Fall Regional Roundup!

I know, I know, I’ve been really slacking lately in the Regional Roundup department.  I think ASouth hates me.  Work has been crazy and life has been lively, and I’ve been meaning to put together a recap of the northeast ITA for over a week now. That being said, I think the moment has passed on that. I can’t even remember who won (just kidding, Leung killed it!). Anyways, with ITAs finishing up this past weekend, I figured I would try to put together one post recapping the performances of all of my regional teams because, who am I kidding, what’s the likelihood of me writing a separate post for each ITA?! For some reason, however, just adding the phrase “Regional Roundup” has gotten me motivated like never before. Just like the good old days, with the good old days being last Spring, I’m going to go team by team and talk about the things that each of my regional squads did well at ITAs, and what they need to improve upon moving forward. I’m starting this on a Monday night (LAST Monday night, like a week ago), so let’s see when I finish! I’m going to start off at #28 with Brandeis (can’t let D3NE have all the fun) and just roll down the line. I’m also going to leave out a few of the schools that my fellow writers have covered so well, including Cal Lu, Pacific, and Chapman, so I can focus on some of the northeast schools that are close to the rankings, including Rochester and NYU. See D3West’s recaps for coverage of those schools!

#28 Brandeis:

The Good:

Brian Granoff followed up his fantastic Midd Invite performance with a solid ITA tournament. Granoff won three matches to make the quarters, with the best win being in the round of 16 over Kyle Wolfe of Bowdoin. He ultimately lost in a couple relatively quick sets to Steven Chen of Wesleyan, but the win over Wolfe has to help his confidence in his hope to go back to his freshman-year form. Ryan Bunis also had a great first round win over Gil Roddy of Bowdoin, but he was defaulted in the second round.

The Not So Good:

Judges freshman Tyler Ng lost first round to Ben Rosen of Bates, though I hear Rosen has been absolutely killing it lately. Brandeis also struggled on the doubles court, with their top team of Jeff Cherkin/Brian Granoff losing 8-2 in the first round to a Williams duo.

Outlook:

Granoff won his second round match 2 and 0 over a player from Wheaton, where Brandeis’ old assistant Pauri Pandian is now the head coach. Must have been fun beating up on the old assistant! Anyways, since I’ve started this article, Brandeis has also competed in the Wallach Invitational up at Bates, so I’ll briefly recap that here. Granoff’s first name was misspelled as “Bryan” in the draw, which pretty much sums up the weekend for the Judges. Nobody won more than one match, not the way that Brandeis wanted to end the fall season. Coach Lamanna works his boys hard, and I’m sure they will be a much better team in the spring than the fall. They really only lost Alec Siegel (#4 singles) and Michael Secular (#6ish singles), and have a lot of freshmen, so this is certainly a team to watch. It looks like they have a trip to Stevens planned to try to avenge the loss from last year. Circle that one on your calendars!

#29 Sewanee:

The Good:

Well, it has to start with doubles, where senior Eric Roddy and freshman Jack Gray rolled through the field, including taking out two Emory teams, on their way to the ITA title!! What a great effort from the Tigers on the doubles court. In singles, Roddy made the round of 16, losing in three sets to Alec Josepher of Emory. Gray, Davis Owen and Fletcher Kerr all won first-round matches as well.

The Not So Good:

Avery “Sour Patch” Schober only making the round of 16 is a small disappointment for the Tigers. Schober is one guy who I thought could go all the way, but he lost to Emory player Andrew Harrington in three tight sets. Also, Connor Winkler and Scott Gallimore losing first round matches to Belhaven and Birmingham Southern, respectively, is not the way that the middle of Sewanee’s lineup wants to start their season.

Outlook:

First of all, Roddy and Gray are both from Chattanooga, Tennessee. I wonder if these boys grew up playing doubles together, though Roddy is three years older than Gray. Regardless, look for this team to be a great one moving forward. Onto the rest of the team…losing Rand Jackson is a tough loss at #2, but I still think Sewanee is going to be solid. They brought in four two-stars, along with Mr. Chattanooga Jack Grey. Roddy should continue to improve, and hopefully a couple of those freshmen will fit in well at the bottom of the lineup. Sewanee is a wild card for me, as they always just roll through their conference anyway, but they certainly will be a fun team to follow throughout the season.

