The Spring Break Chronicles: Texas-Tyler

I’ve said this several times, but Texas-Tyler is one of the most enigmatic teams in DIII tennis. On the surface, they have no business being successful. The school has none of the usual aspects of a successful DIII tennis program:

Good academics? Nope

Desireable location? Uhhh… hehe

International recruiting niche? Not even

The only thing they might have going for them is the ability to hand out the good ol’ Redlands “Academic Scholarship.” Nonetheless, it seems impossible that Tyler would be successful in the DIII landscape in this day and age. Fortunately for them, what they do have is a coach that works his ass off. I have no idea how Bizot does it (and frankly, I don’t want to know), but somehow or another, the dude continues to bring in transfer after transfer to keep his team competitive.

This year, the Pats have recovered from losing Brown and Ybarra by promoting from within (Budd has apparently improved tremendously), getting transfer (Justin Randell via Texas State), and getting an international player (Harry Kelleher). That’s the team-developing trifecta right there, and the end result is senior Ryan Spencer playing #5 singles after playing #1 his first year with the team in 2012. Craziness. Ultimately, the Pats appear to poised to give teams fits again this year, and I have no idea what the strengths and weaknesses of this team are going to be, so I’ll go with the cliche “this team will hurt you where you’re weakest.”

Anyways, this will be the first week we’ll be able to match Tyler up against DIII competition, and there should be a couple dandies in there, so let’s get to the matches:

Wednesday, March 12 vs. Whittier

Right. At this point, we pretty much know what Whittier is bringing to the table. They’ve got great #1 dubs and singles, a great #3 singles player, a streaky #2 singles player, and they struggle with depth. Accordingly, I’m going to say that DK will continue his hot streak, but UT-Tyler will pick the Poets apart at the bottom of the singles lineup, and it will all come down to doubles. So far, the Pats haven’t had much success in doubles, but they might need just one point to win the match, and they’ve dumped their #1 singles player down at #3 doubles a la Emory. Martinez may be an international, but his unorthodox doubles style can still get it done, so I’m going to say that Tyler wins this one 5-4 with wins at #3 doubles, #2 singles, and a sweep of the bottom half of the singles lineup. Either way, it should be a very interesting match, as I’m sure Belletto is hard at work developing his bottom-half guys like he did last year at Pomona.

Thursday, March 13 vs. Stevens

I’m sure this match looked a lot better to Bizot on the schedule when he made it. Stevens was an up-and-coming team sure to keep their national ranking in the new year. Now, it looks like a match in which Tyler has absolutely every thing to lose (especially if they lose to Whittier). Even though I’ve been hyping them up, some people haven’t drunk the Kool Aid yet, and a loss could knock them all the way out of the national rankings. That being said, Stevens looks a little bit like a poor man’s Whittier right now. They have good #1 singles and better doubles than Whittier, but they struggle even more at the bottom of the lineup, and Tyler will be able to just eat away at that. It looks like Stevens needs a sweep to win this match, which isn’t out of the question, but I think Tyler takes at least one doubles match and cruises at the bottom of the singles lineup for a 6-3 victory. I’ll say wins at #1 and #3 doubles and #1 singles for Stevens.

Friday, March 14th vs. Chapman

What is this, a warm up match? I’ve noted that Chapman seems to be much deeper than they have been in years past, but I still don’t think they have the guns to beat Tyler right now. Maybe Bizot scheduled this one as a way to keep them high in the regional rankings in case he wasn’t able to work his transfer/international magic. Either way, I’m going with a dominant 7-2 victory for the Pats. Wins at #2 singles and #2 doubles for the Panthers.

Saturday, March 16th vs. Redlands

Obviously, this and Whittier are the two major matches of the trip for Tyler. I picked the Pats over Whittier because I thought the matchup was favorable, but Redlands is a team that should have the depth to handle the Pats. They didn’t exactly show it in their Indoors trip, but I still believe the Bulldogs to be one of the deeper teams in the second tier. This could prove problematic for the Pats, especially since Tyler doesn’t seem poised to take a doubles lead on the road against the Bulldogs. If Redlands wins 2 of 3 doubles, they really only need to win one match at the bottom of the singles ladder to win the team match, and I think that’s exactly what’s going to happen. In fact, I think Redlands wins #1 and #2 doubles, and follows it up with wins from Lipscomb (#1), Cummins (#2), Jones (#6) and one more to win the match 6-3, preventing the Pats from having an undefeated Spring Break.

All told, this spring break should leave the Pats comfortably within the top 25 as they play out the string to the conference championship. Even though they probably won’t be able to hang with Trinity, they should comfortably win their conference tournament, and everyone will have forgotten about them by the time they show up in the NCAA draw, and people will have to think “Wait, can Tyler challenge Kenyon?” And I’ll be there saying, “Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! They can absolutely challenge Kenyon.” Ehrm… Should be a fun week getting to know one of the weirdest teams in DIII tennis. This is why the West region is so fun: variety. I’m looking at you NE. Shots fired.

#TalonsUp