Reg ASouth Roundup 4/11

I know that many of you will probably be very disappointed to learn that there will be no photoshops in this article, but there is a ton of good material so you should still continue to read! A lot has happened since my last article so let’s just get right into it! Welcome to the Reg ASouth Roundup!

#18 Sewanee (16-2): The Tigers just have something about them that makes you want to root for them. They’ve been so close for so many years and now it feels like all the hard work has finally paid off. The University of the South has climbed an incredible 20 spots in the ITA rankings (yes they have gotten this one right) and don’t look to be turning back. The only regret I have for the Tigers this season is that mother nature turned on them and decided to rain in Southern California, ruining their chances of upsetting Pomona. Hats off to all the boys in the mountains of Tennessee, you deserve all that you’ve accomplished this year. Look for Sewanee to secure a 2 seed at NCAAs.

#22 Skidmore (7-5): Don’t like those 5 losses fool you; Skidmore deserves to be top 25 in the country. Their only losses have come against top 15 teams and they didn’t get blown out of the water by any means. Skidmore also has completely dismantled Vassar, NYU, RPI and Stevens this season. Skidmore most definitely has the talent to upset a lot of teams in the 10-20 range and I

have no doubt that the Thoroughbreds will use the experience of their early season losses and use it to scare someone at NCAAs. I have no doubt that this is a Sweet 16 team and given the right draw/matchup potentially an Elite 8 team. You heard it here first ladies and gents, but I will warn you, my crystal ball has been defective for a while.

#25 Washington & Lee (12-5): Washington and Lee has been the most consistent team that I have covered this year. They have beaten everyone that they should have beaten and lost to everyone they should’ve lost to. This team looks poised to capture an ODAC crown and continue on to their 8th straight NCAA tournament. Will they be able to pull a major upset? Probably not, but stranger things have happened and if May Madness is going to be as unpredictable as this regular season has been, then there is a still a chance. Keep fighting and working hard Generals, you could likely be seeing Bishops or Captains in your future.

#27 NC Wesleyan (17-4): The Battling Bishops have certainly turned their season around winning EVERY D3 match since their rough opening weekend at the UMW invitational. Their biggest win came with the 5-4 victory of CNU, which everyone has probably read about already so I won’t belabor this point any more. They also have a win over nationally ranked Pacific that’s also worth mentioning. I am unsure if this has anything to do with the recent, but there has been a midseason coaching change for NC Wesleyan. They currently have an interim head coach and this might be the reason why the Bishops have been able to come on so strong these last couple of months. This will be a very dangerous team coming into NCAAs.

#33 CNU (11-8): Things just got very, very interesting for CNU with the departure of BG from Mary Washington and unfortunate injury to the MVP of Hopkins. A couple of weeks ago, the Captains had a rough go at things losing to NC Wes, W&L and UMW 4-5, however, if I were on this team, I’d be more than excited to get a second chance at a depleted UMW unit. It looks like they will be the second seed going into the first round of the CAC tournament this weekend. This tournament is an incredible opportunity for CNU to come in and steal the automatic bid from UMW later on next week when the finals will occur on 4/21. Also look for CNU to potentially build some momentum going into the CAC finals with a regular season finale against a Hopkins team who isn’t quite as formidable without their superstar (thoughts and prayers going out to Mr. Buxbaum). If they do end up beating the Jays, I can almost promise you that the Captains will take it to UMW in the finals.

#38 Stevens (6-9): Something doesn’t quite seem right here… a team that is 6-9 is still somehow in the top 40? The Ducks are riding an early season victory over a hot NC Wesleyan team and hanging into the ITA rankings by a thread, but the ITA also had Bates at 40 and we all know how wrong that was. Anyways, the majority of the Ducks really tough matches are over, but they have a few “must wins” coming up if they want to remain relevant coming into the post season. While they don’t have the firepower to take out Williams, they really need to beat NYU, RPI and TCNJ. If they don’t then they’ll most likely end up as a #4 seed which would likely end their hopes of even considering a run to the Sweet 16, since the would most likely run into a strong #1 seeded NESCAC team in the second round.

Millsaps (20-5): These guys are a team that I haven’t written anything about and I feel dumb because they have had some major results (get it). The Majors quietly lost 4-5 to a full strength UT Tyler, then proceeded to thump a lot of teams that you probably have never heard of. They really had their coming out party these past couple of weeks where they completely dominated a personal favorite of mine, Rhodes, and then backed up that result with a “good loss” to Sewanee 3-6. What is even more incredible about this team is the talent that has been developed by Coach Box. Millsaps highest ranked recruit was 430 nationally and a two star, yet they have been dominating teams with similar talent and competing with teams that have much more. Great job to Millsaps and I look forward to providing more coverage to a team that has truly earned it.

Rhodes (15-4): I have been very high on the Lynx all season and for good reason, but they were definitely humbled in their 7-2 loss to Millsaps a couple of weeks ago.  I do think that this result will be different in the upcoming weeks as the SAA tournament gets under way, but until then, the Lynx need to take a step back and take a deep breath. The talent is there and they have the highest Power 6 rating out of any other team in their conference, even Sewanee. Rhodes could spoil the Tiger’s great season or they could fold early in the SAA tournament against the workmanlike Millsaps Majors, it really is up to them. I am very excited to see how they compete against Sewanee this weekend and it should give us a better idea of the potential of an upset (or lack thereof) for the Lynx as this season comes to a close.

