West Region ITA Recap

First of all, I have never been so wrong and so right in a single weekend…. Obviously no one could have predicted the winners of the tournament, and to be honest I am still not quite sure how it ended up that way, but such is the Fall Regional. I guess it’s past time for the old report card thing, I’ll be giving out grades based on  each team’s performance (you all know the drill). Here we go!

CMS: A

The Stags were once again dominant in this years ITA; they had 6 players reach the round of 16, 5 in the quarterfinals, 3 in the semis, and an all CMS final that resulted in a Glen Hull victory. In terms of assessing their in-season strength, I think it is pretty clear that they will once again have a VERY deep singles lineup. Glen Hull only played a handful of matches last year, including the national championship match, and was effectively outside the lineup for the majority of it. He was able to put together an incredible string of matches (Including a routine thwacking of Cardenas and my own pick to win, Mr. Marino) dropping only 1 set to #1 seed Warren Wood on his road to victory. Major props to the sophomore for a great tournament.

Despite not winning the tournament, both Wood and Marino showed that they are still going to be dominant forces in D3 with a couple of wins over the 1’s of PP and Redlands respectively. The performance that was a little disappointing was that of the defending Champ, Skyler Butts, who went down in straights to Patrick Lipscomb from Redlands in the quarters. One thing I did notice, the Stags as a whole did not seem to be in the best of shape. Wildman made his exit via stretcher as a result of cramps (maybe sick?) in his second match against Chadalavada, and Marino looked positively exhausted after his semifinal match with Lipscomb. That can probably be attributed to the short Fall season, and will hopefully not be something that carries over to the Spring.

Doubles was a little lackluster for CMS (relatively speaking of course), Brenner/Macey and Seifert/Sacks were both ousted first round without so much as a peep. Yeh/Mehall slid by the 7th seeded Treacy/Valdez from CLU and were then dusted by the eventual champs Hudson/Chadalavada from PP. Butts/Morkovine had a fairly solid semifinal showing despite Mork having to serve underhanded because of a shoulder injury and Wood/Marino went down in a third set breaker in the finals. Not terrible for the stags, but if I know Settles, he is not happy with this team unless he has a CMS winner in both singles and doubles.

Pomona-Pitzer: A-

Pomona-Pitzer had their depth on display this weekend. Whether it was in first round upsets (Josh Kim and Kevin Wei), backdraw victories (Marko Mandic), or day 2 appearances (6), one thing is certain; they won’t have problems getting wins at the bottom of their lineup. That being said, they did have a few disappointing first round exits including Chuddy their #2 player who lost to Jake Ly of Redlands, who was mostly outside their lineup last year. Jake Yasgoor was the lone Hen in the quarterfinals, but he struggled a bit this tournament with a close three set match with an injured Morkovine and a 6-2, 6-1 stomping at the hands of Wood.

In terms of doubles, they outperformed everyone’s expectations. Hudson/Chadalavada came out of nowhere to win the whole thing in a third set breaker against Wood/Marino. Hudson was at 3 doubles last year and Chadalavada is one of the 5 freshman that PP brought in so my expectations for them were pretty low, but they played lights out through the whole thing. Props to them for an incredible run, and for ruining everyone’s predictions. The other Hens teams didn’t do too shabby themselves, Simonides/Maason made a run to the semis with a solid win over CLU’s likely #1 team, Cardenas/Scott, while Yasgoor/Bello made a quarterfinal appearance and lost in a tiebreak to their teammates and the eventual champs. Overall, the Hens should be very pleased with their performance in the Fall Regional.

Redlands: B

The Dogs had an up and down weekend. 3 guys made it to the round of 16; Jake Ly, Lipscomb, and Parker Wilson but only Lipscomb was able to move on. They had a couple of first round losses, the most notable being Suchodolski’s loss to Wei and Graham Leahy’s loss to Littlejohn after being up a set and break in the second. This might not bode well for their depth, but the return of Nick Cummins should shift the lineup enough so that the Bulldogs will at least have a strong top 4. On the upside, Lipscomb had a solid tournament with a good win over Skyler Butts to secure his spot into the Semifinal before going down in straights to Marino.

