Lessons from the Central Region Weekend

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For those of you wondering about the picture, my tweet yesterday would be an explanation. For those of you who still don’t get it, I am sorry for you. Instead of doing a complete wrap up of all the matches played, I thought I would mix it up a bit. The biggest reason is because two of the seven matches were canceled which needless to say made my weekend disappointing. However, the Masters was on so I got over it quickly. Anyways, here is a run down of the scores from the weekend:

Case Western def Chicago 7-2

Chicago def Coe 7-2

Case def Coe 8-1

Wash U def Chicago 6-3

Gustavus def Depauw 7-2

Wash U vs. Case CANCELED Wash U led 2-1 after doubles

Wash U vs. Coe CANCELED

What we learned from the weekend:

1) Wash U and Case are a bunch of wusses. I mean who can’t play in a hail storm? All kidding aside, this match being a no decision sucked.

2) Deepak Sabada is back in form. After an early loss to Guerra from Denison, Sabada dropped to 2 singles and rightfully so. However, it is clear that Deepak is back into the form he had this fall. Yes he lost to Krimball, but I don’t think anyone is going to argue that Krimball is the best player in the region. Sabada took out Putterman and Sprinkel which should vault him into the Top 8. Kranz, now playing 2, will fall out of favor. He has a HUGE match up against Ryan Kreis of Wheaton coming soon and both players need the win to qualify.

3) Case Western has a massive weakness at 3 doubles. This is very unlike the Spartans. While they are extremely good at the top two doubles spots, three is a huge weakness.I am not sure there are any horses in the gates ready to take the position at this point. Mixing up the combinations this late in the season doesn’t seem to be the best of ideas, but from what it looks like, Case will rely heavily on 1 and 2 doubles to get wins.

4) John Carswell should be playing the top singles spot. Carswell only beat Kranz as the other two matches were canceled, but he did it with ease. Kranz is apparently battling turf toe which sucks, but Carswell has an unblemished record. Going all the way back to the beginning of the season, he has a win over Chu from Gustavus who is now playing one. If Carswell keeps his record clean, I could see a Wash U 2 singles player get in the tournament over the one player (Putterman). I am sure this is weighing heavy on the rankings committee on what they should do.

5) Brandon Metzler from Kalamazoo will get into nationals. I didn’t post any of the team results for Kzoo as they really don’t matter, but Metzler posted another good win that should vault him into the Top 8 of the region. Metzler lost the first match of the spring season to Humphreys and hasn’t lost in region since. Humphreys currently sits at #2 so clearly that isn’t a bad loss. Metzler now has wins over Karki (Luther), Guerra (Denison), Sabada (Chicago), and Luis Chu (Gustavus). The Sabada win is huge as it will give him indirect wins over Sprinkel and Putterman. With no big matches left on the schedule, Metzler’s resume is plenty strong enough to get him into nationals. Pretty great for him considering it’s a team that has been down from the glory days.

6) Coe has some solid depth to compete with the big boys. While Coe’s doubles were a bit disappointing, they did compete well and got wins at 3 and 4 against Chicago. Brian Sun has been playing extremely well of late so that is a good win at 3 for Hickman. Stokstad beat Hawkins and Reinbold (Case) at 4 so kudos to him as well. Getting swept in doubles by Chicago has to be a concern for the Kohawks and I am sure it will be a point of emphasis in the upcoming practices.

7) Player to watch: Ankur Bhargava from Chicago. He won all three of his singles matches this weekend with wins over Drougas (Case’s 2), Bush (Wash U’s 3), and Galbraith (Coe’s 2). While I doubt he will be able to make much more noise playing at 3 behind Sabada and Kranz, he could be someone to pay attention to at the UAAs.

What we hoped to learn from the weekend:

1) Ross Putterman’s bid for qualifying for individual nationals would be clearer. Unfortunately, all he did was make it tougher to make a case for him. His loss to Sabada doesn’t look good so I think the ranking committee will have trouble figuring out where he should land particularly putting Carswell ahead or behind him.

2) A preview of the 1 seed vs 4 seed match-up of Wash U/Case in the UAAs. All we got was doubles and a few games in singles. Reinbold has moved to 4 singles for the Spartans and I can’t say that I am too shocked. Fojtasek has been a weak 4.

What we can look forward to:

1) The UAA conference tournament! The Case/Wash U match will finally get played out so we can see how it finishes. I think Wash U will have the edge in doubles as I previously mentioned with the 3 spot being a virtual lock for the Bears and the other two spots being a coin toss.

2) As if the national rankings weren’t crazy enough in the 20-50 range, the individual rankings in the Central are just as bad. Everyone has beaten everyone in the region (except Krimball although he lost to Carswell in the fall). With the season winding down and only a few more key matches left, how will the Top 8 shake out?

3) How will Kenyon look post Raz? The good news is they still should win the NCAC and get a berth to nationals. The bad news is they still have Carnegie on the schedule and I think it’s going to get real ugly. If Carnegie had even a little doubles mojo I would say this would be a blowout. It still might. Kenyon is extremely vulnerable from 2-5 singles.

4) The OAC conference tourney! Wait what? The OAC you ask? While this has zero impact on anything other than who will qualify for nationals and get beaten handily in the first round, I am always down to give some acknowledgement to other conferences. This tournament will be interesting to see how it shakes out as everyone in the top 5 has beaten everyone. In a season that seems to be filled with parody on the national level, this conference is no different. How many conferences can say that one of any five teams (Baldwin Wallace, Ohio Northern, Capital, Otterbein, or John Carroll) could come out victorious? Again, who cares, but kinda fun to see.

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