Notable Matchups: I feel like RegNEC and Real ASouth are like the Lil Waynes and Eminems of the blog. Everyone loves them on their own, and they’re featured on everyone else’s articles to bring more success to other writers. Anyways, with the help of these two, we’re going to do a quick breakdown of some potentially interesting matchups this next week.

4/11 – Sewanee vs. Emory (feat. Real ASouth): While I think this will be a relatively routine win for Emory, I am curious to see how Sewanee will compete against a team that most of us at the blog thought was the best team in the country. Emory bounced back very strong after the loss to Middlebury with convincing wins against Trinity and CMS, so I hope for the Tigers sake that the Eagles have sufficiently exacted their revenge on other teams. I’m going with Emory 7-2, but who knows, things could get interesting!

AS: Things will absolutely not be close. Emory is better top to bottom, starting at the #1 singles spot. The only way for Sewanee to make this match close is to sweep the doubles portion, where they haven’t swept Emory for at least 10 years. Probably more. What I’m looking for in this match is whether David Omsky plays as he’s been absent from Emory’s last few matches. Other than that, Emory is going to give up 2 points MAX in this one.

4/12 – Stevens vs. NYU (feat. RegNEC): This match seems like a no brainer since NYU has had solid results this year and Stevens really has not. However, looking back into history, the Hudson River Rivalry has seemed to produce to exciting results where 3 out of the last 4 years have resulted in 5-4 matches. I am hopefully optimistic that this match will be relatively exciting and that the Ducks still have a little fight left in them. While I think NYU will take the match, I believe that Stevens will give them a run for their money and that it will come down to a third set at 4-4 that NYU takes to make it 5-4.

RegNEC: This has been a good little rivalry the past several years, with one particular match from a few years ago involving Matt Heinrich and Steve Wu at the USTA National Tennis Center sticking out as being a particularly good barn burner. In the past, I usually expected Stevens to win this matchup and would be surprised when NYU made it very close, so this year, while results tell me NYU should win 6-3 or 7-2 at least, I have a feeling these two teams will continue their saga. NYU probably has the edge in talent, but Stevens is usually a more disciplined team, which makes for a nice contrast. I think Stevens takes a doubles lead, but NYU outmatches the Ducks in singles to come back for the win.

4/14 – Stevens vs. RPI (feat. RegNEC): RIP the high preseason hopes for RPI. Much like the Ducks, RPI hasn’t had quite the season that we all had hoped for so this battle of the Engineers is really all about pride and a little significance in recruiting. Both of these are quality engineering schools that are in the Northeast, so I’m sure they target similar markets of recruits (you should be excited for the D3 Recruiting Hub) and W’s over the other might be a factor in these future D3 stars’ college decision. Anyways, I think the tough loss that Stevens suffers on Wednesday will give them the motivation to bounce back strong and take down RPI. I’m going with the Ducks 6-3.

RegNEC: While both team’s have had disappointing springs, a step back was more or less expected for Stevens, whereas RPI had high hopes.  Although at the fall ITA RPI had better results that Stevens, after going through the lineups I think the Ducks are the more likely team to scrap together five points. I’ve got no idea about doubles as both teams have been up and down, so that is obviously going to be huge, and singles wise I think RPI is stronger at the top, but Stevens is the deeper team. I could see this one coming down to the wire, but I think Stevens takes it 5-4.

4/15 – Rhodes vs. Sewanee (ALL MINE): This is a match that I briefly touched on early and would like to go into a little more detail here. According to UTR, Rhodes actually is “more talented” than Sewanee, however they recently were beaten by a Millsaps teams that wasn’t on anyone’s radar. I have a feeling that Rhodes might become the new tank or tree team that we kindly refer to at the blog, and this match will certainly be a match that they need to tree in order to win. Rhodes has plenty to prove after the loss to Millsaps and I think that they will come out guns blazing against the Tigers. It is hard to see the experience of Sewanee collapse and I think they will give it right back to Rhodes, so I’m going with the Tigers 6-3.

4/15 – CNU vs. Johns Hopkins (feat. Real ASouth): This match has become much more interesting than most of the Bloggers would’ve originally guessed because of unfortunate circumstances. Hopkins is much more vulnerable now and if a few things go the right way for CNU, I can see them pulling off the upset. That’s if things go the Captains’ way. I think that Hopkins still has the experience and the talent to take CNU, but it’s going to be closer than originally predicted. I’m going with Hopkins 5-4.

AS: It is with a heavy heart that I write this short blurb of a preview. While Hopkins of course just lost the services of Mike Buxbaum, they are still a team that has top 20 depth and will hopefully not be discouraged the rest of the year. This is a chance for CNU since the Jays might be emotionally drained, but the fact of the matter is Hopkins is still a better team. Here are the spots that CNU basically needs to have – #1 doubles + one of the other two, #1 singles, #3 singles and #5 singles. Reason being is those are the spots that are going to be affected most by the MVP injury. Reed vs Dubin should be interesting. Perez at #3 for Hopkins worries me and Cody Kim at #5 might be a question mark. I would also like to point out (and this is something that I will go over in my ASouth State of the Region) that I heard the Hopkins huddle after the CMU match and I honestly was taken aback by some of the things that were said. I’ll get into more later. Overall, my prediction will be Hopkins 6-3.

I get by with a little help from my friends, so thanks to our special guests for helping make this article possible! Do you think some of my teams are over ranked, under ranked? Do you have predictions on these notable matchups? I’d love to hear about it! So as usual, drop a comment, tweet at me @D3RegASouth or shoot me an email at d3regionalasouth@gmail.com! Until next time, Reg ASouth out.