10 Reactions to 2010 New England's

10 Reactions to 2010 New England's

1. Hopkins is unreal!
2. The NEPSAC should combine Class A and Class B because although Class A schools are bigger, they aren't as good.
3. Class C should be eliminated.  Congrats to Rivers on winning Class C but it is only 15 people smaller than BB&N.  Do classes go by size or ability??  There are about 12 schools in Class C and it's pointless to keep doing Class C Tournaments, plus I hate seeing Rivers wearing New England Champs jackets.
4. I did my homework and Nobles and St. Paul's didn't play New England's for different reasons.  I already ripped Nobles in an earlier post but they didn't play this year basically because they don't value the tournament.  I might add that Nobles has also never played in the tournament so they don't really know what they're missing.  From what I've gathered St. Paul's didn't play because the AD doesn't care about tennis.
5. Carl Reid took down the Brunswick #1 Sam King (who's also the FAA Champion) in an epic match on Saturday. 
6. Belmont Hill could've beaten Hotchkiss.
7. Did I already mention that Hopkins is unreal?
8. I don't understand how Ned Gallagher does the draws for New England's because on the PrepTennis website it says that "unseeded teams were assigned the remaining slots in the draw by random lot." I know for a fact though that teams are randomly assigned to the draw because in the past ten years (when the ISL has averaged four teams in the eight team Class B Draw) no two ISL teams have ever played each other in the first round.  With that being said, it's obvious that the guidelines which he has said he follows aren't being followed.  While I'm not accusing him of rigging draws, I wish that he was clear on how he actually makes the draws because it doesn't seem right to keep everyone in the dark.  I do want to point out that his team (Choate) got a bad draw and had to play the second seed, Deerfield, in the first round.
9. It's time for the ISL to play the 7-point format (with Super-tiebreakers) that we use for New England's
10. I picked all of the Class A and Class B matches correctly except for one, I did get the Hopkins "upset" of Brunswick though.

NEPSAC Class B Tennis Tournament Outlook

NEPSAC Class B Tennis Tournament Outlook

I just realized that Cheshire Academy is a Class A School, I'm an idiot. Anyway here are my new rankings, click here for the Old Class B Rankings, I didn't bother to take Cheshire out of the old rankings.

1. Brunswick School
Brunswick beat Hopkins 4-3 this past week, this result will give Brunswick the number 1 seed for the Class B Tournament.  Hopkins is the only team that can stop Brunswick from three-peating.

2. Hopkins School
I'm a little bit surprised that Hopkins lost to Brunswick but there's no reason why Hopkins shouldn't be able to beat Brunswick in NEPSACs.  I'm concerned that the committee is going to give the second seed to an ISL team (Belmont Hill) when Hopkins is a MUCH stronger team than Bel Hill.

3. Belmont Hill School
As much as I want an ISL school to win New England's there's really no chance that Bel Hill will beat either Hopkins or Brunswick.  Best case scenario is that Belmont Hill gets the second seed and the tournament committee puts Hopkins and Brunswick on the same side of the draw allowing Bel Hill to sneak to the finals and lose.  Realistically I really don't see this team winning more than one match.

4. Nobles & Greenough School
If Nobles is able to avoid Hopkins and Brunswick first round they could win a match.

5. Roxbury Latin School
I'm guessing that RL will probably draw either Hopkins or Brunswick.

6. St. Paul's School
Unless given an easy draw this team will probably bow out first round.

7. King Low Heyward Thomas School
King should pick up the FAA's third birth into the tournament.

8. Moses Brown School
This 8th spot is a real toss up and its annoying that the Moses Brown Athletic Website doesn't have any scores posted but this team isn't bad.

Teams on the bubble:

Tabor Academy
Tabor has a win and a loss versus Moses Brown but what could kill their tournament hopes is a lopsided 9-4 loss to BB&N.

Green Farms Academy
Green Farms has a 4-3 loss to King but if the tournament committee elects to take a 4th FAA team then Green Farms could sneak in.

Brunswick Tennis beats Hopkins 4-3 in exciting showdown!

Brunswick Tennis beats Hopkins 4-3 in exciting showdown!

This post was taken directly from the Hopkins website and I did not contribute at all to the post.  I just thought that this match would be interesting to my readers.

    Both the Hopkins and the Brunswick boys varsity tennis teams came into today's match knowing a lot was at stake.  Both teams had been undefeated in Fairchester Tennis League competition up to this point, and Brunswick was the New England Prep School Team Champion in the "B" division in 2009.

