Apparently, we’re having trouble getting all the previews out, so The Headmaster has talked me out of retirement once more for this preview, making me the Roger Clemens of DIII tennis blogging. I haven’t exactly hid this fact from readers before, but Whitman is one of my favorite teams in the West. They’re like the Kenyon of the West region: a good liberal arts school in a very isolated location with a funky mascot. Somehow, they’re even more isolated than the Lords, and they’ve arguably done an even better job getting wins out of lesser recruits. They haven’t actually been as good as the Lords, but maybe this will be the year that changes.
Coach: Jeff Northam (18th season)
Location: Walla Walla, WA
Preseason Ranking: #13
Twitter Handle: @whitmantennis
Overview:
This year represents a changing of the guard for our lovable Fighting Squirrels. They lost Huskey, Riggs, Roston, and, most importantly, La Cava from last year’s squad, and they added 8 new players to their roster. Though Whitman has yet to land a 4-star recruit, they added players ranked 149, 184, 274, 293, and 304 on TRN to their roster to go with a seemingly indefatigable Canadian, so the bottom of their lineup will probably look a little bit like P-P’s revolving door. Northam is phenomenal, but he has yet to make an Elite Eight as a coach, which I know sticks in his craw. I’m sure he’s hoping what is undoubtedly the best recruiting class in Whitman history will help the Squirrels take the next step after making the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in over half a decade last year. Will seniors Malesovas and Rivers be able to lead the young guns to the promise land, or is this recruiting class headed for a year of growing pains?
Lineup Analysis:
#1 Singles, Colton Malesovas (Sr.)
UTR: 11.69
I know Hewlin won the Fall ITA, but I have to think that was due at least in part to the fact that Malesovas had played at least 4 more hours of tennis than he had. I also think that they’re pretty much equal, and Northam is a guy who likes to keep is freshmen as far down in the lineup as he can until they get their feet wet. Malesovas has played #1 singles and doubles for Whitman the last two years, making doubles nationals twice, and singles nationals once when Wood pulled out. He has taken a lot of flak from the blog in the past for basically never winning against ranked opponents during the season, but, to his credit, he’s a good leader and he has come up with two huge singles wins in the post-season the last couple years. He’s got big ground strokes, and he’s very tenacious. He’ll stay in pretty much every match, and the Squirrels will really need him to win a few more of those close ones this year.
#2 Singles, Zach Hewlin (Fr.)
UTR: 10.95
You can draw a lot of parallels between Hewlin and La Cava. Both are 2-star recruits who had meteoric rises in their rankings the summer before attending Whitman. Both came out of seemingly nowhere to sweep the PNW ITA Regional. Both lost both play-in matches in heartbreaking fashion to teams from Trinity at Small College Nationals. If I’m right, both will end up playing #2 singles their freshman year. Hopefully for Hewlin’s sake, he’ll fare a lot better. I haven’t actually seen him play, but from what I know, he’s a big-serve-big-forehand kind of player, pretty typical for NorCal. In a season of question marks for Whitman, how Hewlin will fare at the top of the lineup is among the most crucial.
#3 Singles, Sean Alves (Fr., Tr.)
UTR: 11.26
If I didn’t know much about Hewlin, I know absolutely nothing about Alves. This freshman transferred into Whitman from Santa Clara at the semester. My guess is the guy is friends with a couple of the other NorCal Squirrels and wasn’t having a good time at Santa Clara (though I didn’t know that was possible). Haven’t seen him play, but I hear he’s quite good. He could very well play #1, but I’m pretty sure he’ll be in the top 3 at least.
#4 Singles, Phillip Locklear (Jr., Tr.)
UTR: 10.76
After the top 3, Whitman has a smorgasbord of players that could end up in the starting lineup. Maybe this is the year Coach Northam has enough good matches on his schedule to give a couple of guys a shot at the bottom a la Coach Bickham. I digress. Locklear, like Richter last year, is a transfer from Earlham. He didn’t have a phenomenal Fall, but he’s one of the few guys on the roster with some big time experience. He played well for the Quakers last year, even coming within a few points of handing Carswell (Wash U) his only loss of the regular season. Word out of Walla Walla is that he’s been hitting the practice court pretty hard, and I’m betting it pays off for him this Spring.
