It is Monday morning and we all know that means it is time for the Weekend Update (thank you SNL). I will be recapping most of the matches from the weekend, but there will be a few left out as they are going to get special attention from the other writers throughout the week.
Whitewater 5 Chicago 4
Man I really wish I would have gotten this one right. I picked Chicago over Whitewater 5-4, but missed it narrowly. This match seemed to be as close as the scoreline suggests. Both teams were missing big parts of their lineups with Klein out for Whitewater and Bhargava out for Chicago. Klein apparently was at the match so no clue what the deal is there. As expected, Whitewater took the 2-1 advantage after doubles. In the preview, I mentioned that I would heavily favor Chicago at 3-6 singles and this match almost went exactly how I predicted. However, Whitewater was impressive in not only competing at these spots, but also winning two of them. Hats off to Ramen “Noodles” and Bisbee for taking out opponents that are on paper much more talented than they are. Humphreys continues to impress at 1 singles with his win over Kranz and it seems Sabada has returned to form a bit by beating Shklyar easily. Shklyar pulled out of singles later in the weekend against Gustavus so let’s hope that isn’t anything serious. Let’s do a breakdown to continue to prove that hard work and desire beat talent each and every year. Going off tennisrecruiting.net star ratings,I will take the highest ranking in the players final two years of high school tennis. Here is where things were:
Humphreys 2-star (402) defeats Kranz 4-star (141)
Sabada 3-star (144) defeats Shklyar 3-star (132)
Sun 4-star (108) defeats Balkin 1-star (324) in two close sets
Ramen unknown defeats Szabo unknown. Both international students
Hawkins 4-star (104) defeats Butler unranked in what seemed to be a war! Hawkins fought through cramps to win
Bisbee 1-star (458) defeats 4-star Zhang (120). Zhang simply cannot win!
So this shows one of two things. Either tennisrecuiting is way off or Whitewater is great at developing players into big time players. I am saying it is by far the second option. As I tweeted before, kudos to Whitewater for the win and showing they have the depth to compete with top talent. Early in the season, I was unsure if Whitewater would stay in the Top 30 by the end of the year, but they have proven they belong. Great win for the Warhawks.
Gustavus 7 Chicago 2
This match almost went as forgotten as neither team does much with twitter updates during the match, but the box score shows the story pretty well. Gustavus answered a lot of questions about the doubles with an easy sweep and at that point, Chicago really didn’t have a chance. Kranz and Sabada both got easy wins that may have given them a bit of life, but the Gusties took all of the close matches which again proves that Chicago can’t hack it against big opponents. Six singles is proving to be a massive weak spot for the Maroons and whomever they put there isn’t getting it done. This match may have been closer than the score indicates at there were three 3-setters, but I am tired of talking about Chicago and the lack of living up to the potential. There I said it.
Gustavus 7 Whitewater 2
As I mentioned previously, Shklyar was pulled out of this match and at that point with also missing Klein, I don’t think the Warhawks had much of a shot. Gustavus swept the pieced together doubles lineup and had easy victories at the bottom of the lineup. GAC is showing some weakness at the top with both Smith-Dennis losing to Humphreys and Leisner losing to Balkin. This could be a concern come tourney time if they want to pull any potential upsets. Humphreys is proving to be a legitimate top player and may have locked his spot at nationals after this weekend. He is undefeated against D-3 opponents this spring with wins over Bush (Wash U), Geier (Kenyon), Metlzer (Kzoo), Kranz (Chiacgo), and Smith-Dennis (Gustavus). Barring a couple of bad losses, he has punched his ticket which is great to see him back up his fall ITA performance. I could see a rematch of these two teams come tourney time (depending on the draw) and it would be a fun one to watch.
Hopkins 9 Washington and Lee 0
While there may have been some close matches here, Hopkins continues to flex their muscles as a top team in the country. D3ASouth previewed this match and was a tiebreaker away from getting it spot on. He had Shamshiri/Holt taking out Walsh/Buxbaum in what looked to be a heck of a match that went Hopkins way in the tiebreaker. The biggest thing of note about the singles would be Tanner Brown is now playing 3 singles with Hwang moving up to 2. Brown could easily be the best 3 in the country if he stays there and Hwang came back from eating a bagel in the first set to win in three. Both have to come away with a ton of confidence which is a scary thing to say the least. Past years has seen Hopkins struggle in doubles and if they continue to roll like they have, a final 4 berth is possible for a team that has yet to get over the postseason hump.
Kenyon 7 Sewanee 2
We all sort of made fun of this match going in as it was requested to be covered. When requests are made, we usually will give the fans what they want (unless you are a B5 singles champ) so a preview was given. An easy 9-0 win was expected, but Sewanee showed they are a team on the rise by taking two spots from Kenyon. I will be the first to point out that Kenyon did not play Raz or Rosensteel in singles, but that doesn’t take anything away from Sewanee from taking matches off of Kenyon’s 6 and 7 player (Fiaschetti and Kaye) at 4 and 5 singles. Six singles was also won by Kenyon in a super-breaker. Needless to say the University of the South (love a college that has two names) opened some eyes with this performance and should be a team to watch out for. Former #1 Rand Jackson is playing 3-singles for Sewanee and that is a damn good three player although Huber took care of him handily. When Kenyon has their full lineup in I could see Huber above Rosensteel soon. Sewanee has no seniors playing in the lineup which bodes well for the future and with another solid recruiting class could burst on to the scene come next season. They have Tufts in a couple of weeks in California and that will be their chance to break into the rankings by year end. I will say I am impressed with what they have done and will keep my eye on them with that match.