2016 Women’s Season Preview: Case Western Spartans

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.  I admit I’ve put myself in a tough situation by procrastinating on my Season Previews, but with the help of D3TennisGreek, my dual role of AS Men’s and Central Women’s will get that much easier.  Oh, yes, that’s right… I am the new Central Women’s.  While you will get coverage of all the teams in the Central, I must say bear with me as this is new territory for me and I will be doing my best.  If you remember, I was both ASouth and Northeast once, much to the chagrin of the current D3NE.  I can do two jobs sometimes, especially with help.  Just ask my current company.

Now, Central Women’s has been relatively unattended to on this blog and that is the fault of no one, as we’ve been unable to find a consistent writer.  Let’s hope I am up to the task.  With my first preview, I see a familiar team… the Case Western Spartans.

Coach: Kirsten Gambrell, 3^rd Season

Location: Cleveland, Ohio

Preseason Ranking: #20

Twitter Handle: @casetennis (shared with Men’s)

Overview

Given that this is my first Central Women’s preview, I won’t know much about the history of some of these teams.  However, one thing I do know is that Case Western is a team that has steadily improved from being unranked just three or four years ago.  Their rise coincided with the rise of the Men’s team, as Case has become a much more prominent national program both on the athletics and academics level in recent years.  They reached their high point last year when they finished at #20 in the country, and were even higher throughout the year.  Most of that ranking came from a huge beginning of season upset of Chicago (who really has fallen btw) before playing out the year to the tune of average performance.

Moving onto performance, what I look for in historical performance is how the team played in close matches the year before.  Last year, Case beat Chicago 5-4 before losing to UMW, Depauw, and Skidmore by the same score.  I tried to find a correlation and what it seems to me is that Case is relatively strong across the lineup, but will get overwhelmed by other team’s strong spots.  They can take advantage of teams that don’t have 5 strong spots to beat them, but don’t have much upset potential.  While this isn’t a good or bad thing, it’s interesting.  Normally these teams have strong doubles play but Case went down 2-1 in all their 5-4 losses.  In their win?  You guessed it. Up 2-1.  Case should consider this year a success if they continue to stay in the top 20 or even go higher.  Anything else is a step back for a program that has improved the past 3 years.

Key Additions: Jessica Liu (3 Star), Taylor Sweeney (return from injury)

Key Losses: Marianne Bonnano (#3 Singles, #2 Doubles),

Lineup Overview

#1 Nithya Kanagasegar (So.) – The freshman sensation that is Nithya Kanagasegar is back for her sophomore campaign as the best player on the Spartans.  Case’s rise in the ranks last year can be directly attributed to a legit #1 player, thanks to Nithya.  She currently sits at #15 in the country, and knowing the culture around Case Western, that should only get better.  However, I will throw some caution to the wind as she finished the year extremely poorly.  She was on a 6 match losing streak against 5 ranked and 1 unranked team.  This year, she had a strong iTA, making the finals of the Central region as the #5 seed before losing to Chicago #1 Ariana Iranpour in a routine match.  Nithya looks to be back on her game.  Let’s see if she can finish the season a bit stronger this year, as it might amount to the difference between a 5-4 loss and a 5-4 win.

#2 Jessica Liu (Fr.) – The middle of the lineup is going to be a lot of guesswork but my best guess is that the incoming freshman Jessica Liu will play a majority of her matches here. Last year, Case went with a revolving door of Michelle Dhojan and Marianne Bonnano at the spot, but this year Liu was seeded highest at the ITA and should put a stranglehold on the position.  She made it to the quarterfinals of the ITA with a really impressive win over Denison’s #1 Taylor Hawkins as well as Wash U’s #2 or #3 Kaylan Griffith.  I wasn’t going to be high on Liu based on her descending TRN stats, but it looks like she’s come to play in college.

#3 Taylor Sweeney (Sr.) – Sweeney missed all of last year for what I believe to be an injury and Case is extremely glad to have her back this year.  She was the best recruit of her class in 2012 and has played a solid but not stellar career at the #3 position.  I expect her to be back in that spot again this year, where Case will need better than her historical performance to pull off upsets.  She made the round of 32 at ITAs before bowing out to an unseeded Chicago player, and hopefully that does not give us a glimpse of what is to come for the senior.  She will need to be better than that to be a strong #3.

#4 Michelle Djohan/Sara Zargham (Sr.) – As previously mentioned, Michelle Djohan was part of a #2 singles revolving door last year.  If she is playing, I expect her to slot in at #4 this year, which is probably best suited for her skill level.  The reason I made that caveat is because Djohan was nowhere to be found in the ITA tournament, which is surprising.  One hopes that she was simply studying abroad as she is still listed on the roster. Djohan was performing admirably at #4 last year prior to moving up in the lineup, and if she gets a crack at #4 this year we may see some big things from the senior.  It will be a nice way to end out what has been a really solid career.

