Spring Break in February: A Summary

Hello again boys and girls, and welcome to the year’s first “spring” break recap. As always, we try to either preview or recap each team’s spring break trip, as they usually involve some very noteworthy matches. While it’s nowhere near spring in the Northeast (though I did see a snowman holding 40’s in each hand last weekend), two NE teams have already returned from sunny California. Bates and Brandeis had two very different weeks on the West coast, and tonight D3 Regional and I will be reviewing each team’s trip. ASouth’s recap game has been on point recently, so I am going to borrow his style, but put my own spin it. Afterall, I wouldn’t want to copy D3AS too much, his teams haven’t won 4 championships in 5 years. Please note that all rankings are listed in the results section are from the previous power rankings. Showing a ranking that has Bates ahead of Pomona or Brandeis very close to Cal Lu somewhat defeats the purpose…

BATES

Results: #23 Bates def. #9 Pomona 5-4, #23 Bates def. #27 Whittier 8-1, #1CMS def. #23 Bates 8-1

Honestly, I learned more about Bates tennis in this past week than I did all of last season. Perhaps I was just excited about the return of NE tennis? It was the perfect storm of anticipation, an upset win, live streaming, and live stats. Man, DIII fans just got spoiled rotten. Between Indoors, Whittier’s live feed and announcer, and CMS’s with their sick scoring system, I felt connected with the Bobcats as they were my only ranked team in action. Let’s check the numbers before getting to any more reaction. Note: this recap will basically gloss over the Bates/Whittier match because…well, it deserves to be glossed over. The Poets didn’t win a single set in singles.

Power Ranking Shift?: +9 spots from 23rd to 14th. The biggest jump of any team already in the top 30, Bates ascended from the black hole with their win over Pomona. Here are some stats for you. 4 of the 5 writers have Bates ahead of Wesleyan and Tufts, 3 of the 5 writers have Bates ahead of Bowdoin, and D3AS jumped them all the way ahead of Williams. One big win (even if the week was a very consistent showing) and already our headmaster has Bates poised for a 3rd place finish in conference.

Foolish overreaction to one week: Bates is the 3rd best team in the conference. Sorry D3AS, but I need more than one win February to do something that drastic.

Smart overreaction to one week: Bates’ freshmen are for real yo. As noted by my POTW selections, Bates’ freshmen 3rd doubles team of Schwarz and Rosen killed Cali. The pairing went 3-0 and accounted for one of two Bobcat points against CMS. These two look to be here to stay, making the Cats a legitimate top 20 team, with the chance at being closer to 10 than 20.

What this actually means going forwards: While 3rd in the conference is a stretch, the fact that every blogger has the Cats in a position to make NESCACs after one week is quite telling (ahead of Tufts and Trinity Ct). It’s amazing what some depth can do to change your perspective on a team. However, even if Schwartz and Rosen continue to play at a high level, there are still six other spots in the lineup. At #1, Planche took a loss to Chuddy, but also beat Wood in 3 sets at the end of the week. Ellis was destroyed by Yaz and took the straight set loss to Butts. Ellis has a very grind him out sort of game, and might be overmatched at #2 for some of the season.  Feldman got a MASSIVE win at Pomona, and played a competitive match with Morkovine at CMS. Ordway played fairly competitive tennis all week, including a tight loss to Pomona . However, Ordway’s match ended after his team had already clinched, so it doesn’t matter too much to me.  As always, Bates’ doubles was pretty good. The #1’s had a questionable loss to Whittier, but Bates was literally a game or two from sweeping CMS (8-6 loss at 1, 9-8 (5) loss at 2, and a win at 3). I have no doubt that Gastonguay will have his guys continuing to play strong doubles as the season progresses.

Ok, basically the outcome of Bates’ week is three fold. 1) No team will be able to walk-over Bates this year as they can fight at every spot. 2) Bates should now be considered a real threat to finish top-5  in the conference and make NESCACS. 3) There is actually some small chance that this team could make NCAAs. While it’s still less than 10%, it’s significantly higher than before. Enough Bates, let’s see how D3Regional judges a Brandeis squad with some mediocre results…

BRANDEIS

Results: #29 Brandeis def. Chapman 6-3, #22 Cal Lutheran def. #29 Brandeis 5-4, #13 Redlands def. #29 Brandeis 7-2, #1 CMS def. Brandeis 7-2.

So like I mentioned in my regional recap, Brandeis had an average Spring Break.  In fact, going back into the Judges’ archives, I don’t think Brandeis has beaten a ranked team in Cali since they’ve started heading out there in the 2010-11 season.  But boy, they did not get closer to a ranked win than they did last Wednesday.  Brandeis was up 2-1 after doubles on the Kingsmen, and even though Brian Granoff and Ryan Bunis got crushed at #1 and #2 singles, Michael Arguello at #3 and Alec Siegel at #6 gutted out some big singles wins.  It ultimately came down to Danny Lubarsky, who fell 7-5 in the third.  The other matches are not really worth recapping, but I will do so because that is the point of this article.  The Judges lost 2 out of 3 doubles to Chapman in the Cali opener, but played some good singles and took 5 out of 6 singles matches to win 6-3.  Lubarsky was out of singles in the third match against Redlands, and the Judges fell 7-2, with wins by Arguello/Cherkin at #2 doubles and Siegel at #4 singles.  To conclude the break, with no Lubarsky in singles or doubles, Deis lost 7-2 to CMS, with Granoff/Siegel getting the win at #2 doubles, and Granoff getting a nice win over Skyler Butts at #1 singles (with Wood resting so he could lose to Pierre Planche from Bates later that day).

Power Ranking Shift?:  Brandeis actually moved up a couple spots in the power rankings from 29 to 27.  This was not really due to the performance of Lamanna’s squad, but more because of Whittier struggling and dropping to #36, and the Judges moving ahead of Sewanee.  D3AS and D3West have actually shown the Judges the most love, putting them at #26, ahead of UCSC by AS and Trinity CT by West.

Foolish overreaction to one week:  Brandeis didn’t get a big win this break, was not dominant at any position, and has no chance of getting a ranked win all season!!!

Smart overreaction to one week:  Brandeis was consistently decent at every position in the lineup except for #3 doubles, which did not win a match.  If they can put it together on a given day, they can certainly take out any team ranked in the 20s.  However, they could also not put it together and fall to a team in the 30-40 range, like Stevens, MIT, or NYU.

What this actually means going forwards: Brandeis has a lot of positives to draw on from this break.  Captain Siegel played great, going 3-1 in singles with a relatively close loss to Lester Yeh from CMS at #4 singles.  Arguello also had a solid break, with a three set win over Fergus Scott from Cal Lu at #3 singles.  Brandeis needs to get healthy, first and foremost.  With their full lineup in there, Lubarsky/Granoff and Cherkin/Arguello are definitely capable of beating just about any team in a doubles pro-set.  Their singles will struggle against the top teams, but will compete hard in that 15-30 range.  Coming up next, the Judges have a well-placed break to heal up from the California wounds, and will be heading up to Middlebury on 3/14 to take on Midd on Saturday and Stevens on Sunday.  Should be a fun weekend!  I still have the Judges at #6 in the UAA, as the top 5 are all legitimate top 15 teams, and we actually have them all in the top 11 in our power rankings.  That being said, the Judges have many opportunities this year to get some great ranked wins, and one missed opportunity against the Kingsmen is not a big deal.  Time to heal up and take on the northeast!