Coe Kohawks
Coach: Eric Rodgers (26th season)
Location: Cedar Rapids, IA
Blog Power Ranking: #36
Twitter Handle: @KohawkTennis
Overview:
Two previews out in less than a week, I’m on a roll! Anyways, hello again d3 tennis fans, I’m back with another regional preview. Today, we head out to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to learn about the Coe Kohawks. Coe is actually a team that I love to follow. First of all, they are a hard-working group, and although it’s tough to attract top talent to such a small school, they have a great attitude, play a solid Central region schedule every year, and usually play schools like Wisconsin-Whitewater and Gustavus Adolphus pretty tough. They also have a lively Twitter presence, giving fantastic match updates along with some funny off-court videos. Sometimes I feel like I’m part of the team!
Twitter presence and match schedule aside, Coe has also consistently been a top 40 team for a number of years, and this year is no different. They are ranked #8 in the central and #36 both in the ITA rankings and in our power rankings, which I think is a pretty accurate spot for them. It will be tough for them to compete with the likes of Wash U, Chicago, Kenyon, and Case, but they have a match against #7 central-ranked DePauw this year. They also play Whitewater (#6), giving the Kohwaks a ton of opportunities to move up in the central. They lose one of their best players of all time in Noah Sprinkel, but add in three solid recruits, which should give them improved depth. Let’s learn some more about the Kohawks.
Key Additions:
Nate Ackert (2 star from South Dakota), Josh Pudlo (2 star from Illinois), Evgeny Pakhomenko (international from Russia)
Key Losses:
Noah Sprinkel (#1 singles, #2 doubles)
Lineup Analysis:
Singles:
#1 singles: Brady Anderson (sophomore): Anderson played mostly #3 last year behind Galbraith and Sprinkel, but his results so far this fall have shown him taking a big step forward. Last year, he had a very strong year at #3, winning every singes match against unranked schools (about 15-20, too many to count), though he did go 1-4 against ranked schools, winning against Bradley Entwistle of Gustavus. Anderson has looked excellent this fall though, making the finals of the Midwest ITA tournament, defeating Jake Humphreys in 3 sets in the semis, ultimately losing to Mohanad Al Houni of Gustavus in the finals. We’ll see if he can keep up his level this spring, but he’s off to a great start.
#2 singles: Riley Galbraith (senior): It does not look like Galbraith has played this fall, but he should be a solid #2, as he was last year. Similar to Anderson, Galbraith won almost all of his matches against unranked schools (one loss to McMurry University, a solid team), but unlike Anderson, Galbraith did not have a ranked win, going 0-6 in these matches. If Galbraith can take a step forward like Anderson has, the Kohawks will be that much better.
#3 singles: Alex Bernt (junior): I’m moving Bernt up a spot in the lineup because of his solid ITA tournament, but I could see him playing somewhere between #3 and #5. Bernt made the quarters of ITAs, losing in three sets to Zach Ekstein of Gustavus. Michael Treis of Whitewater retired up a set in the round of 16, but Bernt also had a nice win in the second round over Chase Johnson of Gustavus. The junior had a good win last year at #5 over Ben Shklyar of Whitewater, but similar to everyone else in the lineup, Bernt beat up in conference play, and lost all of his ranked matches except for Shklyar.
#4 singles: Ryan Hickman (senior): I don’t know why but I really like Ryan Hickman. He had a solid year at #4 last year for the Kohawks, and although some freshmen played in ITAs instead of him, I still think his experience makes him a great selection at #4. He had an excellent 1 and 2 win over Frankie Fischer of UT-Tyler last year, and also competed well with Kevin Chu of Wash U, losing in two tight sets. Hickman is certainly capable of giving the Kohawks the depth they need.
#5/6 singles: Nate Ackert (fr), Evgeny Pakhomenko (fr), Josh Pudlo (fr), Chad Moklestad (jr): For these last two spots I have four players that I think could realistically fill them, three of those being freshmen. Moklestad played #6 most of last year, and I think that’s a good spot for him. Of the freshmen, Pudlo looks like the best, but Pakhomenko and Ackert could both certainly see time in the lineup.
Doubles:
If Coe wants to beat some schools ranked ahead of them, they are going to have to up their doubles game. Last year, they really struggled in doubles against ranked schools, their only win being at #2 doubles against Chicago in NCAAs. They played well against some of the good schools that aren’t ranked, including Oglethorpe, McMurry, and Kalamazoo, but Coe is more talented than these schools anyway. Freshman Josh Pudlo looks like a good doubles player, as him and Anderson teamed up to make the quarters. Coe had three other teams in the tournament, none of which did anything all that impressive, so I’m expecting Coach Rodgers to mix and match these teams frequently early in the season.
Schedule Analysis:
I don’t think Coe will drop any spots in the central rankings this year. They don’t play Denison who is ranked one spot behind them at #9, and they are significantly better than every other school. However, Coe plays every school in the top #7 except for Kenyon and Gustavus, meaning they will have numerous opportunities to shock the world. The most realistic win has to be against #7 DePauw, who they didn’t play last year, but they play this year in mid-April. In that match, similar to every ranked match they play, they’ll have to get after it in doubles, but if they can win a couple of them, I like them to gut out a split in singles.
The Kohawks season starts really early, against Chicago on 1/30. Wait, I have 20 days to finish my season previews?! After this, they play a bunch of either unranked teams or unranked conference matches, up until the beginning of March, where they have a Florida trip planned. They haven’t released their Florida schedule yet, but I’m hoping they take on UT-Tyler and McMurry again, two good matches from their schedule last year. After sunny Florida, they go back to not sunny Iowa, and play Case Western, DePauw, Wash U, and Whitewater, with some conference matches in between. They then have their conference tournament, which they should wrap up with relative ease.
In the best case scenario, Coe takes out DePauw in a great team effort, and takes Whitewater to the brink. The worst case scenario is that Coe shrinks against DePauw and loses to a team like McMurry over spring break, if they play them. Realistically, I think Coe will finish between #36 and #34 in the country, as they simply don’t play any teams ranked below them that I can see them losing to. Regardless, Coe is simply a great team to follow, and a really awesome example to all the small liberal arts schools out there of how to run a college tennis team. They recruit well in their area, develop their players well (I can’t believe Sprinkel was only a 2 star), challenge themselves to a difficult schedule, and have fantastic team chemistry. Coach Rodgers also keeps a huge roster on his team, 21 players right now, something that I think is great for chemistry, and you never know how some players will develop. Also, their assistant coach enjoys playing the ukulele. Can’t mess with that!
Hope everyone enjoyed the preview. We’ll be back with more previews over the next few weeks as we get ready for the beginning of the season!
I’m nitpicking here, but I’ve got to disagree that Coe “play(s) a solid Central region schedule every year.” For sure, Coe’s ramped up their schedule in recent years, and their coach has done impressive work. But I’ll always remember them as the team that in 2013 assembled a robust 30-match win streak against the lower depths of the Central, congratulating themselves on dominating wins over Knox College et al. Apparently seduced by this streak, the NCAA then gifted them with a favorable NCAA draw that resulted in them reaching the Round of 16.
To say that Coe regularly sets a strong schedule (even at the regional level) feels like quite the stretch.
Yup I agree with you! I guess I was referring to the last couple of years. Regardless, Coe is now ramping up their schedule and that’s what I wanted to highlight. A lot of schools fall into the routine of just dominating their conference year over year, and Coe (similar to a school like Washington & Lee that plays in a week conference) is finally changing that trend. They’ll always have to play those conference matches, but it’s good to see that they are willing to add 6-7 ranked matches as well.