This is how I used to feel going back to school after summer break. Am I excited? Am I dreading this? Did I forget everything I know? The teacher keeps calling me by my real name and not D3ASW so I never know when they’re trying to get my attention, but I’m excited to kick off another season as the ASouth women’s writer. D3NEW has been cranking out the previews and she’s doing such a good job that I’m going to copy and paste her formatting. I’m going to start my season previews with a team that I meant to get to last year but never did, Washington and Lee. I didn’t get to them last year not because I love them any less, but because I am lazy and I apologize for that, but I will make up for it now by giving the Gennies the first spotlight.
Location: Lexington, VA
Coach: Erin Ness (7th season)
ITA National Ranking: 18
ITA Regional Ranking: 5
Twitter Handle: @GeneralsWTennis (strong twitter presence, very responsive to my dumb questions, 10/10)
Fall Team GPA: 3.78 (!!)
2017-18 finish: The Gennies claimed their conference title for the 28th time and fell in the second round of NCAAs to an emboldened Mary Washington team. Last year they fell twice to who I would consider to be their biggest regional rivals currently, Mary Washington, both by 5-4 scores.
Key additions: Taylor Garcia (3 star from LA), Georgia Wright (3 star from TX), and Claire Lacksen (2 star from GA who is 6 ft tall!)
Key departures: Michelle Fleenor (#1 singles, #1 doubles, ended senior year with All-America Singles honors), Emily Kochard (#2-#4 singles, #3 doubles), Claudia Kesala (#2-#3 doubles)
Bold prediction: The Gennies will win their conference title for the 29th time (this isn’t a bold prediction) but will surge past their regional rivals in Mary Washington to make the Round of 16 at NCAAs.
Lineup analysis:
I’m going to put it out there that after this fall’s solid-but-no-stand-outs performance at regionals, I’m going to be doing a lot of guesswork to put this lineup together. The Generals will obviously be missing their star player from last year, Michelle Fleenor, and based on fall play this is a team that will be relying heavily on their young players to pick up wins at the top of the lineup. Unfortunately, Tessa Hill (Sr) has been contending with a shoulder injury for the past 2 seasons that has taken her out of serious play for the remainder of her college career. During her first 2 seasons with W&L she had a very strong presence at the top of the lineup, and I hope to see her back on court for a match or two to commemorate her senior year.
- Valerie Marshall, range: #1-3
Marshall is going to need to avoid that sophomore slump this year if she wants to play at the top of the lineup, especially with young bloods Taylor Garcia and Georgia Wright coming out of the gates with nothing to lose. Last year Marshall was very solid at #2 singles, earning an 8-5 record, and occasionally playing #1 singles. This fall she had a decent showing at Regionals, falling in a very close match in the round of 32 to Amanda Yermal from CNU. It will be tough to compete with the best of the best when Washington and Lee competes against the top 10 teams, but hopefully Marshall will rise to the occasion and provide some consistency at the top of the lineup.
- Taylor Garcia, range: #1-3
Garcia is a 3 star freshman from LA who will have the benefit of inexperience this spring. I know we harp on that senior experience all the time but honestly I feel like there is a certain advantage to being a freshman that doesn’t know you’re supposed to lose. I hope this will be the case for Garcia this year, as her team needs to her play well. At fall Regionals she also lost in the Round of 32 in 3 close sets.
- Georgia Wright, range:#1-3
Georgia Wright is an extremely southern name and I love it and will be addressing her as Miss Wright because that seems like the proper thing to do. Miss Wright is a freshman from Austin TX and everything I said about Garcia also applies to her. Her team needs her to find a groove this spring if they want to beat the Mary Washingtons of the world. Like Marshall and Garcia, Miss Wright also lost in R32 at Regionals this fall.
- Lily Horsely, range: #4-6
Horsely (Jr) played predominantly at the #4 spot last year and seems like the most likely candidate to hold down the middle of the lineup. However, she was notably absent from fall play this year. Hopefully she was studying abroad and we will see her back on court soon!
- Mary Hampton McNeal, range: #4-6
McNeal spent last year playing in the bottom half of the lineup and has been a singles starter in all three of her prior seasons with the Generals. As a senior she will be a little hungrier to finish out her career with a successful season, so she’s an obvious choice to put in.
- Madison Hutchins (Jr), Anna Kreynin (Jr), Gabby Moore (Jr) and Melinda Kauffman (Sr), range: #4-6, doubles
All of these ladies have played bottom half of the lineup singles in the past and are likely to do so again this year. Kreynin is a bit of a doubles specialist, earning 23 wins in doubles last year alone, so expect to see big things from her during doubles this year.
Schedule analysis:
Washington and Lee plays a pretty full schedule this spring but like years past will not have any issues with most of their regional opponents. Their first match that I am anticipating will happen early against #24 CNU. In years past, I would not have even called out this match as a challenge for the Generals, but CNU has shown a strong rise in rankings in years past and after years of losing to W&L will be hungry for revenge. I still think that W&L is too strong and will win the match, but I don’t expect a wipe out.
Their next challenges will come in mid-March when they travel to Mary Washington for the Mary Washington Blue Grey Invite. #22 Kenyon will be a test of the status quo, as the Ladies of Kenyon will be trying to climb the rankings and W&L is a little more vulnerable than they have been in years past. After Kenyon, #14 Skidmore will be looking to defend their ranking. This will be an opportunity for the Generals to climb back into the top 15 and will be huge in terms of confidence when it comes to regional matches later in the spring against Mary Wash and CMU.
Most of the other matches they will play after that are their ODAC conference opponents who have historically been unable to challenge the Generals, and this year does not portend any changes to that pattern, resulting in a 29th conference championship for W&L. On March 30, the Generals will travel to Emory, where they will be in for a tough challenge but hopefully can get a few matches on the board. At the end of April, they finish up regular season play against Carnegie Mellon and Mary Washington. Realistically, CMU will be too strong for W&L this year but should serve as good preparation for Mary Washington, who had the General’s number twice last year by a 5-4 score. This is completely a match that W&L can win if all their players are healthy, and will do loads for their confidence when it comes to NCAAs, where there is a good chance they will face Mary Washington once again.
OK that wasn’t so bad! It was quite nice to catch up with D3 tennis this morning, as I have been traveling nonstop for the past couple of months for work related reasons and have been completely disconnected from all the important things in life (read: D3 women’s tennis). But I’m back to stay and I’m really excited about it. I may not match D3NEWs torrential pace of an article per day, but fortunately for me the Atlantic South isn’t as stacked and I don’t have as many teams to get through. I am also EXTREMELY excited about D3NEW’s surprise – I guarantee you will love it. So stay tuned to the site, as we are going to be working really hard on the women’s side this year to bring you a lot of quality content. Until next time!
-D3ASW
Ok, this was INCREDIBLE! Huge kudos to you for such an in-depth lineup and schedule analysis with tons of insight.
PS. you always have me beat because you’re actually funny