MIT Invitational Recap

Lost in the past weekend of #Surprise(s) and Small College Nationals was the MIT Invitational. While this is not a new tournament, it might as well have been this fall. Last year, MIT hosted teams like BU, Dartmouth, and Harvard for this tournament, but this year it was STACKED with DIII talent. 8 teams made up the field, including the top seven teams in the region! That’s as close as you can get to an ITA without calling it such. I really hope this tournament continues in this capacity over the coming years, and honestly am a little disappointed I never got to play in such a thing. Obviously the ITA winners (Cuba (Midd) and Jiang/Wolfe (Bowdoin)) did not compete, but almost every team sent it’s top guys. AND, to top it all off, there was a back draw, something that is not general custom in the region. There is no backdraw at the ITA, no 3rd place match, and no 3rd place match at NESCACs, so a backdraw this weekend was a most welcome site. It’s almost the end of the fall tournament season, so this might be the last time you have to bear through a team-by-team recap. Once again, I’ve tried to switch the format up just a smidge. If any of you have other ideas about recap presentations (or anything really), send me an email at D3Northeast@gmail.com.

Your singles champion, and yeah, he played #6 last year
Your singles champion, and yeah, he played #6 last year

#1 BOWDOIN (#1 Regionally)

Best result: Grant Urken continued his fantastic fall by winning the whole damn thing! His toughest matches came against Arguello (Brandeis projected #1) and De Quant (Midd projected #2/3) in the semis and the finals, but the Polar Bear passed the tests with flying colors. Considering Mr. Urken played #6 last year, the fact that he all of a sudden appears to be one of the best players in the region is a most welcome surprise to Polar Bear fans who will try to replace Luke Trinka in the top 1/2 of the lineup. Urken and Carstens also battled back to win the consolation doubles draw, so overall another ho-hum two title weekend for the sophomore.

Most surprising result: Overall nothing ALL THAT surprising, especially considering Bowdoin was without Tercek (abroad?) Jiang and Wolfe (Small College Nationals), but Rozovsky falling to Shaff (Tufts) in straight sets was a bit of an upset. Eliot took out Michael Liu (Wesleyan projected #2/3) at the ITA, and made the semifinals of the Bates tournament, so expectations might have been a little higher this weekend.

Tournament grade/hot take: Not a lot going on outside of Urken, but the lack of top players and the singles title certainly puts the Polar Bears near the top of the class. B+

#3 MIDDLEBURY (#2 Regionally)

Best result: A finals run from William de Quant was the high point for the Panthers this weekend. Midd was without Cuba, who was off making the finals of Small College Nationals, so De Quant was their de-facto top dog and he didn’t disappoint, picking up wins over Ali (Tufts projected #2-4), Chen (Wesleyan projected #1) and Burney (Amherst projected #2-4-who the hell knows).

Most surprising result: Couple different contenders here, but I’ll go with the roller coaster ride that is Hamid Derbani. Derbani is projected to play anywhere from #2-4 for the Panthers, and is just about as streaky as they come, but his 1st round loss to Wesleyan freshman Princeton Carter was shocking. Carter hasn’t played a singles match yet according to the ITA website, so kudos to him on his 1st win! Derbani did bounce back by making a deep run to the finals of the consolation bracket, with Eusebio (Wesleyan projected #3-4) being his best win along the way.

Tournament grade/hot take: 2 singles finalists is nothing to sneeze at, even if one is in the back draw, but overall I think Midd will be a little disappointed with this performance. No Cuba makes a difference, but other than de Quant the main draw singles record for the Panthers was a combined 0-7 in the main draw. B-

#10 WESLEYAN (#3 Regionally)

Best result: Liu and Roberts absolutely steamrolled through the doubles draw this weekend. Neither had been having the best fall, but the duo didn’t play a match closer than 8-4 and beat three different Midd teams along the way, not to mention the projected Williams #1 team in the finals. Very impressive stuff.

