D3 Central Women’s Preview

Central Season Preview

The 2014 season brought a lot of dramatic results that left Coach Kelly Stahlhuth’s Washington University of St.Louis as the sole central region participant of the elite eight. With other regions getting multiple teams in the Elite Eight, the Central region has a lot to prove for the 2014-2015 season. The following in-depth preview will breakdown the usual contenders, the middle pack, and the up and comers. I will highlight the key central players to watch newcomers that will make a regional presence immediately.

Wash University.(St. Louis) 

The Bears made headway moving into the top spot in the region with an amazing run that led to an elite eight appearance in the NCAA tournament. 2014-15 doesn’t look to slow them down at all with a key returning core and a 13th ranked freshman class that will prove to fill in some of the holes Wash U. leave behind to graduation at the 5 and 6 singles spots. The two-headed monster of Jamie Silverburg and Rebecca Ho will continue to anchor this program making rival teams look outside the top 2 for points.

Why they will win: Now that they have tasted the elite eight and return their top-tier talent, they are all set for another run at the Elite 8. With DePauw and UW-Whitewater losing some key players, nothing looks to stand in their way with the exception of a new look Chicago.

DePauw University

Coach Riggle’s DePauw Tigers bring back an experienced core with only players in the 4-5 spots to replace. Claire Marshall and Maggie MacPhail will be one more year experienced and poised to help DePauw make a deep run. DePauw has done a tremendous job at developing product within and
with a couple new freshmen, they could be extremely dangerous in the Central region. Look for contributions from new freshman Wavery Wituski and returners Madelyn Lee, Taylor Mahr and Mara Sheley.

Why they will win: Doubles is really what makes the Tiger’s line-up special. With only two performances last season that saw the Tigers lose more than 2 doubles, they have become a permanent fixture when talking about the best doubles teams in the country. They did reel off 2 of 3 from national champions Emory University and that is something worth noting moving into 2015.

University of Chicago

The Maroons have already made waves with their men’s recruiting class, however the women’s recruiting class is not to be overlooked. One player in Coach Tee’s class can be the difference of being top 5 in the region or number 1. Chicago returns 100 percent of their starting line-up and add a monster freshman in Ariana Iranpour who will challenge Megan Tang for her top position her first year. Iranpour also instantly shifts Chicago’s doubles depth dramatically by redistributing some key weapons and depth.

Why they will win: As cliche as it sounds, the addition of one player that can compete with any one player from Emory or Amherst will make waves in a shallow central region. This is my pick and dark horse to take the top ranking in the central.

Case Western Reserve

Not many programs did more in one year for their program as first year Coach Kirsten Gambrell. Her hard work and effort yielded a top 10 recruiting class to a line-up that produced very close results against
very good teams. They were about 1 or 2 players from being a top 10 fixture and may see the rise this year with a young crop of talent. Look for freshmen Peyton Young and Nithya Kanagasegar to make immediate contributions and for Senior Marianne Bonanno to gain confidence behind a
deeper line-up.

Why they will win: The Spartans went an entire year without getting shutout and posted incredible results against top 10 competition. 3-6 losses to Bowdoin, Carnegie Mellon, and Wash U. show just how close they are. Coach Gambrell will be poised to lead a rise of this upstart program as they legitimately challenge the regions best for position.

Middle of the Pack:

UW-Whitewater

Coach Frank Barnes had an incredible run in the NCAA tournament before falling short to a tenacious DePauw team. This year may paint a different picture where 3 starters are lost to graduation. Meghan Humphreys is very talented and will need to take charge of a position that accumulated 29 singles wins and over 20 doubles wins. The loss of the Vitale twins may be replaced with freshman Alex Talyansky and Bridgid McGuire, but this could be a question mark for the rest of the season.

Season Outlook: Certainly the Warhawks will remain a force and be a threat to anyone sleeping on them. I would expect they will take a step back although a small one while Megan Humphreys grows into her role. Losing a player like Alexandra Bayliss can be crippling to any program. Coach Barnes always has something in his pocket and look for them to rebound soon.

Carleton College

The Knights look to build on an impressive 19 win season by returning a top core led by Sr. Anne Lombardi. New Freshman Danielle Vasiliev will look to add immediate depth to an already deep line-up. Coach Luciano Battaglini is starting to see the fruits of his labor culminate into a pretty good-looking squad.

Season Outlook: Look for Carleton to solidify their #5 Central Region ranking over everyone else. I don’t see them moving up due to lack of quality competition in their regular season schedule. Geographic
isolation is tough when in Minnesota and need to use their Spring Break wisely to get the necessary S.O.S. boost to promote them on a national level. Carleton still lacks in overall firepower in the line-up to close ground with the top 4 in the region.

Denison University

Coach Peter Burling always finds away to address roster needs when graduation losses rear their ugly head. Losing two-time all american was an afterthought with the addition of new freshman Courtney Brown. Brown should instantly challenge Taylor Hawkins for the top spot and prevent Denison from losing firepower.

Season Outlook: They replaced a stud with a potential stud, but did not get better in any one position to move up the rankings. Big Red can play feisty against any opponent as you saw with the 4-5 loss to Depauw in last years regular season battle. Roster Retention has been a problem over the past couple years and I would expect Coach Burling to revamp his approach and expect a formidable 2015 recruiting class.

Oberlin College

The Yeowomen took a big hit with the loss of NCAA participant Breanna Sheldon. Coach Constantine Ananiadis brought in a solid 2015 class that will help replace Sheldon over time and add necessary depth to the line-up that they lost following the 2012-2013 season. Freshman Mayada Audeh will be an instant contender in the region.

Season Outlook: Oberlin may have just added enough to push Denison to a closer decision and move up the regional ranking a couple of spots with the pending fall of Whitewater. I would look for them to hold off Hope and a rising Kalamazoo squad.

Hope College

Coach Adam Ford has really become a force in the region in a short time. As he begins his 4th year he has Hope primed to become a permanent Central region fixture. After winning the conference last year over Kalamazoo and taking the bid into NCAAs, the flying dutchman still have a lot to prove on a national level.

Season Outlook: Hope didn’t get worse and didn’t get better. If anything they have more depth outside the top 6 and have improved the overall caliber of the roster. This is the recipe to attract and lure in a top
player for the class of 2015. The Kalamazoo/Hope rivalry will continue to blossom.

Kalamazoo College

Coach Mark Murphy has put together a solid squad over the past couple years. With success from Sarah Woods and the addition of international freshman Maria Elisa Franco, the Hornets will continue to improve the overall talent and depth.

Season Outlook: Look for Coach Murphy’s squad to continue a fast growing and epic rivalry with Hope. They split this past year and believe Kalamazoo has enough to take both the regular season and inevitable conference showdown. In the region Hope and Kalamazoo should battle for the 9 and 10 spots respectively.

Rounding out the Rest of the Region:

The following regional teams look to continue their trend and should show improvement, a future article will breakdown the rest of the region as roster spots become set and Fall tournaments begin.

Kenyon
Gustavus Adolphus
Wheaton(Ill.)
Ohio Northern
Coe
Grinnell
St. Thomas
St. Catherine
UW-Lacrosse
Augustana

Teams to drop from regional ranking contention:

Otterbein
St. Olaf
UW-Eau Claire
Allegheny

D3 Central women’s blog is dedicated to promoting D3 tennis and the central region. As the year goes on, the blog will touch on different key matches, players, and results from all aspects of the region and not necessarily the top 20.

_D3CW  @d3centralwomen

One thought on “D3 Central Women’s Preview

  1. Love Tennis

    I don’t see the Carleton school listing anywhere , any reason? thanks

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