California Lutheran University
Location: Thousand Oaks, CA
Coach: Mike Gennette (20th season)
Preseason Ranking: 20
Overview:
I know you guys missed me, so I’m gonna use some of my precious, precious free time to preview the Kingsmen. After being defined by Ballou and (to a lesser extent) Giuffrida for the better part of a decade, year 1 AB could’ve gone better. Cardenas was a very capable #1 singles player in his first season with the Kingsmen, but he was far from the near-automatic two points Ballou provided, and, with Nichols and Treacy providing a very strong three lines between the two of them, the lack of Ballou’s doubles prowess proved to be the difference between top ten and #20. Looking forward, the Kingsmen lost Nichols, one of the most consistent and under-appreciated players in the country. They also seem to have shut down their TRN page, the reason for which might be the fact that the three recruits they got last year have a grand total of two stars next to their names between them. Yikes. Cal Lu struggled with depth last year and have been relying pretty heavily on their big guns at the top for the last several years. This year, they don’t appear to have as many big guns as they have had in the past. Without significant improvement from some of their bottom-of-the-lineup players, they may fall out of the top 30 this season entirely. Nevertheless, I think they’ll finish the season in the 22-28 range.
Key Losses: Alex Nichols (#2 singles, #1 doubles)
Key Additions: Gio Valdez (#426)
Lineup Analysis:
#1 Singles: Moises Cardenas
This is a no-brainer. Cardenas is returning from an all-American season in which he established himself as a top tier #1 singles player, and he was the only Kingsman to make it past the second round at the ITAs. The senior transfer tallied three decent wins before falling to the eventual champ (Hull) in straights. It wasn’t the tournament he was hoping for, but it’s not bad. If Cal Lu is going to be decent, Cardenas is going to have to be absolutely lights out on both the singles and doubles courts because he and Treacy are the only proven performers on Cal Lu’s roster.
#2 Singles: Connor Treacy
Treacy may have won only one total match at the ITA this past fall, but he has been one of the better doubles players in the country for a couple years, even though he’s been pretty uneven on the singles court. He tends to win and lose in streaks, but the Kingsmen will need him to be a little more consistent this year because when his net game is on, he’s really tough to beat.
#3 Singles: Fergus Scott
Scott may have played #6 singles last year, but he had easily the most surprising Fall Tournament of any Kingsman. He followed up a first round singles loss with a couple nice victories over Chapman’s Justin Thompson (a decent #1 player) and Pomona’s Michael Chang before falling to a P-P freshman in a 10-pointer. He also teamed with Cardenas to make the quarters of the doubles draw. Though he didn’t have an awe-inspiring freshman campaign, I’m betting he takes a step forward this year.
#4 Singles: Sean Handley
Handley didn’t play in the fall tournament, but, since he should be a junior, I’m guessing he was just abroad or something. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it: he had a terrible season last year. He went 6-15 in a singles season during which he somehow moved from 5 singles to 4 singles, but after Cardenas, Treacy and Scott, he’s the next man up. Cal Lu has a bunch of players who project to be around Handley’s skill level, so the junior could have a sacrificial lamb kinda year.
#5 Singles: Ian Slater
Slater got off to a terrible start last season, but really came into his own when he was moved down to #5 singles. He went 8-3 lower in the lineup where players couldn’t overpower him, so I think Coach Gennette will try to keep him at #5 if he can get away with because this is where he thrives. Slater also had a solid Fall Tournament, winning a match in both singles and taking down Littlejohn/Deguchi in the doubles bracket (nice pick, new guy).
#6 Singles: Gio Valdez
Frankly, I’m throwing darts at this point, but Valdez is the highest rated freshmen Cal Lu has coming in, he picked up a nice win over CMS’ Sacks in the backdraw of the Fall tournament, and he got the nod to play doubles with Treacy, so Gennette must like at least a little bit of what he’s seeing. I feel like Valdez has a little bit of drive and will become a good player for the Kingsmen because Gennette always seems to develop the players that want to work. Hopefully this season will be a good learning experience.
Doubles
Cal Lu has ridden some strong doubles to their victories over the last couple years, and I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by the way they played in the Fall Tournament. Their top three teams all showed flashes of brilliance, but I might be being overly optimistic. The Kingsmen will need to win at least two doubles matches to win against top 20 teams this season.
