2016 Season Preview: #28 Brandeis Judges

Brandeis Judges

Coach:  Ben Lamanna (11^th season)

Location:  Waltham, MA

ITA Ranking:  #28

Blog Power Ranking:  #28

Twitter Handle:  @BrandeisTennis – not too many in-match updates, but some funny Tweets every so often.  Worth a follow.

Overview: 

Brandeis is one of those teams that people often forget about in the northeast.  They aren’t in the NESCAC, though they often play the NESCAC teams.  They play in the UAA, but don’t often play their conference in season because the teams are so far away from Deis, (except for NYU in recent seasons).  They are far from ever being able to win the UAA tournament, though they are comfortably ahead of NYU and Rochester in 6^th place.  Because of those reasons, people often forget about Deis, but they have consistently been a team in the 25-40 range for around the past six seasons.  Typically, they beat all the unranked teams they play relatively easily, and lose to the teams ranked in the top 25.  This year, Coach Lamanna has brought in a big recruiting class, so we are going to see a new-look Brandeis team from what we’ve seen the past few years.  The question with the Judges is usually the same.  Can they get over the hump from around 30-35 in the country and #6 in the UAA?  The first one will be easier than the second since Case Western (likely #5 UAA) is 14 spots ahead of them in the rankings at #14 nationally.  The Judges always put together a solid schedule with plenty of opportunities.  They typically get one great win every year.  Two years ago they took out Trinity CT, and last year they beat Tufts.  How will they fare this year?  Let’s get on with the preview.

Key additions: 

Zachary Cihlar (3 star from AZ), Jackson Kogan (3 star from CA), Tyler Ng (3 star from NY), Jordan Brodie (2 star from MD), Harshil Dwivedi (2 star from CO), David Reinharz (2 star from NY)

Key departures: 

Alec Siegel (#3/4 singles, #3 doubles), Michael Secular (#3 doubles and coolest hair), Eric Miller (#6 singles), Matthew Zuckerman

Singles:

#1 singles:  Brian Granoff (junior):  Granoff’s freshman year in 2014 was an excellent one, as he qualified for NCAAs.  Last year, he took a step back, finishing with an 8-11 record in the tough Brandeis schedule.  Players he beat freshman year (Luke Trinka, Dan Carpenter), he lost to his sophomore year.  He had some terrific wins, no doubt, including Skyler Butts (CMS) and Nik Telkedzhiev (Tufts), but also several losses against good schools.  He started this year very strongly, with a finals run in the Midd Invite A flight, including a great win over Ari Smolyar (Midd), but he lost quick matches to Steven Chen (Wesleyan, in ITAs) and Ben Rosen (Bates, Wallach Invite) to finish off the fall.  Granoff is an excellent grinder when he’s playing well, and it will be really interesting to see the form he comes out with this spring.

#2 singles:  Michael Arguello (junior):  If Arguello can play like he did the end of last season, I wouldn’t be too surprised if he took over for Granoff at #1.  He started his sophomore year at #3 behind Bunis, but once he got moved up to #2, he did not look back with a 14-5 total singles record.  Some of his best wins included Will Drougas (Case), Eugene Oh (MIT), Ben Battle (Tufts), Chris Ellis (Bates), and Noah Farrell (Midd).  It looks like Arguello was most likely abroad this fall, but if he plays like he did last year, he will once again be a very strong #2, or even #1.

#3 singles:  Ryan Bunis (junior):  Bunis had a great year at #4 his freshman year, but looked to take a step backwards last year in an injury-shortened season.  Overall, his record in dual matches was 4-9, and he was ejected from an ITA match this fall.  I have Bunis at #3 because of his experience, but depending on his health and where his head is at, I could see him dropping down.

#4 singles:  Danny Lubarsky (senior):  Danny is a 1-star guy who has developed into a great doubles player and solid singles player over the course of his career.  Unfortunately, injuries have also really hurt him, and his results, in singles especially, have been very erratic.  He’s bounced around between #3-5 and, ideally, #4/5 would be a good landing spot for him.  If he’s healthy and playing consistent, he can definitely add good depth to the Judges’ lineup.

#5 singles:  Tyler Ng (freshman):  The Judges have a ton of freshmen this year, and I’m not sure how many will crack the lineup.  Ng and Kogan look like the best options right now, however.  Ng is 0-3 in his three singles matches so far this year, though they have all been against tough competition, as he was in the strong B flight in both the Midd Invite and Wallach Invite.  I think that Ng just needs more matches under his belt, and that experience should help him.

