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.

New England Class B Bracketology

New England Class B Bracketology

If the Nepsac tournament started tomorrow these would be my 8 teams in the tournament.  Check out the Class A Bracketology.

1.  Hopkins
Hopkins is unbelievable.  They have Nolan Paige (ranked top 5 in NE), Bobby Berkowitz (top 20), Russell Einbinder (top 10), Brian Astrachan (top 10), Jerrod Dobkin (top 50) and Michael Bartimer.  Talk about a stacked lineup.  They have a match with Brunswick this week who actually beat them last year and I'm very interested to see what happens.  This might be one of the best teams to ever play in the NEPSAC (assuming they beat Brunswick). The founders league is strong this year.

2.  Brunswick
This team has won Class B's two years in a row so I must be crazy not to have them at number 1 right?  Well when you look at how good Hopkins is it's hard to pick anyone else. I'm not sure who Brunswick graduated although I do know that Sam King plays number one for them.

3.  Belmont Hill
Belmont Hill is a very strong team and probably the best ISL team, as shown by the power rankings, but if Brunswick and Hopkins are healthy I honestly think that this team has zero shot at winning and I mean that with all due respect.  Belmont Hill's strength is their depth and their abundance of good players. Against Hopkins I think that they would lose all top 5 matches in straight sets.

4.  Cheshire Academy
Cheshire has a really good 1, 2 punch in Beck Bond and Michael Rosengren (both top 15 in NE I think). Beyond that I'm not quite sure how good they are but these two could definitely carry them to some big wins.

5.  Nobles
This team is good but do they have a shot in New Englands? Not really just because of how good the field is this year.

6.  Roxbury Latin
This isn't RL's year to win it.

7. St. Paul's
St. Paul's will probably get in unless they lose to BB&N but they are unlikely to make it out of the first round.

8. King School
Don't know much about this school and I don't know who will end up filling this 8 spot because it will probably be a CT school unless BB&N sneaks in here.

Teams on the outside:
BB&N
Williston Northampton
Green Farms
Westminster