REGIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: 03/06 – 03/12
Happy madness, boys and girls! We have an absolutely phenomenal week ahead of us between the Stag Hen and the opening weekend of the tournament. Please keep checking the site for Stag Hen coverage. We already have two Stag-Hen previews up, and hopefully we’ll have our master predictions published by the time this goes live. Check back tomorrow for AS’ famous tournament X-Factors article.
A-SOUTH
Player: Chaz Downing
Team: Carnegie Mellon
Results: 3-0 in singles, 3-0 in doubles past 3 days
Recap: While CMU did not have a good match against CMS, Chaz Downing is a freaking beast. Against Wabash, Whittier, Swarthmore, and CMS, Downing was absolutely perfect in singles AND doubles. He notched the only two points for the Tartans against CMS, with a great win against Daniel Park at three singles in straight sets. He also combined with Jeffrey Chen at #2 doubles to keep the Tartans in the match. Against Swarthmore, he played #2 singles taking out John Larkin, a senior who happens to be on my fantasy team. Downing showed why he has one of the brightest futures out there.
What’s next: The Tartans finish their spring break with a DI match and then go back home to play W&L.
Honorary Mention: Patrick Hughes, UMW
Gut reaction, give us your favorite 1st round upset: The stupid easy pick is MTSU over Minnesota, and it’s not surprising that boring NE took that. My favorite is FGCU aka DUNK CITY over Florida State. FSU is an up and down team that can be taken out.
Gut reaction, give us your Final Four: Duke, Gonzaga, Louisville, and UCLA BRUH. Everyone needs to get off the whole Duke/UNC final. Grow a pair.
Gut reaction, give us your National Champion: Gonzaga. It’s been a crazy year, and I think this might be the Zags year. Karnowski the beast.
MIDWEST
Player: Justin Ancona
Team: Wheaton
Results: 3-0 at #1 singles and 3-0 at #1 doubles
Recap: The Thunder senior should move to Orlando after his stellar spring break. He went 3-0 at #1 singles and #1 doubles, defeating Oglethorpe, Rhodes, and Coe. While beating anyone at the top singles and doubles spot is impressive, Ancona solidified his “Player of the Week” status by rounding out Spring Break with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Coe stud Brady Anderson. That victory not only notched a 6-0 record for Ancona over the week but helped build his resume for the NCAA selection committee.
What’s next: After a couple weeks off, Wheaton makes the long trek to Lake Forest on March 25th.
Honorary Mention: Zane Navratil (UW-Whitewater)
Gut reaction, give us your favorite 1st round upset: #14 FGCU over #3 Florida State
Gut reaction, give us your Final Four: Villanova, Notre Dame, Kansas, Kentucky
Gut reaction, give us your National Champion: Villanova
NE
Player: Kyle Schlanger
Team: Middlebury
Results: 1-0 at #3 singles and 1-0 at #2 doubles
Recap: Schlanger won at two spots where Bates has been fairly strong so far this season, at #2 dubs (vs. Ordway and Schwartz) and at #3 singles (vs Quijano). Schlanger likely moved up due to Derbani’s absence, so he was punching slightly above his weight and handled the task with ease! Not bad for your first match of the spring.
What’s next: Midd hosts Brandeis next Saturday before embarking on their spring break adventure to texas where the Panthers will take on UT-Tyler, GAC, Trinity Tx, Emory and CMS, while playing eight matches in barely a week.
Honorary Mention: Lubomir Cuba (Midd), Michael Li (NYU), Amherst freshmen,
Gut reaction, give us your favorite 1st round upset: Middle Tennessee State over Minnesota
Gut reaction, give us your Final Four: Duke, Kansas, Kentucky & Arizona
Gut reaction, give us your National Champion: Kentucky
WEST
Player: Chase Lipscomb
Team: Redlands
Results: 6-0 at #1 singles and #2 doubles against Swarthmore, CNU, and Mary Washington
Recap: Redlands continued their top-10 worthy play this week with a slate of increasingly impressive victories, culminating in a singles sweep of the always-dangerous Eagles. Lipscomb was instrumental in the victories, as he always is. He and Brad Cummins went 3-0 on the week at #2, including an 8-2 victory over CNU that prevented a doubles sweeping. His singles victories over Fallati (Swat), Griffin (UMW), and Reed (CNU) are just evidence of what we already knew: he is one of the best singles players in DIII tennis. Against a red-hot David Reed, he came back from a set and a break down to cool off the sizzling South Carolinan.
