Friday, May 4th Recap

NESCAC

Bowdoin def. Trinity (CT) 5-0

This match wasn’t really close at all. Trinity had a chance to get a point at #2 doubles, but they couldn’t capitalize, and they never really had a chance anyways. Trinity’s season is definitely over, and this match doesn’t really mean anything except perhaps that Bowdoin will be more match tough for tomorrow against Williams (though I’m not sure you can even say that).

Middlebury def. Bates 5-4

Bates came pretty close to pulling off the upset, but I don’t think Middlebury ever felt that they were on the brink of losing. Everyone can essentially agree that Bates needed to win 1 and 2 doubles, then 1, 2, and 3 singles in order to pull of the upset. That’s just too much pressure to put on three players, and once Jones started rolling, the match was over. The immediate significance of this result is that Bates left the door open for their spot to be taken from them by a Redlands victory over Cal Lutheran (as I think there’s basically no way the ranking committee will let Wash U miss out on the tournament), but given the way Redlands played in the clutch today, I think the Bobcats should sleep well tonight after yesterday’s rankings release. Oh, and I updated the NESCAC preview to include the semifinal matches, so look there if you’re interested in what I have to say about Middlebury’s chances against Amherst. (Spoiler Alert: not good).

SCIAC

Redlands def. Whittier 5-0

The Bulldogs came out with a very convincing win to set the stage for a dramatic evening against CMS. They swept the doubles and got the first two singles matches off the court, even though some of the remaining matches were in battles. As predicted, Whittier just doesn’t have enough to beat the top teams this year. Anyways…

CMS def. Redlands 7-2

Stop me if this sounds familiar to you. Redlands won two out of three doubles matches and then won three first sets. (All they needed to do was hold on to those three matches and they would have won! They were even up in the second set of one and the third set of another!) Redlands proceeds to blow the leads in all three matches, while at the same time failing to put up much of a fight in the three matches they lost the first sets in. Line call disputes. Injury timeouts. All this done while being given the golden opportunity of CMS not having Erani in their singles lineup. Classic Redlands. So far this season, this team has been scary-bad in crunch time, and if they don’t win against Cal Lu tomorrow, they definitely don’t deserve to go to NCAAs. They have the team to beat almost anyone, but I’m not sure they have the belief.

In other news, with Erani injured, the Lipscomb/Bloom doubles team got one of the two wins they needed to make individual nationals. If Lipscomb is acutally injured, however, they’re going to have a hard time getting the second one tomorrow against Ballou and Worley. Also, on the flip-side of Redlands’ poor clutch play is the strong clutch play of CMS. This is the second time they’ve been able to come back from losing two of three doubles matches to sweep singles. Both wins involved a couple three-set victories. As predicted, having Wei and Kotrappa at 3 is an extremely formidable duo, but the Stags will want to win at least one other match if they’re hoping to beat Pomona-Pitzer tomorrow. Without Erani, their singles lineup is just that much more vulnerable, as he is one of two Stags I’ve seen who plays with enough intensity to positively effect his teammates. They shouldn’t count on being able to dominate singles against P-P again tomorrow.

Pomona-Pitzer def. Cal Lutheran 5-4

Hold on… I have to stretch out my should a little bit, so I can pat myself on the back for this one……

Alright, I’m ready to do the recap. So this match went literally exactly as I predicted it would. Ballou and Worley came out fast and got a quick win for the Kingsmen at #1 doubles, but Pomona-Pitzer also got a quick win at #2. With the match tied, any pressure that would have fallen on both P-P doubles teams was shared by the two #3 doubles teams. The Kingsmen duo couldn’t hold up to the pressure, and P-P stormed back from an early deficit to give the Hens the lead. Pomona-Pitzer didn’t look back from there. They got easy victories at #4 and 6 singles (where both teams made a switch with P-P going with Prescott and Cal Lu going with Kowalczyk. This didn’t work out for Cal Lu). After that, Cal Lu really needed Wilson to break through with a win, but Weichert was just too strong, and Pomona-Pitzer sealed the 5-1 victory before they had to feel too much pressure. Ballou won his match shortly thereafter to trim the deficit, and the Kingsmen picked up a couple 3-set decisions at 2 and 5 singles to yield the final 5-4 score, but the match wasn’t as close as the score indicated.

Combine this win with the Cruz win from a couple weeks ago, and it seems like the Hens are peaking at the right time. Without Erani in the lineup, they could pose a significant threat to the Stags, but I still don’t think they’ll have enough. Cal Lu has really slumped a bit in the last couple weeks. Once again, this season reminds me a lot of the 2010 season. When a coach has to ride the same ponies through so many matches, their bound to break down a bit eventually (even if the break down doesn’t manifest itself as a serious physical injury. Imagine the mental toll losing all these matches is having on Wilson), and I think that’s what ended up happening to Cal Lu. They will probably regroup to beat Redlands again tomorrow; I think they have too much pride to lose again, but the bottom line for the Kingsmen is that they aren’t deep enough to play the schedule they played. Unfortunately for both of these teams, they will end up in the California region, where they will both fall before they reach the Elite Eight. It really is a shame because both of these teams could do some serious damage if they were placed in a different region. If only tennis were basketball and could afford to spend tons of money flying teams wherever the TV dollars would take them…