2015 Season Preview: #39 Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College

Coach: Mike Mullan

Location: Swarthmore, PA

Preseason ranking: #39

#BleedGarnet
#BleedGarnet

Swarthmore College, located eleven miles outside of Philadelphia according to my good pal Wikipedia, is one of the best academic institutions in the country. Because of this, and the efforts of their coaching staff, they have attracted some serious talent each of the past few years. I thought this was the case, and I went onto tennisrecruiting.net to see what the recruiting experts thought. Here’s where the Garnet’s current classes each placed in the top 25 Tennis Recruiting D3 classes:

 

Incoming class year Tennisrecruiting.net ranking
2011 #19
2012 #25
2013 #23
2014 #18

 

Obviously, this list is not set in stone (or garnet?) as to who the best teams are going to be each year, and far from it. Chicago, for instance, has had classes ranked in the top ten in the country for the past three years, and eleven in the 2011, and they are finally starting to establish themselves as a top fifteen team. In my humble opinion, a list like this does not necessarily guarantee that teams in it will be nationally ranked, since there are so many other factors, but it does give a nice indication of how well each team is recruiting. In this respect, Coach Mullan and Coach Schofield have done a great job. With a couple of nice additions to the schedule, and a great freshmen class, I think this could be the year that Swarthmore gets a good return on their recruiting efforts and approaches the rankings. If this piques your interest, read on! If it doesn’t, please read on anyway, what else do you have to do?

Lineup Analysis:

Key Losses: Anthony Collard (#1 singles, #2 doubles), Max Kaye (#2 singles, #1 doubles), Preston Poon (#5 singles), Christian Carcione (#6 singles, #3 doubles), Danny Park (#3 doubles)

Key Additions: Mark Fallati, Ari Cepelewicz, Blake Oetting, Yosuke Higashi, Michael Song, Bryan Cheun (all freshmen)

Thanks to the fine folks who run the Swarthmore tennis Twitter account, I have learned that the Garnet’s will be putting forth a very freshmen-heavy lineup. It’s only November so all of this is subject to change quite a bit, but here’s what the fall lineup looked like for the Phoenix or the Garnet or whatever you care to call them:

Singles:

#1 Singles: John Larkin (sophomore)

#2 Singles: Mark Fallati

#3 Singles: Ari Cepelewicz

#4 Singles: Blake Oetting

#5 Singles: Yosuke Higashi or Thomas Vernier (sophomore)

#6 Singles: Higashi, Vernier, Matt Hirsh (junior), Michael Song, or Bryan Cheun

Doubles:

#1 Doubles: Harrison Lands (senior) and Thomas Vernier

#2 Doubles: Ari Cepelewicz and Mark Fallati

#3 Doubles: Blake Oetting and Michael Song

How can they get in the rankings:

Schedule: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2rx8g7p&s=8#.VGVQcIcmj74

Swarthmore has an incredibly young and new lineup this year. Normally, this might be a cause for concern. No experience, get tight in big moments, yada yada yada (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6kRqnfsBEc). But for a team like Swarthmore, who I believe has not lived up to their capabilities the past few years, I think a lineup full of fresh blood is the perfect solution. In comparison to the lineup they threw out there against Johns Hopkins in the Centennial Conference final last year, it looks like they will only have one player in the singles lineup, John Larkin, who will also be in the lineup this year. That is how they are going to make some noise this year, with bright-eyed and bushy-tailed freshmen that don’t necessarily know how to win, but don’t know how to lose, helping to re-establish the culture of Swarthmore tennis.

They can also crack the rankings because of smart scheduling. This year, they have added matches against NYU, Kenyon, DePauw, and Washington and Lee. I think these matches are all winnable, with all but Kenyon being especially winnable. It is also smart how they are playing NYU early in the season. Honestly, I do not think NYU is a ranked team come April and May, but on Saturday, February, 28, there is a good chance they still will be, giving the Garnet a golden or possibly more crimson chance (because that is the color of garnet, right?) to make a statement early in the season.

What can keep them from the rankings:

Unfortunately, although Swarthmore has a completely new lineup, there is a chance that they might not actually be all that good. Swarthmore struggled mightily this year in an ITA tournament that is just not that strong. In the singles main draw, Ari Cepelewicz had the only win for Swarthmore, beating a player from the Catholic University of America in three sets. Two Garnet’s lost to players from Washington and Lee, which does not really bode well for the big Spring break matchup. Doubles was an issue for this team all last season, never winning more than one doubles match against a ranked squad, and they struggled in the ITA tournament as well. Cepelewicz and Fallati did have a nice win over a Carnegie Mellon duo, but that was the only bright spot. Sure, some of the lower guys had some wins over schools like Ursinus, Elizabethtown, and Albright in extra draws, but I am guessing that NYU will have more firepower than those squads.

Prediction:

Having a young lineup is clearly a double-edged sword, as young players can either be inexperienced and struggle or they can play young, wild and free like many freshmen seem to do (examples: John Carswell, Andrew Yaraghi). I do not think that Swarthmore is ready quite yet to be ranked, and I believe that if they played NYU today, it would be a very cold match and they also might lose. However, I think they will work hard this offseason, and the freshmen will improve quite a bit. The schedule is extremely tough early on, starting with NYU, Stevens, Washington & Lee, Mary Washington, and CMS! Wowzers, those are five tough first matches (Delaware might not happen apparently, don’t worry, I’m not blind, I see it on the schedule). Also, may I completely go off-topic here and say that CMS has a really cool Spring break this year, playing Haverford, Swarthmore, Hopkins, Georgetown, UPenn, and Temple University. Completely unrelated, but also completely cool. I look forward to some tweets of the Stags with many a cheese steak in the city of Brotherly love.

Enough of that long segue, back to the Garnet and my bold(ish) prediction. I like Swarthmore, but they have proven me wrong in the past. I think they will have a better year in comparison to recent, and they will get a couple good wins over NYU and DePauw. However, the win over NYU will not be as good by the end of the season as it will be in February, and they will ultimately finish just outside the top 30 rankings, around 32 in the country. Thanks for reading!

2 thoughts on “2015 Season Preview: #39 Swarthmore College

  1. D3_Dad

    It won’t be surprising to see Mark Fallati playing the top spot. Fallati beat a 5 star Penn recruit in a USTA-ITA tournament in the summer.

  2. Mullan Center

    Swat was ranked in the top 25 two of the past 4 years but are extremely inconsistent (see Claremont…). They have the talent to be a top team, but lets hope that the coaches can develop their players to really make an impact!

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