Weekend Recap: April 28th-29th

This turned out to be a very busy weekend, chocked full of mild surprises and a few great individual performances in Ojai. Let’s start with the team stuff:

Other News

Coe College def. #29 Wisconsin-Whitewater 5-4

This match obviously flew below the radar, as nobody has every really heard of Coe College. Believe it or not, they’re another little school that has quietly been getting better over the past couple years. This is a real signature win for them, and what’s more surprising is that they won coming back from a 1-2 deficit after doubles. I’m not sure what happened to the Warhawks in this one, but I think they’ve demonstrated that they are pretty much capable of losing to anyone (and beating anyone outside the top 15). What a roller-coaster season for W-W.

#27 Swarthmore def. #26 Franklin & Marshall 5-2

Swat avenged their loss from earlier in the season. I don’t have much to say except, “can we get these guys out of the national rankings? They don’t deserve it at all.”

#16 Johns Hopkins def. #27 Swarthmore 5-1

The Blue Jays breezed through their conference tournament, which is about what we would expect from them. Regardless, it seems like they are playing well at the moment, and they are definitely a team to be reckoned with in the tournament. I wouldn’t want to be the #1 seed that draws Hopkins.

Other teams who have won their conferences:

Penn State- Behrend (AMC). Texas-Tyler (American Southwest). Mary Washington (Capital). Marywood (CSA). Huntington (GSA). Drew (Landmark). MIT (NEWMAC). Whitman (Northwest). Washington & Lee (ODAC). Grove City (PAC). Principia (SLIC). Farmingdale State (Skyline). Trinity TX (SCAC). NCW (USAC).

UAA

#2 Emory def. #17 Wash U 8-1

The Eagles absolutely rolled to their somethingth consecutive UAA title. They’ve really distanced themselves from the rest of the UAA field, and they haven’t really been tested this season (except for by GAC). It will be interesting to see how they respond if and when they find themselves in a tough situation against a CMS or an Amherst. They could fold, or they have their championship moment and rise to the occasion. They way they dominated singles against Wash U was truly impressive, but Wash U has to be happy that they did enough to probably get themselves into NCAAs (especially with Carnegie’s loss to Case). I’m hoping d3tennis does bracketology article soon to see what he thinks about where Wash U stands in Pool C, and what their chances of hosting a region are, but for now, I think they’re in.

#21 Case Western def. #12 Carnegie Melon 6-3

It’s funny how succeptible team tennis is to massive swings in momentum. A couple days ago, the Tartans were sitting pretty in Pool C, and during their match against Wash U, they were one match away from punching their ticket. After losing to Case Western, however, I think they are pretty definitively on the outside of Pool C with no way in. When they took #1 doubles in a tiebreaker against Case, I thought they were going to salvage their tournament, but for the second time in two days, they lost five singles matches against a lower-ranked team. Case played with their usual degree of heart and took the match from Carnegie by winning two three-setters (one in a tiebreaker) and another second set tiebreaker to seal the victory. The Spartans end the season on a high note, which could help them as they hope to qualify next year. Carnegie Melon is left praying for some sort of “Whittier beats Redlands” miracle that will allow them to get into the tournament. Right now, their resume, combined with their late-season results, isn’t good enough to get them into the tournament.

NCAC

#29 Denison def. #30 Depauw 5-4

This match played out almost exactly like the last match these teams played, except Denison managed to win a couple three-setters this time. Once again, the Depauw #1 doubles team got them on the board, and Sam Miles lead his doubles team to a victory to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead heading into singles. Once again, Depauw won 2 and 6 singles. Once again, Denison won #1 and 3 singles. This time, however, Tyler Cempre came out on the winning end of a three-setter at #5 singles, and Casey Cempre beat Bertolini handily at #4 to give the Big Red the victory. Depauw’s decision to switch Rardon and Bertolini might have cost them, as Rardon at #4 was basically a guaranteed victory. It seems like Rardon was a stronger player, so, personally, I appreciate the Depauw coach’s honesty because not a lot of coaches would’ve made the switch when they were getting consistent points from their #4 singles player. Anyways, Denison got their best win of the season in their second to last match, and that should be enough to keep them in the rankings, which is much-deserved in my opinion.

#4 Kenyon def. #29 Denison 6-1

I had a feeling that Kenyon would dominate if they met the Big Red again, and they did. Though they lost #1 doubles, they won 2 and 3 comfortably to give themselves a lead heading into singles. After that, they just took over, winning 1-4 singles in straight sets (though some of the sets were close). This is about what one would expect out of the 4th ranked Lords. The only thing that concerns me about them heading into nationals is their #1 doubles team. Even after switching in Rosensteel for Stiles, they just aren’t getting any production out of them right now, and against a better team, that puts a ton of pressure on the 2 and 3 doubles teams. The Lords are strong in singles, but they aren’t so strong that they can consistently come back from getting swept. Look for them to address that issue as they head into the Big Dance.

