I like to consider myself the Scott Van Pelt of the DIII blogging world. Mostly because he just seems like a cool dude, but also because I love the format of his show. Solid interviews, appears to be an extremely personable guy, uses creative segments like Bad Beats and The Best Thing I Saw Today, and he always grabs your attention with his “ONE BIG THING” segment that highlights each episode. So, before we get to a recap of the Tufts/Brandeis Invite from last weekend, bear with me because I want to talk the ONE BIG THING in DIII tennis. I want to talk about Boris Sorkin. While I understand the general sentiment of surprise that your fall national champion plays at Tufts, those of you still in shock haven’t been paying close enough attention. My dude hasn’t lost a singles match since the end of April when he lost in a tight match to FUTURE NCAA CHAMPION Grant Urken. If you go back through his freshman year, he only took one other loss, in three sets to Austin “Lil” Barr, dropping the match only after the team match was decided. Over this freshman campaign he notched wins over Oscar Burney, Will de Quant, Tiago Eusebio, Sebastian Castillo Sanchez, Steven Koulouris, Sean Ko and Scott Altmeyer, going 10-2 in singles last spring. During that same stretch, Tufts was 6-6 in those matches as a team. The Bos referred to him throughout most of last year as “Young Boris”, but knew that he he could be something special.
This fall, the sophomore has taken his game to new heights throwing down a perfect 13-0 record and earning wins over the projected #1/2’s from RPI, Colby, Bates, Midd, Amherst, Bowdoin, Hamline, Emory and Cruz in chronological order. When asked about his ITA run, Sorkin said, “I tried not to think about that during the tournament. You just play, you know, and then suddenly, boom, you are the national champion. Great feeling.” Not only has Sorkin been balling out on the court, but his mental approach to the tournament is one of the reasons he’s such a tough out in the first place, “I was mentally prepared for a long match and the fact that I lost the first set didn’t really affect me, because of that I knew I would get my chances later on in the match…I also had nothing to lose. I made it that far. It was already an accomplishment for me. So I just stayed calm throughout the whole match.” Sorkin has been both mentally and physically prepared, now having played 3-setters in four of his previous five matches, which just so happen to include a handful of the other best players in the country in Wei, Jiang, Jemison and finally Le Duff. So far, the Russian Rocket is having a sophomore season very similar to that of Noah Farrell, back when he quickly rose to prominence and became the best player in the country. Just like Farrell, Sorkin is small in stature but knows how to get things done when it matters most. “I think I just got more confidence this fall and convinced myself that I am capable of winning against players who are stronger than me.” I’m not sure whether the Tufts team will still be able to get away with calling him “Young Boris” after this, but one thing is for certain, Boris should not be “surprising” anybody come springtime.
5 things to know from the A-Flight Singles
Noah Farrell is not content with just one national championship. The 5th year senior has has a fine fall, losing early at Midd and losing in the quarters to Sorkin at the ITA (no shame there), but he came out swinging this weekend, earning wins over Lillenthal (projected Wes #2-4), Biswas (projected Tufts #2-4), Ko (projected MIT #3-4), and most impressively a straight-set win over Sean Wei (projected Amherst #1-2) in the finals. If Farrell is playing like this in the spring, Midd is going to be tough to beat given they should be getting points from Noah and #Lube with regularity.- Peter Anker appears to be Wesleyan’s top freshman. There was a ton of hype surrounding Noah Lillenthal before the season started, but Anker has been the better frosh so far this fall. Granted, Peter had his own hype, I mean, c’mon, the dude played for the Norwegian Davis Cup team, However, he’s had a strong fall, holding seed at the ITA a few weeks ago. Anker beat Indrakanti (projected Williams #3-4) in straight sets, Tzeng (projected Deis #1-5) in straights, and Patel (projected Bowdoin #3-5) in a grueling 6-7 (11), 7-6 (4), 10-4 super before falling to Wei in the semis. Right now it looks like Peter Anker might be the guy who starts the year right behind #Fink.
