Grunt Work: 101

Since the rest of the gang seems to be busy with something called “having a life,” I’m gonna pull a Greg Jennings and put da team on my back do. With a busy weekend behind us and rankings coming out in a little over a day, let’s do a quick recap to see where things stand. I would like to make a best guess at what the rankings will look like when they do come out, but I might not. We’ll see how I feel.

Redlands

#11 Redlands def. Depauw 8-1

#3 Williams def. #11 Redlands 5-4

#14 Middlebury def. #11 Redlands 5-4

I’ve given Redlands a lot of crap – and I mean a lot of crap – for being unclutch, which they totally are. I mean, look at tonight’s match. They took two of three doubles and won four first sets. Normally, that’s a recipe for victory, but nothing is certain with these dawgs. One would hope they would be able to pull out one of those matches on their home courts.

That being said, I think it’s time to start giving credit where credit is due. Basically the only bad match Redlands has played all season was at Santa Cruz. Other than that, they’ve been competitive with every team they’ve played, layed a whooping on a decent Swarthmore team, and got the key win they needed against Case Western. All things considered, they’re in very good position to sneak into the tournament this year, and they deserve it. If something goes wrong against Whittier, GAC, or P-P (who’s still dangerous), however, they’re going to wish they had one of those wins against the NESCAC elite to hold up to the selection committee and say “See! We’re good! We swear! Let us in!” They play Whittier in a couple days in what will be the biggest match of the rest of their season.

Williams

#3 Williams def. Depauw and UW-W 9-0

#3 Williams def. #9 UC Santa Cruz 6-3

If anyone was wondering about Williams’ strength following a close victory over a struggling P-P team and a loss to Cal Lu, Williams answered those questions by blanking two Central region teams with a semi-split squad, taking down Redlands on their home courts, and outlasting Cruz. The Cruz match probably could’ve gone either way, but Williams pulled out both third sets with relative ease to clinch the victory. Obviously, they’re strong, but they’re still not looking like a national championship favorite so far, so we’ll see if they can pick it up against CMS.

D3ASouth will probably be picking an 8-1 CMS win in that one, but I think Williams might be able to neutralize CMS’ strength in doubles. In the end, I like the Stags on their home court 5-4.

Middlebury

#14 Middlebury def. #26 Whittier 6-3

#14 Middlebury def. #9 UC Santa Cruz 8-1

Middlebury has coming out of the gate looking every bit like the improved team I thought they would be. After struggling a bit in their first California match against Whittier (pulling out the only two three-setters to clinch the win), Hansen’s squad played their best match of the year against his former team. They swept four three-setters (and won 4 of 5 tiebreakers) in an 8-1 victory that foreshadowed their penchant for clutch. Against Redlands, Middlebury came back from a 4-2 deficit, winning two matches in which they dropped the first set, to win 5-4. If there was ever a trap match, that was it, and the Panthers came through. All told, Middlebury is 8-0 in three-set matches so far this break (against ranked DIII teams, at least). Sweeping Cruz in singles is no small feat, and I think everyone ought to be very impressed with this squad.

Looking forward, they still have big ones against P-P, UW-W, and CMS. I would expect them to roll through the first two, and don’t be surprised if they give CMS a really hard time. Historically, Hansen has been able to get his teams up against CMS. Nobody is unbeatable in DIII tennis, and I’ll be looking to Middlebury to hand CMS their first loss of the season. Let’s get an upset up in this joint.

UC Santa Cruz

#9 Santa Cruz def. Depauw 6-3

Well, it was a rough SoCal swing for the Banana Slugs. They are looking increasingly beatable away from their home courts, but man are they tough in Santa Cruz. Positives, their #3 doubles team is unstoppable (maybe they should try them out at #2). Halabi is a beast, and Rogers continues to discount double check his way to awesomeness. Negatives, Scandalis can’t win a singles match, and Koenig and Rosner are a bit unreliable at both ends of the singles lineup.

Nevertheless, I’m very much looking forward to their senior day match against Cal Lu. I have a feeling their pull off the upset on their home courts, especially since Cal Lu hasn’t had to play away from Thousand Oaks in a thousand years. As always, their most important match of the year will be against CMS. If they can somehow beat CMS at Bisantz (sp. ?), they would probably host the regional, which would be their best chance for making it to the Elite Eight in what could be the most vaunted program in DIII’s last hurah. I’m certainly rooting for them, because I’ll really hate to see that program drop off.

