2015 Women’s Season Preview: #17 Skidmore Thoroughbreds

Skidmore

Quick Facts:

Location: Saratoga Springs, NY
Coach: Curt Speerschneider, 10th year

2012 National/Regional Ranking: #16/#6
2013 National/Regional Ranking: #19/#7
2014 National/Regional Ranking: #16/#7
2015 Preseason National/Regional Ranking: #17/#8

Twitter handle: none that I know of?  If one exists, please put it in the comments below!

Intro:

Around 2010 was when Skidmore made a (re)surge inside the top 20 of the national rankings and they haven’t looked back since.  I’m sure coach Speerschneider would like to get the Thoroughbreds back to the champions podium – they last won the whole thing under coach Segrave in 1998!  As I was looking through the ITA archives to look for that fact, I came upon the final rankings for 1998 and I can’t believe how the landscape of D3 women’s tennis has changed so much since then:

In any case, Skidmore has an action packed spring season as they will participate in the ITA Indoor Tournament (more on that to come in a later article) and will travel to Mary Washington to play in their invitational.  Other than that, I’m really looking forward to the Skidmore v Vassar match on 3/7, and more importantly, the Liberty League Championships, where it will likely be Skidmore v Vassar in the finals for a Pool A berth into the NCAAs.  Whoever loses that match might not make it to NCAAs via Pool C! Just to give a bit of background, Vassar has won the Liberty League title from 2000-2010 and Skidmore has won it from 2011-2014.

Lineup Analysis:

Skidmore was one of the harder hit teams in the region due to graduation as they lost Ford (1D/1S), Hirsch (3D/2S), Plevinsky (2D, 5D), and Baird (6S), BUT they brought in a big and talented freshman class in Greene (1D, 2S), Meno (2D, 4S), Finnegan (6S), Fuca, Giannetti, and Goldberg.  Projected lineup as follows:

#1 Singles: Benn, (7.37), sophomore
Benn played at 3S last year so this is definitely a step up for her. Will face tough competition day in and day out.

#2 Singles: Greene, (8.86), freshman

#3 Singles: Valella, (6.38), senior
Valella played at 4S last year

#4 Singles: Meno, (7.84), freshman

#5 Singles: Smith, (5.42), senior

#6 Singles: Finnegan, (6.91), freshman

#1 Doubles: Benn/Greene
#2 Doubles: Meno/Smith
#3 Doubles: Valella/Karlshoej

Schedule Analysis/Pool C:
Here is Skidmore’s Schedule:
http://www.skidmoreathletics.com/schedule.aspx?path=wten&
2/21 at RIT
2/22 v William Smith
2/27-3/1 at ITA Indoors (will probably play #8 WashU, #20 Washington & Lee, and #11 DePauw)
3/7 v #30 Vassar
3/8 v #2 Williams
3/14 v #10 Middlebury
3/18 at #20 W&L
3/20-3/22 at Mary Washington Invitational (will play #32 Oberlin and #23 Case)
3/28 at #36 SLU
4/11 v CNJ
4/12 v #6 Bowdoin
4/19 at RPI
4/25 v #18 Trinity
5/2-5/3 at Liberty League Championships

Skidmore should get wins against RIT, William Smith, Oberlin, SLU, CNJ, and RPI. What’s interesting about Skidmore’s schedule is that they play a number of teams whose current rankings are not indicative of what level of play they are capable of: I believe #20 W&L, #23 Case, and #30 Vassar will all go up in the rankings, as they have a lot of talent on their teams. I also think that #11 DePauw and #18 Trinity will go down.
At Indoors, Skidmore will start off play against #8 WashU. While I don’t know too much about this Wash U team (reading Central Women’s WashU article helped!), I think this will be a very close match, with perhaps the depth of WashU giving them the win. I do think WashU will slip a bit from their #8 ranking. There are just so many good teams out there.
Then Skidmore will probably play #20 Washington and Lee. Reading D3AS’s W&L preview, it looks like they have 5 very strong players in the lineup. Again, I think they are going to make a big climb from their current #20 ranking. I’m actually surprised they didn’t do better last year, as the top 4 players are non-freshmen. In any case, I’ll give the nod to W&L in this match which puts Skidmore against DePauw, most likely for Sunday’s match of Indoors. This match is too close to call so I won’t, but I assure you this will be a battle all the way up and down the lineup.
After they get back from indoors, Skidmore will have their big match against Vassar. Vassar is definitely not the 30th ranked team in the country this year (they should climb), and given that Skidmore and Vassar have a tremendous rivalry (at times heated?) in the Liberty League, this match should be a doozy. However, the BIG Vassar-Skidmore match will be in the Liberty League finals, where more is at stake, including a Pool A berth into the NCAAs.
In the meantime, they will play some strong teams in Williams, Middlebury, W&L (again), Case, Bowdoin, and Trinity. I don’t feel that they are up to the level of the Williams, Middlebury, and Bowdoin yet, although there should be some good individual matches. Case and the rematch against W&L should be good, close matches, while I expect Skidmore to take down a down-year Trinity team.
Again, the big match of the year for the Thoroughbreds is the Liberty League finals where they will most likely face the Brewers of Vassar. I know I’ve talked about the LaVerne-Tufts match a bunch of times but this match is going to be BIGGER than that because this match will be a much closer one! Wish I could be there!!!!
In terms of Pool C, the way things currently stand, unless Skidmore wins the Liberty League championships and gets into the NCAAs via Pool A, it is just out of reach via Pool C. They really need to win that match against DePauw in order to climb but there are plenty of other teams poised to climb as well (W&L, Case, Sewanee, Vassar, Tufts, Wesleyan). Pool C is really going to be a puzzle until the very last match is played!! Very exciting!

Skidmore Keys to Success:

#1. Get the freshmen to be stable performers in the lineup. With three freshmen playing key roles in both the singles and doubles lineups, and so many important matches ahead of them, they need to learn very quickly how to be strong competitors day in and day out.
#2. Get the key win against DePauw. In terms of rankings, DePauw is the only team that is ranked above Skidmore that they have an extremely good chance of beating. The others (Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, WashU) are all a reach for this young team.

ALSO – we have an “interview with a coach” scheduled for the middle of March (to be posted on TRN), and are currently taking volunteers. If you are interested, please email me at d3northeastwomens@gmail.com

Well, there you go, I hope you enjoyed reading!!!!

D3NEW