Well, I’ve been a bit MIA as I’ve been very busy at work as well as taking a trip this weekend to take some time for myself and I know I’ve missed some very good matches in the meantime. Usually, the blog goes through Spring Break Previews and most of the bloggers are on point with theirs. Well, that excludes D3West, who has the convenience of bringing all the teams to his sunny state. That means just weekly previews for West! Anyways, the fourth best team in my region just completed a Spring Break that was filled with some ups and downs, but for the most part ends up with sadness. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, it’s the Mary Washington Eagles.
Results
Mary Washington defeated Whittier, 8-1
http://umweagles.com/sports/mten/2015-16/releases/20160228y3nefs
Pomona-Pitzer defeated Mary Washington, 5-4
http://umweagles.com/sports/mten/2015-16/files/umwmt-09.htm
Rapid Reaction
Mary Washington only played 3 truly meaningful matches over Spring Break and actually only two against ranked teams. One of those teams (Pomona) was their opportunity match and one of them was their danger match (Redlands). As you can see from the above results, they lost both, causing sadness across my region. Let’s get started with the Pomona match because that’s really the first one that mattered. Whittier has not posed a challenge to anyone near the top 30 and that will stay that way until they re-up their recruiting. Okay, enough about that match, moving onto the Pomona match.
If you look at the boxscore, Mary Washington actually went into the match with a lot of questions and a need to take a lead in doubles. They did just that behind a strong performance from their #1 and #2 teams. Pomona has struggled at pretty much every doubles position all year and they were able to eek out a match-saving win at #3 doubles by the score of 8-6. This match would come back to haunt the Eagles later on. Moving into singles, Pomona made the change of moving Jon Kim down to #4 singles and moving Bello up to #3 singles. Additionally, they got Sam Malech back in action at #5 singles which allowed them to move Mandic down to #6. At this point, I thought Pomona would cruise to a quick 4 singles points in order to get that win. That is anything but what happened. The #3-5 matches all went very quickly, with Brandon Griffin taking out the promoted Bello easily, but Pomona striking back with JK and Malech winning at their spots. There was a bit of a scare for Pomona at those matches in the beginning as UMW was basically up at every single spot but #1 singles at one point early in the first set. That’s when the upset watch went on. At the top 2 courts, Yasgoor went up 6-0 real quick against Stratton Gilmore, but DLJ (senior) held a lead on Maassen. Soon enough, GMaa came through with an absolutely had to have it tiebreaker to lead that match. Miles took a set on court 6 to put UMW within striking distance of a shocking 5-4 win.
With the score at 3-3, all remaining matches then went down to a 3rd set, with Gilmore coming back from that 6-0 deficit to take the second. Miles then clinched his match at #6 (earning a POTW in the process), leaving the top 2 players to duel it out. At this point, UMW looked great with momentum at both spots, and upperclassmen at both spots (DLJ, senior). Things continued going well as Gilmore went up 4-1 against Yasgoor in the third set as Maassen and DLJ continued playing. I even texted the blogger group chat saying that UMW was going to win this match, with an insider telling me that he thought the Eagles would pull through. Despite history telling us this wasn’t going to happen (don’t you remember all the 5-4 wins PP had last year), I seriously thought it was possible. Then Pomona just went full Pomona and UMW went full UMW. Gilmore lost 5 straight games to lose his match as Maassen and DLJ started their third set. Every blogger at this point went with Pomona. I still held faith. Until….
A level 99 Graham Maassen clinches the match with a 7-6;4-6;6-1 win at #2! #BugCatcherGraham
— Pomona-Pitzer Men’s Tennis (@defendthecoop) March 4, 2016
Sigh. Mary Washington simply has not come through in the clutch in so long. They used to be able to get top talent when DIII was much weaker, but nowadays they simply do not have the big match experience nor the talent to overcome teams like Pomona. One of my theories is that it’s actually a crutch for them to play in such an easy conference – it cheapens their regular season matches and they always seem to struggle out of conference. It’s like that whole Wichita State thing in college hoops back in the day. No matter what, this drained the Eagles as they were literally 2 games away from a big top 12 win and the first one in the last umpteen years. I think this may have affected their mental state for the next match, as seen below.
Redlands defeated Mary Washington, 6-3
http://umweagles.com/sports/mten/2015-16/files/umwmt-10.htm
Prior to this match Redlands had gotten swept by Brandeis, was down 2-1 to someone else, and simply wasn’t putting good doubles on the court. Somehow, out of nowhere, Redlands absolutely plastered the Eagles. None of the matches were close. This was a huge disappointment in my eyes because UMW had the opportunity to make this Spring Break a status quo Spring Break as they always do. They came out flat in a tough place to play after a tough loss to PP. After a 3-0 deficit, UMW simply does not have the guns to come back from that against a team like Redlands. Redlands took 3 first sets at #2, #3 and #5. Despite UMW fighting back in a lot of sets, Redlands was able to handle them at #3 singles with Lipscomb and #5 singles with Taylor Hunt to take home the win that Redlands needed this early in the season. Again, this doesn’t have much affect on UMW’s season, but they basically now guarantee themselves no higher than a low #2 seed at NCAAs with the high possibility of playing a high #1 seed, such as Emory. That simply isn’t good enough for the Eagles and they have dug themselves a hole. The end score turned out to be 6-3 with Joey Dulle notching a nice win against DLJ at #1 singles. Notice the fact that UMW switched their lineup for this match, really with no difference in result.
So, what next?
UMW is a team that needs to come through in those big matches to get any semblance of confidence at NCAAs. They come to Spring Break with the opportunity against two SCIAC teams that are in the NCAA conversation. They came away with two losses against those two teams and it must feel like a disappointment. Again, this really doesn’t have much of an effect on UMW’s season, but it shows us they simply aren’t ready for the big boys again in 2016. They have a big rivalry match with W&L on Sunday, which they absolutely have to win. The rest of the season should be a cakewalk in their conference until they play ASouth teams such as Emory, CMU, and Hopkins. Those matches at this point look a little too tough for them. I wasn’t that high on the Eagles coming into this year and they have shot themselves in the foot with a loss to a team lower than them. Expect that to be the storyline for the rest of their season.
Today marks the 4-year anniversary of the greatest upset in D3 tennis history. (Never forget.)