(I also shouldn’t be fatalist. Even after these guys graduate, they’ll still have Bettwy, and they can develop just about anyone by playing tennis for 17 hours a day)

Pomona-Pitzer

#6 Cal Lu def. #22 Pomona-Pitzer 5-4

Will the real Pomona-Pitzer please stand up? Is this the team that nearly swept Bowdoin in doubles or the team that got swept by Swarthmore in singles? Is this the team that nearly beat a very good Cal Lu team or the team that got swept by Whittier in singles? I’m not really sure.

Honestly, I think energy level is more important for these guys than it is for just about anyone else in DIII. As cool as it would be to do, it’s probably difficult to leave classes on a Tuesday evening and have to prep for a match against a nationally ranked team on their Spring Break. If they go down in doubles, they basically go in the tank, and who can blame them? They know they’re not deep in singles, and it’s hard to get up for one match when you know there are another 13 like it on your schedule. Incredible performance by Allinson, but the match P-P really needed against Cal Lu was #5 singles. With Treacy out, the Hens had a golden opportunity to get back in the Pool C picture and they just missed it.

That’s a lot of rambling. These guys are currently tied 4-4 with Whitewater with #6 singles potentially going to a 3rd set. Don’t know what else to say. They play good doubles. They fight. They win. They lose. They’re a hell of a lot of fun to watch and follow.

Cal Lutheran

Every thing I said before for these guys still applies, except this. I forgot that these guys go 5-4 with ANYONE! They basically have two automatic wins and two automatic losses (with Treacy out) before they enter any match, making it a best of 5 with two doubles and three singles matches. Remember when they went 5-4 with Christopher Newport last year? Yeah… On a good day, they can beat anyone. On a bad day, they can lose to just about anyone too. Once Treacy gets back, they’ll be more solid.

Whittier

The Poets played Middlebury tight and should be proud of that. They’re still an emerging program looking for a signature win. They’ve taken care of business against lesser teams, but they really need this win against Redlands on Friday. Season-defining match.

Depauw

My momma always told me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say about someone, I shouldn’t say it. I usually ignore her, but I’ll keep this short anyways. Depauw is currently 3-10 on the season with their only wins coming against Earlham, Occidental, and Olivet Nazarene. For the most part, the Tigers have gotten blown off the court by good teams. They still have pride and depth, so they can go 6-3 against a team like UCSC on a good day, but that’s about all they can do.

Wisconsin-Whitewater

The jury is still out. They’re currently at 4-4 against P-P with #6 singles in a 3rd set, but I want to go to bed.

Mary Washington

#18 CMU def. #24 Mary Washington 7-2

#1 Kenyon def. #24 Mary Washington 8-1

These guys weren’t really supposed to win either of these matches, but I’ll pontificate anyways. The Eagles are holding on to their national ranking right now basically by virtue of a mediocre win over Vassar and another win over a virtually unknown Washington and Lee team that is probably overrated. Wichlin goes in and out of the lineup, and Carey just can’t buy a win at #1 singles right now even though he can go 3 sets with everyone. Assuming they get slaughtered by Emory and Hopkins, their only big matches left this year are against Swarthmore and Washington and Lee. I obviously believe they can win both those matches, but frankly, this team is an enigma. They will almost certainly win their conference this year, and they could be a real headache for someone in NCAA’s, but that’s their ceiling this year. Something’s missing, and I should probably give up on the feeling that it might just click for them at any time.

Carnegie Mellon

Not much to say here. Their match with UMW was deceptively close. They went down 1-2 in doubles, and only swept singles with four three-set victories. The Tartans are obviously really strong in singles, but they’ll have to get more consistent on the doubles court if they want to threaten anyone in UAA’s, let alone NCAAs.

Kenyon

The old “sacrifice #1 doubles to get the lock at #2” move. Classic Kenyon. Obviously they’re still looking for the answer in doubles, but the difference this year is that they have a reliable #3 team. Their singles is dirty, and once they get pumped up, I’m sure they’ll be primed for another run at NCAAs.

 #8 Johns Hopkins def. #21 Bates

Both these teams played just one match, so I’ll just do this in one fell swoop. Put Crampton back in the lineup and boom! Bates is immediately incredibly dangerous again. Anyways, this match basically played out according to the predetermined narrative for both of these teams. Hopkins is really deep, Bates is not (Hopkins wins 5 and 6 easy). Bates has a really strong top 4 now that Planche is playing like a feind (Bates wins 3 of the top 4). Bates has a very good #1 doubles team, but Hopkins doesn’t really care that much because they put their best team at #2 to get the automatic point, know their guys at #3 are so much better at singles than the Bates guys that they couldn’t possibly lose. In other news, Tanner Brown is a beast.