2015 Women’s Season Preview: #25 Brandeis Judges

Brandeis University

Quick Facts:

Location: Waltham, MA
Coach: Ben Lamanna, 8th year

2012 National/Regional Ranking: #22/#10
2013 National/Regional Ranking: #24/#9
2014 National/Regional Ranking: #23/#9
2015 Preseason National/Regional Ranking: #25/#11

Twitter handle: @BrandeisTennis

Intro:
For the past several years Brandeis has been in the 20-25 range of the national rankings. They are in the UAA Conference, which means they have an extensive out of conference schedule. They play some west teams during their Spring Break trip (mostly SCIAC), teams in their region (mostly NESCAC and NEWMAC), and then fly to Florida in late April to play their conference tournament. They’ve had amazing matches where they have REALLY close losses against teams ranked way above them, so you think they’re going to be able to beat the teams ranked a little bit ahead of them, but then they go and lose those matches. Last year was a perfect example of that. This is what they did:
lost to #16 Tufts 1-8 (got SWEPT in doubles, but no Cooke in the lineup for this fall match)
beat #38 Whittier 5-4 (not bad for first outdoor match, but phew! Down 1-2 after doubles)
lost to #15 LaVerne 3-6 (good loss, but down 1-2 after doubles)
lost to #19 Redlands 4-5 (not bad…but SWEPT in doubles)
beat #24 Wellesley 5-4 (up 2-1 after doubles)
lost to #18 Trinity 4-5 (should have won this one. Trinity’s weakness was doubles last year, yet Brandeis was down 1-2 after doubles)
lost to #6 Bowdoin 3-5 (amazing loss. down 1-2 after doubles)
lost to #17 Skidmore 4-5 (Brandeis got SWEPT in doubles, another winnable match)
beat #24 Wellesley again 5-4 (down 1-2 after doubles)
lost to #14 MIT 1-8 (got swept in singles, down 1-2 after doubles. not a good match.)
lost to #12 Chicago 3-6 (got SWEPT in doubles)
lost to #23 Case 4-5 (down 1-2 after doubles)
See a pattern here? Against solid teams, they mostly held their own in singles! In the matches where they got swept in doubles, they just needed ONE point from doubles to either win the match (Redlands, Skidmore), or make it a much much closer match (Chicago).  There is good news for coach Lamanna though – the team should know that they are RIGHT THERE at the next level. They need to win a few more doubles matches and raise their confidence level in that area in order to convert that into actual wins. They are not deep enough to rely just on their singles, so they really need to get more points out of doubles in order to at least stay in the top 25.

Lineup Analysis:
Brandeis lost Bernstein (#2 singles, #2 doubles), Bergstein (#3 singles, #1 doubles), and Lazar (#2 doubles) to graduation, but they add 4 freshmen on their roster. It’s hard to tell where the freshmen will land in the lineup without having had any dual matches yet, but freshman Cohen has already had a good fall, as she knocked off Curran from Williams in the NEWITT tournament. Her playing at the 2 spot will make the rest of the lineup similar to what they had last year – maybe a bit weaker than last year at #3-#6, but stronger at #2 singles and #1 doubles.  Here is my projected lineup for Brandeis (with current UTRs in parentheses).

#1 Singles: Cooke (8.78), senior
Cooke seems to be continuously plagued by injuries, but this hardworking and determined senior is a very strong #1. She has made the NCAA tournament for the past 3 years (twice in singles and once in doubles), so playing at the highest level is nothing new to her. She needs to be solid at the 1 spot in order for Brandeis to be able to knock off some strong teams.  In the fall she defeated Silverman of Bates and Curran of Williams in the ITAs.  She lost to Ip of Amherst in a 3 set battle in the round of 16.

#2 Singles: Cohen (8.00), freshman
Strong freshman, let’s see what she can do.  She defeated Lee of Wellesley then lost to McDonnell of Williams in the ITAs.  She defeated Curran of Williams in the NEWITT Tournament.

#3 Singles: Vandroff (6.74), senior
Vandroff has been up and down the lineup, #3 might be a bit high for her against the top 20 teams.  Lost to Kohrs of MIT in the first round of ITAs, but bounced back and had a great win against Madzhukova of Bates in the consolation of ITAs.

#4 Singles: Eska (6.37), junior
Tough competitor, had some great matches against tough teams last year.

