on the outside looking in.  Oh, and both these teams need hashtags.