The UAA Recap

This was the best conference tournament that we’ll have this year.  The energy coming from Orlando, FL for the UAA tournament was amazing, in large part due to the ridiculous matches that we had on Days 2 and 3 of the tournament.  If you were to make a recruiting video for DIII tennis, I hope you got some video of these UAA matches.  This is what DIII Tennis is all about.  Many of you probably know the results already, so what I’m going to do is go on a team-by-team recap of the top 4 teams in the UAA.  After that, I’ll give some of the players recognition in a small All-UAA section.

Wash U Bears

This is why you don’t doubt the Washington University Bears.  Year after year, they make it happen come playoff time, and that is a testament to the culture and the coach over in St. Louis.  They improve every year, and have as much desire as anyone in DIII.  All those 6 AM runs must do them well, and seriously no one should even think about the Bears not making the tournament as long as Coach Follmer is there.  The Bears came back with a VENGEANCE against Case, taking doubles and then taking 5 of 6 singles to absolutely throttle the Spartans.  There was absolutely no doubt in that match as Wash U must have been ridiculously determined to make sure Case knew who was the big man on campus.  Next, the epic final against Emory commenced with senior Gary Parizher taking it in an deciding third set tiebreaker.  Obviously, this was the best case scenario for Wash U and now they may be ranked as high as #4 in the nation, depending on what the rankings committee thinks.  That gives them a top seed in regionals, and potentially a great draw to continue their Elite 8 streak.  What a way for the Bears to end their regular season play.

Emory Eagles

In a normal year, you would think that the Eagles failed by not winning the UAA championship.  Although this wasn’t the best result for them, and some weaknesses were exposed, there were a lot of good things that came from this tournament.  First off, this was the first time that the Eagles were tested by a talented team in a long time (not counting NCW).  Their first test was against CMU who gave them a decent run for their money by taking doubles.  But they didn’t even bat an eyelash, considering they destroyed CMU at the bottom of the lineup.  Shout out to Ian Wagner for a great win at 3 here, and for validating my opinion that he’s one of the best 3s in the country.   What I thought was the most impressive was their effort and fight in the finals.  They went down 2-1 after doubles again, and Wash U put them in a hole taking the top 2 singles, meaning they needed the whole bottom of the lineup to step up.  Mosetick at 4 and Adams at 6 came back from down one set, and we’ll hear more about Mosetick later on.  Overall, this Emory team still has a championship mindset and that was shown from their fight this weekend.  Maybe they aren’t the most talented team this year.  But are you really going to count them out come playoff time?

Case Western Spartans

Case rounds out the teams that had pretty good weekends, and really all their positive vibe came from Day 3.  They took out NYU first round with a few hiccups here and there, and as mentioned earlier, got owned by a red-hot Wash U team.  That really wasn’t too much of their fault.  When you run into an angry veteran team looking to prove themselves on the national scene, sometimes you just don’t have much of a chance.  Case didn’t let that get their spirits down, as they came out firing against CMU the next day at 9 AM.  After putting their mark on the match in doubles as they always do, they had their best singles performance in a while by taking 4 of 6 singles.  A really gritty effort from the top 2 singles matches, especially the freshman Krimbill for his 6-0 third set dismantling of a strong Heaney-Secord.  When the match was on the line, the frosh stepped up big-time.  Like D3Central and I had said in the predictions, this was the match for Krimbill to become a legit 1, and he did that for sure.  Welcome to the elite.  Not to mention Drougas, who was also playing lights out and beat Alla, 7-6 in the third.  He may be overmatched at 1, but Drougas can definitely hang with the best at 2.  Great job by them and the rest of the Case lineup for a comprehensive team effort on Sunday.  Case has guaranteed themselves to be into the NCAA tournament, and look to be a strong 2, potentially in the Wash U or Kenyon regional.

