REGIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: April 18th – April 24th
Happy Monday, boys and girls, and welcome to the penultimate POTW of the regular season. With so many teams winding down and a few already earning their conference championships (Congrats to Mary Wash, NCW, Trinity Tx, and plenty more), Pool-C teams have fewer and fewer opportunities to impress the selection committee. We’ll be bringing you a new feature this week, a round-table style of article where each blogger will have the chance to defend his or her point of view about the discussion topic of the day. This week’s questions will all revolve around the current status of Pool-C, so this week’s POTW is here to whet your appetite with a little taste of Pool-C round-table. Also, I pulled a Central and had Special-K for breakfast. It made me miss the good ol’ cereals…
A-SOUTH
Player: Aman Manji
Team: Emory
Results: 3-0 in Singles at UAAs
Recap: This was a tough pick between all of the Emory players. Both Rafe and Jemison went 6-0 on the weekend which theoretically should mean that they would get POTW, but I have already picked both of them this year due to their great performance. Manji rounds out the best big 3 in the country right now and he should be recognized for the season and the weekend that he had. I also want to point out that Adrien Bouchet went 3-0 on the weekend, but I had to pick one player here and went with the higher player in the lineup due to the impressive nature of his wins. He took out Chaz Downing of CMU who has been great and Tyler Kratky of Wash U, both in straight sets. Great weekend for Manji and the Eagles are feeling good about their chances going into the NCAA tournament.
What’s next: The NCAA Tournament where Emory will undoubtedly be the #1 seed.
Honorary Mention: Rafe Mosetick, Jonathan Jemison, Adrien Bouchet (Emory), Chaz Downing (CMU), Daniel Levine (CMU)
BRIEFLY, who SHOULD be left out of Pool-C (between Case/Chicago/Williams): Chicago, their late season play has been pretty lackluster.
BRIEFLY, who WILL be left out of Pool-C (between Case/Chicago/Williams): Williams, because their resume isn’t anything that great and they’ve lost every match that could have made it better.
CENTRAL
Player: Jason Haugen
Team: Wash U
Results: 3-0 in singles, 2-1 in doubles at UAAs
Recap: Haugen has come back to the Wash U lineup and really made the most of it. Without him, Wash U probably isn’t getting 2nd place at UAAs. He’s added both leadership and skill to the bottom of the lineup and really is just a proven winner out there on the court. This weekend, he was victorious over Lubarsky (Deis), Leung (Chicago) in a marathon match, and Goodman in a super breaker. I will also not fail to mention the fact that he has made a significant difference in doubles, going 2-1 at the #1 doubles spot with Kozlowski.
What’s next: NCAA Tournament
Honorary Mention: CJ Krimbill (Case)
BRIEFLY, who SHOULD be left out of Pool-C (between Case/Chicago/Williams): Chicago, due to late season play.
BRIEFLY, who WILL be left out of Pool-C (between Case/Chicago/Williams): Case, because the NCAA loves the big name and Case got “5th” in the UAA Tournament.
NE
Player: Steven Chen + Michael Liu
Team: Wesleyan
Results: 2-0 at #1 singles, 2-0 at #2 singles, 4-0 (combined) at #2 doubles.
Recap: While Wesleyan didn’t have the toughest team competition this week, the Cards beat Bates and Colby, both Chen and Liu have deserved this award multiple times over the past couple weeks. Both have been outstanding over the past couple weeks, and both went undefeated again this week. They also deserve some praise because they were switched around in the lineup (Chen up to #1 and Liu down to #2) and both handled their business. Chen beat Rosen (Bates) and Reid (Colby), and now appears to have an NCAA spot all but locked down (he’ll need to win 2/3 of Conn, Brandeis, and NESCACs 1st round to make sure). On the other side, Liu went out and smoked Ellis (Bates) in the middle of the week, and took a tough 3-setter from the very capable Murad (Colby) over the weekend. In addition, there didn’t seem to be any ill-effects in the chemistry department, as the doubles pair won both their doubles matches as well.
What’s next: A Tuesday afternoon match at Conn, and then the Cards end their regular season at Brandeis on Saturday. If the Cards sweep the two matches, they should be no lower than the #4 seed at NESCACs, which would be a program best (I know Deis is in the UAA, but the could come into a tiebreaker scenario if some other stuff goes down).
