Alright, boys and girls, the regionals are (pretty much) over, and we’ve got just one more tournament to sustain us between now and the start of the Spring season, so I’ll try to give you something a little more substantial before we go into hemi-hybernation again. Below are the report cards for all the major teams who competed in the West regional this weekend. I will give some more love to the lesser teams later, but the big dogs dominated this tournament so thoroughly that there’s really not much to say. The grades I gave each team are completely subjective, and a lot of it is based on the arbitrary criteria of (i.e. how they did vs. how I thought they were going to do).
Cal Lu
Every year, I think Cal Lu is going to fall off a bit, but, whether it’s by Ballou coming back for his 7th year of eligibility or Nichols turning himself into one of the best #3s in the country or by Millet and Treacy showing up out of nowhere, they always find a way to keep trucking along. It seems like they’ve done it again this year. Losing their top 2 figured to be devastating, but they’ve reloaded. Cardenas fell into their lap, and get used to hearing his name because he’s for real. Moreover, they’ve added a bunch of guys who will fill out the bottom of their lineup, so they have the opportunity to be something this year that they’ve never been before: deep. Finally, with Nichols/Treacy playing so well together still, and Cardenas and Scott coming in to make another doubles team, the Kingsmen will still have the guns to take 2 of 3 prosets off anyone. I’m not making any big predictions for the season, but this weekend has to be considered a success. The only thing that could’ve made it better is if they took away one of the titles.
Grade: A-
CMS
The Stags have had better ITA tournaments before, but I’m really taking away from this something I already knew: CMS is gonna be nasty. Butts was superb all weekend, beating three teammates just to get to the finals before using a clutch tiebreaker win to propel himself to victory. I wonder if this was a Kotrappa-esque weekend for the sophomore, if Settles is gonna be like, “that was cute, now get back to #4 singles where you belong,” or if he’ll actually take over at the top of the lineup. One thing is for sure, he basically never lost at #4 last year, and he could handle it at the top rung. CMS got some tremendous performances from their vaunted freshmen (Macey beat Nichols, Morkovine beat Weichert), a reemergent Bernhardt (took Butts to 3 after dominating Schommer), and a good-as-ever Dorn. That’s a phenomenal line-up right there, and that was just the bottom half of the draw. Factor in Wood, Marino (didn’t play), Kotrappa (didn’t play), Yeh, and the rest, and, well, it’s just gonna be tough to make that singles lineup this year.
Oh gee, all these great tennis players and not enough spots to put them in #CMSProblems
Lavish praise aside, the weekend was pretty far from perfect for the Stags. They fell flat (by their standards) in doubles. Not a single team made it to the semifinals, and just one made it to the quarters. When they were playing well last season, they were dominating on both the singles and the doubles court, and you can’t win a national championship without doubles. Since we know it’s championship-or-bust for the Stags, we know what they’ll be working on this fall. Great tournament, great team, but not perfect.
Grade: B
Pomona-Pitzer
2013 wasn’t a great year for the Hens. After finally breaking through in 2011, and holding on to their top 10 status in 2012, P-P regressed last year after losing Meyer to graduation. The season could have been truly disastrous if not for a miraculous comeback against Wisconsin-Whitewater and a phenomenal finish. Despite losing two of the most important players from that team (Sabel and Allinson), the Hens have a lot to look forward to thanks to a talented crop of freshmen. Yasgoor was the star of the tournament for P-P, taking out Wood en route to the quarters before falling in three to Konstantinov. Throw him in there with Weichert and you have a very solid one-two punch. Maassen, the most highly-ranked recruit in the 2013 crop, went down in the second round of single (to the eventual champ), but really showed his mettle in doubles where he teamed with Kim (another freshman) to take out Butts and Pereverzhin (two great doubles players). Pomona-Pitzer also got an outstanding doubles performance from a fourth freshman, Anthony Bello, who teamed with Wiechert to take out Wood and Dorn.
The Hell Hens will certainly be heavily dependent on those first years (Bello, Yasgoor, Kim, and Maassen), but it will be up to the senior Wiechert to lead and help forge the team’s new identity. Before I wrap up, let’s not forget that Connor Hudson was missing in this tournament. The future is pretty bright for these guys.
Grade: B+
Redlands
Well, it wasn’t a great weekend for the Bulldogs. I had heard a lot about Redlands’ recruiting class coming into this season, but they were pretty much a non-factor. Parker Wilson came within a couple points of beating Macey from CMS, but he lost; Cummins lost a match after winning the first set 6-0; Hunt retired from his Round of 16 match because he was sick; and Lipscomb was nowhere to be seen. I have to say that Redlands is one of few teams, that, when a player isn’t in the fall tournament, I think “quit” or “transferred” before I think “injured” or “abroad.” For the Bulldogs’ sake, I hope he’s still around because they need him. Between illness, potential injuries, and bad draws, you could say this just wasn’t their ITA, but I don’t know how many times you have to say, “This just wasn’t their (insert very important event here)” before realizing that there’s something amiss with this team.