Most surprising result: It has to be Liu and Roberts, but since I’ve already talked about them I’ll direct your attention to a Mr. Jonathan Holtzman, one of Wesleyan’s two freshmen. Holtzman got through his 1st round match against Heidenberg (Amherst) 6-4 in the 3rd set, then stepped up his game and took down Bunis (Brandeis projected #2) in straight sets, before pushing a fellow freshman in Marchalik (Amherst projected #2-3-who the hell knows) to a 3rd set. A very encouraging result for the young man, and something Coach Fried will not take lightly.

Tournament grade/hot take: This was Wesleyan’s best showing of the fall, and it’s not even close. They underperformed at ITAs, so I was eager to see how they’d respond here. Their freshmen each came away with big wins, and the more experienced duo won the doubles tournament. There is still plenty of room for improvement, but little things like Cam Daniels winning the back draw have fully renewed my faith in the Cards. B+

WHAT?! There's a chance that the best freshman in the region doesn't play for Amherst??
WHAT?! There’s a chance that the best freshman in the region doesn’t play for Amherst??

#12 WILLIAMS (#4 Regionally)

Best result: Similar to Grant Urken, but on a slightly smaller scale, Alex Taylor is having himself an excellent fall. The freshman from Cincinnati paired with Grodecki and made the finals as the #2 seed. In the singles, Taylor also “held seed” making the quarters as the #8 seed. He did so by taking down Carstens (Bowdoin projected #6-7) in 3 sets, knocking off a more highly touted recruit in Fung (Amherst projected #4-who the hell knows), and capping it all off with a straight set win over Granoff (projected Brandeis #2-3). Falling 6-0 in the 3rd set is never fun, but young Master Taylor should take solace in that the loss came against Arguello (Brandeis projected #1) who has been one of the hottest players in the country this fall.

Most surprising result: What is up with Rohan Shastri? The Eph senior has had a fine doubles fall, but his singles has left plenty to be desired. He lost playing #2 vs Springfield and #3 vs Vassar in Williams’ two fall dual matches, and fell in the 1st round to Danny Coran (Tufts projected #4-6). What’s more, he then lost to Schlanger (Midd projected #4-6) 0&0 in the 1st round of the consolation bracket. I know the consis aren’t always taken seriously, but I’m a little worried about Local-Ro. Let’s hope the senior has the spring of which we all know he’s capable.

Tournament grade/hot take: Outside of Taylor, Williams did not have a great tournament. The freshman was the only Eph to make the round of 16 in the singles. Two Williams doubles teams to the semis, and a couple solid Raghavan consolation performances keep the grade passable. C+

#13 TUFTS (#5 Regionally)

Best result: Zain Ali upset Brian Grodecki (Williams projected #1) in straight sets in the 2nd round before falling to eventual runner-up De Quant. Zain was the only Jumbo to win more than one round in a draw this weekend.

Most surprising result: Not a great tournament for dudes named Rohan. Perhaps I spoke too soon when I said that Derbani was the streakiest player in the region, because Rohan Gupte has been just about as up and down as anybody this fall. I know I talked about Gupte in my ITA recap, but when your a team’s clear-cut #1 more is expected of you than your teammates. Gupte went down to Granoff (Brandeis projected #2-3) 1&1 in the 1st round of the main draw, and then lost 1&2 to Ko (MIT projected #2-4) in the 1st round of the consolation draw.

Tournament grade/hot take: Tufts continues to struggle, and possibly the most concerning these struggles is their doubles. The Jumbos went 0-4 in the main draw doubles and 1-4 in the consolation doubles. Tufts will hopefully get a couple lineup players back for the spring, but this weekend was not their best.

#15 AMHERST (#6 Regionally)

Amherst freshman
Amherst freshman

Best result: Oscar Burney gets the nod over Marchalik here considering he won the head-to-head quarterfinal matchup between the two freshmen. Burney’s two best wins came over Cauneac (MIT projected #1-2) in the 3rd round and Marchalik (Amherst projected #2-5-who the hell knows) in the quarters. Burney eventually lost to De Quant (Midd projected #2) in the semis in two tight sets, but it’s yet

Amherst freshman
Amherst freshman

another impressive showing (he took down Wolfe (Bowdoin projected #2-3) at the ITA) during the earliest stages of the freshman’s career.

