It’s funny to think that there’s one region where Whitman is the only good team, and then there’s this region. Instead of calling it the “New England” regional, I’m thinking they should just change the name to “the clusterf***” region because it’s more appropriate. There are so many good players and good teams in this region that a first round match isn’t safe for anybody. You could be the #1 seed and run into one of Amherst or Williams’ 5-star recruits in the first round, or you could be a #4 player, get hot for three days, win a 10-pointer or two, and end up in Mobile (I swear I’m telling the truth on this one). Because this regional is so crazy, and because basically everyone in the draw is a contender in some way, I’m not going to write a little blurb about everyone who could win it. I’m just going to list off the names players people in New England will know about, but everyone else should probably be aware of.
Teams Involved
Williams, Middlebury, Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, MIT, (Tufts, Trinity)
Singles Contenders
Joey Fritz (Amherst)
Chris Dale (Amherst)
Mark Kahan (Amherst)
Andrew Yaraghi (Amherst, Fr.)
Aaron Revzin (Amherst, Fr.)
Each team only gets a maximum of 6 spots, and I can’t promise these will be the six Amherst players in the tournament (especially since the team doesn’t even know that right now), but this is my best guess. Fritz is the defending champions. Kahan hardly ever loses. Dale didn’t play in the singles lineup at the end of last year, but he got to the semifinals of this tournament where he lost to Fritz in a third-set tiebreaker. Yaraghi and Revzin are the two highest-rated freshmen coming into Amherst. Yaraghi is ranked just outside the top 30, and I really hope he gets into the draw, so we can see what he can do.
Brantner Jones (Middlebury)
Alec Parower (Middlebury)
Teddy Fitzgibbons (Middlebury)
Jones, Fitzgibbons, and Parower all won two rounds in last years regional tournament, and two of them lost the next round because they ended up on the wrong side of dramatic tiebreakers. The Hansen effect wasn’t immediate for Middlebury, and who knows if it’s coming. But Hansen always had a way of getting his players up for big moments, and on the right weekend, any of these guys could come out on top. None of them are favorites, but they’re all forces to be reckoned with.
Trey Meyer (Williams)
Felix Sun (Williams)
Matt Micheli (Williams)
Zach Weiss (Williams)
Bryan Chow (Williams)
Williams returns its top 5 singles players from last year’s 3rd place team, and all of them are threats to win this tournament. Personally, I would peg either Felix Sun or Mark Kahan as the favorite to win, but in a tournament like this one, the favorite really only has like a 1/5th chance of winning. Meyer is very good, and he knows what it takes to win this tournament (at least in doubles). Micheli got to the finals last year, which is just another example of what can happen for a good player on a good weekend. Chow won a couple rounds last year before ending up on the wrong end of a tiebreaker. Weiss didn’t play this one last year, but he’s more than capable of beating the big guys.
Sam King (Bowdoin)
Chris Lord (Bowdoin)
Casey Grindon (Bowdoin)
Bowdoin shuffled their lineup some last year, but all three of these players showed the ability to win big matches. King has the best chance of any Bowdoin player. He has better weapons than either of the others, which is usually necessary to win the later rounds. Lord, on the other hand, made it to the quarterfinals here last year and is very capable of toppling top players. Grindon is another great player, though he’s unproven against 1’s and 2’s from other teams.
Timmy Berg (Bates)
Rob Crampton (Bates)
Matt Bettles (Bates)
Bates was unapologetically top-heavy last year. That didn’t help them win a lot of big team matches, but it makes them very dangerous in a tournament like this one. Both Bettles and Berg made quarterfinal runs here last year, and they only got better as the year progressed. Crampton wasn’t around for the Fall tournament, but anyone doubting his capability to go deep in an individual tournament need only look at his results from the NCAAs last year. I would probably list these three as the 5th, 6th, and 7th favorites in this tournament (behind Kahan, Fritz, Sun, and Meyer).
Edwin Zhang (MIT)
Larry Pang (MIT)
Eugene Oh (MIT)
The Engineers did rather poorly here last year, but they do have some highly-ranked players. These guys will probably be in the draw. They might win a round or two.
