Mens NE Region: 5 Burning Questions

 

 

 

What’s good yall?! I’m back like JJ Watt, and I feel like 100 million bucks. I know I stole D3Central’s images idea, but when it aint broke, don’t fix it! The women’s writers are cleaning up so I figured it was time to get myself in gear. Not even a year ago I was considered the “noob” of The Blog. If the writers were Knights of the Round Table, I was a humble jester, struggling to soak up every piece of wisdom I could absorb from the visionaries whom I held in the highest regard. Then I learned the dirty little secrets about each of the “Wise-Men”. D3Central is so old that his wrinkles have wrinkles. D3West is simply cantankerous, if he had a favorite washed-up wide receiver it’d be Jericho Crotchety. And finally, our boss, our shining light, D3AS, well let’s just say if he were one of the 7-Dwarves, his name would’ve been “Drunky”. But honestly, that’s ok, because none of those goons picked Wesleyan to finish the year inside the top-20! But I digress…

 

Readers, I’m gonna level with you. I missed each and every one of you during the long summer days. I’m pumped to be back and a part of The Blog’s supporting cast. I look forward to hearing more from our new writers and to a great fall-season of tournament tennis. Here are the 5 BURNING QUESTIONS from the NE for 2014-2015!

Fire NFire EFire !

 How will our reigning National Champions, the Lord-Jeffs of Amherst,

fare with a new coach and a new-look lineup?

Is it possible that Joey Fritz wasn’t the most important thing to leave Massachusetts this summer? Coach Garner was instrumental to the meteoric rise of Amherst’s program, and it will not be easy for whoever’s next to fit into those flowing white pants. Luckily for Amherst, Coach Doebler seems more than up to the challenge. If you were living under a rock this summer, here’s the press release about Coach Doebler’s hiring: https://www.amherst.edu/athletics/teams/fall/tennis-m/articles/2014-15/08-05-doebler.

However, Coach Doebler’s will have tougher things on his plate than merely deciding which slice of Antonio’s should become his regular (hint: the chicken-bacon-ranch). The Jeffs were hit harder by graduation than any other NE team. While Skidmore may have lost more guys from the starting lineup, none of them (sorry Oliver, not even you) compared to Joseph “Dat Backhand Doe” Fritz. The departure of Joey, Chris Dale, and Justin Reindel, leave a number of holes in the Amherst lineup that need to be plugged. Solimano, Zykov, and Yaraghi will certainly be up to the task, but the Purple and White will need added production if they are going to contend for another NESCAC title let alone a NCAA repeat. Einbinder, Revzin, and even Visor Benji himself will have to find a way to contribute. I’m a little confused about the lack of freshmen listed on TennisRecruiting, but hopefully it’s merely a mistake and the Jeffs have their usual talented incoming class. For now, I’ll move on. Expect a more thorough examination after the Fall Season when the writers will bring you team-by-team season previews.

 

 Who will step up their game from 2013-2014 and really contend with Amherst/Middlebury for a NESCAC title?

The NESCAC might be more up-for-grabs than it’s been for a long time. With the top teams being decimated by graduation (Fritz/Dale/Reindel for Amherst and Johnston/Jones/Lebovitz/Fitzgibbons for Midd) there is a real chance for another team to step up and make a run for the title. The obvious choice would be Williams, but they’re the obvious choice for a reason! It was barely a 16 months ago that the Ephs made a somewhat-kind of-sort of-half decent run at NCAAs. Although the Ephs lost their captain in Micheli, I believe they are poised for a better 2014-2015. Matt graduated, but the rest of they young lineup remains. We’ve seen what Coach Greenberg can do with some time, and I can’t wait to see what this team turns into. Williams can definitely contend with Amherst and Middlebury, but the real trick will be to see the Ephs in 2015-2016. All of their current roster (including Astrachan, Schidlovksy, Weiss, Raventos, Harron, and Shastri) will be upperclassmen and that team could be poised to make another senior-led run through NCAAs. For now, their incoming class looks promising, including two 4-stars and one 3-star, which could very easily translate into a run at the conference crown.

 

 What expectations should we have for the mega-recruiting classes from Wesleyan/Tufts/Bowdoin?