What’s next: Redlands has their most important match of the season thus far on Friday when they play a Wesleyan team that will be fresh off the Stag-Hen
Honorary Mention: Julian Gordy (CMS), Daniel Morkovine (CMS)
Gut reaction, give us your favorite 1st round upset: Vermont over Purdue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbFNFHsNo3w)
Gut reaction, give us your Final Four: Villanova, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan State
Gut reaction, give us your National Champion: Arizona
REGIONAL
Player: Michael Brewer
Team: Lewis & Clark
Results: 2-0 at #2 doubles, 1-0 at #2 singles against Whitman and Willamette
Recap: I was torn between Brewer and Carl Reid for this week’s POTW, but ultimately went with Brewer due to his very fine senior season thus far. Brewer won 8-0 at #2 doubles this past weekend against Willamette and then sat out of singles, but his play against Whitman this past weekend, though in a losing effort, was still impressive. Brewer and sophomore Raed Attia won 8-6 at #2 doubles over Jake Hoeger and Robert Carter to get the Pios on the board. In singles, Brewer had a very impressive 6 and 4 win over Petar Jivkov, the only singles win for the Pios. Despite the loss, L&C competed well in this match, losing two three-setters as well as a 9-8 loss at 3rd doubles. None of the matches were total blowouts, definitely giving the Pios some positive momentum despite the loss. For Brewer, this is a great start to his comeback senior season. After playing #1 his freshman and sophomore years, Brewer barely played his junior year, losing in singles in the four ranked matches he played in. L&C is so much stronger with Brewer in the lineup, and his results so far have to be great news for them moving forward.
What’s next: Spring break Pios-style! The Pios have a couple of weeks off before a trip to Ohio, where L&C will take on Case Western, Denison, Kenyon, Oberlin, and CMU all in one week. That’s an impressive slate of matches and I’m really looking forward to following them!
Honorary Mention: Carl Reid (Colby): 3-0 at #1 doubles and 3-0 at #1 singles in matches against TCNJ, Goucher, and NYU
Gut reaction, give us your favorite 1st round upset: Give me #12 Middle Tennessee over #5 Minnesota. Also #13 Vermont over #4 Purdue. I’m a big Catamounts guy.
Gut reaction, give us your Final Four: Duke, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky
Gut reaction, give us your National Champion: Kansas
REGIONAL AS
Player: Ritwik Chatterjee
Team: Rhodes
Results: 5-0 at #1 & #3 singles and 1-1 at #3 doubles
Recap: The Florida native has been strong for the Lynx all year and the trip back to his home state certainly went well for the freshman. While the competition wasn’t the toughest, he did pick up notable wins over Coe and Wheaton in singles. Chatterjee has lost 1 singles and 1 doubles match all season, not a bad start for the young gun. Rhodes is moving in the right direction and the freshman phenom has been a big part of it.
What’s next: Rhodes gets a couple of weeks off before facing the almighty Emory.
Honorary Mention: Phil Lauture (Rhodes)
Gut reaction, give us your favorite 1st round upset: #12 Nevada over #5 Iowa State
Gut reaction, give us your Final Four: Duke, Zags, Kansas and Kentucky (I’m very unsure of the UK pick because that region is stacked… UK, UCLA and NC are all contenders)
Gut reaction, give us your National Champion: Duke (for the record, I hate Grayson Allen, but Coach K is the man and knows how to get the job done)
REGIONAL NE/C
Player: Michael Li
Team: NYU
Results: 4-0 vs Brandeis and Colby
Recap: NYU had a terrific weekend thanks to a number of guys stepping up, but no one came up bigger than the freshman Michael Li. Against Brandeis, he and Ben Teoh got the Violets their first point with an 8-3 win at #2 doubles. Then in singles, with the singles looking very close, Li gutted out a huge first set tiebreak against Mitchell Ostrovsky 7-5 to give NYU some momentum. Li followed it up with a 6-4 second set to clinch the match over the Judges. The following day against Colby, Li was clutch once again, especially since NYU desperately needed some wins lower in the lineup. Once again Li and Teoh paired for a doubles point, and once again Li came through in singles in straight sets, beating Shaw Speer 6-4, 6-2 as part of NYU’s 5 points in their win over the Mules. (UPDATE: I made a mistake on Li’s results vs Colby. He actually moved up to third singles, where he beat Scott Altmeyer 6-4, 6-4.)
What’s next: A week off. This is presumably NYU’s spring break, but as usual the Violets won’t be playing, unfortunately. They return a week from Thursday with a very fun matchup at home against Kalamazoo before welcoming Rochester and Hobart that weekend. Those three matches in four days will tell us a lot about how good this team can be.
Honorary Mention: Vishal Walia (NYU), Matt Riley (UW La Crosse)
Gut reaction, give us your favorite 1st round upset: Rhode Island over Creighton
Gut reaction, give us your Final Four: Kansas, UNC, Duke, West Virginia
Gut reaction, give us your National Champion: Duke