Well, the blog team has come up big in my short absence from writing anything of worth these past two weeks after I gave a giant kickoff to start the season. We still have plenty of things in the works and under construction, but that just means we’ll come back in the Spring with bigger and better ideas. Now that ITAs have officially begun, we’ve been churning through previews to get you your fall tennis fix. Naturally, I have two ITA previews to write before this weekend. Given that it’s already Thursday that means I could shotgun these previews for you, but I’ve given up shotgunning of all kinds this past year. We’ll start with the Mary Wash ITA, aka the ASouth ITA, and I’ll get the help of D3RegionalAS in what should be a fun inaugural collaboration for us two. Actually, he’s bailing on me.
Unlike the other writers, I’m going to try doing this ITA preview a bit differently. There’s a lot to talk about with individual performances, and of course we’ll go through our favorites/sleepers, etc, but I’m going to go team by team. Let’s see how this turns out. Welcome back to the blog lyfe, boys and girls. Just in case you don’t know, the teams I’ll be covering in this ITA are Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Mary Washington, Swarthmore, and Washington & Lee. I think only Mary Washington truly hates me out of those teams. Shoutout to W&L, we good now boys. Let’s go through these teams in order of ranking.
Carnegie Mellon Tartans
Every year, the Tartans have talent. Every year, the Tartans have some encouraging performances at ITAs and some not so encouraging ones. Usually it’s one or the other in terms of singles and doubles. Past few years, this has turned into a track meet between the Tartans and the Hopkins Jays as some of the high level talent has fallen away from UMW and W&L. So, ASouth, what we lookin at from the Tartans?
Daniel Levine – The favorite from the Tartans has to be Levine. Coming off a stellar freshman year (probably a Top 3 Freshman last year), Levine looks to be the torch-holder for CMU this year. His big game provides tons of excitement, but he is prone to off days, especially in a singles tournament setting.
CMU Wants: Championship Most Likely: Finals Appearance
Michael Rosenvasser – CMU’s highly touted freshman comes in with big expectations and the potential to play #2 singles. No idea how this dude plays, but he’s lefty and he’s supposedly pretty damn good.
CMU Wants: Finals Appearance, Most Likely: Quarterfinals
Kunal Wadwani – The senior for CMU had a rough year last year. This dude’s grinding style makes him a pain in the ass to play in a tournament format. He’s surprised at this tournament before, but let’s see if he picked up a racket over the summer. Watch for him to be close to an upset or two but get burnt by a seed.
CMU Wants: Quarterfinals, Most Likely: Round of 16
Kenny Zheng – Another senior for CMU that didn’t really live up to expectations last year. I do love the man they call KZ and I think he gets a bad rep from a lot of us. He’s played in a billion tough matches and is a seasoned veteran. He knows what it’s like to wake up at 6 and play a full day on continental breakfasts and Subway subs. KZ is a smooth criminal. Let’s get him to the quarters.
CMU Wants: Semifinals, Most Likely: Quarterfinals
Vayum Arora – Arora was a bit of an enigma last year as he staretd at #3 singles, ended up at #4 or #5, but had some good success down there. He needs to take a step forward from last year if he were to do some damage in this tournament (first round exit last year) and I think he probably will do so. I don’t think he has the guns to make a deep run, but he could potentially throw an upset in there.
CMU Wants: Round of 16, Most Likely: Round of 32
Robert Levin, Nick Calzolano, Mark Prettyman – These three are freshmen and they’re all getting their shot in the A draw. Welcome to the big leagues, freshies. I’d expect two of these guys to play seeds in the first round and probably falter. ITA’s are tough man. If one of these guys can breakthrough with a run, that’d be a huge win for the Tartans. My bet is on either Calzolano or Prettyman to be the guy, but that’s really based off of nothing but my own guessing.
CMU Wants: QF, R16, R32, Most Likely: R16, R32, R32
Johns Hopkins Jays
Here we go again with the Jays. Who knows what to expect from these dudes. They almost always perform pretty well in ITAs, no matter how their season turns out, so I would expect more of the same this year. Hopkins is definitely not a team without talent, so I’m thinking at least two QFs if not 3. They also have the man known as the “MVP,” Michael Buxbaum. At the end of the day, it’s all about the ship. I’ve found that for the most part whoever “wins” the ITA between the Tartans and Jays doesn’t really matter.
