2018 Season Preview: #5 Wesleyan Cardinals

Expectations: (ekspekˈtāSH(ə)ns), plural noun. A belief that someone will or should achieve something.

This word is a new one in Middletown, CT. Whispered hurriedly up and down Vine St, it is a word said with purpose but hopefully also with trepidation. The word does not travel alone. With that word, that one lofty word, comes a burdensome and sometimes crippling weight. Expectations are new for Wesleyan, no longer the darlings of the DIII tennis world, the Cards have made the nearly impossible jump from lovable upstarts to a team we expect not only to show up to the dance but to take the stage and don the Homecoming King’s glittering crown. We know just how heavy the weight of expectations can be, but each person, and subsequently each team handles it differently. Coach Fried, the reigning ITA National Coach of the Year, may face his toughest challenge yet in 2018. It’s one thing to motivate a group with a chip on their collective shoulder, but keeping a successful group motivated and guiding them through one of the most difficult schedules I’ve seen in a long time will be his greatest trick yet. It’s very possible that the Cards establish themselves as NCAA title contenders, it’s also just as likely that they miss NCAAs all together. Managing Expectations: The 2018 Wesleyan Cardinals Story. If nothing else, it will be a page turner.

Location: Middletown, Connecticut

Conference: NESCAC

Coach: Mike Fried (6th year)

Assistant Coach(es): Steve Rogers (3rd year) & Ben Shapiro (1st year). SHOUTOUT TO @BSHAP94. A Blog favorite from his playing days and an old UAA advocate has finally made his way to the superior conference. Welcome!

ITA National Ranking (as of end of 2017 season): #5

ITA Regional Ranking (as of end of 2017 season): #3

Blog Power Ranking: #6

Twitter Handle: @CardsTennis (used for both the men’s and women’s teams)

Key Losses: Michael Liu (#2 singles & #1 doubles), Jake Roberts (#1 doubles), Greg Lyon & Cam Hicks (doubles contributors).

Key Additions: Andrew Finkelman (4-star from Oregon, UTR=12.56), Zach Fleishman (3-star from Washington, UTR=11.41), Adrian Roji (3-star from Pennsylvania, UTR=11.53), Marcus Sweeney (2-star from Texas, UTR=11.13).

Realistic Best Case ScenarioNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER. ‘Nuff said.
Realistic Worst Case Scenario: Miss NCAAs all together. Neither the best case or worst case scenario is that outlandish. This team is really good, but they play in the toughest conference in the country and one of the toughest out of conference schedules I’ve ever seen.
POSITIVE BOLD PREDICTION: The Cards will make the NCAA Quarterfinals for the 2nd time in program history.
NEGATIVE BOLD PREDICTION: The Cards will lose in the NCAA Quarterfinals for the 2nd time in program history.
POSITIVE (not so) BOLD PREDICTIONSteven Chen will go into the individual portion of NCAAs as a top-8 overall seed, and will make at least the quarters.
NEGATIVE (not so) BOLD PREDICTION: The Cards will struggle on the doubles side of things, especially in the early portion of the spring.

Lineup Prediction

Will I ever forget that he once identified his game as the male Martina Hingis?

#1: Steven Chen, senior, UTR=12.91, range: #1-1. STUD ALERT. Steven has been a force in this lineup for 3+ years now, and last year finally began to get the nation-wide recognition that he deserves. He currently sits at #7 in the region after a mediocre fall by his standards, but still all the way up at #14 in the country. Last year he went 12-5 as the Cards’ top dog, including wins over Leung, Parodi, Big Barr, Rosen, and Tercek. He was the No. 2 seed at the most talented regional ITA in the country, and made the quarters with solid straight set wins over Chung (Williams freshman) and Schlanger (projected Midd #3-4), before falling to Austin Barr (who lost in a tight match to the eventual champion, Brian Grodecki). The loss to Barr looks a lot better now than it did at the time, as Barr went onto win the MIT Tournament later in the fall. Given Chen’s grinder mentality (one of the toughest dudes in the country), and the fact that he knows this spring is his last hurrah, I’m not dumb enough to bet against him having a fantastic final season.

