Kicking off the 2019-2020 Season with D3RegionalNEC

It’s my fourth year of blogging, and even though the year is just starting, I’m experiencing a severe case of senioritis. You all better hope it’s one of those scenarios where I realize that if I don’t kick it into gear I might flunk out! 

Anyway, with that intro out of the way, let’s jump into a complete ASouth stream-of-consciousness style hodge podge to kick off the year!

How good is Hobart? You know I’d start here, right? Hobart might have the best 1-2 punch in the Liberty League for the first time ever with senior Alan Dubrovsky and freshman Kaan Ayman, and with a solid cast of newcomers and returners, this could be the best Hobart team in a long, long time. Credit to Coach Riskie for slowly but surely building this team to where they are now. They’ve been taking small steps forward every year and I expect another positive step in the right direction this year. Also, I am officially kicking off the #Dubrovsky4NCAAs campaign NOW.

Skidmore? JT Wynne will be looked upon as the vocal leader on and off court for this team that brings in one of their most solid recruiting classes in a while. You’re going to hear me say this a lot all year (as usual), but I won’t bet against the perennial conference favorite unless proven otherwise, so despite Hobart looking quite threatening, my initial feeling is still that Skidmore is going to be Liberty League champions again come May. I say that having done absolutely no research at all—that’s based purely off historical perspective and the junior results and UTRs of their freshman.

RPI looks kind of down. The roster is missing a couple guys and they had a pretty pedestrian time up at the Midd Invite, so I think RPI is solidly third in the Liberty League this year. They still have some talent and absolutely can hang with Hobart and maybe even Skidmore on the right day, but the buzz this team created a few years ago has really wavered. Looking back, the class they brought in that was ranked very high on tennis recruiting of 2 four stars and 2 three stars is now in their senior year—you’d think this would be their best year yet, but it just goes to show how recruiting is only one piece of the puzzle. That said, the class helped RPI win the conference for the first time in history, so don’t tell me they weren’t successful.

LEO LEO LEO! I don’t need to say anything about Leo that you all don’t already know, but this year I think the Carleton hype train is like the shinkansen. Another solid recruiting class to add some depth to a team that’s been getting better is quite intriguing, and it’s no longer just about following Leo when it comes to Carleton—this is a team that I think can legitimately challenge Gustavus for the MIAC, which would be a potentially massive upset given the history in that conference. I still won’t pick against the favorites until proven otherwise, but the storylines in the MIAC this year are, as NewD3Central would say, cheeks.

The battleground state of Iowa. It’s not just where politicians eat food on a stick during the state fair to try and appeal to politicians, it’s also home of the vaunted Coe-Luther rivalry, which is now a very real rivalry given Luther’s win in the conference championship last year. I’ll be quite honest—these two teams are dropping a bit below the level of teams I will typically cover, but I’ll certainly try and dip in to keep tabs on what’s going on in Iowa this year to some extent, because my sense is that Luther and Coe will continue to be evenly matched, and if there’s one thing we all love about D3 Tennis, it’s conferences where the winner isn’t a foregone conclusion.

***checks to remember what teams I cover***

Stevens has pretty much fallen off the map of relevancy for a few years now which is a bit of a bummer considered they were quite a fun, interesting, and good team a few years ago. I believe they can get back to that level within a few years if things break their way, but until then, I don’t have a ton to say about them. I’m pretty sure they are in a new conference now where Wilkes has been winning every year, and Stevens is still much better than them, so I think NCAAs should still be a yearly thing for the Ducks. Actually, now that I think about it, Stevens is playing the Mary Wash ITA and is in a conference with teams in Pennsylvania, so I’m declaring them D3RegionalASouth’s responsibility from now on (though I’m sure I’ll still talk about them).

Rochester and NYU are also teetering on the edge of the line in terms of teams I will be paying attention to, at least until we hit the UAA 7th place match, which has become a highlight of the year. In case you forgot, the past two years have both come down to 4-4 overall matches with #6 singles in a third set tiebreak, with each team winning it 7-5 once. Oh, and it was the same two players in both years. That’s just CRAZY! Rochester loses one of their best players in recent history in Masaru Fujimaki and I don’t think they’ll really be able to replace him, and NYU lost control of their Twitter account, which I think they might be even more bummed about. While their account ranged from mildly amusing to obnoxiously fratty, whoever is running it now is doing a pretty meh job. 

UWW and TCNJ are also teams I’ll cover this year, but I don’t have much to say about them right now, other than the fact that UWW is always the first team to start tweeting scores in late August from their women’s team, which is the first real sign to me that summer is over. Also, remember that in a year or two (I don’t remember exactly when), these two teams will be in the same conference, which will change the NCAA Pool B (and potentially A and C) landscape, and might also change the frequency with which I’ll be able to post the picture of a swimming pool shaped like a B. 

Apparently there are ITAs happening this weekend, though I know we really get into it next weekend. Please send us draws if you have them. I may try and get a preview out, but no promises. If I don’t, my predictions:

Northeast: Dubrovsky (Hobart) def Castillo-Sanchez (RPI)
Midwest (the UWW/GAC one): Leo (Carleton) def Trondson (HAMLINE)

Welcome back and here’s to a great year!