Michael “MVP” Buxbaum – Nothing less than a championship would satisfy this former ITA winner. Buxbaum showed some signs of a letdown last year, but he got it into gear at the right time. He seems to love the ITA tournament, so really, I’m not worried at all.
Hop Wants: A Championship, bro. Most Likely: A Championship, bro.
Jeremy Dubin – Dubin is a strange player. Sometimes it looks like he can’t hit a low ball over the net. Sometimes it looks like you won’t even be able to hit his serve, anyways. Dubin is a surprisingly consistent player, and most of his game is easily changed by either the environment or the opponent. He doesn’t have a ton of additional plans on the court. Depending on his draw, he could go far, he could bust.
Hop Wants: Semifinals Most Likely: Quarterfinals
David Perez – Perez may or may not be still stinging from his heartbreaking quarterfinals loss in last year’s NCAA tournament to the national champion Polar Bears. Fact of the matter is, Perez got better as the year went on. He had a successful ITA last year, but now everyone knows what to look for. I think Perez can definitely match his output from last year (QF appearance, I believe) but it depends on his draw.
Hop Wants: Quarterfinals, Most Likely: Quarterfinals
Emerson Walsh – The man they call Peaches (or Cream, idk which one) played a STRONG #6 singles last year until he was kind of knocked out of the lineup but kind of not at NCAAs. This is his senior year, and I think Hopkins needs a #4 singles type year from him if they are to repeat their success from last year.
Hop Wants: Quarterfinals, Most Likely: Round of 16
Justin Kang – Kang has been up and down throughout his career at Hop, but honestly, I haven’t seen anything yet that makes him a big time player. He has the opportunity again this year to make a big dent in the lineup and shore up the Jays bottom of the lineup. Some have told me that if Justin got his play to be a lot more consistent, both physically and mentally, that he’d be a real good #5 player. Let’s see if this is the year.
Hop Wants: Round of 16, Most Likely: Round of 32
Aaron Carey, Austin Gu, Matthew Sklar – A trio of freshmen round out the Hopkins list and none of them are the touted 4 star Nathan Safran. All three are probably in the high 3 star range, despite one being a 2 star (Gu) and another being not rated (Sklar). I have high hopes for Sklar because these guys usually come out of nowhere to be forces in the lineup. Simialr to CMU, Hopkins is hoping for a quarterfinalist out of one of these guys.
Hop Wants: QF, 16, 32, Most Likely: R16, R32, R64
Mary Washington Eagles
Oh, Mary Washington. In my years of blogging, I’ve always been somewhat disappointed in the UMW seasons, but I guess I should adjust my expectations. At least they win their conference every year. Mary Washington is all about one player in this tournament and that is Brandon Griffin. We’ll get more into him, but the Eagles might not be very deep this year. The days of John James, Randy Loden, and hell, even Sam Wichlin might be gone now. Yea, I just name dropped there. Onto the individuals.
Brandon Griffin – Griffin is the Eagles lone shot at winning the whole damn thing. He needs this for a resume boost against his ASouth counterparts. Oh by the way, there are less regional individuals spots this year. This affects the UMW and W&L guys because they always seem to be teetering on the brink. Well, Griffin is a strong player and made a massive leap last year to be in contention for this. UMW wants another jump.
UMW Wants: Finals, Most Likely: Quarterfinals
Joseph Brown, Michael Fleming – Mary Washington’s two recruits this year hold the key to their season. They are severely lacking in the middle of the lineup, so it is almost a necessity that these two step up and play big big time roles. They both are ranked in the top 300 in their class, so there could be some talent here. Would be nice for the Eagles to get two Round of 16 players in there, but honestly that probably won’t happen.
UMW Wants: R16, R16, Most Likely: R32, R64
Matt Miles, Derek Hagino, Patrick Hughes – These three UMW sophomores had okay years last year, mostly finishing up in the middle/bottom of the Eagles lineup and doing fairly well. Hughes is the guy I’m looking forward to in this tournament, as he finished last year with some nice wins against Arora (CMU) and Walsh (JHU). Miles also played ahead of Hughes, taking Zheng (CMU) and Bouchet (Emory) to three sets, and Matt can really hit the ball. The fact that we’re on home courts for the Eagles always helps and who knows, we might be playing a lot of indoor tennis. Look out for Miles and Hughes for potential upsets.
