The Blog’s 2015 Season Awards (FINALLY)

I know, I know.  It’s been like a month since the season ended and most of you (including us) have forgotten a lot about what happened this past season.  Just to give you a refresher, CMS won the title in a dominant performance, D3NE solidified his performance as “blogger to most likely tweet random stuff with confidence” and Rafe Mosetick again reiterated that he really likes to bug me on twitter.  Or, maybe we’re the same person.  Either way, we promised that we’d have superlatives for the season and I can confidently say that the team has come together on that promise, even though it feels like it has been a long time.  We had a big year here at the blog as well as in DIII Tennis, where a lot of teams took steps forward, steps back, and we banned LoveD3Tennis from the comments portion of articles.  I’d say it was a big year.  Let’s get to the people that made a huge impact for their teams this year.  After that, we can let loose and party for the rest of the summer.  Because that’s what I’m gonna do.

MVP

1. Warren Wood, CMS
2. Michael Buxbaum, Johns Hopkins
3. CJ Krimbill, Case Western University
4. Rafe Mosetick, Emory University
5. Jake Yasgoor, Pomona Pitzer Colleges

Well, this was an easy choice for the MVP.  Warren Wood deserved this award no matter what, as he propelled that CMS team to a national championship with outstanding play at #1 singles.  While his team was excellent, Warren was a rock at the best spot and gave CMS a really good chance every time out.  Oh yea, and he won the Triple Crown so there’s that too.  The best player for the best team and the best player in DIII deserves this award, and if anyone wants to argue that, go ahead and do so in the comments.  The rest of the players were actually some nice surprises, except one of my favorite players in MVP BUXBAUM.  You all know the performance of the #2 and #3 guys, but I would like to point out the stellar seasons of Mr. Mosetick and Mr. Yasgoor at their respective singles spots.  Both guys came up clutch multiple times in deciding matches and relatively were unbeatable at their positions the whole year.  Big ups to those guys.

Coach of the Year

1a. Coach Settles, CMS

1b. Coach Tee, University of Chicago

3. Coach Gachko, Stevens Institute of Technology
4. Coach Bickham, Pomona Pitzer Colleges
5. Coach Hansen, Middlebury College

Wow! A surprising result here as I think many thought that Coach Gachko of Stevens would win this one.  However, the prize of Coach of the Year for the BLOG will be split between the national champion Coach Settles of CMS and Coach Tee of the up and coming Chicago Maroons.  Settles was able to finally notch his first national championship behind consistently great recruiting and training, as well as some nice tweaks to the schedule this year to keep his players in tip top shape.  Coach Tee, on the other hand, built a previously underachieving team into a team that has become the most dangerous squad in DIII.  These two guys had excellent years.  The other three coaches on the list obviously deserve a ton of credit considering their seasons, but we just had to go with the national champ and the 4^th place finisher here.  Congrats Coach Settles and Coach Tee!

Most Improved Player

1. Connor Hudson, Pomona Pitzer College
2. Colton Malesovas, Whitman College
3. Ari Smolyar, Middlebury College
4. Robert Turlington, Kenyon College
5. Michael Arguello, Brandeis University
6. Kunal Wadwani, Carnegie Mellon University
7. Josh Goodman, Emory University

This was one of the toughest awards to vote for, as there are so many players across all the teams that are so deserving of this award.  Despite all the debate, Connor Hudson of Pomona unanimously (I was surprised) took home the top spot in MIP, followed by a lot of players that were potentially just as deserving.  Hudson had a stellar year at the top spot for the Sagehens, despite being a mainly #3 and below player the years prior for the West Coast team.  We even got to hear that story that no one had any idea who Hudson was on the first day of practice as a freshman.  We’ve come a long way.  As for the other guys, we have two guys that became some of the best #1s in the nation in Malesovas and Smolyar, and then 4 middle of the lineup guys that made big impacts for their teams this year.  Shoutout to Wadwani and Goodman for making the list from my region!

The Blog’s All Division III First Team

#1 Doubles: Warren Wood/Joe Dorn, CMS

#2 Doubles: Jonathan Kim/Graham Maasen, Pomona

#3 Doubles: Josh Cogan/Tyler Kratky, Washington University of St. Louis

#1 Singles: Warren Wood, CMS

#2 Singles: Skyler Butts, CMS

#3 Singles: Rafe Mosetick, Emory

#4 Singles: Joe Dorn, CMS

#5 Singles: Daniel Morkovine, CMS

#6 Singles: David Liu, University of Chicago

Similar to last year, there’s a lot of CMS on this list.  The singles portion of the First team was dominated by the Stags, and with good reason.  You don’t go undefeated for no reason.  However, there were some nice surprises in the doubles spots as well as two UAA members taking home singles spots as well.  Despite not playing the most matches possible, the two doubles spots were given to two teams that were dominant when they did play and really had a huge effect on their teams seasons.  Congrats to all that were named to the All-Blog 1^st Team, we even had the freshman David Liu appear on here!

