It’s been a while since the Northwest Conference has been competitive, but after this weekend, it seems like things are moving in the right direction for some of the lesser-known teams in the NWC. That might not be good news for our favorite Little Engine That Could, but it’s good news for just the general state of tennis because things got pretty dark there for a while.
Whitman
I’d like to finish with the good news because I’m a glass-half-full kinda guy, so I’ll start with the bad. On paper, this tournament was as dominant as ever: the Whitties had 5 quarterfinalists and all four semifinalists in singles to go with both doubles finalists. If you were following on Twitter, however, you know this wasn’t the dominant performance we’re used to seeing from Whitman. The Squirrels pulled out three 3-setters either 7-5 or 7-6 in the 3rd against conference opponents in the span of about 15 minutes on Sunday. If things had gone the other way, they would’ve been completely eliminated from the top half of the draw. The Squirrels also failed to place at least three teams in the semifinals of the doubles draw for the first time since 2008 (I think). That’s OK if you’re CMS and you’re playing P-P/Cal Lu/Whittier/Redlands, it’s not great if you’re Whitman and you’re trying to imagine yourselves into being national championship contenders.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that these guys are incredibly deep. Part of the reason Whitman only had 5 players in the quarters (compared to, say, seven players like in 2011) was because they were too busy beating up on each other. Senior Will Huskey took out last year’s #1, Malesovas, in the 2nd round, while a newly-healthy Rivers ousted last year’s #3, Riggs, in the 3rd round. Between Huskey, Rivers, Malesovas, Riggs, Roston (a semifinalist), and Jivkov (a freshman finalist), they’ve got a lot of guys to work with. Even more good news came in the form of their 3-time ITA champ, Andrew La Cava, looking more like La Cava 2011-2012 than La Cava 2012-2013. His sophomore season, La Cava was one of the best players in the country, but last year, he was a sub-par #2. Whitman can compete with anyone at the bottom of the singles lineup, but they’ll need him to win somewhat consistently if they want to get a big win or two this year. I look forward to seeing what he and Rivers can do at ITAs.
All told, there was more good than bad this weekend, and the Squirrels walked away with both titles. You can’t ask for much more than that. Trinity was much more dominant against better competition, so…
Grade: B+
Pacific
Until the rest of the conference manages to beat a top 30 team, they will continue to be measured by whether or not they can beat Whitman… at home… in a hurricane… right after a SARS epidemic in Walla Walla. We’re gonna start with Pacific University. (No, not the DI team in California). After a pretty good year in 2012, I think the Boxers lost about two thirds of their matches last year and still finished 4th in the conference (hahahahahahaha, NWC), but they improved tremendously over the offseason and might actually be able to take Whitman to 6-3 or something this year. They return their core in Battaglia and Zuroske and added a bunch of guys I never heard of. Faith nearly took out Whitman’s Huskey to earn a berth in the quarters, and a couple other Boxers won matches and stuff. Battaglia is their best player, and, as evidenced by his close match with La Cava, could be responsible for two points against Whitman on the right day. Regardless, the Boxers don’t have the depth to hang with Whitman yet. They’re improving though…
Grade: B
George Fox
The Bruins enjoyed a two-year reign as the second best team in the NWC (as much as you can enjoy that), and picked up a nice non-conference victory over Sewanee last year, but I think they’re going to be supplanted by their cross-something rival, Pacific, this year. They graduated a couple starters from last year’s squad and don’t appear to have replaced them at all on the recruiting trail. They don’t exactly have the depth to promote from within, either, so I guess they’re hoping for… genetically-engineered spiders? All kidding aside, the Bruins have two good players in Lilley and McClain, but they drop off pretty significantly after that. Even if they were to take those three points from Whitman, they would still lose 6-3, so that’s a bummer. More realistically, the could get a Burgin-ian improvement over the Fall from someone, hold on to #2 in the conference, and move forward from there.
Grade: C
Lewis and Clark
I’m grasping at straws here for another team. Pioneer 3-star freshman Michael Brewer took out a couple Whitman non-starters before fading against Roston in the quarters. Their #2 player lost to a Whitman non-starter in the first round. Winning two matches of any sort is actually a huge step up for this program. I think they almost failed to field a team a couple years ago.
Grade: A-