Location: Lexington, VA
Coach: Dave Detwiler (17th season)
ITA National Ranking: N/A
ITA Regional Ranking: 8 (Atlantic South)
Blog Power Ranking: 34
Twitter Handle: @wlumenstennis
Ok ok… I know I’ve been slacking and haven’t done a preview in a while ,sorry real ASouth, but I’m back and ready to go! I think W&L is poised to have a pretty good year and maybe even crack the top 30, but there are a few things they need to do in order to accomplish this, so let’s get right to it.
Best-Case Scenario: The best-case scenario for the Generals is a top 30 ranking and a trip to the big dance. In order for this to happen they’ll need to win their conference (98.9% sure they will) and beat at least 3 out of the 7 ranked teams they’ll face this year. Seems easy enough right?
Worst-Case Scenario: The worst case is a loss to Va. Wesleyan in the conference finals and completely miss out on the tournament all together. The reason I say this is because in the regular season last year they lost 4-5 to Va. Wesleyan and it could happen in the tournament if they aren’t careful.
Schedule Analysis: I know I’ve said this about every team I’ve written about thus far, but I really do love these schedules that the coaches are putting together. I’m sure everyone has read the Van Zee’s vault article on scheduling, and if you haven’t, you should. Scheduling is key to a great season and this year could be a year for W&L to make some noise. See full schedule here.
The Generals get a nice warm up match against Averett before going into their toughest conference match two days later, Va. Wesleyan. They should win both of those and before getting a nice early season test against #16 Johns Hopkins. While I don’t expect them to win this, crazier things have happened and this will be a good measuring stick of where W&L is early on.
After another couple cupcake teams, the Generals host two of their biggest matches of the season, #26 Swarthmore and #37 Sewanee. If they want to think about working their way back into the rankings they need to win one of these matches. They will be the underdogs in both, however there’s still a chance for them to pull out a W here.
Next up is a grueling streak of 7 matches in 8 days, starting with matchups against two more regional foes, #27 Mary Washington and #28 Christopher Newport. In order to regain a national ranking it’s imperative they win one of these matches. If they want a top 30 ranking they need to win 3 out of the 4 matches against Swarthmore, Sewanee, Mary Washington and Christopher Newport.
They finish off those 8 days with 4 more pretty soft matches as well as another big test against an extremely talented #7 Carnegie Mellon. Similarly to the match against Hopkins, I don’t expect them to win and realistically, I’d say a 3-6 loss would be a very optimistic result for the Generals.
They end their season with a few more conferences matches and then finally matches against #2 Emory and NC Wesleyan. I won’t discuss the Emory match because it’s going to be much like the Carnegie match, however, I am excited for the matchup against NC Wes. Can the Generals hold the line and defeat the Battling Bishops once more like they did at NCAAs or will they take a heartbreaking end of season loss? Only time will tell.
Keys to Success: Generally speaking (get it, get it?), I believe the keys to success are going to be very similar to other teams within this 35-45 ranked limbo, but I’ll go over it a little more in depth for the Generals fans out there.
- Doubles – The overall doubles record for W&L in dual matches last year was 38-37. That simply just won’t be good enough this year. If they want to break into the top 30 they need to win at least 2 out of 3 doubles matches. Bannister and Krasner were the top doubles team last year and they had pretty good results. Look for the seniors to step it up this year to become more of a rock at the top spot and for some young guns to step up to add some depth to the doubles lineup.
- Depth – The Generals have gotten 6 3 star recruits the past 4 years. I know teams that would kill for that kind of talent, especially deep down in the trenches of the lineup. Some guys will really need to step up at these lower spots in the lineup (3-6 singles and 2-3 doubles) in order to get those signature team wins they’re looking for this year.
- Desire – I know it’s cliché and corny, but the desire to win can sometimes be the biggest factor in determining the closest of matches. My favorite players to watch are the ones with an unbreakable will, who find ways to win no matter what. The talent is there for the Generals to win those top 30 matchups, now they just need the strong enough desire to get there.
Realistic Prediction: Realistically now that I’m thinking about it, I really like this Washington and Lee team. The talent is there, the key matches are there, now they just need to step up. The Generals have 20 matches lined up in the regular season and I’m going to go with an almost best-case scenario for them. I am predicting a 15-5 record with losses to Emory, CMU, Hopkins, Swarthmore and Sewanee and a conference championship to take them to NCAAs where they’ll probably fall in the second round.
There you have it folks! Two previews in one night?! (Thanks D3MidWest) Its like Christmas came late or something. Anyways, enough rambling, Happy New years to all and as usual please leave comments and questions below, follow me on twitter @D3RegASouth and email me at d3regionalasouth@gmail.com!
Technically they had 6 3 stars join the team in the past 2 years you include Mitchell who was ranked 274 on tennis recruiting. March also just transfers to W&L this past year.
Great to know! Thank you for the correction.