They said we were dead. They said we couldn’t do it anymore. But here we are, giving you the inaugural power rankings of 2017. Not only that, we’re giving you a bit of new flavor this year. We have Regional AS and NEC on board, and we have a new writer in D3Midwest as well. Our team is growing and we have that many more people to put in power rankings. But that’s not the only thing that’s new. I have created a new format for you guys – below you’ll see the rankings, WITH LOGOS!, and a blurb about each team. After that you’ll see how we voted, composite rankings, and everything else you wanna see.
Let it be known – you can click on the pictures of the rankings and print them. Put em up on your bulletin boards for all I care. Also, please be aware that you can still see the rankings by blogger at the end so don’t stop scrolling. Feel free to comment, we moved to this format so you guys could provide more input. And it’s freaking cooler looking. Without further ado (spelt wrong prob) , here are your rankings.
And there you have it. I wanna see twitter fights about these rankings. And I want printouts sent to my home with hate mail. ASOUTH OUT.
It’s what you do in the dark that puts you in the light. The final grind is upon us. The Dark Horse’s Rise is imminent.
Fabulous Recap – Thanks for this. Random Comments:
– CMU, Redlands & Sewanee should each be higher ranked by a slot or two.
– Tyler, Pomona & Emory should be a couple of slots lower.
– Chicago should be 1. Southwestern should be 40.
We appreciate your comment! I’m interested in your reasoning for your comments below.
What about CMU, Redlands, and Sewanee makes you like them this year?
What makes you dislike Tyler, Pomona, and particularly, Emory?
What about Southwestern? What are we not catching?
Sorry for the delayed response D3AtlanticSouth.
Regarding CMU – Rozenvasser appears to be the real deal (with a gaudy 12.7 UTR). They have a solid line 2 & 3 and then 4 other guys above 11.5. Plus they seem to peak at year end. I’d put them at #6.
Regarding Redlands – They’ll have senior leadership and their lines 3, 4, 5 & 6 are better than the three teams above them (all with UTRs of 11.3-11.7). I’d move them from 18 to # 15.
Regarding Sewanee – I had mentioned in the Sewanee recap, I see their two new guys being able to contribute immediately (especially for a #33 ranked team). Also, Shober will compete hard at 1 (probably knocking off a couple of higher ranked guys at some point) & Gray is a scrapper at 2 (& better than his 11.1 UTR)
Regarding Tyler, Pomona & Emory – (don’t “dislike” any of them, just think they are ranked a couple slots too high).
I like Tyler alot. The Coach is great and they’re beasts in doubles. But their model (which works against teams ranked 20 & above) won’t take down any of the top 16. They pretty much have to hope that they win all 3 doubles matches, hope Fagundes can upset a high ranked line #1 and someone else plays a numnut or player who turns an ankle. IMO they need one (or maybe two) guys who can win at lines 2-6 against top 15 opponents. I didn’t see any at the Fall ITA.
Pomona is at 10. I see the two teams at 11 & 12 with better new blood and being better than them.
Emory is of course great. But I think they should be behind Bowdoin & I don’t agree that their two new guys are the difference makers that you guys do (for a top 3 team). (But it has been 14 months since i’ve seen either of them play). But it appears to me that Chicago has 3 new guys that are higher ranked (& better) than either of Emory’s new guys & Chicago’s newbies won’t be slotted to play at line 3. I’d put Chicago at #1, Bowdoin at #2 & Emory at #3. (at this point). But we’ll know more in May. 🙂
Southwestern has 5 new guys, & 3 of them are better than virtually any of the new guys on teams ranked 28-40. They have a grizzled vet Senior (11 UTR) & one freshman at 11.5, another one at 11.0, another one at 10.5 (which is nuts…he should be at 11.0 or higher, his TRN is 177), & then 5 other guys (2 Jrs, 2 Sophs & a Freshman) ranked 10.0 fighting over the final 2 slots. Also, two of the freshmen won state Doubles titles (one men & one mixed) at Texas’s highest level (6A) & are used to playing high level team tennis (at New Braunfels HS – their “team” also won State in the Fall). If these guys compete as well as I think they will (with a Sr., a Soph or two & 3 or 4 freshman in the top 6)…..& if one believes in the UTRs, then I think they’re a #30-#40 ranked team at the worst.