#5 Singles, Petar Jivkov (So.)
UTR: 11.12
Jivkov didn’t have a great ITA this Fall, but he made it to the finals last year and played a serviceable #5 for the Squirrels. He didn’t win a ton of matches in the Spring, notably losing a lead against P-P to give the Hens one of their 5-4 victories, but he also clinched Whitman’s win over Redlands, which was probably their biggest win of the season. He’ll have a lot of freshmen to fend off, but for now, I have him pegged as their #5 until proven otherwise.
#6 Singles, Gary Ho (Fr.)
UTR: 12.07
He’s 5 foot nothing, 100 and nothing. And he’s ready to hang with the best DIII tennis players in the land for four hours… Rudy quotes aside, this little guy knows how to grind. He made it to the semifinals of the PNW ITA with a couple gritty victories, but he doesn’t have a lot of firepower. You kids won’t remember this, but Adriel Borshansky played #6 singles for Whitman for four years and won nearly every match he played by grinding his opponents into the ground. Since he graduated the Squirrels have struggled to win at the bottom of the lineup. Ho is probably capable of playing higher in the lineup, but I’m guessing Coach Northam will want to get back to his Borshansky formula and stick his best grinder at #6 singles and watch him win.
Also in the conversation:
Jake Hoeger (So. UTR: 10.43) – dude is an exceptionally skilled doubles player, but has a hard time staying consistent on the singles court. Not a bad guy to throw out there against a good team and hope for a good day.
James Rivers (Sr. UTR: 10.31) – you might remember Rivers as the dude who teamed with La Cava to make the finals of Small College nationals the last couple years. If he can get back to his grind-it-out singles form from freshman year, he’ll be a good option at the bottom of the singles lineup.
Chase Friedman (Fr. UTR: 12.25) – having the highest UTR on the team didn’t stop him from losing in the first round of the ITA (and then losing in the back draw). Not a great start to his career, but he should get a look this Spring.
Robert Carter (Fr. UTR: 10.71) – Here’s a typical Whitman player. A 2-star with a few weapons who will probably work hard and make the lineup eventually. He had a solid Fall, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the doubles lineup, but he’ll need to improve to make the top 6.
Adam Rapoport (Fr. UTR: 10.64) – Rapoport made the quarters of the ITA, and he’ll be in the mix, but it looks like he might be the 5th or 6th best freshman on the roster.
Doubles
Looking at all those options in singles, it’s hard to believe that Whitman won’t find a solid singles lineup. I’m honestly only worried about their doubles play. For the past four years, they knew they could just throw La Cava out there with whoever and they were gonna win at #1 doubles more often than not. Now, Coach Northam won’t have as much flexibility. Hoeger has proven to be very good. I love the way he plays. He and Hewlin at the top of the lineup won’t be as good as La Cava/Anyone, but if they can win half of their matches, Whitman might be able to upset some teams with solid #2 and #3 teams. Right now, I’m thinking Malesovas, Rivers, and Alves will probably be in the doubles lineup. Neither Malesovas or Rivers are big servers and I don’t know about Alves, so they’ll probably pull one of their bigger-serving freshmen (Carter, perhaps) to fill out their doubles lineup. Malesovas/Alves at #2 would be pretty good, and Rivers/Carter at #3 would be very solid if Rivers stops trying to carry.
Key Matches
For the second year in a row, we have SPRING BREAK WALLA WALLA to look forward to. The Squirrels weren’t able to make as intriging a quad this year, but there are some good matches on the docket. Early in February, they’ve got matches against Tyler, Cruz, and Redlands. I gotta think they’re favored over Tyler and Cruz on their home courts (though the Pats have given them fits over the last couple years), but Redlands will be a tall order. If the Dawgs are healthy, they should be favored, but I know the Squirrels will only be happy with a 3-0 weekend. Whitman has never been able to string good matches together, so I think they’ll probably go 2-1, but a 3-0 weekend would be a truly excellent sign. On the flip side, if the Bulldogs want any hope of making the kiddie Pool C, they pretty much need to go undefeated here.
