2017 Season Preview: #34 DePauw Tigers

depauwLocation: Greencastle, Indiana

Coach: Scott Riggle, 9th season

ITA National Ranking: 34

ITA Regional Ranking: 8

Blog Power Ranking: 30

Twitter Handle: @DePauwTennis, wasn’t good for in-match updates last season.

Before we start, some good news: Everyone’s favorite non-anonymous D3 Tennis blogger D3Central has graciously offered his expertise to help with this preview. His thoughts are sprinkled in below.

D3Central’s Realistic Best Case Scenario: If the seniors commit to playing hard, best case scenario is second place in the NCAC beating Denison and a ranking around 25.
D3Central’s Realistic Worst Case Scenario: Worst case scenario is a 3rd or 4th place NCAC finish with a not so great loss on the resume knocking them out of the top 30 and maybe even the top 40.

Overview:
I don’t really know how to start this preview.  I don’t have any hugely interesting tidbit or fun fact to say about DePauw.  Regardless, this is a team that is an absolute stalwart in the lower part of the national rankings, appearing so consistently that they really seem to fly under the radar, especially in recent years.  Last year in particular they were fairly average, and with no one qualifying (or even being on the cusp) for nationals, not much was heard about DePauw on the blog, twitter, and elsewhere.  This is a team that only a few years ago in 2014 was up 3-0 on Kenyon in the NCAC finals, but after blowing that lead, the gap between them and the Lords has widened, losing easily in the 2015 conference final and then falling to Denison in the conference semis last spring.  Will their small decline of recent years continue? Or is this a team on the comeback?  Unfortunately, fall results were not impressive, leading me and D3Central to both be fairly pessimistic going into the spring.
D3Central: The lineup they played against their one opponent in the fall [an 8-1 win over Marian] is very likely the lineup that will stick this spring [box score here]. They are very senior heavy which is a good thing, but bodes poorly for the future as they haven’t had a good recruiting year in god who knows how long.

At least DePauw has one of the nicest indoor facilities in D3 tennis
At least DePauw has one of the nicest indoor facilities in D3 tennis.

Schedule Analysis:
Unfortunately, DePauw’s full schedule is not yet posted online, so we’re working on limited information here.  From what is posted, DePauw will kick off the spring with Chicago, a common theme among all of the central teams I cover it seems.  I’ll say the same thing about this one as I did about Coe and Denison’s matches against the Maroons.  It won’t be close, but it’s a good chance for someone to get a great win, particularly at the top of the lineup if anyone (likely Dan Rodefeld) hopes to make nationals.  Other notable matches on the schedule so far include a home match against Rose-Hulman (DePauw should win, but their 8-1 victory last season was closer than the score indicates) and a trip to face Washington and Lee.  A win there would really help DePauw maintain their ranking.  It looks like they’ll be heading to California as they have a match against Cal Lutheran set, but beyond that their schedule out west is a mystery to me. I expect some tight NCAC battles in April, though more so against the Denisons and Oberlins of the world. I’m not sure DePauw will be able to give Kenyon any sort of a competitive match this year.  All of this leads into the NCAC tournament, which is likely where DePauw will end up determining their year end ranking.
D3Central: The only match that really matters is Denison, which they lost both times last season (regular season and NCAC tournament play). With the NCAC getting stronger in the middle, they need to worry about an upset from the likes of Oberlin, Wabash, Wooster, etc. The only win that kept them ranked last season was 6-3 against Coe where they won the two or three close matches they needed to to sneak out a win.

Will Dan Rodefeld be able to find some points for DePauw at the top of the lineup?
Will Dan Rodefeld be able to find some points for DePauw at the top of the lineup?

