West ITA Preview

ITA weekend is upon us, and it’s a weekend that always has me feeling a bit left out as a regional writer. However, D3West decided to be charitable/lazy and let me take the lead on writing about the west ITA, which frankly feels like a wide open tournament this year.   There are several story lines, including the CMS freshmen, the established guys from schools like PP and Redlands, and the doubles, which I think is completely open. Let’s start by looking at some of the top dogs in singles:

Singles:

#1 Glenn Hull (CMS): Hull had a great year at #2 last year for CMS, and will now look to step into the top spot starting with the #1 seed in ITA’s. He had a great run two years ago to win the whole darn thing, and followed that up by getting to the finals last year, losing to his teammate Skyler Butts. Hull clearly plays well at ITAs, and he’ll be the guy to beat this year. He’ll have some tricky matches, starting with his first one against Tom

Suchodolski (Redlands) and Antony Bello (PP) in the second round, and maybe even playing his teammate Nikolai Parodi in the quarters.

#2 Jake Yasgoor (Pomona): Yasgoor struggled a bit at #1 last year for PP, moved down to #2, and had a lot of success, getting some really good wins like Glenn Hull (CMS) and Jake Ly (Redlands). He has a tough second round match against Rohan Shankar of CMS, but overall he should have a great chance to make the quarters at the very least.

#3 Daniel Morkovine (CMS): The veteran Mork is looking to build towards a great senior season, and he has a great draw as the #3 seed. Mork should be heavily favored in his first round match against freshman Avery Bicks of Pomona, and also in his second round match. He tentatively would play Parker Wilson (Redlands) in the round of 16, where he would also be favored.

#4 Chase Lipscomb (Redlands): Lipscomb moved up to #1 for Redlands over the course of his freshman year, and by the end, he was an elite #1, beating guys like Graham Maassen (PP), Jose Raventos (Williams), Arthur Fagundes (UT-Tyler), and Andrew You (Whittier). His toughest matches should be third round against Julian Gordy (CMS), and potentially in the quarters against Max Macey. He plays Avinash Vemuri of CMS in round 1, a winnable match.

#5 Max Macey (CMS): Macey was a good #4 last year for CMS, and the senior from Conecticut will look to start his final year off right. Macey is susceptible to the upset, and he could have a tricky second rounder against Chad Stone of UCSC. Bryant Johnson of Redlands and Spencer Simonides of PP also lurk in this quarter.

#6 seed missing? There is no #6 seed in the draw, maybe with Graham Maassen being out? Oh well, one less person for me to write about!

#7 Joey Dulle (Redlands): Dulle started off last year at #1, but moved down to #2 midway through the year with Lipscomb’s resurgence. He was a good #2, but not elite, losing to guys like Jon Kim (PP), Sam Farmer (Whittier), Rohan Shastri (Williams), and Andrew You (Whittier). He should have relatively easy first two rounds, and would take on likely Marko Mandic (PP) or Alex Brenner (CMS) in the round of 16.

#8 Nikolai Parodi (CMS): Parodi is the top CMS freshman, and has a nice draw because of it. He’ll try to get his college career started off on the right foot against Christian Palacios of Whittier. He’ll likely play Avery Davis of Redlands in the round of 16.

#9-16’s to watch:

Jake Berber (CMS): Berber, a 4-star guy from Texas, is probably the second CMS freshman behind Parodi. He could have a tricky second round match against Josh Kim (PP), but his draw is overall pretty favorable, with Andrew You (Whittier) in the round of 16, with his teammate Mork looming in the quarters.

Sam Malech (PP): Malech had a solid year mostly in the #4 spot for Pomona last year, though he does have a tough draw, likely facing Glenn Hull in the round of 16 if he gets there.

Parker Wilson (Redlands): Wilson was a very good #3/4 for Redlands last year, and it will be great to see if he can take a step forward in his senior season. He plays Kalyan Chadalavada from PP in the first round, and potentially the tricky Charlie Werman in round 2, with Daniel Morkovine likely in the round of 16, who Wilson lost to 4 and 2 last year.

Avery Davis (Redlands): Davis is the top Bulldog freshman, and has a solid draw. He plays Jason Gutierrez from Colorado College in round 1, and could very well play the CMS freshman Nikolai Parodi in the round of 16, which should be a good indication of the level of these freshmen.

Unseeded guys to watch:

Antony Bello (Pomona): Bello will look to start his senior year off on the right path against Ryan Dugan of Santa Cruz. Unfortunately for Bello, he has Glenn Hull in round 2.

