Hello everyone! I’m sorry that I’ve been MIA, but hey, life happens. I wanted to give an overview of some of my main teams and where there at right now, which is why I called it the “State of the Region”. I broke it down into three categories and placed the teams where I believe they fell. Unfortunately, as I start writing, I feel like the article was slightly boring because most of the teams feel in the same category, but hey, what can you do? Ignore the grammatical errors littered throughout the article and just enjoy the tennis!
Exceeding Expectations
Sewanee (8-1)
Best win: The 9-0 drubbing of, at the time #22, Stevens is probably the best win for the Tigers cause they really got a chance to flex their strengths and potential during this match.
The good: Jack Gray and Avery Schober have been probably the two biggest strengths for the
Tigers this season in both singles and doubles. With Gray being an anchor in the middle of the lineup and Schober likely becoming NCAA singles qualifier at the conclusion of this regular season, this team has the lead actors as well as supporting cast to put on a great show at the end of the year. Or they could fall short kind of like any of those times Ryan Reynolds was cast into a superhero movie besides Deadpool.
The bad: Really the only bad for the Tigers was the missed opportunity against Mary Washington. However I think that this loss will probably be good for Sewanee in the long run to get out their early season nerves, figure out where they went wrong and learn from it.
What’s next? The Tigers have about a week before they head out to California where they take on some formidable foes in Redlands and Pomona. They will need to continue the good play in order to pull off an upset over the break.
Meeting Expectations
CNU (6-4)
Best win: For D3, CNU had a solid win over what the bloggers considered to be a dangerous Swarthmore team, but I think the biggest win came in a tight 5-4 match over #50 D2 foe Chowan.
The good: I will be the first to admit that I was a David Reed hater, and he has certainly let the racquet do the talking. Has he won every match? No, but he’s picked up some big wins over Fallati and Hewlin and proven that he can hang with the top dogs.
The bad: My man Cerny has certainly been anything but an X factor this season in singles. He’s won two matches… ouch. CNU has met expectations by taking out a couple decent teams in Chowan and Swarthmore and losing to teams who they should lose to, but if they want to take out teams like Mary Washington and Hopkins, then they’ll need Cerny to step up.
What’s next? The Captains come back from California for an Atlantic South weekend against NC Wesleyan and W&L. They will be favored going into both of these matches, but don’t sleep on the Bishops or the Generals.
Rhodes (12-2)
Best win: The 5-4 win they picked up over Wheaton, which is a step in the right direction for the Lynx after suffering a minor setback against Coe the day before.
The good: Rhodes, why don’t you have your statistics page updated? It makes it very hard for me as a blogger to have all the results laid out… Anyways, the freshman duo Chatterjee and Lauture have been immediate impact players for the Lynx. They have had success in the middle of the lineup and in doubles as well. Moving forward, Rhodes needs both of these guys to do what they do, and pick up some tough win.
The bad: Rhodes really hasn’t had anything bad so far this season. You could say that the 7-2 loss to Coe was bad, but I think Coe was probably favored in that match based on their experience and Rhodes put up a fight and will most likely learn from this.
What’s next? Rhodes gets two weeks off (what?) before they have to put on their big boy pants against the one, the only, THE EMORY. Good luck Lynx, good luck.
NC Wesleyan (7-3)
Best win: I wouldn’t really say that NC Wesleyan has any “good” wins this year. They’re beating the teams they should and losing to the teams that are ranked higher, hence why they are in the Meeting Expectations category.
The good: Sebastian Sikh has been having himself a pretty good season this year, losing only one
match. He avenged his fall loss to Sewanee’s Carro and never really looked back. The big man needs to keep the momentum rolling if they want to pull some upsets down the road.
The bad: The doubles against nationally ranked team has not been very good for NC Wesleyan. By not very good I mean 1 out of 9 matches to start the season. If they want to pull and upset, the doubles lead is crucial for the Bishops.
What’s next? NC Wesleyan has had a nice slew of warm up matches and will have a couple more leading up to a meeting with Christopher Newport. This should be an interesting match, especially if NC Wes catches CNU off guard.
Skidmore (4-0)
Best win: The 9-0 thumping of Liberty League rival Vassar showed that Skidmore can hit the snooze button until NCAAs once again.
