Washington and Lee senior Michael Freeman
Rain diminished what would have been an extremely significant weekend, but there were still a couple huge stories.
The biggest story of the weekend was Washington and Lee, who finally got a couple big wins after playing really good tennis for the first half of the season. On Saturday, they beat Case Western in an incredible match. After taking 2 out of 3 doubles matches, Kyle Gerber got a straight set win for Case to make it 2-2. Then, Hayden White got the Generals started in singles with an impressive straight sets win to make it 3-2. The remaining matches were decided in three sets with freshman, Taylor Shamshiri, winning in a 3rd set tiebreaker and Christopher Hu winning 6-4 in the third for the Generals. On Sunday, the Generals beat Mary Washington by sweeping doubles and getting two easy wins in singles. It’s been a long couple weeks since the Eagles beat Cal Lu. It was a great weekend for the Generals, and they should be rewarded with a top 25 (if not top 20) ranking. Washington and Lee’s only remaining match against a ranked team is a road match against Carnegie Mellon. These two big wins came at home, and they haven’t been able to win on the road yet. They will need to win on the road in the NCAA tournament, so that will be a huge statement match for the Generals.
The stories for the losing teams are equally interesting. With this loss, there’s basically no way Case is going to sneak in the back door of Pool C by waiting for other teams to lose, but their win over Mary Washington kept them alive (and gave them an indirect win over Cal Lu). I think they still need wins over both Chicago and Wash U to make the tournament because this might be a one Pool C bid year for the UAA. If they can’t pick up both wins on April 14th, they will need to beat the other in the UAA tournament.
Mary Washington has now lost 4 in a row since beating Cal Lu. That sort of negative energy can be an absolute poison for a team, and they need to win one soon, or things could get out of hand. Also of note is the absence of Sam Wichlin in the lineup Sunday against Washington & Lee. Hopefully for them, he’s not injured. Next up for them are home matches against NCW, Bates, and Carnegie Mellon. If they can win two of those, they will be in good shape, but the way things are going right now, they might lose all three.
Elsewhere in D3, Bates beat MIT behind the strength of a doubles sweep. Though Berg lost, they got easy wins at 2 and 3 to seal the victory. They are still struggling finding wins at 4-6 singles, but Sunday was promising for them. Even though they only won one match in a 10-pointer, they split sets in all three matches. They have a ton of matches against ranked teams left. This was just MIT, but they may have broken the ice.
Probably the second biggest story of the weekend was Whitman keeping alive its undefeated season. They might not actually be one of the best 8 teams, but they deserve a top 8 ranking, and here’s why: First, they play with more heart than just about anyone. Against Whittier, they were up 4-1 with four matches in the third set. They needed one third set to win, and they took all four. Compare that to CMS vs. Swarthmore. CMS was up 4-2 with three matches in the third, and they couldn’t get any. The Squirrels seem to have the ability to rise to the occasion. Second, they are resilient. With the rain, they had a good excuse to duck one of their two matches; Whitman didn’t have much to gain and a top 10 ranking to lose. They put themselves at a disadvantage against Trinity by playing them both on the same day. Four of their players had already played 3-setters in the morning, and three of those same players won in the afternoon (one in another 3-setter). Compare that to Trinity (CT), who refused to play Cal Lu last year because the forecast was rain, and Kenyon, who ducked a tournament to save their ranking last year when a couple of their players were injured. I’m not saying Trinity or Kenyon made wrong choices last year, but the Squirrels at least have guts. Finally, and most importantly, they haven’t lost. You can’t move them down if they have 5 wins against ranked teams, a whole slew of indirect wins, and no losses to move them down for.
That being said, Whittier’s ranking is inflated right now because of the whole Swarthmore/CMS debacle, and Trintiy was playing their first match, and they were playing it outside. Whittier was beaten yesterday, but it was probably the closest 8-1 match I’ve ever seen. They are still a bit of a mystery, but we’ll find out more about them soon, as they play Amherst and Kalamazoo in the next couple days. If they can beat Zoo, they will have earned their ranking. After that, they jump into the SCIAC schedule. They are definite underdogs against the SCIAC top 4, and they definitely won’t be making the tournament this year, but no matter what, this season has been a huge step forward for them.
The Bantams missed the best Pool C opportunity they’ve had in the last couple years yesterday. Their #1 doubles team served for the match at 7-6 to make it 2-1, and Whitman would have had a hard time coming back from that. They have a must-win match against Kalamazoo today (if they don’t win, I don’t know what ranked team they will beat), and then another opportunity against fellow Pool C competitor Cal Lu on Tuesday. Cal Lu is playing too well to lose to the Bantams. Trinity’s other opportunity is their match against Bowdoin, and given the way the Polar Bears have been playing, I don’t think the Bantams will be making the tournament this year. But everyone knows that I’ve been wrong before.
NC Wesleyan 6-3 over Chicago.
