Individuals Recap + the All-Blog Team Nominations

Screen Shot 2013-06-07 at 10.41.17 PM

It looks like I’m not the only D3tennis blogger that suffers from post-season letdown. When all the tennis is done, even though there’s still plenty of worthy accomplishments to laud, it’s hard to open up the laptop again. After a brief hiatus, however, it’s time to give some phenomenal performances due recognition.

Doubles Draw

The Champs

Elliot Kahler/Ian Wagner (Emory)

It seems like we never go a year without Emory winning at least some national championship. This year, Kahler and Wagner came out of nowhere to win the doubles title. As I’ve alluded before, I don’t put much stock in the doubles national championship. The last five champions (Chafetz/Rattenhuber, Sullivan/Pena, Pybas/Vartabedian, Ruspasinghe/Stein, Wang/Schils) were not the most consistent doubles teams during their respective regular seasons, but they were all the best at the end of the season. I’m not sure I remember there ever being a doubles team that was definitely better than the field the same way Pottish and Seaburger dominated the singles court.

Nevertheless, these guys definitely deserved the doubles title at the end of the weekend. In their first match, the Eagles stared defeat in the face and backed it down, dropping the first and facing some extremely tight spots in the second against a tough Case Western team. After they won that one, they played with a sort of belief that allowed them to come up huge in the big moments. They responded to an 0-6 first set loss to Tyler’s DI transfers, broke Cal Lu at 5-5 twice, and came up huge in a tiebreaker in the final. By the time they reached the final, there was never a doubt who would that first set tiebreaker because they had come up huge so many times.

Congratulations to the two champions. Emory’s future is certainly very bright, especially if they can find two more doubles teams to play like these guys.

 Surprise of the Tournament

Three A South Teams Make the Semis

Nobody would have been surprised if one A South team had made the semis. The W&L, NCW, and Emory teams had been going back and forth all season, and clearly all three of them had the goods to deliver big victories. Given each team’s relative inconsistency, however, it was stunning to me that all three of them made the semis. Holt and Shamshiri really came on strong at the end of the year, and when they beat Middlebury’s hot #1’s, it was obvious they were playing some really good tennis. Putt/Putt was absurdly overrated going into the tournament, and the youthful Generals exposed them (exhausted though A. Putt must have been) in the second round.

Kjellberg and Prostak were clearly favored to get to the semis, but they still had to get past some stiff competition in the Bobcat duo. The eventual champion Emory team was actually the most surprising to me, not because I didn’t believe in them, but because their draw was pretty brutal. It’s a perfect silver lining for a region maligned in team competition this year.

Singles Draw

The Champ

Adam Putterman (Wash U)

You just can’t say enough about Wash U’s senior captain here. The sometimes-grumpy Bear played a ton of tennis over the week, and he somehow came through against fresher competition when it mattered. After playing 3 matches in 3 days in the singles competition, Putt overcame Guzick and some jitters in a 1st-round marathon, won another 3rd set against Lipscomb in the quarters, came up big late in the 2nd against Kjellberg and cruised through the finals. The dude also stayed up until about 2 AM on the first day of individual competition thanks to a 3-set doubles match.

Most pros only have to play one (five set) match every two days. This guy averaged about 4 sets of singles and a proset of doubles every day for a week and still had enough gas in the tank to win the last match of the year. That’s a feat of endurance if I’ve ever seen one.

With the exception of the oddball backhand player (Fritz and Giuffrida come to mind), DIII tennis is dominated by traditionally American players with big serves, big forehands, and steady backhands. Putterman simply has perhaps the most versatile forehand and the steadiest backhand. In his career, Putterman led his team to four Final Fours, consistently stepping up at the end of the year to lift his team. It’s about time he had at least one championship of some kind to show for it.

