With Spring Break Walla Walla officially over, we can now turn our attention to another week of excellent West coast tennis (though a SBWW recap will come out at some point this week). Other matches between The West and The Rest will be thoroughly covered in the other team-by-team previews, but matches between West region teams lie thoroughly and incontrovertibly in my domain. So here we are.
Trinity played it’s third match in two days last night, and, frankly, they seemed tired. I don’t know why they would’ve been tired; it’s not like they had to survive two wars in the previous two matches or anything. Nevertheless, a buttkicking at the hands of CMS and a day of travel could not have done a whole lot to ease their aching muscles, but here’s to hoping the day off did them well. They’re definitely going to need it, as they have two matches against the West region 10-20 teams on Monday and Tuesday.
Before I get into the matches, I have to say that the Spring Breaks for Group A teams feel completely different from those of Group C teams. Unlike Trinity’s opponents this week, Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer, the Tigers do not need to win either of these matches. Sure, they would like to win the matches, but they already have four top 20 wins on their resume, and their post-season fate is pretty much written in cement. If they win their matches, they will travel to Minnesota/Wisconsin to compete as a one seed in a weak region (probably). If they lose, the worst that could happen is they end up as a 2-seed in a region with Wash U or Bowdoin or someone, but they probably get that 1-seed in Minnesota either way. I’m sure they’ll want to play it safe and win these matches, but the desperation just isn’t the same. Effort has never been a problem for TU, but I thought this was worth mentioning.
#6 Trinity vs. #16 Pomona-Pitzer, Monday March 10th 4PM (PST)
If we learned anything from Mary Washington’s spring break it’s that Pomona and Redlands are PRETTY close this year. Clearly, they will be the two competing for the SCIAC #2 spot, and, with Case and CMU playing well so far, it looks like the SCIAC might only get one Pool C spot this year. Though the head-to-head match(es) between those two teams will likely be the deciding factor, a win over Trinity would be huge for P-P either of them because they would pick up an indirect over Case. You follow?
As far as the actual match goes, I think Trinity absolutely needs to get a doubles lead if they want to come away with this one. P-P has been absolutely ridiculous in singles so far this season, but they’ve been relatively vulnerable in doubles. Unfortunately, TU’s doubles haven’t really been up to snuff, especially their #3 team, which went 0-3 over SBWW. Nevertheless, I think they pull it together at the 3-spot, either by making a switch or just by improving and take #2 and #3 doubles to get a 2-1 lead.
So far this season, it seems like Pomona’s relative weakness is low in the singles lineup, which is convenient for Trinity because Mayer and Dunn are coming off a combined 5-1 weekend with the only loss being Dunn’s 6 and 6 loss to Pereverzin. Accordingly, I think TU takes 5 and 6. After that, TU will be looking for just one more win, and I think they’ll find it at #2 singles with Skinner over Chuddy. Deuel and Weichert will be a great match (and I’m sure it will go three sets), but Weichert has been playing too well for me to go against him. If Yasgoor comes back, I think that will give the Hens the edge at 3 and 4 with the freshmen, but it won’t be enough as Trinity takes a 5-4 win.
#6 Trinity vs. #13 Redlands
At Indoors, Redlands’ biggest problem was its surprising struggles deep in the singles lineup. The Dawgs needed four 3-set victories to beat Cal Lu, and they still lost at #6 singles, which was a bad sign. Yesterday, Coach Roche made the switch to Leahy at #6, which met with spectacular results, as the junior pulled out an epic 12-10 victory in the 3rd-set tiebreaker to give the Dawgs a 5-4 victory. The win may also have marked a changing of the tide as far as the program goes, as they have now won two 5-4 matches this season after being absolutely abysmal in close matches over the past three.
Going into this match, you’ll also have to consider the fatigue factor. On Saturday, Trinity as clearly exhausted from their battle with Whitman, and it spilled over into their matches with Santa Cruz and CMS. At one point, I actually though Cruz was going to win that match, but then Deuel won 6 straight games like a boss and put the kibosh on that idea. Either way, I think their brutal schedule might come back to haunt them here. Redlands is a very tough place to play, and the Dawgs didn’t even play their best dubs against the Eagles. I’m probably gonna kick myself for this later, but I’m actually going to pick Redlands in a fatigue-fueled upset here. I think they take 1 and 3 doubles, get a win at 2 with Cummins over an exhausted Skinner, and find two more wins somewhere in the lineup (most likely 3 and 6).
Let’s go you Dawgs. Please don’t make me regret making a bold (i.e. stupid pick) for once in my life.
That’s it for now. I’ll talk about this team in more detail after their Spring Break ends. We won’t be talking about them for a while after that, as they retreat into the endless plains of the Lone Star state until May.
CMS’s number 3 doubles team is definitely ridiculous. I think them as 1 may be a bit too far, but almost certainly they should be at 2.
Then again when there are that many amazing players in your roster it’s pretty hard to decide what order to put them in. No matter what happens CMS’s 3 double’s team is going to be unbelievable.
Saw a few of the Trinity matches in Walla Walla (a charming town with lots of excellent wine tasting rooms within the compact downtown). They are very tough from top to bottom. In fact, they have a really good #5 and #6 (the big lefty with the big forehand and serve). Deuel, at #1, is already a beast, even though he is only a freshman, and by the time he is a junior or senior (maybe even as a sophomore), he should easily be in the top five in the country,. Maybe he is right now, though I admit I don’t get to see the players from the rest of the country. Skinner, at #2, is also very, very good. I did not watch their #3 play, but I’m sure he’s very good. But Trinity could use work on its doubles to become a top 5 team, which they almost are now.
Saw part of Trinity’s match against CMS, and it looked like they were hanging with them with them during the matches, though I don’t think the final score reflected that. CMS seemed a lot fresher, as they had not struggled in a prior match, as Trinity did against Whitman the prior night, and had just warmed right before their match against Trinity by playing that morning against Whitman.
The CMS #3 doubles team is just phenomenal. I think they lost just one game in their three matches, or something like that. They just don’t miss a shot. I heard they used to play #2 but one guy is coming back from an injury so they moved them down to #3. Maybe they should be playing at #1.