The week kicked off with UT-Tyler starting their season against a Pomona-Pitzer team that was fresh off a huge win against Mary Washington. The Hens were able to hang on for a 5-4 win in what was a very tight match. UT-Tyler got absolutely destroyed by Cal Lutheran later in the week, and this was the Kingsmen's only big match this week. I get the following info from these results. I think Pomona-Pitzer's win against Mary Wash was a bit of a fluke and my guess would be that they were pumped up on their home courts in doubles and the Eagles weren't adjusted to outdoor tennis. Mary Wash beat Redlands who went on to beat Trinity (TX) so I think the Eagles will be on the border of the top 20. Pomona-Pitzer probably sits between 20 and 25. UT-Tyler is a 25-30 team and they are slightly worse than Pomona-Pitzer. Cal Lutheran is looking very strong and I'm really look forward to their match with Trinity (TX) on Monday.
Carnegie Mellon had 3 big matches this week and they did well in my opinion. They dropped 2 of the doubles to Redlands but came back to take the match after dominating singles. Their second match was a loss to CMS. I was expecting a bit of a down year for the Stags this year but this certainly proved to be incorrect after two very impressive results from this week. The Stags are a national championship contender in my mind and these two results alone have made a believer out of me. It's just unfortunate they won't be hosting nationals again. In a match that i was really looking forward to, CMU beat Trinity (TX) 5-4. We don't have a box score at the moment but I'm sure it came down to the wire. These are two evenly matched teams but I think CMU proved they belong in the top 10 in the country.
Trinity (TX) didn't pass their first 3 tests, but they still have 2 more opportunities to redeem themselves. They got crushed by CMS and I am attributing their Redlands loss to just being tired after two difficult matches. I think they are a better team than Redlands but this could certainly hurt Trinity (TX)'s NCAA chances. Both of the SCAC big fish have had tough losses in the past week and we could see both of them out of the top 15 in the rankings. Trinity (TX) desperately needs a win against Cal Lu or Bowdoin to get their confidence back and more importantly stay alive Pool C.
In the only match of the week between top 10 teams, Wash U edged Kenyon 5-4. Apparently, the singles were played first and #1 doubles was ultimately the decider in the match. This was a very close contest and what i get from this result is Kenyon could potentially be a top 5 team. They can beat anyone on any given day. I was disappointed to see the wash U-NC Wesleyan match cancelled. We have to wait a bit longer to see how strong NCW is.