KarthikPraveen Nair (Cal Tech): Nair is the top Cal Tech recruit for the Beavers, who have one of their best recruiting classes ever coming in this year. He’ll have a great test against Bryant Johnson of Redlands in the first round.

Josh Kim (PP): Kim missed a good chunk of last year, but was really good when he did play, beating Jake Ly (Redlands), 1 and 2, who happens to be his first match this year. He also fell 6-3 in the third to Daniel Morkovine. Kim is certainly a dangerous player to watch.

Charlie Werman (Chapman): Werman has been a consistently tough guy to play for pretty much his whole career, playing pretty much everybody to a tight match. However, he does play four star freshman Matthew Jacobs of CMS in round 1, so he could also lose first round. Speaking of which…

Matthew Jacobs (CMS): Jacobs is the third ranked CMS freshman, but is still a four-star guy from Massachusetts, and certainly looks to be talented enough to make a nice run.

Best 1^st Round Matchups:

Josh Kim (PP) vs. Jake Ly (Redlands)

Charlie Werman (Chapman) vs. Matthew Jacobs (CMS)

Josh Gearou (PP) vs. Chad LeDuff (UCSC)

Bryant Johnson (Redlands) vs. KarthikPraveen Nair (Cal Tech)

Doubles:

Okay, quicker analysis here because it’s bed time and I’m exhausted. Doubles in ITA’s is always incredibly tough to analyze/predict. I have no idea what I’m doing. Here are the favorites:

#1 Joey Dulle/Jake Ly (Redlands): These guys are kind of the #1 seeds by default because of the new CMS teams, but Dulle/Ly did have a terrific year at #1 doubles last year.

#2 Julian Gordy/Daniel Morkovine (CMS): Gordy moves up to #1 doubles to play with Mork in what should be another solid team.

#3 Antony Bello/Spencer Simonides (PP): The big hitting PP team is back in action, and they will be dangerous, though a first round match against Sean Hollister and Chad LeDuff of UCSC won’t be an automatic win.

#4 Kalyan Chadalavada/Jake Yasgoor (PP): Kaylan made up one half of my favorite DIII doubles team ever (Chudalavada Kedavra). He and Yasgoor should be very dangerous as a team. Keep your eyes out for this duo.

Predictions:

Singles: Glenn Hull over Daniel Morkovine

Doubles: Antony Bello/Spencer Simonides over Josh Kim/Marko Mandic

Don’t worry, I didn’t let West get off without doing any work! Here are five hot takes from the man himself. Embrace debate y’all:

1. Can Hull regain his crown? – Glenn Hull is a former champ and the #1 seed, but being the top seed comes with a fair bit of pressure. His path to the championship is littered with players who have proven in the past that they can upset top talent. I’m particularly interested in a potential quarterfinal showdown with his teammate, 5-star freshman Nikolai Parodi.

2. How will the freshmen fare? – Speaking of freshmen, the draw is full of fresh faces looking to make an impression in their first college action. Joining Parodi as seeds are his teammate Jake Berber and Redlands 4-star Avery Davis. CMS will need big contributions from their freshmen if they hope to contend for a national championship, and Redlands could use a boost to continue their renaissance. I’ll also be keeping an eye on Caltech’s trio of newbies.

3. On the other end of the age spectrum, will the P-P seniors make a statement? – while D3NE and D3AS have been partitioning the Pool C spots between UAA and NESCAC schools, I’ve been tooting the Sagehen horn based on the prowess of their seniors. Maassen may not be in the draw, but Yasgoor, Josh Kim, Simonides, and Bello are. I’d like to see these four make the statement that the Hens are ready to compete with the Stags for the conference title.

4. Will a team emerge from the wreckage that is the bottom of the SCIAC? – Between Whittier, Cal Lu, Chapman, Cal tech, and UCSC (not in the SCIAC), I’m seeing an interesting mix of new freshmen (not listed on TRN), D1 transfers, and international players. Whether any of these newbies have the goods to make a run in this tournament remains to be seen. More likely, we’ll see some old favorites like Charlie Werman (Chapman), Andrew You (Whittier), and Chad Stone (UCSC) make runs

5. Who is this year’s Team of Destiny? – In two of the last three years, we’ve seen a UCSC team come out of virtually nowhere to win the doubles draw. With Sirovica and Richter gone, none of the remaining Slugs have shown themselves capable of such a feat, but you never know. Maybe this year’s champs will be an obscure duo from a more established team. I’ve got Chui/Malech (P-P) and Park/Berber (CMS) as potential Dark Horses

That’s all we got but keep tuned to Twitter all weekend for updates on all the teams! And keep checking back to the blog for more ITA previews across the country from all your favorite writers.