CMU Tartans

I don’t want to be too negative on the Tartans weekend, but I seriously have never seen a team squander so many chances in a season.  I actually thought they had the advantage going into Sunday, coming off some momentum from their close Emory loss and with Case reeling from their Wash U beat-down.  But Case once again proved that they may be the team that simply wants it more than CMU.  This year has been a lot of learning experiences for this team, and lucky for them they may get the chance for one last hurrah in NCAAs.  They did nothing to solidify their NCAA berth but might just get in by default.  One bright spot for the Tartans was their dismantling of Chicago on the first day of UAAs.  A lot of people had doubts about this match, but they came out fired up and beat the lower ranked team.  On Saturday, the Tartans put in another really good effort against the Eagles.  There were some rumblings about an upset, and they certainly gave it their best shot.  Sometimes you can’t overcome talent and that’s what happened against Emory.  Overall, this was a lukewarm weekend for CMU.  I’m not really sure how many lumps a team can take as “building blocks.” Eventually, you gotta step up when it counts.

D3ASouth’s Individual Awards and All-UAA Team

MVP: Adam Putterman – wow, what a way for the older Putterman to go out.  In his final UAA tournament, he went 6-0 with huge wins against both Case and Emory at #1 doubles, spots where Wash U may have been the underdogs.  Not to mention not losing a set at 1 singles, and giving his team a much needed 2 points every time out there.  Kudos to you, Putterman.

Warrior of the Tournament: If you don’t have Twitter, you probably didn’t catch this about the finals.  Emory’s #4 singles player, Rafe Mosetick, decided to do his best pledge night impression and projectile vomited all over the Orlando courts.  Well, that didn’t stop him.  He ended up winning that very 3^rd set in a breaker to push the finals to 4-4.  Oh, and not to mention he fought off cramps down 3-0 in the third to take that set, as well.

Moment of the Tournament: Obviously, you have to go with Senior Gary Parizher’s 7-1 third set breaker in the deciding match of the final.  The senior brought it home after losing the first set and absolutely battling in two close sets to decide the UAA championship.  It feels good to get mobbed by your teammates.

All UAA #1 Singles – Adam Putterman, Wash U – nuff said.

All UAA #2 Singles – Ross Putterman, Wash U – Amazing tournament from the younger Putterman as well.  There’s been a lot of doubt cast on his pressure play, but he just put in a 6-0 weekend and beat Drougas and Ruderman in the process.  You can go ahead and say the monkey is off his back with a big F-U to the rest of the nation.

All UAA #3 Singles – Ian Wagner, Emory – If anyone wants to join me on Wagner bandwagon, there’s still plenty of space available.  A trouncing of Miller of CMU and then another easy win over Noack of Wash U.  Emory can look to Wagner to get them consistent points every time out there.

All UAA #4 Singles – Rafe Mosetick, Emory – see above, but man, what a weekend for Mosetick.  Any team would be glad to have this kid on their team.

All UAA #5 Singles – Gary Parizher, Wash U – As we predicted, the senior came through and even won the whole damn thing for Wash U.

All UAA #6 Singles – Will Adams, Emory – Yea, sorry I couldn’t get any Case/CMU players in here.  But they just dominated singles this tournament and it would be unfair to not put them in.  Gritty performance by Adams all weekend to keep the Eagles in the final and to clinch that semifinal match.

All UAA #1 Doubles – Puttermans – The Wash U love just keeps on coming

All UAA #2 Doubles – Krimbill/Gerber, Case – This was a great weekend for Krimbill and Gerber, as they proved they may be a top 5 #2 team in the nation.  Big wins over CMU and Wash U to put Case in every doubles match.

All UAA #3 Doubles – Beisswanger/Kumar, CMU – After coming back from 7-4 down against Emory, and beating Case 8-6 in the third place match, I can’t deny these guys the All UAA nomination.  Great effort from this team.

Note: UT Tyler just lost their conference tournament, which could knock out CMU from NCAAs. In a turn of events, the UT Tyler coach has said that his team will not make NCAAs. We don’t know what to believe.