NESCAC

#1 Amherst def. #7 Middlebury 9-0

I don’t know if the Amherst players saw people posting about them not being dominant enough and decided to just go, “here’s what we can do when we play our full lineup late in the season,” but that’s what it seems like. I know that Middlebury is having a down year, but they should be getting blanked by anyone. After the Jeffs swept the doubles, they easily could have just coasted to the victory, but they kept their foot on the gas, and took all three third sets to get the sweep. Very impressive match all-around. If there’s anything I could complain about for Amherst, I would say their lower lineup hasn’t been quite as dominant as I would have expected them to be, but having Chafetz and Rattenhuber at 2 and 3 just isn’t fair. Middlebury needs to go back to the drawing board in doubles. A Hansen-coached team should never get swept in doubles, even against a team that is far-and-away more talented. Period.

#3 Williams def. #9 Bowdoin 5-4

I may have been right on with my doubles predictions in this one, but it’s time that I admit I haven’t been giving Bowdoin the credit they deserve. I attributed their win over Wash U to a down-weekend by the Bears, and I didn’t really pay much attention to how close they came to beating the Stags. Even when I predicted that they would beat Middlebury, it was more out of lack-of-faith in the Panthers than it was faith in the Polar Bears. After this match, I have to admit that Bowdoin is much more dangerous than I thought. Their lower lineup players aren’t pretty, but they are great competitors, and can play with just about anyone in the country. Williams clinched this match at 5-2, so they were never in any real danger of losing, but if Bowdoin has a better day in doubles (and the same can be said of their match against CMS) they could win that one. Right now, they are only a little bit away from being a top 5 team, which is extremely surprising to me.

Nonetheless, Williams continues to show that they are an upper-echelon team. I’m not sure they are a legitimate title threat now. It seems like Amherst and Emory have distinguished themselves from the pack, but the Amherst-Williams match was just a 7-5 set away from being an Ephs victory, so maybe I’m just talking out of my ass. It just seems like the Jeffs and the Eagles are the two teams that really know how to win. The NESCAC tournament final could prove me wrong if Cows can get past Bowdoin again.

#3 Williams def. #15 Bates

Well, Felix Sun finally lost a match. It took a 3rd-set tiebreaker in order for it to happen, but it happened. I’m not going to read into that too much because everyone’s entitled to an off day. If nothing else, it illustrates how dangerous the top of Bates’ lineup is. Other than that, the match went pretty much according to the script. Williams won two of the doubles matches; they won one out of 1 and 3 singles; and they dominated at the bottom of the singles lineup. The silver lining for the Bobcats is that the Panthers could be a little disheartened heading into the tournament after getting swept by Amherst. Bates has improved tremendously over the course of the year, so I expect that NESCAC meeting to be closer than Middlebury’s 7-2 win in February, but I’m still not quite a believer in the Bobcats. Yeah, that’s pretty much all I got….

Ojai

I commented a couple days ago that having Lane and Erani at #3 doubles was a little ridiculous, and I think this tournament proved my point. After dispatching Cruz’ #1 team in the first round, the pair of former Stag #1’s eased their way into the finals with convincing performances against both P-P’s and their own #1 doubles teams. In the final, they finally put an end to the Worley-Ballou tyrany, handing the duo just their third loss of the season. Wei is one of the best D3 doubles players I’ve ever seen, and the all-freshman team is good, but I don’t think Settles can get away with keeping these guys at 3.

As far as teams go, CMS had the best tournament, getting two teams in the semis of doubles and 5 players into the quarters of singles. UC Santa Cruz wasn’t far behind, however. Though they struggled a bit in doubles, they still got a team into the semis. They got two players into the semis of singles, and also had good performances from Stanley and Bettwy. Andre Halabi had an OK tournament… I guess… if you’re into that sort of thing. The Slug #4 beat Pomona-Pitzer’s #2 in the second round before toppling Redlands’ #1, CMS’ #1, and Cruz’ own #1 en route to the finals. I forgot how fun Ojai is. The Kingsmen did OK, but the Hens and the Bulldogs really had disappointing tournaments.

Best individual performance of the weekend has to be (reluctantly) Nick Ballou. Aside from advancing to the finals of the doubles tournament, he tore through the bottom half of the singles draw without dropping a set (including an impressive 6-0, 6-0 victory over Alex Lane).