#31 Swarthmore

The Good:

Blog favorie Mark Fallati had a great ITA, wining his first two matches both 2 and 0. He then fell in the round of 16 to the ultimate winner, Abhishek Alla, 7-5 in the third. What a battle! This was Alla’s toughest match of the tournament, and Fallati deserves a ton of credit for pushing him to the brink. #6 seed John Larkin also won his first couple of matches, falling to David Perez from Johns Hopkins in the round of 16. Freshman Simon Vernier also won his first match, over Nick Garcia of Hopkins.

The Not So Good:

Outside of Fallati and Larkin, Swat’s results were not all that impressive, especially in singles, where they thrived last year. Ari Cepelewicz lost 1 and 1 to Michael Buxbaum in the first round, which is obviously an incredibly tough first round matchup. Yosuke Higashi, who played towards the bottom of the lineup last year, lost 2 and 3 to Derek Hagino from Mary Wash. Sophomore Josh Powell had a tough first round matchup against Michael Holt from W&L, and lost 3 and 4. In doubles, Swat’s three teams all ultimately lost to teams from Johns Hopkins, a big concern for a school that ultimately hopes to compete with them in the Centennial Conference. Cepelewicz/Fallati were the #5 seeds and had a first round bye, but lost second round 8-2 to Hopkins. Evan Han/Simon Vernier lost first round to Colin Muraika/Rodrigo Saad of Hop, and James Hahn/Josh Powell lost second round to a Hop team, after narrowly defeating a Dickinson team in the first round. I know Blake Oetting (#3/4 singles) didn’t play for Swarthmore which hurt their results a bit, but outside of Fallati, Vernier, and Larkin, Swarthmore did not show that they will be able to compete with schools ranked above them.

Outlook:

Last year, Swarthmore was talented, but really straight-forward. They struggled in doubles and at #5/6 singles, but they were really good at #1-4, and especially good from #2-4. I think Simon Vernier is going to be a really good addition, and Swarthmore is still really young. However, as talented as Swat is, Hopkins should still be better at just about every position, except maybe at #2 if that’s where Fallati is playing. They are playing Stevens again this year, who they lost to last year, and I think Swarthmore can definitely take that. They also have a very interesting NWC trip planned, playing Cal Lu up in Walla Walla, plus Lewis and Clark and Whitman! What a trio of matches, and it will be incredibly interesting to see how Swat matches up, honestly in all of those matches. Besides that, it really comes down to taking out Hopkins in the Centennial. Don’t think that they are there yet, but they are a really young squad and are definitely on the right track.

#32 Washington & Lee:

The Good:

#4 seed Michael Holt had a nice ITA tournament, taking out Josh Powell (Swat) and Chris Jou (Hopkins) in the first two rounds, before falling to Daniel Levine of CMU in the round of 16. Thomas Johnson also won his first match, over a player from Moravian College. I have no idea where that is. Holt and Johnson, the #4 seeds in doubles, won their opening doubles match after a first round bye, 8-3 over a team from St. Mary’s College, but they lost in the round of 16 to Mary Washington. Will Bannister and Joe Salami/Siami also won their first doubles match over a team from Ursinus.

The Not So Good:

Outside of Holt, nobody from W&L beat anybody noteworthy. Beating Moravian, St. Mary’s, and Ursinus is fine, but these are teams that the Generals should handle easily in the Spring. Perry Clemens/Zack Ely lost in the first round of doubles to a Christopher Newport team, not a good sign. Joe Siami lost in the first round of singles to a player from Haverford, and Zack Ely lost first round to Steven Boslet of CNU. The Generals did beat Christopher Newport last year, 6-3, but they are going to have to improve this winter if they hope to repeat this.

