Special from
Division3Tennis.com
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Hello all! Yesterday, our team at Division3Tennis.com brought you a series of in-depth previews for the upcoming women's conference tournaments, and it is our pleasure to bring you the men's conference previews and recaps today. We've had an incredible year so far covering D-III tennis, and we're glad that Tennis Recruiting has helped us with that success this year. We have a few conferences to cover, so I won't waste any time on this introduction and get to the meat of this article!
UAA
This past weekend, the UAA tournament was held in Altamonte Springs, Florida. The UAA is home to five of the best teams in the nation, as all five teams are ranked within the Top 15. Those teams are Emory, Washington University, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve, and Chicago. Additionally, the UAA has a few teams on the cusp or just in the Top 30 - these teams are Brandeis, Rochester, and NYU. This past weekend, all did battle in hot and humid Florida in what proved to be an epic tournament.
Overall, the Emory Eagles came away with another conference championship, which puts them at 20+ UAA championships in their storied history. After cruising through the first round against NYU, Emory pulled a high-wire act, coming back from deficits in both the semifinals against Chicago and the finals against Washington University. In the semifinals, Emory was actually down to their last game at No. 2 singles until Eric Halpern came back from a 5-3 deficit in the second set to eventually win for the Eagles. In the finals, Rafe Mosetick of Emory came back from multiple match points down to clinch the championship match. This was a truly epic tournament for the Eagles.
While Emory won the whole tournament, there were plenty of other standout matches and performances as well. The semifinal between Wash U and Carnegie Mellon featured six split-set singles matches, with Wash U eventually coming out on top in all but two of them. Similarly, the third place match between Chicago and Carnegie Mellon featured four matches that split sets in singles, with Chicago coming away with all of them. Given that all these teams are in the Top 15, it was really a pleasure to watch the matches and see how close in talent many of these teams are. A powerhouse conference such as the UAA can showcase the top talent that a lot of the D-III schools are getting nowadays.
NESCAC
It's my pleasure (D3Northeast) to bring you a preview of what many people consider to be the best conference in D-III. Now, I don't want to rub anyone the wrong way, so I'll just say that the NESCAC is the deepest conference in D-III. Unfortunately, even though the conference is so deep, only six teams make the conference tournament. This means that the top two seeds earn byes to the tournament semifinals. This year's tournament will be hosted by Middlebury, which has nine outdoor courts and a nice indoor facility just down the driveway as well. While the seedings won't be officially announced until later this week, here is our best guess at the tournament's makeup.
The following teams have clinched one of the top three seeds for the tournament.
No. 1 Amherst Lord Jeffs: As the defending
NCAA champions, Amherst has answered the call of high expectations with another phenomenal season. Even after graduating half of their singles lineup and seeing their beloved coach depart for Division I, the Lord Jeffs have once again captured the regular season crown. Amherst is clearly one of the five best teams in the country, and they are one of the few teams that might be able to challenge
CMS for a national title. Led by Andrew Yaraghi and Michael Solimano at the top of the lineup, Amherst is the favorite to win the NESCAC tournament for the second straight year. The Lord Jeffs will take on the winner of the first round matchup between No. 4 seed and No. 5 seed.
No. 2 Middlebury Panthers: If the NESCAC had a 1-2 punch in 2015, Middlebury would be that second team. The Panthers cruised through conference play until the final weekend of the season, taking their only NESCAC loss in their regular season finale vs. Amherst. At times, Middlebury has looked like a true national championship contender, but they have also shown some signs of vulnerability. They play good, consistent doubles, and they are led by the region's No. 1 singles player in Ari Smolyar. As the No. 2 seed, Middlebury earns the second bye, and will face the winner of the No. 3 seed vs No. 6 seed quarterfinal matchup.
