The first big weekend is now past so it is time to reflect on each team’s performance. Instead of doing this match by match, I think it will be better to break down each team and their successes (or losses). So without further adieu I will start with the biggest surprise of the weekend.
Chicago: Grade: D
I will admit, I really wanted to give them an F for the weekend, but after some thought, they did achieve the results that were expected of them. We thought they would beat Denison and lose to Kenyon. They accomplished that. When it comes to the rankings committees, they ignore the actual score line and only look at wins and losses. Now, when you begin to break down the actual scores, this is where the red flags begin to emerge. The fact that they barely took down Denison is a huge concern particularly when you look at the places they lost. Chicago typically is a singles strong team so after being up 2-1 after dubs, I would have thought they would cruise to a victory. Sabada losing to Guerra probably will keep him out of nationals this year unless Guerra goes on a tear this season which is unlikely. I predicted Zheng losing at five because he just doesn’t have the game to win and Szabo wasn’t even on my radar as he did not play on the team last season. Kranz has got to be the only bright spot for the Maroons as he beat Geier from Kenyon and looks to have been the clincher against Denison. If they are at all concerned about getting an individual in to nationals, they should move Kranz to 1 singles after this weekend. Moving to the Kenyon match, I am sure the grueling match the night before didn’t help, but Chicago simply was the mentally weaker team. You can see that in the score lines with losing 1 and 3 doubles 9-7 and 9-8. I love seeing set scores like 7-5 as it proves that someone breaks under the pressure of having to hold serve when it matters. All in all, this weekend was a failure for the Maroons and a fifth place finish looks eminent at the UAAs unless they can figure out how to use all the talent they have and not have the Chicago Cubs mantra of “there is always next year.”
Wash U: Grade C+
Wash U was able to get wins against two Top 25 teams so that is something you can’t overlook, but they didn’t exactly dominate in either of them. Had the doubles gone a bit differently against Gustavus, that match could have been interesting to watch. As for the Whitewater match, it wasn’t as close as the scoreline (6-3) mentioned as 4-6 singles went quickly which I expected. It seems to have been a slight let down for Wash U to sweep a usually doubles strong Gustavus and then not show up for doubles against Whitewater. The biggest concern has to be with freshman Jeremy Bush. The highly touted recruit lost both matches against the D-3 opponents which can’t give him much confidence to start the season. Losing to Humphreys isn’t all that big of a deal considering the fall that he had, but losing to Leisner from GAC wasn’t something I expected. For Wash U to compete against the Top 10, he will need to step his game up. Kudos to Putterman coming back on Sunday and getting a good win against Shklyar after a loss to Smith-Dennis. As I mentioned in the preview, he can beat anyone if his forehand is on. The good news for Wash U is they have stuff to go home and work on and there is no doubt Follmer will get them going. The bad news is Indoor Nationals is only two weeks away and a likely semi final matchup against Trinity (after they take down 4 seed CLU) is scary to say the least. I will go on record now and say Trinity is my favorite to win the whole thing and could mop up Wash U.
Gustavus: Grade B+
No need to really talk about a 9-0 win against Carthage other than they won easily. Gustavus has to be thrilled by the result with Wash U as they pushed them in singles. Leisner has emerged as a great 2 player which they needed. Getting swept in doubles has to be a concern, but they bounced back nicely in singles. I didn’t give GAC enough credit with their depth as they were able to win at 6 and lose a close one at 5. GAC usually is a great doubles team so I won’t let one match dictate whether or not they are able to get back to the winning ways there. If they can shore up that problem, the Gusties may be a team to look out for come tournament time. Maybe give alum Butorac a call to give them a clinic?
Whitewater: Grade B
Some may say that the Warhawks deserve a better grade than a B after a what seemed to be close loss to Wash U (6-3). Had the grade been based solely on doubles, I would have given them an A+. Yes Shklyar/Balkin lost, but Putterman/Bush are a lock for nationals and could make a deep run. Taking 2 out of 3 from Wash U is impressive and for Whitewater to continue to be in the Top 25, they will have to keep up that type of result. Whitewater’s problem as I pointed out early this season is their depth and it was exploited against the Bears. They will be practically handing 5 and 6 singles to the top teams and that doesn’t bode well for potential upsets. They will be good enough to beat the teams they are expected to beat at those spots, but you can’t give up easy points to the likes of Wash U and next weekend at Kenyon. As long as they don’t have any let downs this season, I see Whitewater hovering around 20-25. Humphreys continues to look good so they have two potential national qualifiers in singles and that could be a big bonus.
Kenyon: Grade A-
I am not sure what happened against Chicago is more of Kenyon’s doing or more of Chicago just not living up to the hype, but I would say it is a little of both. Had Chicago taken out Denison easily and they get handily beaten by the Lords, then I would say it was a big statement. Either way, they were able to sweep doubles and win comfortably in singles except for Geier at 2. Heerboth had no trouble with Sabada which was nice to see since he was gone all semester in the fall. It seems the rumors are true and he has been playing a lot of tennis with Pomona’s one which is pretty cool to hear about. There was a little surprise with freshman Mike Roberts playing at 2 doubles, but they won easily so that is a bonus for the Lords. Roberts is rumored to have been out of fall play for unknown reasons, so expectations are still unknown for the young freshman. Alright, I went as long as I could without saying it. Where is RAZ? Obviously we know he has been injured, but the questions are many. Is he out for the year? Are they saving him for Indoors? Will they throw him in there just to strengthen the bottom half of the lineup? Do you put him at 6? Or just doubles? Either way, to beat Chicago so handily without him is impressive. The Lords have Whitewater and Earlham next weekend so we have one more chance to see if he makes an appearance. They don’t NEED him, but boy would it be nice to have him. A first round match up with Case at Indoors without him could be interesting.
