NCAA MEN’S REGIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: March 28th – April 3rd
Happy Monday, boys and girls. What an absolute whirlwind of a weekend. Upsets galore, and when the dust finally settled we were left with more uncertainty than when we started. This was by far the most compelling weekend of the season, and possibly the most compelling weekend of DIII tennis in recent memory. Everybody loves a good underdog story, and this weekend was chalk-full of them. I see no reason to buck the trend.
A-SOUTH
Player: John Larkin
Team: Swarthmore
Results: 2-0 in Singles, 2-0 in Doubles against Johns Hopkins and Mary Washington
Recap: Swarthmore had a historic weekend, taking out Johns Hopkins for the first time in like a billion years, while also taking out Mary Washington. Both were 5-4 matches, and both came down to the wire. This wouldn’t be possible without the play of John Larkin, who won both his matches at 3 doubles and also at #2 singles. Larkin had a huge win over Jeremy Dubin, who used to be a premier player in the ASouth (isn’t anymore) and Larkin is a big reason why Swat had such a successful weekend. I would also like to give a shoutout to my old friend Mark Fallati for a great weekend at #1 singles as well.
What’s next: A match against F&M on 4/16, who is probably 3rd in the conference.
Honorary Mention: Mark Fallati (Swarthmore), Abhishek Alla (CMU), Chaz Downing (CMU)
Biggest surprise from the weekend (tennis related): Jay Glickman taking out Michael Solimano at #2 singles in Tufts/Amherst.
Biggest surprise from the weekend (NON tennis related): My man Buddy Hield getting rocked against… VILLANOVA?!
Central
Player: Jason Haugen
Team: Wash U
Results: 3-0 at #4 singles and 3-0 at #2 doubles
Recap: It has been well documented that the blog team has been wondering with Mr. Haugen has been this season. I am guessing an injury forced him out of the first half of the season, but he is back and very important to the Bears success. Wash U took out Gustavus, Trinity, and Tyler with relative ease and I think Haugen was a big reason as to why that happened. He helps shore up the doubles woes pairing at #2 with Kozlowski and rolled in all three of his singles matches at #4. One thing of note, Wash U played without Bush in the singles lineup for these matches so with him back, you would expect for the Bears to be even stronger at the back half of the lineup. We are all sort of sleeping on Wash U which isn’t smart considering their post-season prowess.Once this team is running on all systems go (and I think they are close), they are going to be very dangerous. Don’t count them out for a Pool C bid just yet.
What’s next: Massive rematch with Case Western and also a match against Chicago. Wash U must go at least 1-1 to stay in the post-season conversation and I think they do.
Honorary Mention: John Carswell (Wash U)
Biggest surprise from the weekend (tennis related): Admitting to the blog team that Emory is the clear cut favorite to win the whole thing. There seems to be the biggest black hole ever this season.
Biggest surprise from the weekend (NON tennis related): Only having 110 texts waiting for me after landing from a flight in the blogger group chat. I expected 300+.
NE
Player: The entire Tufts team
Team: Tufts…duh
Results: Defeated Amherst 7-2.
Recap: The Jumbos not only put out their 3rd consecutive Spring Break video last week (Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, here’s hoping next year we get some Beyonce), but they also had a nice little win against AMHERST! Tufts beat Amherst for the first time since 2004, but it was the way they did it that warrants such a hearty congratulations. Tufts won ALL FOUR 3-SETTERS that were played! Glickman beat Solimano and Gupte beat Yaraghi, both 6-1 in the 3rd. Those are two 3-set wins over All Americans, not to mention that Tufts finished the job by taking 3-setters at 5&6 as well. Also a tip of the cap to Nick Cary who absolutely steamrolled Revzin. Congrats to Coach Gregor and Jumbo Nation!
What’s next: The Jumbos play two matches on Thursday (Conn and Coast Guard), which are warmups for their BIG TIME weekend where they travel to Wesleyan on Saturday before returning home to host Middlebury on Sunday.
Honorary Mention: Ben Rosen (Bates), Kyle Wolfe (Bowdoin), Noah Farrell (Midd), Joachim Samson (Wesleyan), and Matt Heinrich (Stevens).
Biggest surprise (ONE THING) from the weekend (tennis related): The current NESCAC standings?
Biggest surprise from the weekend (NON tennis related): The UCONN women only won by 29.
WEST
Player: Daniel Morkovine
Team: CMS
Results: 4-0 at #1 doubles against Williams, PP, Cal Lu, and Midd. 3-0 at #3 singles against Williams, PP, and Midd
Recap: It is very typical of Morkovine to go and have arguably the best week of tennis in his college career the same week I called him out for potentially being on the verge of losing the #3 spot to Macey (who also had another excellent week). He and Butts have been playing great doubles all season, but they saved the Stags twice this week, particularly against PP, where the Hens were a couple games away from taking a 3-0 lead. In classic Mork fashion, he won two three-setters to start the week against Grodecki and JK (who is having just a terrible season in terms of three-set losses. Sorry, man). He finished the weekend by decimating the very idea of Palmer Campbell to quickly tie the match up after CMS had fallen behind in doubles. What a week! And don’t worry. I think your #3 singles spot is safe.
What’s next: The Stags are rolling into the home stretch. They’ve got Redlands next weekend, who they should beat pretty handily.
Honorary Mention: Skyler Butts (CMS), Jake Yasgoor (P-P), Paxton Deuel (Trinity)
Biggest surprise from the weekend (tennis related): While it seems as though the NWC has been getting closer and closer to Whitman for the past several seasons, I’ll stick with my region and take LC’s upset of Whitman. There aren’t easily accessible records for the last time Whitman lost a conference match, but it was probably when they lost the conference 9 years ago. No idea when the last time LC, specifically, beat Whitman. Needless to say, it’s been a while.
Biggest surprise from the weekend (NON tennis related): Villanova’s 25-0 run against Oklahoma. WHAT?!?!
REGIONAL
Player: Kevin Ross, senior
Team: Lewis & Clark
Results: 2-0 in win vs. Whitman
Recap: Sure, senior Kevin Ross lost twice in a 7-2 team win over Whitworth yesterday, but he’s earning this POTW because of his clutch play on Saturday in helping Lewis & Clark pull off one of the crazier upsets this season (and there have been plenty in the last few weeks). Ross and Harrison Collins won 8-3 at #3 doubles, and then Ross won a marathon match over Petar Jivkov, 5-7, 7-6, 7-6. Ross played mostly #1 his freshman year, played at #2 his sophomore and junior years, and is now at #3 with sophomore Gordon Barrows at #2 and freshman Raed Attia at #1. We love all D3 college tennis players on the blog, but really we love seniors the most, so it’s terrific to see Ross (as well as senior Daniel Hahm at #5) come through with huge three set wins. This is the third 5-4 win for the Pioneers this year (Chapman and Colby), but this one is certainly the biggest of the season. This breaks an almost nine year conference winning streak for Whitman, and it’s only fitting that a senior played the biggest role.
What’s Next: The Pioneers still have plenty of NWC play left, starting with a tricky George Fox team this Friday.
Honorary Mention: Brian Granoff (Brandeis), 2-0 in win over Bates, 5-0 for the week
Biggest surprise from the weekend (tennis related): Definitely this Pioneers win over Whitman. There were certainly plenty of other upsets this past week (Brandeis, Swarthmore), but the 9th regional team over the 4th is certainly the most surprising.
Biggest surprise from the weekend (NON tennis related): My bracket. 3 of 4 final four teams plus the final. Who saw that coming? Certainly not me.