Over Spring Break, the Squirrels will be participating in the Stag-Hen for the first time since 2011. Their opening match is against Trinity, who they upset last time they played them at the Stag-Hen, but I think Trinity will win because, a) they’ll have more outdoor experience, and b) they’re just better. Later that afternoon, they’ll play either Case or Pomona. I’m sure they’re hoping for a rematch with the Hens, as I know the end of their match last year got a little heated. I would really like to see that match get played, but for now, suffice it to say that I think the Hens would win 6-3 or 5-4. I’m not going to speculate on a 3rd place match. After the Stag-Hen, Whitman has two more Spring Break matches against Whittier and Bowdoin. I don’t think Whittier has much of a chance against the Squirrels this year, but the Bowdoin match will be very interesting for Pool C. If Whitman is having a great season, the Polar Bears will have a chance to pick up a couple indirects over Redlands/Case/Pomona. If not, the Polar Bears will not be able to afford a loss. The match doesn’t mean that much for Whitman, but they rarely get to play matches against ranked teams outside their region, so it should be fun. Two young teams. I’ll reserve judgement until the season is underway.
After that, the Squirrels go into their usual hibernation. Their conference is getting better and better, but nobody has the depth to beat Whitman unless there’s a total fluke like what happened to Tyler a couple years ago against UT-Dallas.
Conclusion
The Fighting Squirrels will have a ton riding on their youth this year. My natural inclination is to feel very uncomfortable backing any team who’s lineup consists of a freshman majority, but it’s not like freshmen have never been successful in DIII before: Emory won a national championship with freshman at 3-6.
Best Case Scenario
They run the table at home, stun Trinity in the Stag-Hen and ride that momentum to a victory over P-P before falling to CMS. They eek out a win over a feisty Bowdoin team and enter the post-season in the top 10. Their win over Trinity is enough to get them the top seed in the Minnesota regional, and they manage to beat GAC in the Sweet Sixteen to make the Elite Eight. As the bottom seed in the Elite Eight, they bow out in a hard-fought match against CMS to end the season.
Worst Case Scenario
Whitman’s freshmen play like freshmen sometimes do and blow a bunch of big doubles matches at home, leading to a 1-2 start. From there, they lose to Trinity at the Stag-Hen, expend the rest of their energy in a gut-wrenching loss to Case and go down against Wesleyan in the 7th place match the next day. They beat Whittier, but lose another tough one to Bowdoin and enter the post-season in the 25-30 range. They’re shipped to CMS to play CMS in the first round (because they lost to Cruz, somehow), and they go out with a whimper.
What I Think Will Happen
Ultimately, Whitman isn’t Emory, and I think they’re poised to have a status quo-type season. They’ll probably win 4 of their 8 matches against ranked teams, which will be enough to keep them in the 13-17 range of the national rankings, but it won’t be enough to get them in next year’s National Indoors (which is where they would really have a chance to do some damage if they could ever qualify). The freshmen will gain some valuable experience and the future will be very bright.
Regarding current and recent former Whitman #1 players, in 2011-2012 Andrew La Cava ended the year with a D-III National Singles ranking of #19…I found this on http://www.itatennis.com. That year he played the second toughest match against #1 nationally ranked player Dillon Pottish at the NCAA year-end singles tourney, defeated the #20 and #42 nationally ranked players in the fall National Small College Championships and had two other notable wins against nationally ranked players during the season. If it weren’t for nagging injuries, no doubt he and Colton Malesovas would have been a more potent 1-2 combo the following year. In his senior year, La Cava defeated Aaron Skinner from Trinity at #2, who was an ITA National Small College Championships National Champion the prior year, and he also defeated Jake Yasgoor of Pomona who finished the year with a #27 national ranking while Pomona’s #1 and very good player Chris Weichert finished the year with a #35 national singles ranking.
This all doesn’t mean much except that both Malesovas and La Cava ended their high school careers as 2-star players and each of them worked hard to excel in singles in D-III tennis. It is Whitman’s depth, work ethic and team chemistry which sets them apart from most teams each year. They may not have 5 star players at the top of their roster but you can bet they will consistently fight for wins up and down their lineup each year. This year will be exciting with loads of potential talent from incoming freshmen and transfer students to keep things interesting!!