#2: Andrew Finkelman, freshman, UTR=12.62, range: #2-4. One of the most pleasant surprises of the fall #TheFink made his presence known with deep runs at both the New England ITA and the MIT Tournament. Coming in, Andrew was Wes’ top recruit, but he came with less fanfare than some of the Midd/Amherst/Williams recruits. Under the radar no longer, AF made the finals at the ITA, taking down some people you might’ve heard of along the way. How do wins over TVG (projected Midd #5-6), Sean Wei (projected Amherst #1-3), Will de Quant (projected Midd #2-4), and Lubo Cuba (projected Midd #1-2) grab you? He did lose to BG in the finals, but so did every other NE player this fall. With larger expectations, Finkelman didn’t disappoint, by making the quarters at MIT before Schlanger got his revenge. We now have people saying that Finkelman will be a straight-up replacement for Michael Liu on the singles side of things, which, if true, should make Wesleyan’s singles lineup as dangerous as any in the country. Fink will start the season as the #2 ranked player in the region, and #7 player in the country, even so, I would be surprised to see him play above Chen.

#3: Tiago Eusebio, senior, UTR=12.33, range: #2-#7. Our first real wild card of the season preview comes in Tiago Eusebio. The transfer fully established himself as a top-notch #3, going 12-3 last spring and leading in three other matches that didnt get to finish. He was also 8-3 against ranked teams, and those three aforementioned matches he was leading were against Bowdoin, Hopkins, and CMS. Not too shabby, Tiago. Sidenote: every time I write the name Tiago I end up picturing Eusebio calling out the score with the voice of Gilbert Gottfried and choking up feathers. This fall, Eusebio was out with a rumored back injury. Not playing in any fall tournaments doesn’t mean that Tiago won’t be good to go come March, in fact it happens to most teams every year when players go abroad. That being said, Wes fans need to hope he does come back strong, because if healthy he’s one of the best options for #1 doubles as well.

Samson’s flow, the source of all his power

#4: Joachim Samson, junior, UTR=11.56, range: #3-7. After flying out of the gate as a wildly successful freshman, Samson followed it up with a solid year at #4 as a sophomore. Regional wins over Indrakanti (projected Williams #4-6), Jiang (projected Bowdoin #3-5), and out of region wins over Ly (Redlands) and Concannon (Case) highlighted Joachim’s 10-6 campaign. Samson didn’t play at the ITA, and returned to DIII competition at the MIT Invite where he scored a nice win over Cauneac (projected MIT #1-4), but then lost to Kaplan (projected Amherst #3-6). Traditionally not a doubles guy (although he did play #3 with Chen as a freshman with some pretty good results), Joachim might be asked to take up that mantle as well this spring. To put it bluntly, I’ve been saying that we’d be seeing Samson playing at the top of this lineup before his playing days were done. I’m not so sure that will happen this year, but Joachim definitely has the skills to be a top of the lineup guy.

#5: Princeton Carter, sophomore, UTR=11.71, range: #3-6. The #Hurricane hit with full force last year going 11-2 against DIII competition. When you fill in for an injured teammate and win your first career matches at the Stag Hen, then go and clinch your team’s win over Redlands just a few days later, you very well might be on the start of a magical journey. The Half Blood Prince’s magic continued with singles wins over ranked conference foes like Midd, Williams, Tufts and Bates. Another guy who played singles last year who could end up in the doubles mix, you never have to worry about Carter bringing the energy to the court. His presence at the bottom of the lineup as a freshman was a nice surprise, and if he’s taken another leap big things will be in store for both him and the Cards.

