Hello D3 tennis world. I’m the new D3ASouthWomens and I’m here to show a little love to the ladies of what is obviously the best region, the Atlantic South. With the OG ASouth kicking off the season last week, I wanted to strike while the iron is hot and publish my very first post. I’m going to go ahead and admit that compared to the writers on the men’s side, I know next to nothing about my teams, but I am actively trying to correct this so please bear with me as I get going. Today I’m just going to talk a little about what you can expect from me in the coming months. This article is like the first day of classes where the professor sits down and tells you how important attendance is and then you go around the class and do one of those awful, awkward ice-breakers where you have to share three facts about yourself but you panic when it’s your turn so you tell the class that you have two webbed toes, a third nipple, and are convinced your super power is acid pee. Definitely not speaking from experience here.
Before I get started with the actual relevant stuff, here are my three facts for today:
- My name isn’t actually D3ASouthWomens but if I get a million followers on twitter I will definitely change it to that.
- While I am a huge fan of Division 3 tennis and all it has to offer, I am the first to admit that my only qualifications for being a blog writer are having a laptop, knowing D3 Women’s tennis is a thing that exists, and being willing to spend a little effort to learn and write about the players and teams. So, I apologize in advance if I forget anything or anyone and I would really appreciate any information you have about past or present players and results and would like to share! My email is d3asouthwomens@gmail.com. I love getting emails. Please send them. Help me expand my knowledge/chat about all things D3tennis related!
- I am more excited for the Ninjago movie than I would ever admit to anyone in the real world.
Cool. Now that that’s over with, let’s talk about this upcoming season! As much as I would like to cover every Atlantic South team because there are so many great ones, I’m going to focus on the six teams that have consistently dominated the region for at least the past decade. They are, in order of 2016-17 year end ranking: Emory, Carnegie Mellon, Washington and Lee, Johns Hopkins, Mary Washington, and Sewanee. In the next couple of months, I will put out season previews for each of these teams with a goal of slowly paying tribute to the graduating seniors from last year (don’t know nearly enough to make a tribute now, sorry D3NE) and hyping up the spring season. I haven’t decided exactly what will be included in these season previews since I am peak noob and essentially starting from scratch, but rest assured I will try my best and they will most likely be adequate. I’m not familiar with most of the current teams so again, any information will be helpful. I’ll just be using trusty Google and I don’t want to miss out on any gems like Franciscan freshman Giorgio Alexander being a world record juggler (still waiting on that video Giorgio). Bonus points if that information isn’t tennis related. Also, if any of the other Atlantic South teams or players do something exciting, I’d be happy to write about that too since there’s no regional writers on the women’s side… yet.
From my ultra-quick review of the A South team results over the past couple of years, this is my birds eye view of the status of my region. Emory is far and away the dominant team – from my casual browsing of the Emory news archives it seems like the last time they took an L from an Atlantic South opponent was in the 2010 season against Washington and Lee, back when the Generals were a little more dominant in the D3 scene than they have been in recent years. If there has been one since, it’s not because I am shunning you, it’s just that I didn’t see it so let me know in the comments! The tier below Emory seems to change from year to year, though Carnegie Mellon has consistently been in the top 2-3 for at least the past 5 years. Just based on last season’s results, I would also add Washington and Lee to this category, since W&L beat CMU 5-4 in regular season play and had a convincing 7-2 win against Hopkins, who has also typically been towards the top of the region. That being said, the Gennies did take a 5-4 loss to Mary Washington last season, with Mary Wash losing to every other in region team in the top 6, so maybe it was a bad day for the Generals, and maybe that speaks to how close the 2nd-6th ranked A South schools are. Based on rankings and end of year 2017 results, I would put Hopkins, Mary Wash, and Sewanee slightly below the other three, but only very slightly. In recent years any of these teams have beaten the above teams, and one decent recruiting class really makes all the difference. So, aside from the domination seen by Emory, last season’s results may portend nothing for this year and I will have to take a closer look at the incoming freshmen, leaving seniors, and team schedules to figure out what I think will happen this coming year. Stay tuned.
The other thing I wanted to touch on is why I’m excited to be able to blog about Division 3 women’s tennis. Without giving too much away, I am fortunate that I have had enough personal experience with D1 and D3 tennis to honestly compare the two. D1 athletics requires superhuman talent and commitment, but we already knew that. What a lot of people don’t know though is just how amazing D3 athletes are. I’ve heard from people on the street or at work that D3 sports are like “glorified high school sports” or “for people who aren’t good enough for D1”. I hope my experience is the exception rather than the norm, but I am guessing it isn’t. Boo on those people! If I tried telling Emory’s five star freshmen that they weren’t good enough for D1, I hope they would laugh at my face. Or any of the four star recruits at basically every top 40 program for that matter. Not to mention the girls who come to college as lower ranked recruits but then work their butts off and earn their spots above said four and five star recruits. These players put their hearts and souls into developing their tennis—thousands of hours of practice, too many suicides to count, late night bus rides while trying to study for that 8am test the next morning. But sure, D3 is like “glorified high school”. Try telling that to the lady Tigers, who apparently are also training for a body building contest.
No days off for the lady Tigers pic.twitter.com/xnpner5Twh
— Sewanee Tennis (@USouthTennis) September 10, 2017
If anything, D3 offers a unique challenge to its athletes in that you are expected to be a student first. You are encouraged to pursue that challenging major. You are encouraged to spend your summer not on the tennis court doing spider drills (though this isn’t discouraged) but at that internship in New York so you can jump start your career. You are encouraged to take a semester abroad because you are in college and when the heck else are you going to be able to travel so freely. But don’t forget that you also have a team of seven other smart, talented tennis players who are counting on you to win your matches so the team can make the Elite Eight this year and they really want those NCAA Championship jackets. You know the ones. Or a national championship would be cool too. This is why, in my humble opinion, Division 3 produces the most well rounded individuals with the richest college experiences — I’m looking at you Brooke Donnelly- NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 woot woot.
I’ll step down from my soap box now, but I just wanted to convey that this is a wonderful, supportive, tremendously talented community and I am honored I have a voice in it. I’m looking forward to getting to know the Atlantic South ladies and finding out the secret identities of the other bloggers (Is there some initiation ceremony I have to attend or something? Do I have to pass a fitness test? Do I need to beat Conor Holton-Burke in a game of soccer tennis?). Most importantly I’m looking forward to some high level ASouth tennis.
TL;DR: Stay tuned for Atlantic South women’s coverage. Also send me emails/please help because I didn’t study for this: d3asouthwomens@gmail.com
D3ASouthW