My oh my do we have some crop of competitive recent high-schoolers! The NE alone has 13 4-stars who will be looking to make a name for themselves at the regional and national ITA tournaments this fall. I’ve learned my lesson and am trying not to slobber all over the thought of a Cardinal resurgence. Wesleyan leads the NE with three 4-stars and one 3-star in their recruiting class. Combine that with their top-7 2013 recruiting class and ON PAPER the Cards should be a dangerous team come springtime. Like Williams, I think this team still needs another year or two to truly figure themselves out. I’ll say what I said last year that got blown out of proportion, I think the Cards will have a shot to make a run in 2015-2016. So go fly a kite D3AS (not a euphemism), cause D3Regional is hoppin on my bandwagon (definitely not a euphemism).

Along with the Cards, both the Jumbos and the Polar Bears have very promising recruiting classes. Tufts’ best recruiting class in history includes 6 players of at least 2-star quality, and 4 players of at least 3-star quality, while Bowdoin’s top-5 class consists of three 4-stars. We all know that all 3 of these teams needed doubles help, so let’s hope that these freshmen are all 6’-5” with booming serves. Again, I’ll wait to delve deeper until the Season Previews, but I’m expecting big things from all 3 of these teams. In fact, I expect that they will be the three teams that round out the bottom half of NESCACs come May.

 

 Who the hell are gonna be the top 8 individuals in the region?

D3West is gonna hate me for talking about Individuals already, but I can’t help it. Let’s quickly review the 8 singles players who made up the NE reps in Cali: Fritz, Wu, Loutsenko, Johnston, Micheli, Reid, Granoff, and Heinrich. Of those eight guys, five graduated. According to the end of year ITA rankings, four of the next five guys also graduated: Jones, Dale, Berg, and Zhang. That means that the NE region is TOTALLY up for grabs. Obviously you’d like to think that Reid, Granoff, and Heinrich have an advantage, and each of them will be seeded highly in their respective ITAs. However, guys like Solimano, Zykov, Campbell, Harron and Trinka are undoubtedly waiting in the wings.

I believe there is a reason that 9 of the top 13 were seniors. They have had the most training, match experience, and they are on a time-crunch. Knowing that, here are a few rising seniors that I expect to be in the running for an NCAA spot as well: Bragg, Carpenter, and Planche. Who knows, maybe a couple of new freshmen will sneak in there? However it plays out, I believe there will be a couple of fresh faces making the trip to Mason, Ohio in May.

 Who is our best shot to win YET ANOTHER NCAA Championship?

C’mon son, you didn’t really think you were gonna get through the 1st NE post of the year without a little bragging, did ya? 3 championships in the past 4 years! Ahem, let me say that again. 4 CHAMPIONSHIPS IN THE PAST 5 YEARS!!! Forget a team-dynasty, we are currently in the midst of a regional-dynasty. It’s not like the same team won it in back-to-back years, we have 3 different teams that won the whole damn thing. That’s never been done in a 4 year period! So the biggest most “burningest” question that concerns our region this year is…who has the best chance to win it all? The answer isn’t simple. I wish it were. All of the past four champions had better pre-season odds to win it all than any current NESCAC team and there are a number of reasons why.

1)   Graduation. It hits hardest after success. Our two best teams, Amherst and Midd, were destroyed by high graduation rates. Even with Midd’s highly touted incoming class, they will need some major Hansen magic if they are to repeat their semifinal finish. And don’t even get me started on Skidmore…

2)   Depth. The conference is deeper than it ever has been. I believe this could be a year where a mid-level team finally pulls off a big upset. I’m not sure I believe that any of the NE teams will pull off a high enough seed at NCAAs to avoid a top team like CMS/Wash-U (or even Emory or CMU) before the semis.

3)   CMS. Even though they are labeled as “chokers” year after year, you’d be a fool not to consider them the most likely team to raise the trophy in 2015.

 

Anyways, as you can tell I’m excited to be back at the typewriter (Ron Swanson style) and I can’t wait for tournament-season to begin. D3Regional has boldly claimed a couple of my favorite lower-ranked NE teams without my consent, but I’m gonna try to be the bigger man and extend the olive-branch. Hopefully, we’ll be doing a joint-wrap up of the Middlebury Invitational Tournament occurring next weekend. Ok friend, I’m out like Super Cam Newton.

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