With the ITA Rankings coming out today, we decided to hold Power Rankings until after, so we could compare what we really thought about those ITA Rankings. Kidding, I just didn’t get around to this yesterday when I was making my NCAA Bracket (Go Kansas!) and decided to wait until now to post, as I watch the Shockers/Wildcats game (shoutout to Wade Heerboth). March Madness is officially upon us and that means some upcoming articles that are sure to excite you! Watch out for some Pool C, some bracketology, some other stuff, and some fun stuff coming your way from us here at the Blog. Hopefully I will get back on my binge horse and get you some more articles very soon. Until then, snack on some Power Rankings to fulfill your Blog cravings. To note, these rankings were down before yesterday’s matches between Bowdoin/Whitman and today’s CMS/Whitman match.
Boom, there you have it. Now, let’s get to your movers and shakes.
Notable Moves
CMS, down 2 spots to #5 – CMS took a bit of a tumble by getting absolutely shellacked by Emory this past weekend in the Stag-Hen tournament. They became a victim of a doubles sweep for the first time in… I don’t even know how long. Insiders told me that CMS’s doubles would struggle a bit this year and that has turned out to be true. They almost went down 2-1 to CMU and it was the game-breaker against Emory. CMS has to regroup because they have a massive match against Power Ranked #4 Amherst this weekend.
Trinity Texas, down 4 spots to #10 – I don’t believe Trinity TX should have moved down this much in the Power Rankings, but my colleagues certainly did after a loss to Wesleyan this past Monday. I think Trinity always throws in a dud on Spring Break because they schedule a ton of matches to get them ready for the grueling tournament that is NCAAs. This is part of the reason why they have success in my opinion. PSA to all coaches, maybe you should be the last team to schedule the Tigers on Spring Break. It was CMU last year, it was Wesleyan this year,
Wesleyan Cardinals, up 5 spots to #11 – Similar to the Tigers, I don’t believe Wesleyan should have moved up this much to #11. I think they are still unproved and took advantage of a great situation. Now, kudos to them for beating a great team, but they are young and inexperienced in big wins. I would still take a team like Wash U and Williams over them on a given day, but the arrow is pointing up for the over-hyped Cardinals. (Shoutout D3NE). I still love you, Coach Fried, and you still owe me a drink.
Washington & Lee, Up 11 Spots to #20 – WHATTT. W&L is the biggest mover of the season by moving up 11 spots to #20. They benefit from a big win over previously top 20 Mary Washington, who somehow has fallen off a cliff since beating Stevens on their home court. Stevens must be kicking themselves after failing a great chance to break into the top 20. The Generals are licking their chops though and they have been a really nice surprise for my region, even if D3Regional is not covering them. They have finally gotten Michael Holt on the court for all their big matches and even Jordan Krasner is being nice to me on twitter. Maybe this is just D3Tennis karma.
Mary Washington, Down 6 Spots to #23 – Loss to Pomona. Loss to Redlands. Loss to Washington and Lee. This is what happens when your season is going into a downward spiral. Mary Washington needs to get it’s head in the game before they start going totally under. This is a talented team with hard workers, but something is not clicking in Fredericksburg. They’ll still win their conference, but they might get a rematch with W&L in the tournament in the Round of 32 somewhere.
MIT, down 3 Spots to #31 – Oh, how I loved MIT’s match against Bates. The hyped recruits of MIT came up short in doubles and got rocked by the Bobcats. Talent isn’t everything folks, as we see by Sean Ko playing #4 singles despite being the highest ranked recruit in the nation this year, or at least top 3. The other two are Jemison and Pei, I believe. Funny how these things work out. MIT is a well-known academic school but something is not clicking on the Men’s side. The women’s team does well, but the Men’s doesn’t with great talent. What’s a blogger to think?
There you have it folks. A great power rankings where there were a lot of moves! Digest these and start commenting people.
Just a quick question would you guys take into consideration Whittiers win over vassar? Does that mean Whittier has a inderect win over chapman?
Yes is the answer to both of those questions. Unfortunately, we did not take into account the Chapman loss to Vassar, so as of these rankings, Whittier did not have an indirect win over Chapman. The next rankings should reflect it, though the eventual head-to-head result will ultimately mean more than an indirect victory.
W&L jumps Mary Washington with a 5-4 win even though UMW was without #1 singles and half of #1 doubles team? With Stratton, UMW went a stupid close 5-4 with a full strength (I think) POMONA. Totally different team. Do you guys think W&L will beat Swarthmore to keep the ranking?
I conveniently waited until UMW’s match against Bates yesterday to answer this. No one is really sure what’s going on with Stratton Gilmore at this point. He hasn’t played in what now has become two big matches for UMW, and they have now lost both. UMW is on the way down and the Power Rankings should reflect that.
Yes, I think W&L will beat Swarthmore to keep their ranking.
Does D3ASW have any justification for ranking Case 13? Direct wins over wash u and carnegie and 3-6 to loss to emory.
I think chapman is the most picked on team by the blog and the comments.
No idea why you would say we pick on Chapman, I’d say we assess them pretty fairly. Chapman has literally 1 win this year, yet still somehow eeked out a ranking. Do you mean picking on Chapman in a good way?
Not so much you guys as bloggers but the readers and commentators.
Cry me a river
maybe a small lagoon for you my friend
MIT falls 3 spots because of a loss to a team ahead of it, but Chapman moves up 1 spot with a loss to Vassar? Is it simply a function of there being no other teams deserving of climbing into the rankings?
We typically fill out our rankings on Tuesday, so they did not take Wednesday’s Chapman/Vassar match into account. Next week’s rankings certainly will!