Andrew La Cava, the all-time leader in wins for Whitman, excellent at singles and a doubles player extraordinaire, who seemed to just float on the court when approaching net, and a genius with his racket when he got there, will not soon be forgotten.
I hope he and some of his old mates take it to the varsity later this season, though that probably won’t happen.
Might want to consider changing your name to LoveWhitman. Perhaps LoveSovas. My personal favorite tho is definitely LoveCava. That one has a nice ring to it.
Prefer not to mention names, but I have to put in a good word for Malesovas. While the author of this piece did not say it, he refers to bloggers who chided Malesovas for not winning big matches, at least last season. The author did not disagree, but to Malasovas’ credit, did point to two big singles wins Malesavas’ has had the last two years in NCAA’s.
I am not going to take the time to check, but I think the player Malesovas beat two seasons ago in the NCAA’a against Tyler was a transfer from a D1 school, who was practically undefeated coming into the match with Whitman (I think it was quite likely he had only one loss coming into the match), so he must have been nationally ranked, and very highly, at that time. That was a terrific and totally unexpected win for Malesovas.
Last season Malesovas beat Wash U’s Ross Putterman in the NCAA’s, I think pretty handily. While I believe Putterman had a bit of a down year last year, he was still highly regarded then and looks to be even better this year. Don’t know if he was nationally ranked then.
From my experience in watching some D3 tennis, it seems there is normally a pretty good degree of separation in talent between the #1 and #2 players for most teams. The #1 guys I have seen have really been excellent (Wood – CMS, Deuel, – Trinity Lipscomb, – Redlands and Wiechert – Pomona, and the aforementioned two players), or “studs,” as some people might call them. It’s very tough to win against those very excellent players (though I think Wiechert was a cut below the others, except maybe Putterman).
Whitman has, from my experience, has had trouble for several years at winning at #1 singles against exceptional #1 players, but Malesovas has, from my memory, done better at that spot than anyone since Matt Soloman with the aforementioned two wins. I hope, if he deserves it, he gets a shot to show what he can do at #1 singles this year. I think a tie, in terms of deserving that spot based upon practices, should go to the senior, at least at the start of the season. I have great confidence Coach Northam will do that, as he is a very fair guy.
Nobody is saying Malesovas isn’t better than what Whitman has had in the past. They’re saying that given how Whitman as a team is improving their one player, which is Malesovas, is lagging behind in terms of where their strengths are.
Which is pretty accurate as, if I remember correctly, when Whitman won their big matches their points came from doubles and the bottom of the lineup, most if not all of the time.
Those two wins show Malesovas can play a good game, but they aren’t single handedly a solid showing at number one.
As someone who has closely watched Whitman play for four years, to my recollection (and someone should check me if I am wrong), Whitman NEVER won a big match outside of league at #1 during that period before Malesovas started playing at that position, though I really should check that. Over that period, Whitman’s strength has fairly consistently been at the bottom of the lineup (a tip of the hat to “Mr. Automatic,” Adriel Borshansky, at #6, who I also used to call “the human backboard”) and in some doubles.
I’d say, that you can make a persuasive argument that, with Malesovas playing at #1 the past two years, in the big matches his play at #1 is improving more rapidly than at the other Whitman positions. After all, the biggest match Whitman played last year was against Wash U. in the NCAA’s, which Whitman lost 5 – 2 (with the two unfinished matches being very close). The only person who won in singles for Whitman was Malesovas, over the very highly regarded Ross Putterman and, while I don’t know for sure, I don’t think that match was very close. Again, the year before last Malesovas, as a #1, also won his big NCAA match against Tyler against the extremely highly regarded D1 transfer.
Again, from what I’ve seen, the top teams have #1 players who are almost in a league of their own in terms of talent compared to their team’s #2, and it is extremely hard to break through to improve your game to beat them, especially when you are started out, as I believe Malesovas did, as a two-star high school player. But you have to give him credit for the hard work he has put in to get where he is and to compete at a high level with the very best D3 tennis has to offer and come up with wins against very highly regarded opponents. I think it is very possible Colton will improve on his play in his senior year.
The main point is, with Malesovas in the lineup the last two years, Whitman has been able to get some significant wins at #1 that they hadn’t enjoyed for a few years prior to that. One could thus argue that the #1 singles position has been improving faster in the past year or so than all of the remaining Whitman singles slots.