Totally love all of the articles in general, but where are the women’s articles that have been promised?? I really enjoy reading the blog regardless who it’s about, but I would really like to see more articles involving women’s D3 teams and the individual players! Especially since you just did a belated ASouth ITA recap for the men’s side and not one for the women’s.
Great review! It would be great to see something similar for the women’s side (even if it’s just the top 20). Looking forward to a great year!
I heard Emory had a pretty strong recruiting class despite what tennis recruiting might say. Serituk has had a major impact already and the youngster Kenawi was a solid 4 star. However March Zheng transferring to W&L will certainly hurt the team.
I have to agree with this statement. Specially as the big guns Kenawi was about to take out Jonathan Jemison at the ITA if it wasn’t for his ankle injury. And let’s not forget about Daniel Shleimovich. Great performance by him in Singles at the Grizzly Open, even though it was in the consolation draw. Him and Alec Josepher seem to be a great doubles paring who really figured it all out. But yes the loss of March Zheng will affect Scott Rubinstein and Alec Josepher the most and it will be interesting to see how they bounce back from such tragedy.
Very strong class and will be a power this year.
I thought Emory was on finals week? Yet there blog present remains strong. #dirtydan
Actually Emory didn’t lose a doubles lead in semis. They were up 2-1. Bowdoin was just too tough when it counted. Excited to see how Emory’ responds. Go Eagles
We use “lose a doubles lead” colloquially to mean “lose after taking the lead in doubles.” Sorry for the confusion
Amherst could challenge this year. The three best freshmen (Burney, Marchalik and Owens) will be top 4 joined by Zykov. The 5 and 6 spots should be very strong. If they can challenge at doubles they will be tough.
Should be interesting to see how these freshmen mature and develop. NESCAC will be very very very good this year.
Not having Colby in the rankings is egregious! You heard it here first – Coach Cohen’s lads are playoff bound #Carl #Vlad #AndtheRestofUs
I’m going to post this on my bulletin board.
Colby will be much improved this year.
Thanks for doing this
For those of you who placed Emory in front of Bowdoin, can you explain your reasoning? They are both incredibly strong, but I would argue that losing Rafe hurts a lot more than losing Trinka and Savage.
I can comment since it’s my regional team. Personally I think Bowdoin, Chicago and Emory are about equal. Yes there was some regional bias but also I love the idea that Manji will be #1 singles. He’s a senior and will be a solid leader for this team. With his rise to the top the rest of the lineup is actually not affected that much. Emory was the more complete team all year last year, Bowdoin had a dream run. That’s my reasoning!
I’ll respond as the guy who has Bowdoin the lowest. In retrospect, I should’ve put them ahead of Midd (without Farrell). I figured the 1-5 teams were pretty closely bunched in my mind. If you look at the seasons they all had, even with Bowdoin’s wins at Natties, they were pretty similar. I felt that the senior leadership from Trinka and Savage is what put them over the edge, and without those two, I see the Polar Bears as slight underdogs against the three teams I ranked ahead of them (especially with Manji apparently playing very well in his senior season).
Why is Farrell out? Injury?
I heard a teammate of his say at ITAs he took some time off for personal reasons, but I don’t know if it’s time off from tennis or school or both. Beyond that, I only know what the internet tells me: that Farrell isn’t on the Midd website’s roster.
Wherever you are, Noah, I hope you’re doing alright.
Noah is out for undisclosed reasons. I can confirm that he is doing alright. 🙂
While I do have Bowdoin at #1, I agree that the teams at the top are all very close right now. You can make an argument for any of the top 3. I think it’s also easy to forget just how good Emory was last year. That was an undefeated team until they lost a doubles lead in the NCAA semis. They ran through Indoors, the Stag Hen, and UAAs without ever really being in danger of losing a match (close against CMU at Indoors if I remember correctly), and were an overwhelming favorite to win NCAAs. I agree that losing Rafe hurts more than losing Trinka, and I think that Urken’s development almost cancel’s out Manji’s when comparing the two teams. In my mind you can make an easy case for Bowdoin/Emory/Chicago to grab the top spot. Let’s also remember that the NCAA hangover effect seems to be real…