#5 Sara Zargham (Sr.) – I have Zargham slotted in at #5 as she is another senior looking to end her career on a high note.  Zargham started at #2 last year before falling in the lineup after poor performance at the top, but that does not mean she can’t be a force at #5 singles this year.  She was pretty much an average #4 when she played there last year so one would think she can hold her own at #5 singles, where I believe there is a huge dropoff when it comes to talent.  Zargham had a tough draw at ITAs getting Wash U’s #2 player in the second round, where she got ousted.  Expect Zargham to be a solid #5 this year with the potential to be better in her senior season.

#6 Nina Cepeda/Peyton Young (So.) – Funny how things work out.  Both Cepeda and Young are sophomores who came in the same class as the #1 player Nithya, however neither played many important matches last year.  Both were ranked within the TRN top 250 in their class, just a mere 50-75 spots below the #1 player on their team.  Here is where you see the difference between a few players who may have taken some summers off and a player that continues to make tennis a top priority.  Cepeda and Young both got ousted in the first round of ITAs to unranked players this year, which is not a good sign moving forward.  #6 singles could end up being a weak spot for the Spartans this year if neither of these two players step up.

Doubles – As I mentioned in the overview, Case doubles will be a big factor this coming year.  Their 5-4 losses last year came when they went down in doubles, and all their losses to top teams either featured sweeps or deficits after doubles.  Is this a talent thing or a coaching thing?  Might be both.  Case needs to get with their Men’s Program and start practicing some doubles fundamentals because this could make or break the Spartans for the year.  Improvement in doubles puts them as a potential top 15 team in my eyes.  They have a strong #1 team with Nithya and Zargham, and a potential #2 team in Cepeda/Sweeney, so we could see things improve this year.  It’s tough to speculate on doubles but I will say this is a key to their season.

The Schedule – Key Matches and More

Before I start, I would like to say this to Coaches – it’d be nice if on your schedule you put the rankings of the teams you are playing.  I understand that changes, but it’s just a nice little feature that really helps a lot of us out.  Anywho, I will split the schedule into three parts like I do for every team, because it makes it easier.

First part of Case’s season will be really like a warm up session.  They play a ton of sub 30 teams such as Kalamazoo and Allegheny, but then they also play #27 Hope.  Case should take this as long as they are prepared to play in the beginning of the season.  If you noticed from my lineup analysis, Case is a team I’m really high on this year with their experience and a solid freshman recruit.  A team on the rise should dispatch Hope no problem.

Next comes Spring Break, where this year the Spartans won’t be going to Puerto Rico like last year (so strange). They’ll get #17 Redlands and #18 Wesleyan (Conn.), two teams that are within the top 20 and should make for tough matches for the Spartans.  I think Wesleyan will be too strong for them, considering they have some sick people over there *EUDICE*, but Redlands will be an interesting match.  If Case can come out of that with a win, they can consider Spring Break a success.  They will then play the Blue-Grey Invitational, which basically culminates in a match against UMW, who they lost to 5-4 last year.  UMW is ranked #19 and let me call it now, I believe the Spartans take this one.

Case will end the year with UAA matches, particularly against Chicago, Wash U, and the UAA Tournament.  This is where they can make or break their season and potentially make it into the NCAA tournament.  Looking at the UAA, Case is still the #5 team for sure, with Chicago and Wash U increasing the gap between the two (Chicago won 8-1 over Case twice last year after the loss).  Women’s tennis has way more Pool C spots than Men’s, but at #20 the Spartans won’t make the dance.  The NESCAC and UAA are too strong for that.  Case will need an upset against a UAA team to make the tournament, which will be possible but not likely.  Expect the Spartans to give it a good effort, but see their NCAA hopes end in Altamonte Springs, Florida.

D3 Atlantic South’s Keys to Case Western’s Season

1. Senior Leadership – Seniors either want to go out strong or they want to party like it’s the end of the world. Case is leaning heavily on their seniors this year at the #3-5 spots (Sweeney, Djohan, Zargham) and they will decide how far this team goes.  With a weakness at #6 and a freshman high in the lineup at #2, the seniors will need to take control of matches, especially now that they are at more natural positions for their talent.  We’ve barely ever seen these three on the court at the same time, maybe the final year will be their swan song.
2. Doubles – This was explained in the doubles section. Take a lead, win the match.  That’s a formula for success for the Spartans.

Conclusion

How’d I do?  My first ever Central Women’s preview went pretty well, I must say.  Now time to switch gears and get a Swarthmore preview out for those ASouth Men’s fans.  Man, I’m good.  Watch out for an experienced Case team this year though.  For realz.  ASouth, OUT.