2017 Season Preview: #21 Skidmore Thoroughbreds

Location: Saratoga Springs, NY

Coach: Nate Simms, 12^th year

ITA National Ranking: 21

ITA Regional Ranking: 8 (Northeast)

Blog Power Ranking: 22

Twitter Handle: @skidmenstennis

Another night, another blog! After getting up this morning at 3:30 to watch the historic finals of the Australian Open, I’m more excited than ever to cover some tennis! I’m definitely riding the Fed hype train at the moment, which means I’m in a very good mood to write this article, so let’s giddy up with the Thoroughbreds and get going before that fades.

Best-Case Scenario: A best-case scenario for the Thoroughbreds would be a quality win over one of five top 15 teams that they play this season, propelling them into the top 20, along with a 4^th straight Liberty League championship, beating a very dangerous RPI team in the process. From there they would look to make the sweet 16 of NCAAs before falling to a perennial northeast powerhouse such as Bowdoin or Amherst.

Worst-Case Scenario: The worst-case scenario would most likely be no signature wins against any top 15 teams, as well as losses to RPI in the regular season as well as in the Liberty League championship. This would mean no team NCAAs and a tough way to end Mr. Leung’s great career.

Schedule Analysis: I’m not going to lie, I’m slightly perplexed by this seemingly short schedule put together by Coach Simms. You have a talented team on your hands, with potential to break into the top 20, however you only schedule 12 matches in the spring with 5 of those being against top 15 teams, as I mentioned prior. After covering my first few teams, I feel like the scheduling is key, however this schedule just seems very average to me. You can check out the full schedule here.

Skidmore has already handled a couple lower tier teams in the fall to start the season, but the real bulk of their schedule is in the spring. The Thoroughbreds start the season off with a couple good warm up matches against a liberty league foe, Vassar, and NYU. They should handle both these teams at least 6-3 if not 7-2. This will give them solid practice before they really step up into the big leagues.

The team will travel out to California for Spring Break to face #1 Bowdoin, #9 Pomona and #6 CMS. If I’m the ‘Breds, I’ve got the Pomona match circled because that’s really their best chance to capture the signature W over this trip. While I’m not optimistic about them winning any of these matches, stranger things have happened.

Skid then travels back to familiar ground to face a very dangerous #3 Middlebury team at home. I don’t think they will win this match; however, they really can’t hang their heads too low after that stretch of brutal matches because next up they travel to Troy, NY to take on one of their biggest rivals RPI. This is a crucial match mid season to really gauge where they’re at. I see Skidmore winning this match 6-3, however they need to be very cautious because I have a feeling the young, talented and hungry Engineers will be eying this match all season.

The Thoroughbreds really only have 2 more big matches the rest of the regular season and those are against #22 Stevens and #15 Amherst. While I think they will most likely take down a depleted Stevens, they will have a very tough time with Amherst. The perennial powerhouse is definitely on my darkhorse radar this season and unfortunately I believe Skidmore will be a casualty of a big year for the former Lord Jeffs (I’m not completely sure what their new mascot is).

Skidmore will then wrap up the regular season with the Liberty League tournament and will probably meet RPI again in the finals. The experience of Kai, Koulouris, Pickering and Berkowitz should once again triumph talented youth, sending Skid into another NCAAs where they should at least make the round of 32, if not the sweet 16.

Keys to Success: There are a couple of factors that will really contribute to a good season for Skidmore and while some of them may be obvious, it’s still worth going over in further detail.

1. Kai – Kai Yuen Leung needs to play like Kai Yuen Leung of the past couple of years. He has

   

   flown under the radar as one of the better singles players in the country and needs to continue to get the job done in order to ensure some good wins for the team. He had a VERY good fall with wins over De Quant, Cuba, Reid, Urken, Gupte, Fagundes, and D. Liu, so look for him to continue his winning ways in the spring in order to ensure his team’s success.

2. Doubles – Doubles is an integral part of a team’s success and with the departure of Sanderson and Tong, the Thoroughbreds lost two key parts to a typically very strong doubles program. To have a good season, Skidmore needs to figure out reliable teams that can compete with anyone and produce 2 out of 3 points in a match.
3. Leadership – Skidmore only has one senior this year compared to four freshmen. Kai can’t be the only leader to step up on the team so players like Koulouris, Pickering or Berkowitz really need to be x-factors this year to guide this young team to the key wins the program needs to launch them into the top 20.

Realistic Prediction: I typically try to be as positive as I can be in the realistic prediction section, but my “good feeling” I mentioned earlier has faded, and I have a hard time believing that the Thoroughbreds really have what it takes to be more than a team that’s consistently pretty good. I see Skidmore going 7-5 in the spring regular season with losses to Bowdoin, Pomona, CMS, Midd and Amherst. However they will probably beat RPI in the regular season as well as in the Liberty League tournament and punch a ticket to the big dance, where they will most likely bow out in the round of 32 and retain their ranking in the 20-25 range.

There you have it folks! While I might have barely missed my deadline, I’d rather have the article  proofread before publishing it. With that being said, it is quite late so I could have said some things that might be considered ridiculous or just plain mean so feel free to call me out by commenting, tweeting to me @D3RegASouth or emailing me at D3RegionalASouth@gmail.com! Until next time, RegASouth out.