Wildest Match

Razumovsky def. Ybarra 6-0, 2-6, 7-5

UT-Tyler’s Ryan Ybarra was insanely streaky over the individual tournament. All four of his matches went to three sets with absurd scorelines like he and Brown’s 0-6, 6-1, 6-1 doubles loss to Emory. Playing on a hobbled foot, I didn’t think he had much of a chance of doing anything in this tournament, but he very nearly got to the quarterfinals when he bounced back from a bagel first set to win the second 6-2.

Raz, who had been clicking on all cylinders in the first, could only hopelessly watch winner after winner go by him in the second, but the third set was climactic, as both players raised their game. Raz went up an early break, but Ybarra broke back with Raz serving for the match with a series of clutch forehands. Unfazed, Raz broke back and took the third set 7-5. In his first two years, Raz has advanced to at least the quarterfinals as a #2 singles player. Even though Burgin has graduated, I think the Lords will be just fine at the top of the lineup next year.

Biggest Surprise

Mark Kahan (Amherst)

Those who have been following Kahan’s career will not be surprised that he finished on a strong note, but seeding-wise, this was the biggest surprise of the tournament. Kahan had been thrashed by Ballou in their previous meetings, but in the second round of this tournament, the senior Jeff took the first 6-4 before serving up a bagel in the second. Ballou hadn’t lost a singles match all year, and Kahan ended his career with a 6-0 set. That’s absolutely stunning. Kahan didn’t end up winning the tournament, obviously, but this finals appearance had to put a Maraschino cherry on a brilliant career.

Player of the Tournament 

Robert Kjellberg (NCW)

The Archbishop advanced to the semis and finals of the singles and doubles tournaments, respectively, to close out his stellar season. If there were an MVP ballot, I would be hard-pressed not to put Kjellberg at the top of the list. The Most Valuable Swede turned a NWC team poised for failure into a top 20 simply because the Bishops were able to rely on two points from him every time out. When he lost, NCW lost. When he won, NCW almost took out Emory. He doesn’t have an NCAA championship to show for it yet, and he may be losing his doubles partner, but Eaglesbane has one more year to get one.

All-Blog Teams

It has been proposed to me in the past that I make a sort of “All-American” team with the best players at each position for the year. Since I was too lazy to provide players of the week this year, I figure it’s the least I can do to put together this one. Below are my nominations for each position, and I’ll ask the rest of the guys to submit their nominations, and we’ll put it to a vote. These are just the guys I remember being good. I’m hoping the others will fill in the gaps of my knowledge. I’m also not trying to imply in the parentheses that an Ojai championship is anywhere near as good as the NCAA singles championship.

Doubles

#1 Doubles: Ballou/Worley (Cal Lu, 24-3 record, Ojai Champs), Kahler/Wagner (23-6, NCAA Champs), Holt/Shamshiri (23-4)

#2 Doubles: Sun/Micheli (27-2, 5-0 in national tournament, Butts/Kotrappa (CMS, 26-6),

#3 Doubles: Chow/Astrachan (Williams, 24-4, 5-0 in national tournament), Lane/Marino (CMS, 23-4), Heerboth/Ye (Kenyon, 21-5), Halabi/Goetz (UCSC, 14-0)

Singles

#1 Singles: Adam Putterman (Wash U, 30-2 in DIII, NCAA Singles Champion), Nick Ballou (Cal Lu, 25-1, Ojai Champion)

#2 Singles: Michael Razumovsky (Kenyon, 18-4), Ray Worley (Cal Lu, 23-6), Mark Kahan (Amherst, 18-6, NCAA Singles Finalist), Andy Hersh/Tanner Brown (17-3 at #2, ITA Regional Champion), Daniel Brown (UT-Tyler, 18-2)

#3 Singles: Nik Marino (CMS, 26-5), Felix Sun (Williams, 16-7 overall at 1, 2, and 3), Andrew Yaraghi (Amherst, 23-5 at 1, 2, and 3, ITA Regional Singles Champ)