Most surprising result: Fellow freshman Gabe Owens (basically, if I’m talking about an Amherst player not named Zykov, odds are good that it’s a freshman) played the first singles matches of his career and he did A-ok. Owens beat McGrory (Bowdoin projected #6-9),

Amherst freshman #1
Amherst freshman

Michael Liu (former All-American and Wesleyan projected #2-3) in straight sets, and fell 7-6 (5) in the 3rd set to Arguello (Brandeis projected #1) in the 3rd round. It shouldn’t be surprising that the Amherst freshmen are succeeding, but as new ones keep popping up on the scene, Coach Doebler might have the good kind of lineup issues in 2017. If only I could tell them apart…

Tournament grade/hot take: While the main draw doubles was a little lacking, Amherst made up for it in the consolation bracket, and they had more singles players make the round of 16 (4) than any other team. In fact, they were the only team with more than one quarterfinalist (the sign of a great tournament). No finalists, but I love the continued growth. PLUS, let’s not overlook that they accomplished all of these things without their #1 player (Zykov) in the draw. A-

#19 MIT (#7 Regionally)

Best result: Freshman Victor Cheng made the quarters this weekend and did so by winning a tough 1st round match against Indrakanti (Williams projected #2-3) 6-4 in the 3rd set. However, I’m not sure that Cheng actually played Indrakanti, as Indrakanti’s spot was taken in the back draw by Lebowitz (Williams freshman). Either way, Cheng took down two other freshmen in the 2nd and 3rd rounds before eventually falling to Urken (Bowdoin projected #2-3) in the quarterfinals.

Most surprising result: Nothing totally surprising from the Engineers, just a very solid tournament, which in and of itself is surprising! 3 of 4 doubles teams won a round, 3 singles players won multiple rounds, and lots of close MIT losses (Lilly to Bunis (Brandeis projected #2-3) 6-4 in the 3rd set, Barr to Chen (Wesleyan projected #1) 6-4 in the 3rd, and Ko to Samson (Wesleyan projected #2-4) 6-3 in the 3rd), show that MIT might just be a player come springtime.

Tournament grade/hot take: Solid stuff from the hosts, just trying to prove they belong. Cheng, Cauneac and Barr made the round of 16, the 2nd most players from one team to do so. The doubles didn’t go particularly well, but the trio of young guns, plus Ko’s dismissal of Gupte (Tufts projected #1) in the back draw should keep MIT fans plenty excited moving forwards. B

#30 BRANDEIS (#11 Regionally) – D3Regional

Blade, Laser (show), BLAZER!
Blade, Laser (show), BLAZER!

Best result: Once again this goes to Michael Arguello.  After his terrific run to the finals of ITAs, Arguello came in as the #1 seed and didn’t disappoint, getting all the way to the semis.  He took a set off Grant Urken in the semis, the only set that Urken lost the entire tournament.

Most surprising result: I don’t know if any of the Brandeis results were all that surprising, but it was really nice to see Brian Granoff get a couple great wins after losing first round at ITAs and not playing singles at the Wallach.  In the first round, he took out Rohan Gupte (Tufts) 1 and 1 and then took down Joachim Samson (Wesleyan) 5 and 4, another very solid player.  Granoff, Arguello, and sophomore Tyler Ng all had great singles tournaments, all winning multiple matches.

Tournament grade/hot take: Brandeis more than held their own in a tournament where they were by far the lowest ranked team.  Having 3 guys make the round of 16 in singles is a great result, and guys like Ryan Bunis, Mitchell Ostrovsky, and Jackson Kogan all won main draw matches, meaning Brandeis has six guys who can win matches against the best in the northeast.  Doubles is going to be a work in progress, as they had two teams win one match, but nobody won multiple matches.  The talent is there, but they will have to get more consistent this winter. B+

3 thoughts on “MIT Invitational Recap

  1. Joe

    New articles soon?

  2. D3Fan

    Indrakanti did not play in the tournament due to illness. It was Lebowitz who took his spot in the main draw and who lost to Cheng (6-7, 6-3, 4-6) in the first round.

    1. D3 Northeast

      Thank you for the confirmation! Wishing Deepak a speedy recovery

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