Honorary Mention: Luke Tercek (Bowdoin), Palmer Campbell (Middlebury), Aaron Revzin (Amherst), Michael Liu (Wesleyan), Zain Ali (Tufts), Danny Coran (Tufts), and Matt Heinrich (Stevens).
BRIEFLY, who SHOULD be left out of Pool-C (between Case/Chicago/Williams): As close as I can ever remember it being, but as of now I’m going to say Chicago. Late season play.
BRIEFLY, who WILL be left out of Pool-C (between Case/Chicago/Williams): Case. I totally agree with Central about the NCAA picking the bigger names. Whoever gets left out will have good reason to bemoan the situation.
WEST
Player: Skyler Butts
Team: CMS
Results: Won the Ojai in both singles and doubles
Recap: This one is pretty self-explanatory: Butts rolled through Malech, Mehall, JK, Yeh, and Mork without dropping a set en route to the singles title. After beating his doubles partner in the singles final, he and Mork returned to the court to beat Maassen and Simonides in the doubles final. The Stag duo’s road to the final wasn’t easy, as they had to beat CLU and Cruz’ #1 doubles teams before taking out a Stag team that has played #2 at some points during the year. All in all, it’s a very impressive tournament from Butts, but I would expect nothing less from him. I would also like to give a tip of the cap to Mork, who beat both Maassen and Hull on his singles run, two wins which could put him in pretty good position to pick up that 8th singles spot for nationals. Only time will tell.
What’s next: The Stags have a nice match against DII UCSD to finish the regular season next weekend before the SCIAC championships the first weekend of May
Honorary Mention: Daniel Morkovine (CMS), Petar Jivkov (Whitman)
BRIEFLY, who SHOULD be left out of Pool-C (between Case/Chicago/Williams): It’s a really tough choice, but I’m leaning towards Case. There’s no reason to think that Case would get the bump over Chicago after both teams lost to CMU. Unlike CMU, Case didn’t play Kenyon or Hopkins this year, so their overall strength of schedule and strength of victory as good as they could be. Williams doesn’t really have a signature win, but they still have a chance to pick up such a win. They absolutely have to beat Amherst, though, which is never a gimme.
BRIEFLY, who WILL be left out of Pool-C (between Case/Chicago/Williams): I think Case will end up in the cold. We’ve seen in the past that a school’s name matters, and with all other things being equal, the committee will probably take a Williams over a Case.
REGIONAL
Player: Matt DeMichiel
Team: NYU
Results: 3-0 at #5 singles, 1-2 at #3 doubles at UAA tournament
Recap: Despite DeMichiel’s interesting patriotic American flag socks, DeMichiel had one heck of a UAA tournament, especially on the singles front. NYU came in as the #8 seed and had to play Emory first round, and DeMichiel beat Josh Goodman at #5 singles in straight sets. In the back draw semifinals, NYU fell to Case Western, but DeMichiel beat Kevin Dong from Case in straights. He then concluded his UAA tournament by winning in both singles and doubles against Rochester, leading the Violets to a mini upset of Rochester and a seventh place finish. DeMichiel is a great grinder on the singles court and has also had wins over Robert Stroup (Case), Ted Berkowitz (Skidmore), and Jack August (TCNJ) this year. DeMichiel has turned into a great #5 this season, which has been great for NYU’s depth.
What’s next: NYU’s season is finished. Even though Sidd Thanigirala (#1 singles and doubles) is graduating, NYU is not losing any other starters, so the Violets should be in a good place. DeMichiel is a rising senior and he will be a big part of NYU’s team next season.
Honorary Mention: Oscar Wight (1-0 in singles, 2-0 in doubles for Pacific in NWC tournament runner-up finish).
BRIEFLY, who SHOULD be left out of Pool-C (between Case/Chicago/Williams): I think Williams should. They have had several chances for big wins (Bowdoin, Midd, CMS) and they lost badly in all those matches. Case hasn’t been late in season, but their resume is stronger in my opinion.
BRIEFLY, who WILL be left out of Pool-C (between Case/Chicago/Williams): I think Case will be left out due to that late in-season play that the committee likes. Their singles really struggled in UAAs with a 6-12 total record. That’s not great with two back draw matches. We have to see how Williams does in NESCACs, but I think they have a leg up right now.