So in your opinion does that mean Zach Hewlin is an upper eschelon DIII tennis player because he beat Malesovas in the ITA or does that taint Malesovas’ record, or is it just irrelevant?
I have no idea of your definition of what an “upper echelon D3 player” is. Essentially, what I have been referring to is the very best of the #1 players in the country, who I think are at a distinct level of their own. Zach Hewlin’s win clearly doesn’t place him there, now but shows, particularly because he is just a freshman, that he has the potential to get there eventually. BTW, I don’t think Colt is there yet, but he is getting closer. This year, hopefully, will be his breakout year.
You should know that I value team matches played rather than ITA tournament results much more strongly in rating players. Lots of the very top guys don’t win even their league individual tournament. I don’t hold it against them.
Also should mention that I checked yesterday with my son and a visiting teammate who started for Whitman last year, and both believe I am probably correct that, in the two years after Matt Soloman’s graduation from Whitman and before Colt began to start at #1 two seasons ago, Whitman did not win one match at #1 in a match outside of league. So I feel much better about that statement now, though I still could be wrong since I haven’t researched it (I’m hoping someone will research to check me on this). Again, my point is that going from zero wins in big matches in two years at #1 to two wins in matches at #1 in two years is a good improvement at #1 and, for what Colt has accomplished, which I described in my earlier emails, I don’t think it is fair at call to castigate him for not being able to win “the big matches.”
Hopefully, this email should put this topic to bed.
Malesovas wins more big matches than his previous counterparts at #1 for Whitman singles. Thank you for letting us know, LoveD3Tennis.
That is all, topic has now gone to rest. Thank you all for participating.
It seems like Whitman has recruited new players who are ranked significantly higher than in prior years. They have some other very good players who were not mentioned in the article, and so are much deeper than I have seen them. As a result, I think the lineup may change a lot during the season, especially at the start.
Though the team may have some freshman (or first year) hiccups, by the end of the season I think Coach Northam will have the team playing very well.
Next year, if Coach Northam recruits the same caliber (or even better) of players he did this year, Whitman should have an excellent chance of moving into the elite top ten group of D3 teams if they don’t do so this season. This is as it should be, as Whitman is an excellent school academically, has excellent tennis facilities, and Coach Northam runs a very knowledgeable and fair tennis program.
While Santa Clara is a fun school their coach is pretty renowned for being a jerk. there’s a reason that school has like 7 players on the entire roster every year despite being a good school in NorCal.
Is there any info on how far up the food chain Alves was at Santa Clara?
Alves was actually recruited by St Marys. Could not find any match results in the fall of 2014 in both ITAtennis and UTR.
Word has it, Alves left Santa Clara before he ever really had a chance to play a match, so we’ll put him down as a question mark.
http://www.smcgaels.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=21400&ATCLID=209677612
“Sean Alves joins the Saint Mary’s men’s tennis team in 2014 as a highly touted freshman out of Casa Roble High School in Orangevale, Calif. … Ranked as a 4-star recruit by TennisRecruiting.net, Alves has been ranked as high as No. 2 in Northern California junior rankings and No. 37 in National junior rankings … Went undefeated twice in the Capital Valley Conference and won two Sac-Joaquin Section Division II singles championships, winning both section title matches in straight sets … A two-time Capital Valley scholar-athlete award winner, Alves also trained at the IMG Academy in Sacramento.”
UTR for two freshmen may be unreliable. Ho’s reliability is 0%, because only 2013 results are used. Reliability for Friedman is 40% with a 2-3 record in 2014. He won more than 7 games in two of three losses against good players, helping boost his rating. UTR uses 30 most recent match results in the past 12 months.
Would it be a good idea for the bloggers to also include reliability next to the UTR?
We mainly use UTR as a reference while heavily relying on our subjective thinking and past results to create the expected lineup. I would always advise a reader to take UTR with a grain of salt. You can see D3West using that subjectiveness and his knowledge of the team by placing Ho at #6 and Friedman out of the lineup.
We can potentially add reliability, but at the writer’s discretion. We are doing our best to get all your previews out before the season starts, every second counts!