#4 Singles: Alex Lane (CMS, 24-5, Ojai Finalist), Rafe Mosetik (Emory, 12-2 in DIII play, 5-1 in match-deciding tiebreakers), Erick DelaFuente (Trinity, 8-0 at #4 singles. Not as good elsewhere), C.J. Williams (Kenyon, 15-3), Sam Rodgers (UCSC, 14-3 in DIII competition, Clutch Master Flex), Erik Lim (JHU, 16-3)

#5 Singles: Skyler Butts (CMS, 23-1 in DIII play), Sam Weissler (JHU, 15-2), Gary Parizher (19-5, UAA Championship-clinching victory)

#6 Singles: Howard Weiss (Williams, 16-3), Justin Reindel (Amherst, 15-3 at 4-6 singles), Neel Kotrappa (CMS, 18-5, ITA West Region Singles Champ), Kareem Farah (Wash U, 15-2 in DIII play)

Those are my nominations. Obviously, my focus was on the top 10 teams, so if there were any phenomenal performances from the rest of DIII Nation, I’m counting on my regional writers to catch them. Let the debate begin.

 

15 thoughts on “Individuals Recap + the All-Blog Team Nominations

  1. Anonymous

    The article is incorrect Ballou has one more season of eligibility. Kahan did not end Ballou’s career

    1. Anonymous

      But, if he doesn’t use his last year of eligibility, then Kahan did end his career.

      1. Anonymous

        Ballou is all finished. Played 4 years at CLU. The injury year still counts because he played at least 20% of the schedule.

  2. anonymousdonkey

    Doubles

    1) Wagner/Kahler
    2) Sun/Micheli
    3) Lane/Marino

    Singles

    1) Ballou
    2) Kahan
    3) Sun
    4) Mosetick (my dude)
    5) Parizher
    6) Adams (my other dude)

    1. Dudeeee no way

      hahaha not a chance. more like this:

      Doubles
      1) Wagner/Kahler
      2) Sun/Micheli
      3) Lane/Marino

      Singles
      1) Putterman
      2) Kahan
      3) Hwang
      4) Lane
      5) Chow
      6) Weiss

  3. Anonymous

    I get the All Blog theme but who would you say was Season MVP? Ballou, Kjelberg, and Putterman come to mind for me.

  4. D3West

    I second the nominations of Hwang at #3 singles (16-3) and Chow at #5, obviously, (19-1, Captain Clutch Status).

    As far as my region goes…

    Dustin Foster went 15-1 at #3 singles for UT-Dallas. The guy beat Spencer and Martinez from Tyler and was leading Hyde from Redlands when the match was called. Only loss to DelaFuente.

    Aaron Skinner 22-6 at #1 singles for Trinity. ITA Small College National Champion. You can’t ignore that.

    Skinner and Moreno went 12-2 at #2 doubles for Trinity as well.

    Taylor Hunt went 18-4 at #4 singles, including a 15 match win streak after a rough start to the season and wins over Lane, Lunghino, Gerber, etc.

    Steven Roston went 20-4 mostly at #4 singles for Whitman, with wins over Cahill, Farmer, Spencer, and Allinson.

    Probably Trinity’s #2’s are the only team with a legitimate argument for the all-blog team.

    1. Anonymous

      Hyde was winning the match vs. UT-Dallas when it was called…

  5. Anonymous

    Huber/Ye have combined for 1 loss at #6 for the season. Ben Hwang should be there for #3 as well. As far as I know, the only match he lost was in the fall to kahan

    1. Anonymous

      yeah booiiiiiiii

  6. Steve

    #3 Doubles of Goetz & Halabi for UCSC is a great call. I saw them at indoors at Gustavus. They beat some very solid teams while staying undefeated, but didn’t play the whole season together. Thanks for all of the great discussion and info during the year. Keep it going during the off season, too.

  7. Anonymous

    Bryan chow has to be in there at 5 singles

    1. Anonymous

      19-1, clinched NESCAC and NCAA Championship matches

      1. Anonymous

        Yes yes. BUT “he played out of the trees. He’s an average 5 at best.”

        1. D3AtlanticSouth

          dude, i see your email address.

Leave a Comment