The 7th Spot: Pool C Team Debate UPDATED

I’m in the zone right now in terms of writing, so I’m going to take a page out of the almighty’s book and write about some Pool C stuff.  However, this article is going to be a bit different than the normal template we use.  Let’s spice it up.  What I’ll be doing is going through the contenders for the 7^th Pool C spot and present my arguments for each team, speaking as the team in the first person.  If you don’t understand that, then you’re probably Nick Ballou.  What I’ll also do is have a “Haters” commentary for each team.  I would love if you guys provided your comments and we can have some back and forth either in the comments section or on twitter.

CMU Tartans, Ranked #16 in the Nation

CMU: Us Tartans most certainly deserve the last spot in Pool C.  Since when has consistency been considered mediocrity?  We have wins over the #21, 22, and 30 teams in the nation that clearly mean we are adequately ranked.  The teams below us all have bad losses.  Do you see us losing to UT-Dallas?  When our season was on the line against Chicago, we came out and destroyed a much more talented team than UT-Dallas.  Pomona has lost to Swarthmore, who isn’t even in the top 30.  Bates has lost to MIT, who lost to Tufts.  As long as we’re not in those conversations, we are definitely the most deserving!  Not to mention, take a look at our losses.  We started off poorly with a young team in the spring, but we’ve learned a lot since then.  Check our losses to #2 Kenyon and #4 Emory.  You can’t argue that we didn’t have our chances to win.  Not only are we the most consistent team out of the contenders, we are the most dangerous team as well.  Our young guys continue to improve and no one should count us out in NCAAs.  Oh, and by the way, we beat Amherst in the fall.  Last time we checked, the fall is still considered the 2012-2013 season.  Pick us, committee!

Haters: Consistency?  Your season is mediocrity.  With such a great recruiting class, you were supposed to be better than last year’s team.  But all you’ve done is take what they did and use it to keep afloat your ranking.  A “dangerous” team would have beaten one of the 7 top 17 teams you’ve faced.  Hell, you have a loss against UT-Tyler!  Definitely no reason for you to get in.  Against Tyler, you even swept doubles, the most variable part of DIII Tennis.  Again, a consistent and dangerous team would have finished that match.  Let’s get another team into Pool C that hasn’t squandered all their chances!

UT-Tyler Patriots, Ranked #17 in the Nation

UT-Tyler: The Patriots are the true deserving team within this list of contenders.  The NCAA should always go by who you’ve beaten, not by who you’ve lost to.  We’ve got wins against #15 Whitman, #18 Gustavus, #20 Pomona… OH and #16 CARNEGIE MELLON.  Out of all the teams vying for the bottom spot in Pool C, we have the directs and the resume.  Sometimes teams have an off day, and we just so happened to have one at the most inconvenient time.  However, our good days certainly outweigh our one bad day.  Oh, and committee.. we can save you guys a flight!  Put us in with Trinity, Whitman, and UT-Dallas. C’mon, we know you want to!

Haters: You’re kidding me, right?  A “bad day?”  That wasn’t a bad day, that was where your team stands right now.  We all know Ybarra is iffy with an injured foot (edited).  Without him, your team just lost to UT-DALLAS.  Yes, that same team that had a loss to the Ozarks earlier this year, who you beat 9-0.  What this means is that you guys are a one-man team.  Unfortunately, that one-man is now in a walking boot.  You may have beaten some of those teams H2H, but H2H isn’t the only thing that matters anymore.  A true deserving team plays out their whole season and steps up when things get tough.  A true Pool C team would have beaten a lowly sub 40 team like UT-Dallas.  Maybe you’ve got the wins, but damn do you guys have the worst loss in the Top 30!  Put someone else that actually has a chance to make it out of a regional, committee.

Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens, Ranked #20 in the Nation

P-P: Everyone can brag about their team, but we are really the only team that is deserving of this Pool C spot.  We have the schedule of a champion, and not many teams would take on 15+ ranked teams in a season like we do.  We’ve been through every single match that you could imagine, and that’s only a good thing come NCAA time.  We’ve come into our own as of late, as we absolutely destroyed beloved Gustavus and fought our asses off against a strong Whitewater team.  The playoffs are a battle, and we are the most battle tested of the group.  Not to mention we just had some great individual performances in the Ojai, and we have some of the best coaching in DIII.  DIII Tennis is about the hard-working team, the scrappers.  We’ve got that up and down the lineup, and every single one of our guys is improving!  Not to mention, if we beat Whittier, that’ll avenge our 8-1 loss to them earlier in the year – and we’d beat them on their home courts.  If that’s not improvement enough for the committee, we really don’t know what is.  Pick us!