You can say what you want about kenyon ducking GLCAs, but to say that this team does not have guts is a foolish statement. They play one of the hardest schedules in the country and are continually lauded for being one of the hardest fighting teams in the country. D3tennis has said that they have as much heart and mental toughness as anyone. Yes it may have been a weak move for them to pull out of GLCAs, but you shouldnt make rash, bold statements like they don’t have guts. If you have seen this team play, they do have guts and battle harder than almost any other team out there. I am not even a kenyon fan, but I have problems with irrational and simply incorrect statements such as that.
I definitely didn’t say that Kenyon doesn’t have guts. Now that I read it, it was kind of implied, but I didn’t mean it like that. I have seen Kenyon play, and they play with a ton of heart and guts. They play a ridiculous schedule, and I even said that it was probably a smart move to pull out of GLCAs last year. Literally all I was trying to say is that Whitman could have ducked and they didn’t
Kenyon is undoubtedly a tough team that plays with heart when they are on court. That being said they also do some shady things such as pulling out of GLCAs to protect a ranking as well as having been accused of stacking even further back in their history. This argument was played out a ton last year but injuries or not, other top 10 teams would have gone in there with other guys stepping in its just part of a season that stuff happens. Even more recently and this hasn’t been mentioned and had absolutely had no effect in the match because Emory is just way better than they are I find it very curious that they moved their 4 and 5 in the Emory match despite Rosensteel being the one to clinch the Pomona match and get flipped with the 5 who lost to Pomona, serving him up as the sacrificial lamb to Goodwin instead. Maybe he really is better but I donno. Look regardless of any of this I am absolutely not taking anything away from what Kenyon does once they are out on court, they are a team with tremendous heart no doubt. All that was said by the blog author was that Whitman easily could have pulled out of a match they had nothing to gain from with a far far far better excuse than Kenyon did last year pulling out of GLCAs but they even made it tougher on themselves and prevailed. In short, Kenyon is tough yes. Proud of Whitman for not backing down from a challenge and pulling through with flying colors. They’re gonna be top 5 at the end of the year, whether you like it or not get over it, props to them. Rankings literally mean nothing but ego boosts. There are seeding implications sure but even those are hard to predict and some regions end up way more lobsided than others anyways(See West Regional). Everyone still needs to win in regionals and move on. I for one hope they continue to prove doubters wrong.
That was a long rant sorry but I find it ridiculous with all the Kenyon supporters trying to make issues when nothing was being questioned. All that was said is Whitman showed toughness in a situation where others may not have and I think thats a totally fair thing to say.
If Whitman played 1/3 of the ranked teams that Pomona, Claremont, Kenyon, and Cal Lutheran did they could afford to duck matches. But they play no one except Trinity (CT), UC Santa Cruz, a weak Whittier, and Mary Wash. Kalamazoo and Rhodes aren’t legit. Pomona plays that many ranked teams in one week. They don’t deserve a #1 seed for one o two solid wins.
Whittier is not weak. They have several very good players. Their #4 is really a great player at that slot. I expect at least one victory by Whittier against Claremont, Cal Lu, Redlands, and P-P, and several close matches. I hear, also, that they have a young team. They are a team to watch in the future.
Are you saying they are going to win a single match or win the overall match against one of those 4? I don’t see how they possibly beat one of those 4 to be honest, it would take a doubles sweep which I don’t think they are capable of in particular at the bottom of their doubles lineup.
Whittier won’t beat one of those teams. The argument for Whitman is that they’ve won every match they’ve played, and they have some good wins. If you think mary washington isn’t for real, you should ask Cal Lu. They are capable of playing some really good tennis, and they played great the weekend they played Whitman. If you think kalamazoo isn’t for real, you should ask whitewater. Hard to argue that Rhodes is for real, but Cruz is a great team, and that win wasn’t a fluke. Other than that, Whitman doesn’t really have the option to play as many good teams as Pomona, Claremont, Cal Lu, and Kenyon because Walla Walla is a thousand miles from anything, and the coaches from all of those schools had already filled their schedules by the time Whitman’s Santa Cruz trip fell through. Before Hansen moved, they were supposed to play both pomona and cal lu (at least thats what Coach Northam said in a previous post).
The way I see it, Whitman is like Boise State or TCU or Hawaii in football. They picked up a good win early in the season, and made it to the end of the season undefeated. All those teams finished in the top 8, which is what’s going to happen to Whitman because that’s how rankings work. It will piss SCIAC and NESCAC fans off, but it doesn’t matter at all because Whitman will end up playing a good team in the sweet sixteen regardless. When that happens, they could either get destroyed like Hawaii against Georgia, destroy a traditional power like Utah against Alabama, or have a close battle like Boise against Oklahoma.
It shouldn’t piss off NESCAC or SCIAC that much anyways because Whitman will be getting an automatic birth anyways. Its not like they are taking a Pool C bid away. Rankings are all well and good but you still need to win the matches at the end of the year to be relevant.
Your predictions have been awful, d3tennisguy, but at least you admit to your mistakes!