#5 and #6 Singles: Biswas (5.11), junior/Vasser (5.87), junior/Marion (5.32), junior/Simms (5.06), freshman
As with a lot of teams that don’t have a full fall schedule, #6 can be a revolving door, with a lot of players at around the same level. It all comes down to who’s playing well at the time of the matches and who is staying injury free.

#1 Doubles: Cooke/Cohen
#2 Doubles: Vandroff/Simms?
#3 Doubles: Biswas/Schlesinger?

Schedule Analysis/Pool C:
Here is Brandeis’ schedule:
Schedule: http://www.brandeisjudges.com/sports/wten/2014-15/schedule
2/7 at Bryant
2/18 at #31 Chapman
2/20 at #19 Redlands
2/21 at #15 LaVerne
3/13 at #14 MIT
3/15 at #10 Middlebury
3/20 at Bentley
3/27 at #16 Tufts
3/28 at #37 Bates
3/31 #13 Babson
4/3 at #24 Wellesley
4/4 at #3 Amherst
4/9 Wheaton
4/10 at #18 Trinity
4/11 Simmons
4/16 Endicott
4/19 NYU
4/19 Rochester
4/23-4/25 UAA Championship in FL

Coach Lamanna has put together an excellent, challenging schedule for Brandeis. They are playing 11 nationally ranked teams, with 9 of them ranked above them. They’re also in the UAA, so they’ll get to play ranked teams in the conference tournament.
As I mentioned above, Brandeis had some very close losses against a lot of these teams. It’s great that they get to play them again. I expect a some close matches again this year but if Brandeis wants to climb the rankings they will have to eke out a couple of more wins than they did last year.
For a while now Brandeis has played in the 5th place match of the UAA tournament. In order to do better than that, they need to win that first round (quarterfinal) matchup either by an upset or by being seeded in the top 4. A tall task considering the likes of #1 Emory, #7 CMU, #8 WashU, and #12 Chicago in that conference.  Otherwise they are back to fighting for 5th place, likely against Case.
Here’s the not so good news – in order for Brandeis to have ANY outside shot at Pool C, they will have to win A LOT of those close matches.  They are going to have to take down at least 2, possibly 3 of the following: MIT, LaVerne, Tufts, and Babson. They will also have to beat everyone ranked below those teams. If they can also take down their first round opponent in UAAs (probably Chicago or WashU), that will be a huge help as well.  If they can’t do those things then things stay status quo, as in they stay as 5th/6th in UAA and get ranked 20-25 nationally.  Realistically, I think Brandeis can get a couple of good wins this year, but not enough to make a significant climb (ranked in the ~ top 15) to get a Pool C bid.  Looking at the lineups, they have the personnel at the top of the lineup to compete with a lot of top teams but I just don’t think that they are deep enough yet to take down the likes of a Tufts or a Chicago.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see 5-4 results either way against Redlands, Trinity, and Wellesley.

Brandeis Keys to Success:
#1. Get points at the top of the singles and doubles lineup.
Cooke and Cohen will have to play solid tennis at #1 singles, #2 singles, and #1 doubles for the entire season in order for the Judges to have good chances to win some of those close matches.  Hopefully a couple of their teammates will step up at the right times to snatch back a couple of 5-4 wins!!!
#2. Surprise teams during non conference play and string some team wins together!!
Brandeis plays a lot of great teams in out of conference play. Teams tend to put a lot of their energy and focus into conference matches, so Brandeis can sneak up on them if they play tough tennis day in and day out.
#3. DOUBLES DOUBLES DOUBLES DOUBLES DOUBLES
Doubles is going to be a theme for all teams this season, I think. With singles, players are coming into college tennis with a higher and higher level, so their play and style are pretty much set when they get to college. Their are a few critical times/matches that a player’s confidence can go up and a player reaches the next level in singles, but aside from that, there aren’t a lot of huge changes unless the player is super innately athletic. Doubles, on the other hand, is a whole different story. Players have the potential to develop into great doubles players in their college years, since it is not a huge part of junior tennis. A lot of amazing tennis players come to college with little doubles experience and most are very eager to learn. This is where teams can get an extra edge – by working on their doubles skills and confidence in order to go into the singles portion with a lead.  And this is where Brandeis can do a better job than last year!!!  They have potentially two seniors and a junior in their doubles lineup, so they do have some experience to work with there!

Well, there you go, I hope you enjoyed reading!!!!