Schedule
| DATE | OPPONENT | NOTES | RESULT | STATUS | LINKS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JANUARY | |||||
| Sat. 24 | Alumni Match # | 2:00 PM | |||
| Sat. 31 | Hope Int’l | 10:00 AM | |||
| San Diego Christian | 2:30 PM | ||||
| FEBRUARY | |||||
| Sat. 7 | at Westmont | 10:00 AM | |||
| Wed. 18 | Brandeis | 2:00 PM | |||
| Sat. 21 | Pomona-Pitzer * | 10:00 AM | |||
| Sat. 28 | at Occidental * | 10:00 AM | |||
| MARCH | |||||
| Sun. 1 | vs. UC Santa Cruz @ Westmont College (Santa Barbara, Calif.) | 11:00 AM | |||
| Mon. 2 | University of Mary Washington (Va.) | 11:00 AM | |||
| Sun. 8 | Claremont-Mudd-Scripps | 2:00 PM | |||
| Tue. 10 | Trinity (Tex.) | 1:00 PM | |||
| Tue. 17 | Vassar (N.Y.) | 2:00 PM | |||
| Wed. 18 | Trinity (Conn.) | 2:00 PM | |||
| Fri. 20 | Chapman * | 2:00 PM | |||
| Sat. 21 | Skidmore (N.Y.) | 9:30 AM | |||
| Pacific Lutheran (Wash.) | 4:00 PM | ||||
| Sun. 22 | Tufts | 1:00 PM | |||
| Wed. 25 | University of Chicago | 2:00 PM | |||
| APRIL | |||||
| Fri. 10 | at Redlands * | 2:00 PM | |||
| Sat. 11 | at Whittier * | 10:00 AM | |||
| Sat. 18 | Caltech * | 10:00 AM | |||
| Fri. 24 | vs. Ojai Tournament # @ Ojai, Calif. | TBA | |||
| MAY | |||||
| Fri. 1 | vs. TBA @ Pasadena, Calif. | SCIAC Tournament | TBA | ||
| Sat. 2 | vs. TBA @ Pasadena, Calif. | SCIAC Tournament | TBA | ||
Historically, Coach Gennette has taken advantage of CLU’s location and put together an absolutely brutal schedule for his team, but he has deviated from that a little bit this season. This schedule is still among the strongest in the country, but there are fewer big matches this year, which means more recovery time (both physically and emotionally). In the past, I think CLU’s players like Treacy have gone in funks simply because they play so many tough matches back-to-back. It’s easy to lose your confidence in the midst of a losing streak. Anyways, let’s get to the actual matches.
The Kingsmen start off with a string of excellent but inconsequential warm-up matches before getting into the meat of their schedule, which starts with Brandeis. It’s important that CLU not overlook the Judges because they’re the type of team that has given Cal Lu trouble in the past early in the season (I’m thinking specifically of Cal Lu’s narrow 5-4 victory over Christopher Newport a couple years ago). After that, they’ve got a big match with Pomona-Pitzer. The Kingsmen are still, ostensibly speaking at least, a Pool C contender. If they lose this one early in the season, it will be an uphill climb the rest of the way, but they’re huge underdogs.
Cal Lu’s March features matches against Cruz, Mary Washington, CMS, Trinity (TX), Trinity (CT), Skidmore, Tufts, and Chicago. Believe it or not, that’s a much lighter March than they typically play. I’m gonna reserve official judgement until later, but I’m particularly interested in the matches against Skidmore, Tufts, and Chicago. The Cal Lu/Cruz match is always a war, and it won’t be any different this year. Mary Washington and CLU have played some epics over the years, and I think these two teams are evenly matched again. CMS and Trinity (TX) should be well above CLU’s level, while it doesn’t seem like Trinity (CT) will be very strong. I have no idea what will happen in the last three matches, though. Skidmore is basically starting over with a new crop of freshies, while Tufts and Chicago are two of the blog’s favorite rising stars. Despite D3Central’s effusive praise, I’m not %100 ready to drink the Chicao Kool-Aid, and Cal Lu will be looking to avenge the loss that completely derailed their season last year. Even if Cal Lu isn’t competing for a Pool C spot this year, they could at least return the favor this year. Regardless, March will define Cal Lu’s season. To have even a slimmer of a chance of making the post season, they need to win every match except CMS and Trinity. No Pressure.
By the time April rolls around, we’ll have a pretty good idea of who Cal Lu is before they complete their conference schedule with matches against Redlands and Whittier. I see them as favorites against the Poets and big underdogs to the Dogs, but time will tell. They’ll need both wins to have a shot at Pool C going into the conference tournament, where they’ll need to somehow beat P-P at the #3 or #2 seed to have a shot.
Before I close, I throw in the caveat that Gennette has a Bizot-ian history of bringing in great players at the 11th hour. Right now, the Kingsmen simply don’t have the gunpower to stay in the top 20, but all they really need is one great player to turn themselves into a top 10 team. They’re not gonna get another Ballou, but another Cardenas would completely transform this team. As a West region homer, here’s to hoping they get that player to make this season more crazy than it’s already going to be.