    The match began with Brunswick veteran Kyle Wolstencroft at #4 singles soundly defeating Hopkins' Luke Foreman 6--0, 6--1, with superior pace and experience.  But Hopkins #1 Nolan Paige evened the score by upending a determined Sam King, 6--1, 6--4, using punishing, accurate, and aggressive topspin ground strokes to force play, and even the match at 1--1.  It turned out that these two matches were the only matches to be decided in two sets.

    At #2 doubles, the Hopkins team of Alec & Michael Bartimer gained an advantage for Hopkins with steady and penetrating cross court ground strokes along with opportunistic volleys to gain a 6--2, 4--6, 6--1 victory.  In a match at #1 doubles with hard hitting, and a lot of determination on both sides, tri-captains Bobby Berkowitz and Jerrod Dobkin eventually triumphed over Brunswick's Matt Mackin and Matt Shang in a see-saw battle, 6--3, 1--6, 6--4.

    But this was as far as it went for Hopkins today.  At #3 doubles, Alex Blythe and Ryan Daley won the first set against Robbie Ravelli and Luca Knupfer, but were unable to counter the strong net play of the Brunswick team in the second set.  The third set went back and forth; unfortunately for Hopkins, some unforced errors at crucial points undermined the Hilltoppers' cause, and this gave the Brunswick team a hard earned 3--6, 6--1, 7--6 victory.

    What remained on the courts were the #2 and #3 singles matches.  Hopkins' Russell Einbinder at #2, after losing the first set, came back strong to win the second set, and both players were on serve in the 3rd set at 2--2 when Russell sustained severe leg cramps and had to retire.

    This left the match score at 3--3 with Brunswick's John Brosens pitted against Hopkins' Brian Astrachan.  Both players battled fiercely, but in the end Brosens' stronger serve and harder hit forehand proved to be the difference, with the score ending up 6--3, 4--6, 6--4 to give Brunswick the match and the Fairchester Tennis League title.

Source: Hopkins Athletic Website


I didn't realize that the FAA plays a 4 singles, 3 doubles format.  The New England's match will be different because it's a 7-point format.

NEPSAC Class A Prep Tennis Rankings

NEPSAC Class A Prep Tennis Rankings

UPDATED NEPSAC Class A Prep Tennis Rankings

I didn't realize until just now that Cheshire Academy is a Class A team so I just added them in as the number 8 team into the tournament.

Click here for the previous NEPSAC Class A Tennis Rankings.

1. Hotchkiss School Tennis (previously: 1)

Hotchkiss remains atop my Class A rankings and will likely be the number 1 seed in the NEPSAC Tournament. They've pretty much cleaned up except for a 7-0 (scrimmage) loss to Brunswick and a tight 4-3 win against Class B opponent Cheshire Academy.  Hotchkiss is the cream of the crop from the Founders League.  Hotchkiss is by far the best Class A team.

2. Milton Academy Tennis (3)

Milton won a very close match against Phillips Academy- Andover this past week and is likely to get the 2nd seed in the NEPSAC Tournament.  Milton will have its hands full if it plays Hotchkiss but it could potentially pull an upset off.

3. Deerfield Academy Tennis (2)

Deerfield had a slightly more convincing win (than Milton) over Phillips Academy (5-2 instead of 4-2) but it's unlikely that the committee gives both seeds to Founders teams in my opinion.

4. Loomis Chaffee School Tennis (4)

Loomis sits comfortably at the fourth position. They've beaten everyone except Deerfield and it was only a 4-3 loss.  They don't play Hotchkiss until after NEPSACs.

5. Phillips Academy- Andover Tennis (5)

Phillips has close losses to Milton, Deerfield and (Class B) Roxbury Latin.  This squad beat Taft 4-3 at the beginning of the season.

6. Taft School Tennis (6)

Taft has close losses to Hotchkiss (5-2), Phillips (4-3), and Loomis (4-3).

7. Choate Rosemary Hall Tennis (7)

Choate has pulled out a lot of close matches this year but they are likely to get crushed by any team they face first round.

8. Cheshire Academy Tennis (Unranked)

I messed up, I thought that Cheshire was Class B.  Although they are ranked 8th I think that this is the only team that could possibly beat Hotchkiss in the Class A Tournament.  The only reason this team isn't ranked higher is that it lost to Choate 5-2.

As you can tell not much has changed since the last time I did the rankings. Stay tuned because I'll do a full breakdown of the bracket when it comes out.

Did I leave anyone out? Comment below.