Outlook:

The Generals brought in two three-star freshmen, Perry Clements, and Zack Ely, who should continue to grow but did not have good ITA tournaments. It doesn’t look like Jordan Krasner played, and Will Bannister lost in the first round. With #4 Brian Krouskos not on the roster this year (?), plus the freshmen, I think the Generals should be about the same as last year. Last year, they mostly sruggled except for a great win over DePauw and a good win over CNU. I like them against CNU again because of Holt at the top, and I’m sure they will want to get revenge on Sewanee. At this point, I’d have to stick with Sewanee because of their doubles results this fall, but W&L certainly has the singles talent to compete.

#33 DePauw

The Good:

#20 seed Patrick Farrell and #14 seed Alec Kaczkowski both had a solid singles tournament Kaczkowski made the round of 16 (winning 3 matches as the Central ITA starts with 128 players) and then lost to the winner Nick Chua 7-6, 6-0. Farrell also made the round of 16, losing to Kalamzoo player and #5 seed Brandon Metzler, who had a great tournament in his own right, taking out Krimbill in the next round. On the doubles court, John Daseke and Nate Wallace made the round of 16 as well, taking out a Wash U team in the second round. Harold Martin and Matthew Santen also made the round of 16, taking out the #7 seeds Bo Hudson/Brandon Meltzer from Kzoo. Alec Kaczkowski/Daniel Rodefeld were the #15 seeds and ultimately held their seed, making the round of 16 and losing to #2 seeds Sam Geier/Tristan Kaye from Kenyon.

The Not So Good:

In dubs, #8 seeds Patrick Farrell/Matthew Quammen lost in the second round to Adam Collins/Freddy Daum of Case. Alex Bertolini lost in the first round of singles to Andrew Klein of Hope College, and John Daseke lost in the second round to Jamie McDonald of Denison.

Outlook:

DePauw had a several ITA and several guys won matches. Their doubles looks like it will be a nice strength as it has been in the past. Their schedule looks incomplete on their site right now, but they should be set up for a nice battle once again with Denison. They had a disappointing loss last year to Washington & Lee, so it will be interesting to see if that match is on the schedule again.

#35 Denison:

The Good:

Jamie McDonald won two good matches, over #22 seed Michael Drougas of Oberlin in the first round, and over John Daseke of DePauw in the second round, nice wins over two big rivals. He fell to semifinalist Luke Tsai of Chicago in the round of 32, 6 and 2, a good fight from him.   In doubles, #5 seeds Kevin Brown/Jackson O’Gorman-Bean (awesome name, will refer to him as OGB for the rest of this section) made the quarters, losing to CJ Krimbill/Louis Stuerke 8-5, a solid result.

The Not So Good:

Unless I’m missing something in the giant draw that is the Central ITA, only one other Denison player/doubles team besides McDonald and Brown/OGB won a round. That is Blake Burstein, who defeaed a player from Illinois College and fell badly to Kenyon #28 seed Nick Fiaschetti in the second round. Denison certainly drew some tough matchups, but Denison will need much more depth if they hope to take out DePauw this Spring.

Outlook:

McDonald mostly played #5 and #6 last year, so his two wins at the Central ITA are a huge positive for the Big Red. OGB is the incumbent #1 as Grant Veltman has graduated, and he lost 0 and 2 in the first round to Tyler Kratky, so it’s tough to get a sense of how he’s playing. Freshman Kevin Brown looks like he will play high up in the lineup, but he lost to Wash U freshman Jake Klein in a relatively close straight-set match. Who knows what this Denison team will be like in the Spring!

#36 Coe:

The Good:

I have to start with #4 seed Brady Anderson, who had a terrific run all the way to the final. Anderson lost 9 games in his first four matches, and then took out two Whitewater Warhawks, Grant Thompson and Jake Humphreys, in three set marathons. He ultimately fell to #2 seed Mohanad Al Houni 2 and 2 in the finals, but it was still a great result for him in his first season without Noah Sprinkel at #1. Alex Bernt also had a very good run to the quarters, defeating the #12 seed Josh Doyle and the #3 seed Michael Tries, though Tries was up a set but had to retire. He fell in three sets to the #15 seed Zach Ekstein from Gustavus. Anderson and Josh Pudlo had a solid doubles tournament as well. The sophomore/freshman tandem came in as the #7 seed, and their best win was over #9 seeds Josh Doyle/Brian Utz of Macalester. They ultimately lost 8-2 to Jake Humphreys/Michael Tries of Whitewater, who won the whole darn thing, so no shame in that loss.