Keys to Success:
-Bottom of the lineup:
Like I said earlier, DePauw didn’t have anyone even particularly close to making nationals last year. Dan Rodefeld had some nice wins last spring, beating Al Houni (GAC), Humphreys (UWW), and Drougas (Oberlin) but he also some not so great losses, most recently this fall to Bera (Wooster).  Any win he pulls against a top #1 is really just gravy for the Tigers. They’re going to need to rack up a lot of their points down at 4, 5, and 6 as well as 2nd and 3rd doubles.  DePauw carries a big roster and there are a number of guys that could step up here.
-Clutch factor: Last season, the only close match DePauw won was against Coe, falling to UWW 5-4 and most importantly Denison, once 5-4 and then later 5-3 in the NCAC tournament.  For DePauw to stay where they are and the ranking and possibly move up, it’s going to come down to a few big matches.  This isn’t a team with the upset potential to click on the right day and really shock the world, so DePauw is going to have to make their mark with wins against the teams similar to them.  How they play on just a few specific days is going to make all the difference.  That’s puts some serious pressure on them, and how they respond will be critical.
-Finding a lock: If you look at DePauw’s results from last year, no one position in singles or doubles really stands out.  In fact, at all nine spots their team winning percentage ranged between .667 (3rd doubles) and .474 (6th singles).  It’s not essential, but it certainly helps a team’s mentality when they have some confidence in a few spots to consistently earn them points.  Maybe calling this a key to success is a stretch, but I have no doubt that it will really help the Tigers this year, particularly on the mental side, if they can start to rely on certain spots to earn them points just about every time out.
D3Central: Keys to success really are doubles and depth which they have relied on in the past few years. They will be weak at the top so I don’t expect them to be a national level power, but if they can be successful with doubles and depth they will hover around 30 all year.

Season Prediction:
I’m don’t feel great about DePauw improving much this year. I think the season has to be considered somewhat successful if they can more or less stay where they are.  As of now, I would favor Denison over them, and while a lot can change before they meet, especially in a potential NCAC semifinal, I don’t have much reason to believe DePauw will be able to flip last year’s losses.  Depending on their schedule, DePauw is good enough to find a win to keep them in the rankings (as they did last year with Coe), but if that win eludes them, I could see them falling out of the top 40.
D3Central:  My season prediction really is negative for this team. I would lean more so on the negative side [of their best/worst case scenario’s above] and guess Depauw ends the year at around 35.

6 thoughts on “2017 Season Preview: #34 DePauw Tigers

  1. D3RegionalNEC

    The DePauw athletics website just updated the schedule, so I’ll throw in a few quick thoughts in case anyone is lurking in the comments.
    1. The match vs Washington and Lee is no longer on the schedule. Too bad, as that was among their most intriguing matches.
    2. On 4/8 they play GAC in Milwaukee, WI, then the following day at 10am host Coe. That’s a 4.5 hour drive sandwiched between two tough matches. The Coe match is particularly big as a win there would seriously help them stay in the top 40. That weekend will also be huge for Rodefeld to make his case for nationals vs Al Houni and Anderson.
    3. 3/25 vs Wash U is another good match to have on the schedule (don’t expect an upset, but it’s still good to play top teams like that)
    4. Their California schedule now includes Williams and Westmont (NAIA).

  2. anonymous

    Rodefeld was on the cusp.

    1. D3RegionalNEC

      Upon further review, he was certainly closer to qualifying than I gave him credit for. He was ranked #7 in the ITA rankings on 4/28, but his second loss of the spring to Kevin Brown (Denison) on 4/30 killed his chances, despite earlier wins against Al Houni and Humphreys.

  3. For What It's Worth...

    DePauw has two low-reliability, ~11UTR International D1 transfers from Montana on their roster this year. Predicting their success and impact could be hard but at the least they’re Wild Cards and should help the Tigers Depth and Doubles formula. Do these additions alter your season outlook at all?
    Personally I don’t think it’s enough to truly scare The Lords but should provide DePauw enough quality options to remain comfortably ahead of the mid-tier NCAC and likely a top-2 finish ahead of Denison.

    1. D3RegionalNEC

      Thanks for the comment! Good observation about the two guys from Montana. Not often you see international players transfer from D1 to D3, so this is a bit of a unique case. I went through their limited results from their freshman seasons last year (mostly fall tournaments as neither was in the starting lineup for Montana, which has a UTR Power 6 of 72), and I would estimate that both are probably around an 11 UTR. They were a bit overmatched against a lot of the D1 competition, but they should be able to contribute for DePauw. Neither played in their fall dual match, but I think both Petar Barcot and Ani Satischandra will likely start this spring, probably somewhere in the 1-4 range. As you said, it should help their depth though I don’t think they’ll be ready to compete with Kenyon. As for Denison, it certainly makes the matchup(s) more interesting. I’ll hold off on predictions for now, but these two guys should absolutely help DePauw maintain their standing in the NCAC and their national ranking.

    2. D3CentralTennis

      I’ll add my two cents here only because I don’t believe the two transfers are going to have too much of an impact. They both played in Depauw’s fall tourney. The kid from Serbia got 5th in the C flight which puts 6 of his teammates in front of him: two played A flight, two played B flight, and two finished higher than he did in the C draw. So at best he will play 5 or 6. I stand by my thought that their lineup in the one dual match is likely the lineup they use this spring.

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