Haters: Yes, Sagehens, you’ve had a really tough schedule.  However just because you schedule tough does NOT mean you are a tough team.  Let’s take a look at your losses.  6-3 Bates, 6-3 NCW, 8-1 Cruz, 6-3 UTT, 8-1 Whitman, 6-3 Bowdoin, 6-3 SWARTHMORE, 6-3 Williams, 8-1 Whittier, 5-4 CLU, 8-1 MIDD, 8-1 CMS, 7-2 Redlands.  That list is longer than my weekly shopping list.  We do love the hard-working teams, but we don’t enjoy losing teams!  You’ve got THREE direct losses to Pool C 7 spot contenders, and that’s where your argument ends.  Sorry, Sagehens, there is no way you guys have a shot!

Whittier Poets, #19 in the Nation

Whittier:  Us Poets are a proud breed.  One cannot argue the success we’ve had this year, as it’s been a hallmark year for our program and we should most definitely be rewarded.  First off, we destroyed PP 8-1 earlier in the season, so there go the Sagehens!  We’re got our consistency wins against Swarthmore, Chapman, Oxy, Depauw, and Haverford.  Oh and by the way, we beat Haverford 9-0.  Didn’t a team ahead of us only beat them 6-3?  Just sayin’.  Given where we started the year, we have made the most significant improvement other than UT-Tyler, plus we haven’t lost to a UT-Dallas.  A team shouldn’t get in based on their national ranking the year before, they should get in based on their body of work.  And we’ve exceeded expectations and most definitely deserve a shot against the best.  Not to mention, we were mere points away from beating the beloved Cal Lutheran team in two separate matches.  Unfortunately, we lost 5-4.  But we gained valuable experience and proved ourselves on the national scene that day.  Don’t count us out because we’re Whittier, we deserve that final spot!  Oh, and when we get third place in SCIACs – you won’t even have the chance to deny us.  POOOOOOOOOOETS NATION!

Haters: Whittier, maybe you have a similar resume to CMU.  And you do have that P-P indirect.  But what you don’t have is an indirect over either CMU or Tyler, and both those teams have better resumes than you!  Your only top 20 win is P-P, who doesn’t even deserve to be that high.  Maybe you came close against CLU, but other teams have wins or losses that are just as close.  Maybe things shouldn’t be based on previous national rankings, but the fact you guys “improved” over last year means nothing to us.  What we care about is your resume and your chances in NCAAs.  You have a similar resume to CMU, except they’ve come closer more consistently and have a few more legit wins than you guys.  Tyler beat Whitman, who handled you guys on a neutral court.  We don’t award the most improved team since last year.  We award the best team in 2013.

Update: With PP now beating Redlands, this makes the last spot much tougher to pick.  Again, the arguments above still hold.  However, P-P now gets to mark themselves as the best spring victory.  One thing to note, however, is the sheer amount of matches PP plays.  Yes they got the win.  But they’ve lost to Redlands 7-2 before.  When you play that many matches, you’re bound to get a good win here or there.  Personally, I think they are defined by their losses – such as Swarthmore, amongst others.  Let’s keep in mind those losses were for the most part on their home courts.  Yes, they have improved throughout the season and have improved their resume.  But you can’t shoo them in just yet.  One commenter still notes that CMU did beat Amherst, which is true.  Not to mention, that Amherst team had Kahan, Yaraghi, Fife, Rezvin and Cypers there.  It’s still impressive.  Tyler has the directs over PP and CMU.  Also impressive, plus it’s come to my ear that Ybarra may actually make a comeback if they make regionals.  Something to keep in mind and I’m sure the UT-Tyler coach will bring up, as he is part of the NCAA committee.  They do have that loss to UT-Dallas, but if you’re gonna say PP should be in, how can you not say Tyler is in?  Even if the Swat and UT-Dallas losses cancel each other out, PP has a ton more losses plus a direct loss.  What may have just happened is that PP has now pushed Tyler into that last spot, one that I previously thought CMU would have.  It’s still a huge debate and we won’t know until this coming Monday.  If I had money on this, I’d bet that UT-Tyler is in.  If I were the committee, I’d be poring over this for hours.  I sure hope CMU isn’t kicked out because either of the other two teams would save a flight, by the way.  They deserve better.