The Blog’s All Division III Second Team

#1 Doubles: Robert Kjellberg/Sebastian Sikh, North Carolina Wesleyan

#2 Doubles: Skyler Butts/Daniel Morkovine, CMS

#3 Doubles: Russell Simondines (correct if wrong)/Anthony Bello, Pomona Pitzer Colleges

#1 Singles: C.J. Krimbill, Case Western University

#2 Singles: Jake Yasgoor, Pomona Pitzer Colleges

#3 Singles: Nik Marino, CMS

#4 Singles: Peter Leung, University of Chicago

#5 Singles: Johnny Wu, Washington University of St. Louis

#6 Singles: Glenn Hull, CMS

Something that stuck out to me in this section combined with the First team selections was that there are no Middlebury players yet to be chosen in the All Blog teams yet.  Now, does this mean that we made a mistake? Possibly.  But, it could speak to the fact that Middlebury was such a well-rounded team that they did not rely on any studs (other than Smolyar) at their positions.  Other than that, we got a good mix of players in the second team with the rest of the CMS guys filling in their respective spots.  I would like to give a nod to CJ Krimbill and Jake Yasgoor, who were two of our 5 MVP candidates that you saw earlier in the article.  It’s tough to see that Yasgoor didn’t get the first team nod, but that’s what happens when you miss the end of the season.  Chicago gets another freshman in the all-teams with Leung coming in at #4, and Wash U gets their freshman Jonny Wu in their at #5, where he will celebrate by going to some type of music festival.

The Blog’s All Division III Third Team

#1 Doubles: CJ Krimbill/Louis Stuerke, Case Western University

#2 Doubles: Anton Zykov/Andrew Yaraghi, Amherst College

#3 Doubles: Nicolas Chua/David Liu, University of Chicago

#1 Singles: Michael Buxbaum, Johns Hopkins University

#2 Singles: Zach Hewlin, Whitman College

#3 Singles: Anton Zykov, Amherst College

#4 Singles: Tyler Kratky, Washington University of St. Louis

#5 Singles: Josh Goodman, Emory University

#6 Singles: Jason Haugen, Washington University of St. Louis

The Blog all Third team has a few guys appearing again on these lists, as Krimbill and his partner Stuerke get the nod at #1 Doubles, while Anton Zykov appears TWICE on the list in doubles and singles.  David Liu gets on the list at #3 doubles with Nick Chua, his freshman phenom partner as well.  Special shoutout to Zach Hewlin of Whitman, who was really unheralded throughout the year but was one of the best #2 singles players this year and took out Ross Putterman in the NCAA tournament.  Congrats to Zach!  The rest of the players are big name players out of either the ASouth or the UAA, which of course, is music to my ears.

The Blog’s All Division III Honorable Mentions

#1 Doubles: Aaron Revzin/Michael Solimano, Amherst College & Motasem Al-Houni/Andres Saenz, GAC

#2 Doubles: Noah Farrell/Ari Smolyar, Middlebury College & Kevin Chu/Jason Haugen, Wash U

#3 Doubles: Rafe Mosetick/David Omsky, Emory University & Kyle Wolfe/Noah Bragg, Bowdoin University

#1 Singles:  Ari Smolyar, Middlebury & Nicholas Chua, University of Chicago

#2 Singles: Michael Solimano, Amherst College, & Ross Putterman, Wash U

#3 Singles: Palmer Campbell, Middlebury & Jordan Mayer, Trinity TX

#4 Singles: Aaron Revzin, Amherst College & Chase Savage, Bowdoin College

#5 Singles: Luke Tercek, Bowdoin College & William De Quant, Middlebury College

#6 Singles: Gil Roddy, Bowdoin College & Kiril Kirkov, Carnegie Mellon University

Freshman of the Year

1. Nicholas Chua, University of Chicago
2. Jonny Wu, Washington University of St. Louis
3. Mohaned Al-Houni, Gustavus Adolphus College
4. Noah Farrell, Middlebury College
5. David Liu, University of Chicago

Gotta love the Freshman of the Year voting.  We had such a tough time with this because there were so many impact freshmen this year, especially from the Chicago Maroons.  That’s what happens when you get monster recruiting classes.  We tried to spread the wealth here a little bit and we were stuck with a really tough decision at #5 between Peter Leung (didn’t make it) and his teammate, David Liu.  Both were deserving, we just had to throw Liu in there for his somewhat more consistent play.  I’d like to recognize Al-Houni and Farrell as well for amazing seasons.  Al-Houni really came into his own at the end of the year at #1 singles and has a really bright future.  Farrell was lights out all year and will be someone to look forward to in upcoming years.

The Blog’s Teams to Watch

D3ASouth: North Carolina Wesleyan (mostly freshman team!)

D3Central: UW-Whitewater

D3Northeast: Wesleyan College (how many times are we gonna pick them)

D3West: MIT (take a look at that recruiting class)

D3Regional: Brandeis (have been on the rise for years now)

Twitter Account of the Year

D3ASouth: @Sagehentennis, thanks for the updates all year as well as some modern hip hop banter

D3Central: @CarletonTennis, from #BannedLife all the way back

D3Northeast: @Sagehentennis, because NE can’t do anything on his own

D3West: @UChicagoTennis, for finally gaining a presence on the Internet

D3Regional: @DucksTennis, because they are really good at tweeting and also made a Mean Posts video

Father of the Year

D3Central: Chris Wootton, UT-Tyler

D3Northeast: Chris Wootton, UT-Tyler

D3West: Chris Wootton, UT-Tyler

D3Regional: Chris Wootton, UT-Tyler

D3ASouth: D3Central, Blog Team

#OLDMANWOOTTON

Well, well, well.  I finally got this article out and I must say I’m pretty proud of it.  While this won’t be our last article of the year, don’t feel the need to check back too much.  We’re doing this on our own time and it’s officially summer in the East, which means fun times and the Jersey Shore, right? Either way, we will be back with some other articles (maybe) throughout the summer as I start to overhaul this site and make it a bit more fan-friendly for all y’all.  I hope you agree with our superlatives and if you don’t, feel free to comment.  There’s always room for debate as long as you aren’t our favorite commenter.  For the first time in a while, ASouth, OUT.