#6: Cam Daniels, senior, UTR=11.74, range: #4-6. Daniels played above Carter for most of 2017, but for Wes’ sake I hope Prince has made a leap and they can have steady as a rock Cam anchoring the singles lineup. Cam went 9-1 in April of 2017, WITH 8 NESCAC WINS IN THAT MONTH ALONE! As a sophomore in 2015, Cam burst onto the scene at #5, going 10-1 on the year. He didn’t have the best fall, losing in straight sets to De Quant (projected Midd #2-4) in the 2nd round of the ITA, and Das (Brandeis freshman) in the 1st round at MIT, but look for Daniels to bounce back and hold down the bottom of the lineup come springtime. However, if he continues to struggle, Coach Fried has plenty of other options for his #6 spot including…

Has Smith aged at all over his time at Wes?

Also in the mix: A) Win Smith, senior, UTR=11.93 & B) Zach Fleischman, freshman, UTR=11.41. Smith and Fleischman represent the different book-ends of the Wesleyan tennis career. Smith has been known more as a doubles guy, and will almost certainly play higher up in the dubs lineup this spring. However, don’t overlook his singles abilities. As I said with Cam, it would be a luxury for Coach Fried to be able to both start and continuously rely on a senior at the #6 spot. Smith beat an Amherst freshman at MIT, and pushed Sachin Raghavan (projected Williams #3) to 3 sets. He also played two tight sets against Grodecki (projected Williams #1) in the 1st round at the ITA. On the other end of the career spectrum Zach Fleischman had his fall totally overshadowed by #TheFink. He picked up an easy win over Albert Go (projected MIT #5-7) at MIT and went 3-2 in doubles this fall paired with Cam Daniels. My guess is Smith is the next man up, but I would hate discounting an improving freshman. Along those same lines, don’t discount the idea of seeing any of the other freshmen in the doubles lineup. Both Adrian Roji and Marcus Sweeney had a couple good doubles performances this fall, earning multiple wins through the season. I would be surprised if Roji doesn’t get a crack at the dubs lineup early on. Finally, don’t forget about Jonny Holtzman (sophomore, UTR=11.41). He had a really good tournament at Quinnipiac, and was thought highly enough of to get a few shots to play at the bottom of the lineup early last year. It’ll be a tough battle with so many talented upperclassmen projected to start, but the former 4-star shouldn’t be discounted.

Schedule Analysis

While some teams have avoided playing Pool-C teams outside of their conferences, Wesleyan is just not one of those teams. You’ve got to beat the best to be the best, and the Cards will have plenty of chances to beat the best this spring. At least they get a few warm up matches, right? WRONG! Wes starts with the Stag Hen, playing a grueling couple days to start their season (especially after they will have been practicing indoors for the first month of their season). What is the likely reward for a big win over the Tigers, a date with CMS. How do they follow that tournament up? Emory on Thursday, CMU on Friday, and in the desert @Redlands on Saturday. Talk about trial by fire. That might be the toughest way to open a season I’ve ever seen. Each match will be so important as they will all likely be ranked and their two biggest matches against pool-c competitors at the VERY END OF THE GRUELING WEEK. Now that the Cards have grown-up expectations from more people than just me, going anything worse than 4-2 on that week will be considered at least somewhat of a disappointment.

After their spring “break”, We heads home for the traditional April gauntlet of NESCAC nemeses. They go to Williams, then host Tufts, Swarthmore (non-NESCAC team, but still a challenge) and Bates in 4 days. They follow that up with Amherst and Midd in the same weekend, before finishing up their regular season schedule by hosting Colby and Bowdoin. Lets just say that I’ll be talking about Wesleyan in every one of my spring weekly previews that you all love so damn much.

Early May brings NESCACs at Amherst and hopefully a return trip to NCAAs for what will be arguably the most battle-tested team in the country. Lets not forget that last year this team won the NESCAC regular season title. That is a remarkable achievement considering the strength of the conference. I feel like the GAC upset overshadowed Wes making the quarters, where the Cards lost to the team most people had winning their NCAA brackets. That experience is invaluable, but the Cards will have to channel it and then some if they are going to improve upon it. Can they take the next step and realize the dream of being…say it with me…perennial national championship contenders???

 

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