Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan
Coach: Mark Riley, 10th season
ITA National Ranking: 36
ITA Regional Ranking: 10
Blog Power Ranking: 36
Twitter Handle: @kzoomtennis. I honestly didn’t know this account existed, but it looks to be fairly active.
Disclaimer: As you may have heard, earlier this year the NCAA announced that Kalamazoo College had been giving impermissible financial aid to student-athletes. As a punishment they issued a postseason ban for all teams that continued to have players on the roster who were receiving this improper financial aid. At this point, I’m unsure as to what effect this may have on the men’s tennis team and if they will be eligible in May. I’ll be writing as if they are postseason eligible, and if anyone can shed some more light on this situation, please leave a comment below or email me at d3regionalnec@gmail.com. Alright, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on with the preview!
Realistic Best Case Scenario: Kalamazoo ends the regular season with only one or two losses, coming to Kenyon and/or Gustavus. After winning the MIAA for the 79th year in a row, they pull an upset to make their regional final in NCAAs before losing to the top seed, finishing the year in the mid 20s.
Realistic Worst Case Scenario: Kalamazoo loses a series of tight 5-4 and 6-3 regular season matches before again winning the MIAA. They fall in either their first or second NCAA match and finish the year just outside the top 40.
Overview:
First, a trivia question: What two teams are tied for the most ever D3 men’s tennis national championships? If you guessed UC-Santa Cruz and Kalamazoo College, you would be correct! That’s right, the Hornets have won seven national titles, the most recent coming in 1993. Along with that, they also have a completely ridiculous streak of winning the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association conference every year since 1936 (except during WWII.) The streak, which is at 78 years, even has it’s own page on the school athletic website. Anyway, while the Hornets may not be a contender for championship number eight this year, this is a team that is absolutely heading in the right direction. Several years of solid recruiting classes seem to finally be coming together, as 2016 saw Kzoo finish with a national ranking for the first time in four years (granted the ITA now ranks 40 teams instead of 30, but still). Beyond the exciting newcomers, I’d be remiss not to mention one of the best things this team has going for them, and that’s Branden Metzler. His run to the finals of NCAAs last spring, on his home courts with tons of fans in the crowd, was a blast to follow, and you can definitely count me among those rooting for more success for him in 2017. If the Hornets can find production from elsewhere in the lineup as well, this is a team that should only continue to rise.
Schedule Analysis:
Schedule can be found here: http://hornets.kzoo.edu/sports/mten/2016-17/schedule
Kalamazoo jumps right out of the gate with some big matches, facing Wheaton and Kenyon in their first weekend of play. Wheaton is a tricky team but I think the Hornets will be okay, though they’ll be big underdogs the next day against Kenyon. Coe the following weekend should be tight as both teams are ranked similarly, and a match with Gustavus later in February will be another chance at a big upset to greatly help their ITA ranking. In all of these early season matchups, the #1 singles matches should be excellent, and a couple of wins will go along way towards locking up a singles bid for Metzler. Denison in early March could be another good Central region battle, though I do wonder how this team will hold up physically with so many big matches in the first month of the season. I guess you have to take the matches when you can get them, but February and March should be a grind for this squad.
After all the Central region matches, Kzoo has a unique spring break trip to the east coast where they’ll play TCNJ, Haverford, and NYU. I love this part of the schedule, both because it involves teams I cover, but also because it pairs teams that don’t usually play each other and don’t usually have too many common opponents.
April is mainly MIAA matches, with a visit to Whitewater thrown in as well in a rematch of the Warhawks 5-4 win last year. Everyone seems to believe UWW is down this year, and while they still have the ranking edge on Kalamazoo for now, the landscape might look different by the time this one rolls around. With the less strenuous conference matches to end the regular season, ideally Kalamazoo will be fresh and rejuvinated by NCAA time, putting them in the best position to end the year strongly.
Keys to Success:
-#1 Doubles: Last season Metzler and Elan Dantus went 17-6 at #1, but lost every match they played against top-40 teams. That’s going to have to change if they want to pull some upsets as a team. The pair beat Wash U’s Jeremy Bush and J.J. Kroot at ITA’s this fall before losing to Leung/Pei of Chicago in the quarterfinals, so hopefully with another year of experience under their belt they will be able to steal points against the likes of Kenyon and Gustavus.
-#2 Singles: This was the weakest singles position for the Hornets last year, and while Metzler should still be a great #1, it’s a lot to ask for him to only lose in one dual match all year (which he did last spring, going 22-1). Three-star freshman Noah Karoub, who took a set off Chicago’s David Liu at ITA’s in a strange 6-2, 0-6, 6-0 loss, could contribute here, as could Dantus, Eric De Witt, or Allen Vinson.
-Offseason Work: Like I said above, Kalamazoo jumps straight into big matches in February. They don’t have the luxury of playing into shape, physically or mentally. If they’ve put the work in this fall and over winter break, playing big matches early on could help them. But if this team starts the season having not picked up racquets in months, it will likely show in their early results. I’m optimistic since they have access to indoor courts on campus, but I have no idea whether they’ve been put to good use.
Season Prediction:
Their schedule gives them plenty of chances for nice wins, and I think Kalamazoo gets at least a couple, though probably none too shocking (Gustavus or Kenyon). They’ll breeze though the MIAA again and—assuming they’re NCAA eligible—should win a round or maybe two before falling to a top regional seed. Also look for Metzler to qualify for NCAAs in singles and be in the running for a national championship. He finished runner-up last year after all, and with Skyler Butts now out getting ATP points (shoutout to the former Stag!) Metzler absolutely has to be one of the favorites this year.
And just because it fires me up every time I watch it, enjoy Metzler ripping a backhand winner to win the second set in the singles final last year:
And with that, I want to wish a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and a great rest of the holiday season to all of our readers, whatever you are celebrating. Have fun, be safe, and get excited that D3 tennis is only about a month away!