It’s October and fall tennis is well underway. Teams have played a couple of tournaments, maybe some dual matches, and are just giving us a sneak peak of what we’ll get come spring. This weekend, we’ll turn our focus to the ITA Cup, where the cream of the crop will duke it out in a thrilling three-day tournament. We didn’t give you a recap of our regional ITAs on the women’s side, but here are a few items of note: 1. Freshman are BRINGING IT this year. We saw several frosh make deep runs in the regional tournament, and overall, the ITA Cup has a pretty young field. 2. Most regional winners cruised through their draws, but we saw some great three-setters to battle for a spot in Rome. 3. We’ve got a lot of new names. Yeah, this is kind of similar to the first, but there are a ton of new women rising and making a name for themselves – exciting times!! 4. Kind of along the same lines, we have some new, perhaps more regional schools in the mix (looking at you JCU!) It’s great to see players not from the big name schools succeeding, and this speaks to the ever increasing depth in D3 athletics.
Anyways, let’s look ahead. This weekend is sure to give us some great matches, and I’m super excited to see what happens as the weekend unfolds. We’ve got some new names and new schools in the mix, and the changing of the tide is something I’ve always looked forward to seeing in D3 on the women’s side. I’ve put together some preliminary thoughts below, take em with a grain of salt, as I cannot claim to be any kind of expert, mind-reader or psychic.
Women’s singles first round
Ysabel Gonzalez-Rico (Emory) vs. Risa Fukushige (Skidmore): It’s so hard to go against Emory star Ysabel Gonzalez-Rico. She absolutely cruised through her regional and didn’t drop more than 6 games before the final. She has a formidable opponent in Skidmore’s Fukushige, who cruised through her ITA, but had to fight for the win in the finals over NYU’s Kulle. I think she’ll give Gonzalez-Rico a fight, but ultimately, I think Gonzalez-Rico will come away with the win 6-4, 6-3.
Venia Yeung (Wesleyan) vs. Ginger Valentine (GAC): Yeung was the lucky loser in the Northeast ITA – she lost to Amherst’s Bukzin pretty handily in the finals, but it looks as though the Mammoth freshman won’t be making the journey down to Rome for this year’s ITA Cup. Nonetheless, the Wes freshman really impressed and should be a worthy opponent for GAC’s Valentine. Valentine had a stellar regional and, similar to Gonzalez-Rico, was not really challenged until the finals. I think this will be a tight match (I’m hoping for a three-set thriller), but I’m going to go with experience here and give Valentine an edge 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
Caroline Casper (PP) vs. TBD: As seems to be the trend in regional tournaments this year, Casper also cruised through the tournament before toughing out a gritty final against CMS’ Catherine Allen. Now, it’s really hard to call this match given her opponent won’t be determined until after I’ve published this article, but regardless, I’m going to give Casper the edge. She’s a senior amongst a fairly young field, so I’m hoping her experience will give her both confidence and the edge against most opponents this weekend.
Taylor (CMU) vs. O’Malley (JCU): O’Malley had an impressive regional, taking out 4 Chicago players in a row en route to claiming her title. She, too, had a smooth ride before her three set battle in the finals. She’ll face CMU’s Taylor, who showed some true grit to win her regional. I’m less familiar with these players, but I’m going to bet on the seed and say O’Malley takes it in three 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.
I’m not going to go into a round-by-round detail/prediction, in case I’m totally wrong on the above, but I will predict Ms. Caroline Casper as the 2018 ITA Cup Champ. The senior has impressed me throughout the years, and I”m thinking she’ll kick off her senior year with a big statement.
On the dubs side, it’s really too early in the season for me to make any kind of real/informed predictions (is this a cop out?), and I never take fall season dubs too seriously since pairings tend to shuffle and change before and during the spring, so I’ll just sit back and enjoy this one.
As always, I always welcome any and all feedback, so tweet at me, email me, hit me up on anything you want to hear in the D3 women’s tennis world. -NEW