#6 singles:  Ethan Saal (sophomore):  This #6 spot is a tricky one, and I could certainly see any of the below names getting time here depending on how they are playing.  Kogan probably has the most potential, as shown by his good win in the Midd Invite and a decent match against Will De Quant (Midd).  However, I think Saal will get the first start, just due to his experience and a must-win first match against Chapman.  Cherkin has the most experience as a junior though, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him, or the freshmen Cihlar/Brodie, in there as well.

In the hunt:  Jackson Kogan, Zachary Cihlar, Jeff Cherkin (junor), Jordan Brodie

Doubles:

In terms of the actual teams that Coach Lamanna will throw out there, it’s really tough to say, given that he’s really played around with his teams this fall, Lubarsky was hurt, and Arguello was either hurt or abroad.  Granoff/Lubarsky and Arguello/Cherkin were both solid doubles teams, though a little inconsistent, but I think those would be good teams again this spring.  Ng/Kogan also look to be a nice team, and could play well at #3.

Last year was an interesting one for Brandeis doubles.  Most matches, either Lubarsky/Granoff or Arguello/Cherkin would come out and play a heck of a match, and they would get wins against teams like Redlands, CMS (teams were mixed up for this one), Bates, Trinity, and Carnegie.  Once #3 doubles became the experienced team of seniors Siegel/Secular, that team became a lot more consistent and got some good wins as well.  Basically, what I am getting at with all this unnecessary rambling is that Brandeis really had trouble with bringing it in all three of their doubles matches.  They could usually count on one win out of three, but it was essentially a three-sided coin-flip to where that win would come from.  If the #1/2 doubles teams are the same, they will have the ability to get some fantastic wins, but they could also lose to just about anybody.  If Brandeis wants to move into the mid-20s in the rankings, or even higher, they will need to play more consistent doubles every single match.

Schedule Analysis:

Coach Lamanna and company puts together a nice schedule just about every year, which can be tricky to do given that Brandeis does not play in the NESCAC and it can be tough for those schools to give up match dates.  Anyway, Brandeis starts their year in about a week, where they will play 3 matches in four days against Chapman, Cal Lu, and Redlands.  Brandeis has to be favored against Chapman and Cal Lu, and Redlands is also very winnable given the amount of seniors that they lost.  They then have a few weeks off to get used to indoor courts again, and will travel to play Stevens and UAA foe NYU in mid-March.  They will return to Deis for matches against other UAA-foe Rochester and a match against Wheaton the week after.  In late March/early April, the Judges will face Babson, Bates, Vassar, Boston College, Tufts, Bowdoin, Trinity (CT), MIT and Wesleyan, with the awesome UAA tournament in there between Trin and MIT.  That is an excellent schedule, with very few easy matches, and I am out of breath from typing so much.  Not sure how that happens but it did.

The biggest matches for Deis are the ones where they can either move up a bit in the rankings, could be threatened to drop in the rankings, or are playing a conference match.  Among these are all three Cali matches, given that they are all tricky but are also all winnable.  Also, Stevens (#25), Bates (#21), Tufts (#20), and Trinity CT (#19) are the four best ranked opportunities to get wins.  The danger matches are NYU, Rochester, Chapman, and MIT, as two of those are conference matches against solid schools, and the other two are good schools behind Brandeis who will have Deis marked on the schedule.

In a perfect season, Deis obviously goes undefeated, wins the UAA tournament and makes NCAAs, but in a realistic perfect season, they win half of Redlands, Stevens, Bates, Tufts, Trin, take out Chapman, MIT, and their conference matches, and get the #6 seed going into UAAs.  In UAAs, they probably will lose first round to a school like Wash U or CMU, but will be in a 5^th place grind against most likely Case Western.  If they can win that match, Brandeis will have taken a giant step forward, as they lost 7-2 to them last year.  Right now, Brandeis is clearly the #6 team in the UAA, but depending on how their freshmen perform, and how their experience develops, they can continue to move forward, stay stagnant, or even fall back.

Keys to a successful Deis season:

1) Play more consistent doubles

2) Develop the freshmen into gritty singles players

3) Stay healthy!