- One of these years I’ll be right…don’t sleep on MIT. Tyler Barr had a great ITA. Alex Cauneac looks like he’s back to form, knocking off another top four seed in a fall tournament (first Finkelman and now Kam), and D3AS’ favorite Sean Ko beat two of the highest rated freshmen in the region in Yang (projected Bowdoin #3-5), and Morris (projected Midd #4-6). All three guys are seniors this year, so while MIT’s academics have been known to drown many an underclassmen, hopefully the senior class has their feet on some collective solid ground and can end their career on a positive note.
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JP Bowdoin’s depth might be better than we thought. More on this in the B-flight as well, but this was an impressive showing for Patel and even Carstens. Without Urken, Jiang and Wang, it’s likely that the four Bowdoin A-flight players are battling (along with Wang) for 4 lineup spots. Patel, who played 6 all of the last two years, beat Tyler Barr (projected MIT #1-2), Zach Bessette (projected Herst #3), and pushed Anker (projected Wes #2-4) to 12-10 in a super. Carstens notched a win over the top Tufts freshman, and played Cauneac close. Between this, Wang’s results at the Wallach, and even a little Larry Zhao action, it’s conceivable that Bowdoin might not struggle in the #3-6 range as much as we first thought.
- Amherst is not untouchable at the top of the lineup (nobody is), but they also have the depth to make up for it. I have made a lot about the improvement of Kevin Ma over the past couple weeks, but the No. 4 seed lost in the 1st round to Tzeng in this one. Ma and Wei both had good ITAs, even if it was a bit of a roller coaster for Wei. Ma and Bessette had great Wallachs while Wei struggled. This weekend Wei and Fung had deep runs, while Ma lost in the first round. It’s unrealistic to think that Wei and Ma would have their A-game every time, so it’s crucial that vets like Bessette and Fung are there to step up for the team if/when something goes wrong at the top of the order.
- Fall tennis in the Northeast is super unpredictable…but it does (at least somewhat) reliably show the singles future. I gave you this list in my ITA preview, but Trinka, Chen, Farrell, Cuba, Finkelman. These guys all had incredible falls before leaping to become top players in the region. While the NE tends to beat up on each other during the fall, giving some odd looking results on the surface, it’s rare to find somebody with extreme NE fall success who didn’t follow it up in the spring. That’s good news for guys like Sorkin, Jiang, Cauneac, Tzeng, Das, Anker, Morris and Altmeyer.
4 things to know from the A-Flight Doubles
Did Wesleyan find a doubles team?! Return of the Prince (ONCE AGAIN) return of the Prince (OH MY GOD). The junior and outspoken team leader paired with 4-star recruit Noah Lillenthal to win the doubles draw! The biggest difference between Wes’ success of two years ago and subsequent disappointment last year was their doubles. Now, I know I just preached that strong fall success is an indicator of spring success within the NE, but I’m not sure that holds for doubles. Pairings are so volatile and so many important pieces are abroad/away, plus there are the next four months to figure out better team chemistry. That being said, any positivity for Wes after a somewhat bland fall is welcome in Middletown.- Amherst’s doubles won’t be a weakness this year. Again, I have no idea what the pairings will be come spring time, but Fung and Bessette are VERY strong doubles players, Wei and Ma are great returners, who if paired with the right person could turn into great doubles players, but seeing young Harris Foulkes make the semis and knocking off an established team of Farrell/Martin. I’m going to cheat and tack on from B dubs as well, Levitin and Ruparel (another freshman) made the finals beating a strong singles team of Anker/Fink and then the doubles stud that is Coramutla in the semis. All in all, an extremely successful doubles weekend for the Mammoths, even if the lost both flights in the finals.
- Williams’ uncharacteristically poor doubles showing means nothing in the long term. The Ephs have already swapped around their teams this fall, and Coach Greenberg knows how to coach doubles. They swapped their teams around between last fall and spring, and I would imagine that will be done here as well when Lil Rag comes back into the fold. While it was somewhat surprising that all four of the Ephs’ doubles teams this weekend (including two top-2 seeds) lost in the first round, it would be far more surprising if Williams doesn’t figure it out and have a successful doubles spring.