UMW Wants: QF, R16, R32, Most Likely: R16, R32, R64
Swarthmore Garnet
Swarthmore fans probably thought I’d forget about the Garnet, but I will never forget about these hard working fellows from the North. I really have focus on three players on this team, much like the past 3-4 years for this program. Not to say the other dudes can’t make an impact, but people want this preview out A$AP Rocky, so let’s get down to business.
Mark Fallati – ALERT, ALERT! I am picking Mark Fallati to win this tournament. I don’t know why, but I just get the feeling its time for a Swarthmore player to take it all. This is the same Fallati who took Alla to three sets last year. I believe he’s done the work this offseason to come out on top in what looks to be a weaker field than normal in terms of top talent. With the potential inconsistency of Levine and the enigma that is Buxbaum, Fallati has a real chance at taking this. ASwizz loves a dark horse.
Swat Wants: Championship, Most Likely: Semfinals
John Larkin – Larkin took a step back last year and that’s all there really is to it. He was dethroned by Fallati and didn’t have a spectacular year at #2. He had a loss to Bannister of W&L and split meetings with Dubin of JHU, but other than that nothing special. His schedule was weak, but I would have expected domination. Swarthmore needs Larkin to be an auto at #2, ITA is where we see if it might be possible.
Swat Wants: Semfinals, Most Likely: R16
Ari Cepelewicz – Ari got a tough draw last season, playing MVP in the first round, so we didn’t really get to see his ITA prowess last year. What we saw the rest of the year is that Ari doesn’t really make the “Big 3” like Swarthmore wanted. With losses to Garcia (JHU), Friedman (Whitman), Scott (Bates), Drake (Stevens), and Rothman (F&M), Cepelewicz needs to turn it around this year. He’s trending downwards.
Swat Wants: R16, Most Likely: R32
Washington & Lee Generals
The Generals finished their year last year with an impressive and epic win over NC Wesleyan, much to the delight of D3Central (and probably most of the DIIITennis world). Can the Generals continue their momentum from last year? They have one player that could make a big difference (Krasner) and a couple others that can make some noise. Starting off with my favorite player in the world…
Jordan Krasner – The outspoken #1 singles player of the Gennies is Krasner, who has had a career of ups and downs as well as an appendectomy. Krasner is a fiery player who really is the Generals only chance of making a huge run. I’m pretty sure he’ll get a seed, probably in the 5-7 range, so at least he avoids any really tough players until round 2. He’s solid, but I just don’t know how far he can go.
W&L Wants: Semifinals, Most Likely: Quarterfinals
Will Bannister – Sir William Bannister (this is going to happen) will always pay his debts. Bannister had an under the radar year last year with a few key wins, including the one against NCW at the end of the year. His big win was against Larkin of Swat and Sokolov of NCW. He doesn’t ahve the firepower to win the whole thing, but hey, he can win a couple rounds.
W&L Wants: Quarterfinals, Most Likely: R32
Chris Newport Captains
End the pain, END IT NOW!!! I just want to be done with this article. Last in my way stands the CNU Captains, and I just realized how generic that name is. The Captains. Let’s get some better names up in here, America. Anyways, I’ll call out two players to look for from the Captains before I move onto posting this damn thing.
David Reed – Reed had a bad year last year, I’m sorry. He literally lost to almost everyone he played at #1 singles except of course Michael Buxbaum. If he can find the magic from two years ago, maybe a quarterfinal appearance is in his future. For cynics like me, I like to go on recent history.
CNU Wants: Quarterfinals, Most Likely: R32
Justin Cerny – Cerny also didn’t really have a great year at the top of the lineup last year. It was better than Reeds, as he notched wins against Dubin, Sikh, and Bryant Johnson (Redlands), but it wasn’t stellar. Cerny and Reed are around the same level, so let’s go ahead and say that they have the same potential in the tournament.
CNU Wants: Quarterfinals, Most Likely: R32
Am I done? I think I am. Anyways, I never preview the doubles, because as we saw from the Midwest ITA, anything can happen when you put four DIII players on the same court with the same goal. I think this tournament is going to come down to CMU vs Hopkins once again, with a flavor of Swarthmore in Mark Fallati. That’s right, I’m reinforcing the fact that I’m picking blog favorite Mark Fallati to win it all over either Buxbaum or Levine, depending on what the draw looks like. Play begins tomorrow at 8AM, so stay tuned for yo updates. ASouth always brings the heat. Welcome back, contenders of the best coast. Shoutout to Sonny Dearth. ASouth, OUT.