Denison: Grade A
Oh so close, but no cigar for the Big Red with their match against Chicago. This win was needed as it would have thrust them back into the national conversation. But at least we are talking about them at this point. Guerra winning at 1 was a surprise just as much as Cempre losing at 4 is a surprise. By the end of the season, I could see Cempre near or at the top of the lineup as he did the same thing last year. I am not positive, but he may play on the squash team and is still transitioning from that. Doubles has to be a slight let down as this is usually a strong suit for Denison, but a 5-4 score line has to be something to give them some confidence the rest of the season.
Coe: Grade B+
It’s at least worth a shout out to say Coe comfortably beat regionally ranked Elmhurst 9-0. Sprinkle lost in doubles and didn’t play singles against a weaker Monmouth so I am not sure what is up there, but when you start saying you are flying under the radar, people notice therefore making that argument go away. They don’t play anyone any good for another six weeks (Gustavus) so they probably won’t get a mention again until then.
In other small news in the region, Carleton lost to St Scholastica so they will no longer be in the rankings. St Scholastica is not good so clearly Carleton has fallen down as much as the coach’s off the wall comments. Seriously if you want a good laugh, read his post match comments. The guy must be a nut. Ryan Kreis of Wheaton barely made it past UW-EauClaire’s one player. I give Alex Boomgarden from Carthage some love in a tweet and he goes and loses to UW-Lacrosse.
Although it is early in the year, this weekend is a great representation of what these teams are all about.
Chicago: I think every year, people think that Chicago will finally break through but it is never the case. Yes they are good at recruiting talent but they just do not improve their players. I think they will have a disappointing season like they always do. I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished worse than 5th at UAA’s. I expect them to lose all the close matches they are supposed to have. I do hope they prove me wrong but I don’t see it happening.
Wash U: I think you are spot on that Follmer will make sure that this team will get going again. I think this weekend was just a matter of experience; they are a good team that just doesn’t have the experience yet. I do agree that putterman is not the #1 that they need to be able to compete with the top teams. They will need to do well in doubles or have their freshmen step up in order to succeed. They probably are not the 4th best team in the country though!
Gustavus: This team really surprised me this weekend. I think this was a good result for gustavus but the way in which they got the result surprised me. What has happened to Gustavus doubles? They have always been strong in doubles and it was just so uncharacteristic that they got swept in doubles that easily. The even more surprising part of this match was that they were somehow able to compete with Wash U in singles. The singles result was a failure by Wash U rather than success by gustavus. Overall, I think that gustavus needs to find an answer to the doubles problem or else they will have no chance against most ranked teams.
Whitewater: I think this weekend went exactly as expected by everyone. Whitewater had a strong showing in doubles and got a singles point somewhere in the top of the lineup. I do think there is one upside to this team, Humphreys has really stepped up and should really be playing #1. This team just does not have what it takes to be able to pull off an upset unless it can sweep doubles.
Kenyon: The most impressive team of the weekend. I think a lot of teams underestimate this team this year. No matter who they play at what spot, this team just has the x-factor. They have so much heart and belief that they can and will compete against any team in the country. Once Raz gets back in the lineup, this will be one dangerous team.
Couldn’t agree more with Kenyon. Kenyon is vastly underrated right now. It takes heart to win big matches, Kenyon’s got that.
Denison is a lot better this year with Guerra back playing. Chicago was up 5-2 and then the last two matches finished. So not a close 5-4.
I agree that Guerra helps Denison in depth, but he is not a strong 1 player. The matches he played last year he didn’t do well including an easy loss to Sabada 2 and 1 and a loss to Earlham’s one singles player 1 and 1. He is a spot filler that makes the rest of the team better as it moves them a spot lower.
It’s fair to go off Guerra’s results last year to say he was not a strong 1, but if he turned around and beat someone who he lost to 2 and 1 last year (who also made a regional final this fall) it’s also fair to say maybe he has improved and could be a legitimate 1 this year. If plays at the level that allowed him to beat Sabada for most of the year, he will do more for Denison than be a spot filler.
Well put, J. Guerra is in a different mindset this year. He has struggled with injury in the past. If he can stay healthy, he will continue to play at a high level. I wouldn’t read too far into his results of last year.
I completely agree on some levels that you can’t necessarily put too much weight on past year’s results. Humphreys from Whitewater is a prime example. However, Guerra didn’t exactly have a great fall either with a loss to Kaye (Kenyon)at the Kenyon Invite and a loss to a player from Earlham at ITAs. I will say he did get a win over Rosensteel from Kenyon so that is promising. By no means am I saying Guerra isn’t a good player because he is. What I am saying is that he is not a strong one player that a team needs to be in the national conversation. Denison has lacked this for many years and that is probably why they have fallen out of the rankings.
Surprising that neither Kaye nor Turlington cracked Kenyon’s starting lineup, no? Feel like they’re two of the more talented players on the team.
I agree that this was somewhat surprising. I would have predicted Kaye at 6. Turlington has had injury trouble I believe.
Kaye has fallen prey to the ladies of kenyon, he has mono. This guy is such a lady killer, half the female athletes at kenyon are now stricken with mono
Lipscomb plays #1 for Redlands, FYI
My bad. When writing it, I couldn’t think of his name so I went with the school. Would have been better guessing the name!