Grade: D-
UC Santa Cruz
Whew, I didn’t want to go to that bad place, but now I’m back. HOW ‘BOUT DEM SLUGS!?!?!?! The last couple years have been pretty depressing for the Slugs: recruiting fell off, Hansen left, Nurenberg quit, Larsen ineligible, Harper left, whole team graduated, no Bettwy. It’s about time they got some good news! When they hired this guy, I thought, “seems legit,” but he’s definitely doing something right! Technically, you would never say the singles draw was a roaring success. Deguchi (along with most of his teammates) went down in the first round despite a solid effort against Maassen , and Littlejohn pulled the classic “default because of injury before coming back to win the whole doubles tournament” maneuver. Despite that, they got two great three-set wins from Scandalis and proved that they have at least eight players on their roster. When it comes to playing tennis at Santa Cruz, sometimes all you need is 8 guys who are willing to play tennis all day.
The real success on the weekend for the Slugs was the fact that, and I can’t emphasize this enough, THEY WON THE GOSHDARN DOUBLES TOURNAMENT. Since their lazy-ass SID never writes anything (do they even have an SID?) I’ll spend some time on that here. Deguchi and Littlejohn came out of nowhere to win this whole thing. I mean, they literally figuratively apparated into the finals. In succession, they took out Redlands’ #1 team, a solid CMS team (8-1), Cal Lu’s #1 team, Whittier’s #1 team, and Cal Lu’s #2 team. They beat the #2, #3, and #4 seeds in succession, and they capped it off with a triumphant tiebreaker to seal it. Congrats to the Slugs. It will be good to see them in Florida.
Grade: A-
Whittier
If you were paying attention this weekend, you might have noticed that David Konstantinov is pretty good. The dude played some very clutch tennis, got all the way to the finals, and fell in a very close match. He also teamed with Schommer to cruise by three very good doubles teams before running into the team of destiny in the semifinals. If I were grading Whittier simply on his performance, it would be an A+++++. Unfortunately, you need at least 6 guys to be successful in this sport, and the rest of the story wasn’t nearly as positive for Whittier. Schommer has had several impressive doubles victories, and he and Konstantinov will be a formidable duo at #1, but losing 1 and 2 to someone who might not be in CMS’ top 6 is not a good thing for someone who is in line to play #2 singles. Their two other returning starters, Farmer and Shimizu, went out with a collective whimper (to very good players), and the rest of their team basically didn’t do anything. Herron and Hansen, though still on the roster, didn’t play. I hope they aren’t hurt. Whittier has never been a particularly deep team, and without them, the Poets will be hard-pressed to find victories at the bottom of the lineup. With them, they are incredibly dangerous. As far as this weekend goes, it was good on the strength of Konstantinov’s performance alone.
Grade: B
Does anyone know anything about the new coach at UCSC other than the vague and poorly written bio provided by the UCSC website? The resume provided doesn’t inspire confidence. I agree the SID at UCSC has always been bad about providing info but it is ridiculous that there isn’t a single article on the tournament or even stating that there was a coaching change. At least have the decency to take the site down rather than displaying old articles demonstrating how little the program is valued. If I were a recruit and saw that I wouldn’t go there either. As a former player it is depressing to see how little effort they put into promoting the program. Thank you for the excellent article.
You speak of “they” as though it’s a vast conspiracy. The bottom line is that the program is so poorly funded or supported that there are almost no full-time staff in the department. Their AD recently quit, and they have had to hire a bunch of new coaches (at almost no pay). The SID is under the same strain as other coaches that have too much to do and not enough pay. The website is reflective of the value that the University Regents and UC Santa Cruz specifically place on the role of athletics in education. It is sad, just not the SIDs fault.
I agree it is not just the SIDs fault and you raise very valid points. Also thank you for helping me clarify the they is not the coaches or the players. The they was the regents and administration. The program is extremely underfunded and depends largely upon alumni donations. Without updates or even a decent introduction to the coach those will soon dry up as well. I do hold the SID or someone in the Athletic Department accountable for that oversight. It was a travesty what they offered Bryce as compensation and to not even have an article thanking him for his time and effort was disappointing. I realize funding is tight but Bryce should have been offered a livable wage with benefits and the school still could have saved money. I realize money is tight in California but I do feel it was a conspiracy to cut back the athletic budget further. I also do feel that athletics should be valued more by the administration of UCSC.
I totally agree and think your points are pretty spot on. I will say that I don’t think it’s a conspiracy. I think it’s as simple as the administration doesn’t care. The “athletic department” which is just a few underpaid folks, has no power or control over funding, salaries or policy.
It is incredibly awful that the administration doesn’t care about what they have in that program, the players, the coaches, and the impact that it’s had over countless individuals. Essentially, the administration views the coaches as part-time disposable employees.
Damn this was funny
Thanks for the writeup. It was a very enjoyable weekend of tennis, and although the region probably won’t be as strong as it was last year, there should be some great duals in the spring. I’ll look forward to hearing from you then.
You gonna do report cards for north and south west regionals too or nah?
yes, but they’ll be considerably less involved. Here’s a preview: Trinity (good), Whitman (good), everyone else (meh)
lipscomb is abroad in spain
that’s good news! What do they say about assumptions again?