Thursday, May 21, 2009

D3tennis.com Year-End Top 20

1. UC Santa Cruz
2. Emory
3. Amherst
4. Wash U
5. Middlebury
6. CMS
7. Kenyon
8. Williams
9. Gustavus Adolphus
10. Redlands
11. Johns Hopkins
12. DePauw
13. Bowdoin
14. Carnegie Mellon
15. Trinity (TX)
16. North Carolina Wesleyan
17. Chicago
18. UT-Tyler
19. Mary Washington
20. Trinity (CT)

Cruz wins national championship

Crushes Amherst 5-0 in the finals. I believe Cruz was leading in 3 of the remaining 4 matches. Could have ended up 8-1 or 9-0. Dominant performance by them, they were really on a mission the last month. Liberty-Point comes back from 5-3 down in the 2nd set to clinch.

Emory defeats Wash U 5-3 for 3rd place.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Semifinals

Could have two upsets on our hands. Cruz just beat Emory 5-4 after a doubles sweep. Ironic that Cruz's junior clinched the matched for all their seniors. Emory has to be disappointed, I think everyone still knows they are the best team in the country on most days. Cruz has better depth and was able to steal that #1 doubles spot which really was the winning point in this one. They were supposed to win 5, but lose 4, so those two offset each other.

Amherst is in control with a 4-2 lead. 3 matches early in the 3rd set. Amherst protected 2 of their 3 first sets. Wash U only protected 1.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Brief Team Tournament Predictions

Starting with the quarterfinals...

In the bottom half I think there will most likely be be two fairly lopsided quarterfinals. I would be very surprised if Cruz doesn't sweep the doubles against Williams. We know the potential is there for the Ephs but they've shown their true selves probably twice this season. Cruz should take at worst a 2-1 lead going into singles. I like Cruz at 1,2,3 and 5 to finish the match. I think Williams potential is probably 3 wins in this, I'd give them almost a 0% shot at winning. I'm predicting a 5-0 for Cruz though with a doubles sweep and two routine singles wins. Williams may be up in a match or two but won't have time to finish. This hasn't been the greatest season for the Ephs. Moving on, I see 5 spots where Kenyon could beat Emory. That 2 and 3 doubles as well as 1, 5 and 6 singles. If Egan plays, Emory should win 4. I think Kenyon needs to win all of those spots to have a chance in this match. If Emory is able to take 2 of the doubles, it's pretty much over because they have automatics at 2 and 3 singles. Brody really needs to step up tomorrow for Kenyon to have a chance and win both of his matches.

In the top half, I think Gustavus could keep things competitive. They need to win 1 of the doubles and I think they can extend the match for a while. They should be able to compete with Wash U at 1 through 3 as well as 6 singles. Hoeland has been shaky lately. Stein and Levy should run through their opponents quickly. I think Gustavus will manage to get a doubles win, I'm calling 5-1 for Wash U and Watts and Kauss may not even finish their first set. Amherst-Midd is obviously the best match of the day. I'm not going to start making predictions for this because everyone knows they are worthless. Could go either way but I'll pick Midd 5-3 with at least 3 3-setters.

Semifinal talk tomorrow night...

TennisRecruiting.net Article

Will be run on the site tomorrow.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Predictions

Going to save them until the day before the tournament. I think there will be TennisRecruiting article on Monday about the D3 tournament. I'm picking Cruz in the tournament, Wang in singles and the Goodwins in doubles. I'll get into more specifics Monday.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Quarterfinals Set

Wash U vs Gustavus
Midd vs Amherst
Cruz vs Williams
Emory vs Kenyon

I'll have thoughts on the regionals tomorrow or Tuesday.

Monday, May 4, 2009

NCAA Bracket Discussion

Overall I prefer the bracket to last year. I think with the exception of the Wash U region, everything is pretty fair. DePauw has quietly had a great season and they are rewarded by drawing the #1 overall seed on the road. I think it would have been much more fair to have them play Kenyon. I think DePauw will manage to steal a match or two from Wash U, but the Bears should advance comfortably. There are several intriguing Sweet 16 matches. The one that first caught my attention is obviously Hopkins against Amherst. Both of these are very different teams than when they played in the fall and I think this is going to be a war with upset written all over it. I think 3 doubles as well as 2 and 3 singles are huge matches in that one.

Two slumping NESCAC teams should battle it out for a spot in the Final 8 at Williams. Both of these teams haven't had the greatest seasons, but they both have a good opportunity to salvage their year. Gustavus should take care of Tyler pretty easily. The Patriots haven't had the season they were looking for and the Gusties will be playing on their homecourt for Coach Wilkinson for the last time. Tyler will need a massive effort to even stay close. Middlebury has by far the easiest road to the Final 8. They beat Skidmore earlier without their full lineup and I'd be shocked if Skidmore wins a match here.

Kenyon and CMU has the potential to be a battle but the Lords should be a little too much in doubles, especially with their home court advantage. These teams had a tight match earlier in the season with Kenyon winning and I would expect a similar result. Emory should crush Mary Washington for the second time this season, especially in Atlanta. I'm interested to see if Mary Wash can even get past NCW in the rd of 32. That's probably the best rd of 32 match in the tournament with the exception of CMS and Redlands. That brings us to the California regional. I think you have to like Cruz to come out on top for the second week in a row and spoil the Stags chances to play nationals on their home court. More NCAA coverage will be coming as the week progresses.

NCAA Selection Day

Bracket has been released. See comments page for link.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

NESCAC Final

Middlebury wins 5-3

Friday, May 1, 2009

Two Notes

1. ITA rankings should be coming out today
2. Bowdoin beat Trinity (CT) 5-3 in the first round of the NESCAC tourney