The Not So Good:

Riley Galbraith and Ryan Hickman, who both played in the top 4 of the Kohawks lineup last year, were nowhere to be found at the ITA tournament. They are both on the 2016 roster, so hopefully they are healthy and getting ready for the spring! Without these two guys, the Kohawks dropped off a ton after Anderson and Bernt. The only other Kohawk to win a singles match in the massive 128 player draw was Chad Moklestad, who dominated a player from CSS. Guess what stands for? It’s the College of St. Scholastica! That is all.

Outlook:

Anderson and Bernt are legit, for sure. With those two, plus Galbraith, Hickman, and talented freshmen Nate Ackert and Josh Pudlo, Coe should still be a very solid squad. Several of their guys lost to players from Whitewater and Gustavus, which I don’t think they match up well with. However, could they compete with DePauw this year?! They play on April 10^th! With a few solid freshmen, Coe should be a deeper squad than last year, even without Sprinkel. It should be fun to watch.

#37 Christopher Newport:

The Good:

In ITA’s, Junior Steven Boslet had a good first round win over Zack Ely from Washington & Lee. Boslet and senior Chiraag Shetty had two very good wins, over teams from Mary Washington and Johns Hopkins. The win over Hopkins was quite impressive, as they took out Justin Kang and David Perez, the #9 seeds, with an 8-2 effort. Boom! Lower down the draw, Arttu Fiva/Will Trang had two straight 9-8 wins over Washington & Lee and Carnegie Mellon. This is a great sign for CNU, as doubles can be a huge strength for them this spring.

The Not So Good:

Lots of doubles highlights in the previous section. Lots of singles comments in this section. David Reed, who played #1 last year for CNU, lost in straight sets to unseeded Brandon Griffin of Mary Wash. Obviously that is a very tough first round match, but this does not bode well for the top of CNU’s lineup this year. Chiraag Shetty, who played a solid #4 last year, lost in three tight sets to #7 seed Doug Kaplan of Franklin and Marshall. That’s a great effort from Shetty, but a win over the #1 from F&M would have been a great sign. Several other guys drew tough seeds in the first round, and no one was able to pull a big upset.

Outlook:

Doubles is going to be a big key for CNU this year. From this ITA, it’s clear that they have two nice teams at the top. #3 will be tough, but I think they will be able to figure it out. What concerns me more is the top of CNU’s singles lineup. The projected top five guys, David Reed, Steven Boslet, Justin Cerny, Chiraag Shetty, and Arttu Fiva, all seem relatively interchangeable to me. While this bodes really well for the #4/5, I don’t like CNU’s chances at the top. If they can piece it together in dubs and in the middle of the singles lineup though…who the heck knows!

#39 TCNJ:

The Good:

Any Lion recap has to start with senior Piece Cooper, who under-the-radar has had quite the fantastic college tennis career. He made it to the semis in singles, with a really good three set win over Lucas Pickering from Skidmore in the round of 16 and a great strait-set win over Duck Danny Polk. He fell 4 and 4 to Heinrich in the semis, which is certainly not a bad loss, but it’s too bad that Cooper couldn’t bring home the title in his senior season. Also, freshmen Tim Gavornik and Matt Puig had a really nice second round doubles win over #5/8 doubles seeds Dan Cooper/Nick Litsky of Vassar, who hosted the northeast tournament.

The Not So Good:

Billy Buchbinder, who played #3 last year for the Lions, did not play in singles, which certainly hurt their results. The other singles results were sort of disappointing. Mitchell Sanders lost in a super-breaker to a player from Hunter, and Tim Gavornik lost in a super to a player from Alfred. Chris D’Agostino, who played #4 last year, lost in straights to Nick Tong of Skidmore, a pretty tough first round match.