The good: Skidmore has been sharp to start the year in both of their spring matches only dropping one singles match. They were also able to battle through a couple 3rd sets and super tiebreaks in the match against NYU. If the Thoroughbreds are going to threaten any of the stronger teams in the upcoming weeks, they’re going to need to continue the consistent, gritty singles play and grab a lead with solid doubles play.
The bad: There isn’t much to go off of for Skidmore so it’s hard to say there’s something bad. Yes, we can nitpick and say that Koulouris’ loss to NYU was “bad”, but let’s not read too much into it. We’ll definitely learn more as the season goes on.
What’s next? Skidmore flies to sunny California for Spring Break! They start off with a newly scheduled match against 2016 NCAA Champs Bowdoin before kicking off the Stag Hen with a first round matchup against Wash U. Both of these matches will be great chances to see how good Skidmore really is this year.
Washington and Lee (7-2)
Best win: The best win for the Generals would be against Swarthmore. At the time it seemed pretty impressive, however as we’ve seen the Garnets season slowly unraveling, the win seems less significant.
The good: Krasner and Bannister have been playing some good tennis this year. Krasner has only lost 3 matches combined in singles and doubles. Bannister hasn’t been as consistent in doubles, but is almost a guaranteed point at singles since he’s lost only one match. These two need to keep up the good work as the season progresses in order to ensure some success for the Generals in the future.
The bad: I don’t think that the Generals were expecting Sewanee to come out of the gates like they did, which led to a Generals loss. I see this as a bad loss for Washington and Lee because over the past for years W&L has been the more established team.
What’s next? W&L travels to both Mary Washington and Christopher Newport for a great opportunity to make up some ground after the loss to Sewanee. I’m especially looking forward to the match against CNU. I’m not sure who’s going to win, but it’s going to be a good one.
Falling Short
Stevens (2-3)
Best win: I feel dirty saying this…. Babson is probably the Ducks best win. The Ducks are mighty no longer. It’s a long season with a few good opportunities, but the Ducks have a long way to go
The good: This was hard to choose because there really hasn’t been anything consistently good for the Ducks. I’m going to go with their two doubles spot since they’re the only ones who managed to pick up a win over a good Brandeis team. Other than that, I really don’t know if I can say anything good about the Ducks unfortunately.
The bad: Bagels are bad, especially for a team wanting to prove their legitimacy without their stars from last season. They have lost 9-0 twice this season to teams who will probably end up in the 20-28 range by the end of the year. They’ve won 8 out of 30 singles matches and 7 out of 15 matches. That’s bad.
What’s next? Maybe some sunshine will be good for the Ducks. They have a brutal schedule taking on Amherst, UT Tyler, Trinity and Kenyon. This is a chance for Stevens to either salvage their season or take a few more steps in the wrong direction.
There ya have it folks! Do you agree? Disagree? Want to argue? Great. Please leave a comment below, tweet at me @D3RegASouth or shoot me an email at D3RegionalASouth@gmail.com. Until next time! RegASouth out.
Sebastian lost to Courtney Murphy last week down in South Carolina
Correct, that is the one match he has lost this spring
What’s up with Swarthmore? They’ve played a tough schedule, but I’d expect them to be more competitive.
That’s a great question and I wish I had an answer for you. Swarthmore was a team that many of the bloggers, including myself, were very high on coming into the season. They have pretty much the exact same team that they did last year, yet somehow the pieces aren’t falling back into place. Fallati hasn’t quite been the same and their doubles has been pretty bad. They’ve only won 6 out of 27 possible matches. There’s definitely still time for Swarthmore to salvage the season, but that door is closing fast.
Does this imply skidmore is going to beat RPI? And what are stevens chances of beating Ithaca in E8’s?
After RPI’s season debut against Rochester, I am a little hesitant on how good they will actually be. The Engineers have the talent for sure, but I think Skidmore has the experience, so I’m going with a 6-3 or 7-2 win for the ‘Breds. This could definitely change as the season progresses, but as of now, it’s Skidmore all the way.
I don’t know much about the Empire 8, only that Stevens looks to have dominated it the past few seasons. While the Ducks are definitely down this year, I can’t foresee any real struggle against any of their conference rivals. The biggest threat looks to be Ithaca, who has picked up some pretty good recruits this past year, but I think the Ducks still take them out with relatively ease.
Rhodes lost 7-2 to Coe*
Corrected! Sorry about that!