Kayong Lee (Trinity)
McCook is gone, and Marfatia doesn’t have a big enough game to make a deep run. If he’s around, Lee could knock off some big guys on the right weekend.
Now that I’ve listed every player in the draw…
Doubles Contenders
This doubles tournament is even more impossible to predict than the other impossible-to-predict doubles tournaments. There are so many good players who could be combined in so many different ways. Amherst won’t be mentioned on this list because they graduated half their doubles lineup, but you know they’re going to come up with some good doubles teams. Bowdoin won’t be mentioned on this list because they had one senior on their best doubles team, and I have no idea who King is going to end up with. This is just a short list of teams who played together last year and are likely to do so again this year. Yay for doubles.
Chow/Meyer (Williams)
Sun/Micheli (Williams)
Chow and Meyer are the returning champs. Sun and Micheli were probably the stronger doubles team last year. These are my two favorites to win the tournament if that means anything at all.
Jones/Lunghino (Middlebury)
Jones and Lunghino played #1 doubles at the end of the year for Middlebury, and they did a pretty good job. They could be dangerous this year, but these guys are more likely to be separated than the other three teams on this list.
Crampton/Bettles (Bates)
Crampton and Bettles had some big wins last year, and they got to the quarterfinals of the NCAA doubles tournament. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see them win this one.
scores from midd invite this weekend
http://www.middlebury.edu/athletics/sports/menstennis/archive/2012-2013/news/node/435364
weiss lost to wesleyan’s number 3 today in straight sets
and wes 3 was 0-2 losing to the kid from Coast Guard and Nicols?
Sometimes a mans just gotta lose to wesleyan’s #3
He’s a talented player, for sure, but there is no denying this is THE year for Bates. Look out for Bettles and Crampton too at doubles. Despite the fact that the NESCAC is the most comeptitive conference in D3 tennis, Bates’s top 3 is going to make a big impact there.
snuck out a tiebreak win vs. babson the other day. Nothing to make me think they can go far in the draw.
Felix is just a boss and everyone knows it.
magician
absolutely he is one of the toughest players to play. But his game style is too taxing on his body to go through a tournament like the ITA. He will rarely lose a dual match but with as long as his matches go, he’s likely to run out of steam before before he can win that many matches in a weekend (plus he’s gonna win some in doubles too). To win this you have to have big game, so ill take Crampton or Fritz to repeat.
Sorry just saw Fritz was gone, so ill put Brantner Jones as another candidate, big game and solid competitor
Jones is also abroad
Anyone who discounts Sun is a little foolish…especially considering he won this very tournament two years ago beating Rattenhuber in the QF, Sullivan in the SF and Bettles in the final
I’m surpried that Felix Sun is favored to win this, especially since Rob Crampton beat him twice last year, once in the regular reason and once at the NCAA tournament. Crampton wasn’t there for the tournament last fall, but fresh off of his NCAA appearance, I think he has a real shot of going far here. He’s definitely one to watch out for this season.
Bates is going to make a big impact in the NESCAC this year. Wouldn’t count them out of anything.
You would take Felix Sun to win it all? Have you not considered the fact that Rob Crampton of Bates beat Sun not once but TWICE last year? My bet is on Crampton to take it home.
beat Fritz too if I remember correctly
Because Crampton has never lost to anyone in this tournament before… and we should only pick as favorites people who’ve never lost to anyone in this tournament… oh wait
I will take suprises for 200 Alex, who is Brandon Roode?
Fritz and Dale for Amherst are abroad this fall, too.
Likewise, Fritz and Dale of Amherst are abroad for fall semester, meaning the other 3 Amherst players should get into the ITA draw. See the Amherst tennis web site. This also puts Amherst at a decided disadvantage for their October match at Johns Hopkin, last uyear’s NCAA team quarter-finalists. But it does give the Amherst first-years a chance to make an immediate and major impact and by spring, makes ‘herst a stronger team.
Berg for Bates is abroad this fall