Since we’ve already used a fair amount of blog space on Tyler, the story of the weekend is undoubtedly the beginning of Kenyon’s season. With Indoors still a couple weeks away, the Lords got a jump on the rest of the country by opening its season with a couple decent matches against UW-Whitewater and Chicago. Because I know you guys dig bulleted lists, here are the takeaways from Kenyon’s performance this weekend:
1. Razumovsky is back, and doesn’t look rusty!
I maintain that the Lords would have had basically no shot at the national championship without there super sophomore, so it must be a sight for sore eyes for Kenyon fans to see him on the court. Not only does his presence give Kenyon basically an automatic W when he’s at the two spot, but, now that the Razumovsky/Williams tandem is back, the Lords’ doubles lineup is considerably stronger. Just looking at this weekends’ box scores, it looks like Raz and Burgin might split time at the #1 spot, so they can both make NCAA’s again: a great move from Thielke to reward his two studs. Side note: preemptive congratulations to Paul Burgin for breaking the Kenyon career singles wins mark. Sorry, but you will probably hold it for approximately two years.
2. UW-Whitewater is goooood.
I’ve often made fun of Whitewater for being a one-trick pony when it comes to doubles and singles play. They’ve always had top 15 doubles, but now they have top 15 depth to go with it. If they could get top 15 singles stars, they would be a top 15 team. Nevertheless, it was a very impressive showing this weekend for the Warhawks. Bayliss and Osborne will be TOUGH outs at 5 and 6 moving forward. McGlashen and Humphreys appear capably of taking out just about anyone at 3 and 4 on the right day. Whereas they previously needed a 3-0 lead and two lucky singles wins to oust any ranked teams, this is a team built to beat many teams with a 2-1 lead and potentially stun a team like P-P or Middlebury with a sweep.
3. Reports of Chicago’s re-emergence were premature.
Some crazy commenters were calling for Chicago’s return into the top 10. The way they played this weekend, the top 20 seems like quite a stretch. It’s possible that these guys are still coming together under their new coach, and they do have plenty of time to improve, but YIKES. They just got absolutely trounced in doubles by Kenyon. Though many of the singles matches were competitive, the Maroons managed just one set in singles play. They’ve only got a couple weeks to get ready for Denison, and if they can’t top the Big Red, they could be on the outside of the top 30 AGAIN this year. I don’t think that will happen, but they don’t have many opportunities.
That’s the big story of the weekend, but here are some more news and notes from what has been going on in season-opening matches:
This is what UC Santa Cruz is calling a lineup these days
I have a lot of respect for a lot of guys on that team, but that is not the lineup of a Banana Slugs tennis team. No Nurenberg, no Larsen. They play Bates in a couple days, and I would not be surprised if they lost that one. I would be absolutely flabbergasted if they beat Trinity at Indoors.
Redlands is not off to a promising start
Yes, Concordia is a good team, and we shouldn’t read too much into these matches, but there are a few bad omens for Redlands here. The Bulldogs beat them last year on their way to a very mediocre season. This can’t be good news. I can’t help but notice a distinct lack of Lipscomb in their lineup. That’s not good either. The good news for them is that they have a couple weeks before their first big match against similarly-vulnerable UCSC.
And here’s the box from Cal Lu’s opener
Are you noticing a trend here? Who’s missing? #1 singles player? Yup.
I didn’t think it was possible, but Whitman is even more screwed
No La Cava in singles. No Rivers. The Squirrels started their season with just one returning singles starter in their lineup. YIKES. Riggs is playing 5 here, so at least we know Whitman is still deeps, but WOW. They couldn’t even beat their depleted NAIA rivals.
All in all, that’s four consecutive West region teams starting their seasons without their #1 singles players from the previous year. If we count Meyer and Frey from Trinity and P-P and take for granted that Lane isn’t playing for CMS (he was their true #1 last year), the top 7 teams in the West region are all starting their seasons without the #1 singles player from their previous year. That has to be a record. Meanwhile, this happened…
Tyler def. Oklahoma Christian 5-4
It’s like Tyler was the beneficiary of all the bad lineup luck the other teams are having. Between Ybarra, Brown, Martinez, and Spencer, their top 4 singles players are all transfers. If you saw what OCU did to Trinity the other day, this win is meaningful. If I’m Whitman, P-P, UCSC, CMU, or Trinity, I’m absolutely petrified of these guys. I had them at 27 in my preseason rankings, but I didn’t know about Brown or Martinez. These guys could easily be a top 10 team. Only time will tell.
In non-West region news…
Even I, the speculator of all speculators, have a hard time finding meaning in this result. Yes, the Bears have beaten Drury before, but who really knows what’s going on with them now. At least that’s an early look at their lineup.
Things will heat up next weekend when Mary Wash, Case, and NCW hit the courts. Three question marks, and I want some answers!
Wow!!! 9-0 CMS! Guess D3 Tennis got this one wrong too!
Other big matches to watch for next weekend are CMU vs. Haverford and CMU vs. Stevens.
CMU should dominate both those matches. If we had a D3Northeast, those matches would definitely get some attention
If only Will Duncan didn’t have to have surgery, CMU would be a very tough team to compete with this year with him.
totally agree with both. I didn’t know Duncan was out until recently. However CMU does have some depth and they’ll still be a tough out.
Lane at 6? Wow that sounds rigged. I thought that guy graduated last year
I mean, if Lane didn’t play any tennis for four months, he probably is 6th on their team at the moment. If he plays, he’ll certainly be in the top half by the end of the year, but it’s a lot like Goodwin starting at 6 when he was coming off injury last year. CMS is so deep their ITA winner might not even play. Scary
Lane is back and should see some action at 6 singles and exhibition doubles initially.
This was either a joke or very sarcastic answer,hahaha! …or…If he plays one match at #6 singles, you know that coach on the other side will write a complaint and be stunned. Lane’s a real solid player. Easily top 8 in the West like he proved last year. Lowest I would ever see him play would be #3. #4 would be pushing it even. Regardless of partying his ass off in Europe like we all know he or we would all do.
Always have very interesting and insightful stuff to say. But a few answers to the questions that you have about the players in the west.
For UCSC Nurenberg will not return because he graduated last quarter and is done with school. This is what I was told. As far as Larsen I believe it’s the same thing as last year where he isn’t eligible and might be eligible after the short winter quarter that they have. So he could return after that.
As far as Lipscomb, I spoke with the Redlands coach when his women’s team played ours. He said that he is doing “okay” and that’s all I got from him. I didn’t pry any further than asking what’s up with him. So I’d expect to see him in the lineup sometime in the near future.
Is Alex lane really gone from cms? Is he not playing or is this just speculation? Anyone know this answer 100%? If not I guess we will see on their next few matches.
As far as the Cal Lu line-up, look for a number of changes coming up.