Regional Atlantic South (and some Northeast) Kickoff!

Happy Monday everyone!! I am quite excited to be a part of this team and look forward to being able to cover a wide range of teams from Saratoga Springs, NY to Birmingham, AL. Why am I covering this range of teams? I don’t know, but if ASouth says something, you just do it. I will be covering Stevens, Skidmore, NC Wesleyan, Oglethorpe, Haverford, F&M, Birmingham Southern, Methodist, VA Wesleyan, and Rhodes, which is a lot of teams, so to start off my blogging career I want to highlight my big 5. These are the 5 teams who I believe have the best chance of making NCAAs at the end of the year. I would like to do a short write up on all of them in this article, but let’s be realistic, everyone would stop reading halfway through regardless. Do not fear though, my little 5 write up should be coming out within the next two weeks or so.

Follow me on twitter @D3RegASouth and if you have any questions/comments/concerns feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at d3regionalasouth@gmail.com.

As boring as it is, I also decided to use a very similar format as Northeast, Midwest and Regional NE&C, but it’s an easy and efficient way to highlight each team. So without further adieu:

 

Skidmore (National Ranking: 21)

Key Losses: Kit Sanderson (2 doubles/3 singles), Nick Tong (1 doubles/5 singles), Jonah Epstein (2 doubles)

Biggest question: With the departure of 3 impactful senior leaders on and off the court, will Kai be able to hold down the fort and fend off a hungry and talented RPI for a 4th straight Liberty League championship?

Player to watch: I know it’s a boring pick, but Kai Yuen Leung has been a force to be reckoned with in the NE. Will he be able to maintain his high level of play and reach his 3rd straight individual NCAAs? He made an impressive run at the Midd Invite in A flight losing only to Noah Farrell, who’s a beast. Look for Mr. Leung to have a pretty darn good senior year.

Season prediction that’s probably wrong: Skidmore will sweep their conference during the regular season, but RPI will get revenge in the finals of the Liberty Leagues and Skidmore misses out on team NCAAs for the first time in 4 years.

 

Stevens (National Ranking: 22)

Key Losses: Matt Heinrich (1 doubles/1 singles), Ben Foran (1 doubles/3&4 singles), Arik Zeevy (assistant coach)

Biggest question: Man there are so many questions. What is next for the ducks? The Heinrich Era is over, much to D3ASouth’s chagrin. How will the ducks respond after losing the winningest player in the history of the program? Will Coach Gachko be able to rally the troops and continue to move up in the rankings despite no incoming recruits?

Player to watch: Someone needs to take up the mantle that the pest left behind. There are two players who have shown flashes of capability the past 2 years and those are Charles Drake and Daniel Polk. Drake’s ability to last in 3rd sets would take him far at the top spot and Polk seemed like he finally hit his stride towards the end of last year, so it will be interesting to see how he does moving forward.

Season prediction that’s probably spot on: While it may be harsh, I don’t see the ducks getting many/if any wins outside of conference play with the losses of Heinrich and Foran and a National assistant COTY. However they should be able to cruise their way to NCAAs through the Empire 8 and will most likely fall in the first or second round.

*Note: I wrote this section before the ducks kicked off their season this weekend. It appears that Drake was not playing in the tournament they hosted. If the ducks don’t have Drake, the season might be a little rougher than originally thought.

 

NC Wesleyan (National Ranking: N/A)

Key Losses: Mikhail Konnov (5 singles/2 doubles), Eduardo Ulgade (6 singles/3 doubles)

Biggest question: Can the battling bishops rebound and work their way back up into the national rankings? 2 years ago, NC Wesleyan had quite a few people on their hype train after some success, but last year, after starting the season ranked 22 in the nation, they suffered quite the fall from grace. This young team will be looking to rebound this year and try to crack back into the top 40.

Player to watch: JD Telles had an impressive win over Brandon Griffin this past weekend at the Mary Wash fall invite. Griffin is probably going to be at the top of the line up for a talented and dangerous UMW team, so a win over this guy means that Telles is no slouch. After playing mainly 3 singles this past year, let’s see if he can continue to step up and do some damage in the Atlantic South at 1 singles.

Season prediction that could also be spot on: NCW will manage to scrap it’s way back into the ITA top 40 and once again win their conference to gain a bid to NCAAs before bowing out in the 2nd round. I can also see Telles picking up a few key regional wins and securing a spot at individual NCAAs, but we’ll get a clearer picture on that in the ITAs coming up in the next couple of weeks.

 

Oglethorpe (National Ranking: N/A)

Key Losses: CJ Antonio (1 singles/1 doubles), Briton Richardson (5 singles/2 doubles), Angle Llerena (3 singles/3 doubles)

Biggest question: It’s funny how one player can come in and spark some sort of relevancy within a program, and that’s exactly what CJ Antonio did. With his departure, will the Petrels be able to pull off an incredible upset of Sewanee (who’s going to be good this year) like they did during the regular season of last year or will they have a drop off and fall to the middle of the pack in their conference?

Player to watch: These are always so hard to do this early on in the season, but I would have to say Judd Motz. He had a decent run to the semis in a not so strong field (Huntingdon, Millsaps, LaGrange, Christian Brothers and Point) at a tournament in Alabama, but he’s going to really need to step up his game to be a solid #1 player and help out his team.

Season prediction: Oh how I want to be optimistic about the Petrels, but I believe this year will be a big step back. In order to make the tournament they need to beat a really good Sewanee team and a newly talented Rhodes team, but that just isn’t going to happen. Sorry Oglethorpe, last year was probably your best chance, but please prove me wrong!

 

Rhodes (Nation Ranking: N/A)

Key Losses: Eliot Blatt (1 singles/1 doubles), Greyson Brilliant (4 singles/1 doubles),

Biggest question: Ok Rhodes, we see you. You brought in a pretty darn good recruiting class (#13 in D3), what are you going to do with the talent? Are you going to underperform or step up and challenge Sewanee for the SAA crown?

Player to watch: Phillipe Lauture. Any time you get a 4 star coming into a weak conference, look for that guy to make a splash early on in his career. Assuming he will play at the top of the lineup, the matchup with Sewanee will be fun to watch. The young talent of Lauture going up against the veteran grit of Schober, who will prevail? If Lauture is able to pick up a few big wins, look for him to potentially make individual NCAAs in a weaker Atlantic South region.

Season prediction: Rhodes becomes relevant in the Atlantic South region. They problem won’t beat out Sewanee, but they have the firepower to contend. Look for this program to take big steps in the right direction this year and become an NCAA tournament team within the next 2 years or so.

 

There you go folks. My first post! Don’t be shy in the comments section and I look forward to writing more in the future! Stay tuned for a NE ITA preview to come later this week by yours truly and Regional NE&C.

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