Outlook:

TCNJ was honestly really good at #1-3 last year. This was really clear when they took these spots against Stevens towards the end of last year. However, with Jack August (#2) gone, and Buchbinder not playing singles at the ITA tournament, the Lions looked weak. However, they brought in a huge class of two-stars, plus one three-star in Mitchell Sanders, so I really just think they need more time to gel. The Lions won’t be as good at those top 3 spots with August out, but look for them to be a heck of a lot deeper. They’ll play all their favorite northeast foes again, including Rochester, RPI, NYU, Vassar, and Stevens, so look for some battles in those four matches.

Rochester:

The Good:

Oh Rochester. What a group of guys. They’ve finished eighth in the UAA for a number of years now, despite two straight regular season wins against NYU, so I know they are eager to finally beat the Violets down in Florida. This year, they’ve got a new number one! His name is Masaru Fujimaki, and he is from China, and in Rochester’s opening match against Roberts Wesleyan, he was right in there in the #1 spot. Unfortunately, he lost in that match, so he’s not phenomenal, but he will definitely help to make the Rochester lineup deeper. Fujimaki had a good second round win at ITAs over Nick Tong, but he then lost 3 and 1 to Heinrich, obviously a great player with way more college experience. Look for Fujimaki to really grow over the course of the season. In doubles, Ian Baranowski and Aaron Mevorach were the #4 seeds, and they made it to the semis, a nice result for the Jackets.

The Not So Good:

The rest of Rochester’s singles lineup won the matches they should, but nothing more than that. Ben Shapiro, one of the blog’s favorites, dominated Will Morrison from Drew but lost 3 and 4 to Kai Yuen Leung, who ultimately won the champion. Baranowski won his first two matches, but lost 0 and 1 to Nick Litsky. Mevorach had a tough first round matchup against Pierce Cooper and lost 4 and 1.

Outlook:

Fujimaki will help this squad get a little bit deeper, but the loss of Julian Danko will hurt them more than everyone thinks. He was a terrific #3/4 player and honestly completed really well against some of the top UAA teams. Rochester battles hard, and look for them to do more of the same all season.

NYU:

The Good:

NYU’s Coach Choy always manages to fill the roster with talented new players, and this year is no different. They have three new players in particular who should have a big impact this year. Freshmen Yanik Parsch and Benedict Teoh, and junior Umberto Setter­, should all start, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they perform. At ITAs, Setter had the best result. He was seeded #3, and won his first two matches before losing to Tristan Wise from RPI. Matt DiMichael also won his first match, in a tough super over Allain Grullon of RPI.

The Not So Good:

Honestly, the three new players that I mentioned above did not perform all that well at ITAs. Setter was the #3 seed, which I don’t understand given that he hadn’t played in a d3 college dual match yet, and he lost to #9/16 seed Tristan Wise. Ben Teo was also seeded #9/16, and he lost in straights to Jonathan Atwater from Hobart. The last freshman, Yanik Parsch, lost in straights to McKinley Grimes from RPI, definitely a difficult, but not unwinnable, match.

Outlook:

Before I get into NYU’s outlook, let me rant for a second real fast. NYU had three really solid freshman last year in Samuel Khoshbin, Karan Goyal, and Ian Combemale. I think I even gave Khoshbin regional player of the week one week last year, though I’m too eager to get this article out to check. Anyway, where the heck are any of these guys on the 2015-16 roster?!?!? This always happens to NYU. They always seem to have a couple players just disappear from year to year. Maybe it has something to do with a weak team chemistry due to living in a city and having difficult court access, but it’s disappointing to see because it really holds NYU back from building year to year. Anyway, okay, time to slow my heart rate. Let’s talk about the players that ARE on the roster. NYU is never that good at doubles and I don’t think they will be this year. They are always pretty good at singles, and Setter, Parsch, and Teo should all get better. If senior captain Sidd Thangirala can play like he did a couple years ago, NYU should be a good team. Will they be able to compete with Brandeis and Rochester? Right now, I think NYU just has too much inconsistency to compete with Rochester, who essentially returns their whole lineup minus Danko. Time will tell though! I’ve been wrong many times before.