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Deis athletics has a dope graphics person Coach Lamanna is going to have some difficult decisions come springtime. Aizenberg, Chen, Coramutla, Das, Kogan, Ng, Tzeng, Vohra. Eight very talented players, with only one senior in the bunch. Who gets in the doubles lineup? Who gets in the singles lineup? Maybe a vet like Saal tosses his hat into the ring for #6 singles. More than singles, I can’t stand that a couple of those guys are going to be left out of the doubles lineup. In the past five years Brandeis has gone from doubles as a weakness, to being one the strongest doubles teams in the country. Now, showing that strength in a dual match is obviously very different than in fall tournaments, but no matter the combo the Judges have played good/solid doubles this fall (and last year). I said this before, but it’s a kind of problem that Coach Lamanna will be thankful to have.
5 things to know from the B-Flight Singles
Say hello to Bowdoin’s champion d’jour! I teased this above, but have yourself a weekend Larry Zhao! Wins over two established lineup players, a strong freshman, and a young fireballing Eph, give Bowdoin yet another piece of hardware. Urken won the grass court title, Jiang and Wang won at the ITA, Delman won at the Wallach, and now Zhao joins the group. As I mentioned above, there will be plenty of people fighting for starting time in the Polar Bear lineup this spring, but Zhao and Delman are probably the frontrunners for the #6 spot.- Amherst’s freshmen should be pretty darn good! All three of the Mammoth freshmen made at least the quarters of this draw, with Turchetta and Ruparel making the semis. We’ve talked about Foulkes more this fall, but the other young Mammoths are already improving and that’s a great sign for Coach Doebler and the Amherst faithful. While they have strength at the top, if even two of these three freshmen become regular contributors this spring the Mammoths have the talent to challenge for the conference crown.
- My conducting of the Brandeis bandwagon will only get louder and more annoying as the season draws to a close. Once again, talked about this in the A-Flight doubles section, but I’m not done. Tyler Ng and Jackson Kogan both won two rounds to make the quarters (Ng’s best win was over Williams’ top freshman Frelinghuysen and Kogan’s was over Princeton Carter), both very solid tournaments for guys who are fighting for lineup spots in Waltham. The Judges are deep, they play doubles well, and they are well coached. ALL ABOARD!
- Midd has a battle for the bottom of its lineup, and the players know it. Every one of Midd’s 4 players in the B-singles draw lost in the first round. However, what’s different about this than year’s past, is that all four guys played in the consolation draw, and three of the four guys won two rounds. Back draws are usually snuffed out by players who are “too hurt” or have “too much work” or something like that, so the fact that four Panthers all played their matches on Saturday night shows that they know exactly how important all lineup jockeying is going to be this year.
- What does MIT do about its depth? I raved about the performance this fall from Barr/Cauneac/Ko, but who is going to be starting at the bottom of the Engineers’ lineup? Of MIT’s four B flight guys, only one (Go) made it out of the 1st round. We haven’t seen much of Charlie Deng this fall, but he and Go are the early favorites to anchor the lineup. Those two, or whomever starts down at #5 and #6 in Cambridge, will go a long way in determining if this is finally the year MIT gets the monkey off its back.
2 things to know from the B-Flight Doubles
Does Midd need to defend their title to have a successful 2019? They won this flight as well, and it’s almost like ho-hum, another title for Midd, yawn. In addition to Farrell winning the A-Flight singles, and Xiao/Samets took home the B-Flight doubles title! That’s two of four possible titles for the Panthers, and all without their ace in Lubo Cuba. That being said, I was not wowed by the Panthers this weekend and it got me thinking, what constitutes a successful year for the champs. It’s easy to say a Final-Four is a good barrier, but the Panthers have reached multiple semis in a row now, and it almost seems like they’re getting a bit of the Warriors treatment now, where everybody expects big things. Personally, I don’t abide by the title or bust philosophy, but given that Midd’s fearsome top duo are both seniors this year, the window of dominance could be closing soon.- Tufts’ lineup starts with Boris and then…….? Just because your stud is off winning a national championship doesn’t mean your home fall tournament isn’t important! The Bos went 0-for in the B dubs flight, which was pretty indicative of the rest of their weekend in Massachusetts. They ended up 3-12 this weekend, including 0-4 in the doubles draws and 1-7 in the A-Flights. They should be solid at the bottom of the lineup, but even that wasn’t really shown this weekend. Overall, still one of the best weekends in Tufts program history, but this tournament casts a small worrisome raincloud on the horizon of Boris’ sunny weekend.