ITAs – The South Region

ITA Regionals – South Region

http://www.emoryathletics.com/sports/mten/2013-14/files/2013ITA_MAIN_DRAW_SINGLES.PDF

As we all try to get up to speed with the latest D3Tennis happenings, this weekend brought two regional tournaments featuring some of the best players in the nation.  The first ITA regional I will recap will be the South Region, which really lived up to the whole “Emory’s Region” reputation it has been getting for as long as I can remember.  This regional was intriguing to me for a few reasons.  As always, I want to see what kind of players NCW is throwing out there this year.  But that story definitely takes a back seat to the performance of the Emory players.  Usually I’ll focus more on their middle of the lineup singles players as well as their doubles play.  This year proved to be a good tournament for us observers to learn a little about what projects to be a top 5 team in the nation.  Let’s go team-by-team recaps of the South Region….. now.

Emory Eagles

Overall, this was an absolutely dominant performance from the Eagles, as expected.  Eric Halpern, who had a bit of an up and down season at #1 singles last year, continued to develop his game and won the whole tournament.  Halpern is definitely one of the more talented players in DIII, and he brings a moxie to the court that any Emory fan can really appreciate.  Congrats to Halpern on the title.  As mentioned earlier, I thought one of the most important takeaways from this tournament would be how the middle of the lineup played – particularly Wagner, Mosetick, and Ruderman (who ended up missing).  Well, chalk this ITA up to be a success for the Eagles.  Wagner cruised through his part of the draw, and ended up losing to Halpern in a tight 3 set match.  Wagner projects to be a great #3 player this year, as always.  The story of the tournament, however, was Rafe Mosetick.  I feel like I mention his name a lot, but he definitely beat my expectations this time out.  Like Wagner, Mosetick cruised through his part of the draw setting up a semifinal match against last year’s champ, Kjellberg of NCW.  It turns out that Mosetick would cruise through that match as well, giving the defending champ four total games.  Wow.  Whoever is at 4 for the Eagles is going to have a huge advantage over almost anyone they play.  In doubles, Emory had a very strong showing as well.  Although none of the teams captured the title, the team of Halpern and Lavole-Perusse made the finals before losing to the experienced NCW team of Kjellberg and Ljungdhal.  Emory has to be pleased with their 4 teams making the quarters and having 3 teams make the semifinals.  They have found a true doubles specialist in Bajoria, and can mix and match their talented players to make solid teams later on.  Great tournament for Emory.

North Carolina Wesleyan Battling Bishops

NCW is always such an enigma coming into the season because their international recruits simply can’t be read.  However, they didn’t get a single recruit this year.  This year already looks to be a lost cause for this previously proud team.  Last year we saw what would happen if they relied too much on Kjellberg to get wins.  With Prostak gone now after graduating, they have to rely heavily on Hviid and Ljungdahl.  Hviid lost early, and Ljungdahl got smacked by Lavole Perusse pretty early in the tournament as well.  Add that to the fact that Kjellberg got 4 games off of Emory’s proverbial 3^rd or 4^th player, and you get a pretty bad tournament for NCW.  The one silver lining that this team has is that Kjellberg and Ljungdahl at least know how to play some quality doubles.  They fended off two tough Emory teams in the semifinals and finals to win the whole thing. Expect them to be in the NCAA tournament at the end of the year.

Sewanee Tigers

Since we have some time, I can go through a few of the lesser teams that show up to this Emory-dominated tournament.  First up is the Sewanee Tigers, who actually have a decent team when you look at some of their recruits the past few years.  They had one seeded player in Rand Jackson, who is a solid baseliner and has had some pretty close results in the past year.  Despite the talent, this was a forgettable tournament for the Tigers.  Jackson ended up losing in the Round of 16 to a 2-star Emory freshman, Rocco English (great name dude).  English actually ended up taking out two Sewanee players along the way and showed a bit of flare by making it to the quarterfinals.  Jackson really represented most of Sewanee’s hope in the tournament and with him gone, there was nothing left.  The Tigers have never been strong in doubles, but they were able to get a team into the quarters with a relatively smooth draw.  It looks like Sewanee is still a few years away from contending for a Top 30 spot.

Methodist, Rhodes, and Others

Even Methodist and Rhodes will get a small section in this one!  What I really look for is for one of these smaller school players to take someone down from the big teams.  This time around, I’d like to give a shoutout to Duncan Miller of Methodist for making the quarterfinals, as he was able to take out an Emory player to get there in two fairly routine sets.  Another shoutout to CJ Antonio of Oglethorpe, as he was very close with a solid player in Jackson Issacs, losing 6 and 6 in a close two setter.  Unfortunately there wasn’t much to say about the Rhodes performance in singles, which I guess can’t be that surprising.  Not everyone can breakthrough when there are 10 Emory players in the draw going nuts.  At least Rhodes was able to get one doubles team through to the quarterfinals with a fairly easy draw.

Overall, not much that we wouldn’t expect here.  Emory showed that they will continue to dominate, and NCW shouldn’t really be much of a threat to them at all this year.  It’s sad to see that program go bad so quickly, but that’s what happens when you’re relying on international players in DIII. 

Thanks for reading.  Please remember that if you or anyone else is interested in writing or just contributing on a consulting basis, please feel free to email me at d3atlanticsouth@gmail. On to the next one!