Doubles was a little disappointing. They had two teams make to the quarters, both losing to CMS. Suchodolski/Jones, on the one hand (boom, one-handed backhand pun), look like they could be a pretty solid #3 for Redlands come spring. But Lipscomb/Leahy didn’t look like the strong 1 team that I thought they were coming into the tournament, and it was especially surprising that they went out to an injured Morkovine/Butts team. Once again it is hard to predict doubles teams for the Bulldogs without Cummins playing, as he will most certainly be playing #2 (or maybe even 1) doubles with someone once he is healthy.

Cal Lutheran: C

To be honest, singles for CLU was dismal. They had only two players make it out of the first round; Moises Cardenas and Ian Slater. Connor Treacy looked positively lackluster, and although he had a tough first round with the Wildman, he didn’t look like he was ready to play. Slater lost in the second round to Lipscomb, which left Moises as the lone remaining CLU player which was kind of expected. Moises had a the marathon match in the third round against PP’s Wei, which undoubtedly left Cardenas exhausted for his next round against Glenn Hull (correct me if I’m wrong but I am pretty sure he was cramping). Hull then made short work of Moises, 6-3 6-1. It’s all about fitness in the Fall Regionals. All in all, not a very strong singles performance.

Doubles was only a little bit better, they returned their two and three doubles teams from last year, both of which were fairly solid. Cardenas/Scott cruised through their first two rounds before losing in the quarters to PP’s Simonides/Maassen while Slater/Knight routed the defending champs in the first round before falling to the same PP team in the second. Treacy/Valdez (7), CLU’s likely 2 team, checked out of the tournament first round in a tight match with Mehall/Yeh from CMS 9-7. It looks as though CLU will have to do some serious training to be able to fill the hole left by Nichols.

Whittier: D+

Well, with Schommer’s graduation and DK’s burgeoning professional tennis career, I wasn’t really expecting the Poets to be very strong this tournament, and I guess I was right. They had two players in the second round of singles; their top player Sam Farmer and David Stanko. Farmer then went down to Simonides from PP after being up a set and two breaks in the second, painful stuff. David Stanko won his first round against Chapman’s Justin Thompson, and was then waxed by Redlands Jake Ly 6-1, 6-1. Overall, Whittier’s singles fell short of even my modest expectations.

Doubles was a similar story, they had two teams in the draw and both were ousted first round. Linscott/Chavez were able to find some success in the backdraw and fought their way to a consies title, but that was pretty much it in terms of doubles. Although I know that the Fall Regional isn’t a definite determinate of Spring performance, Coach Belletto and the Poets have their work cut out for them this fall if they want to maintain their ranking.

UCSC: C-

The Slugs had 8 guys in the main draw for singles, 4 of whom were able to fight their way into the second round but no farther. I had high hopes for Littlejon this tournament, but he came up short in both singles and doubles, he lost in straights to PP’s Graham Maassen in the second round and was trounced in doubles. Of the four teams in doubles, only one of them was able to make it past the first round (albeit through Whittier’s top doubles team Farmer/Stanko). We all saw that is likely to be a down year for the Slugs as they have lost a lot of their key guys to graduation over the last two years, and pulled very few recruits in. The one ray of light that I saw from Cruz was freshman Chad Stone, although he lost in the second round to Yasgoor, he was able to win the second round backdraw Singles and made the finals in the first round doubles backdraw. He is a solid player, and with some more experience, could be a solid #3(ish) singles.

The Other Guys:

These teams got much fewer players into the draw, and since the tournament was really dominated by CMS, PP, and Redlands, there isn’t as much to write about.

Chapman: D

Chapman had two players advance past the first round in the main draw; Charlie Werman and Justin Thompson (sr.). Thompson also made the finals in the second round back draw before losing a close battle to Chad Stone from UCSC. Thompson (the younger)/Mittledorf made their way into the second round with a victory over the Pathireddy’s from Cal Tech. Chapman looks like they will have a similar year to their last one. Nuff said.

Occidental: D-

Josh Dancu went out early to PP’s Josh Kim (called it from range!). Dancu/Howard beat UCSC’s Levechenko/Ashdown in the first round of doubles and then went down to Butts/Morkovine. I think Oxy expected a little more from Dancu this tournament, but it was not to be.

Cal Tech: D-

Cal Tech got one guy into the second round, Sathwick Pathireddy. No advance in doubles. Ruthwick Pathireddy went down in a tough three setter to PP’s Maassen.

Well, that’s all I got from the West. I was mostly wrong about how this tournament would end up, but its more exciting that way anyways. Good luck to Glen Hull and Hudson/Chadalavada in South Carolina. Represent the region well. D3West Tennis out.