A Very SCIAC Recap: April 4-6

I’d like to start off this recap by apologizing to all of my adoring fans. I missed two huge matches this weekend, and, quite frankly, that’s Bush League. This isn’t a snarky D3West non-apology; this is an actual apology. Anyways, to the recaps.

P-P def. Redlands 6-3

This was a great win for the Hens that solidified their Pool C position. The West isn’t in a very favorable position right now because of its collective interregional results, but the Hens have done enough to stay in that 7th spot for Pool C, and they are really in control of their own destiny. With their singles depth looking more and more impressive, I don’t see any SCIAC team usurping them, but they have to stay vigilant.

The bigger story of the match is really the Cummins injury. With or without the injury, I think P-P was going to win the match, but Redlands losing Cummins is basically the equivalent of Cal Lu losing Worley last year. Without him, they are just a completely different team, and it really showed on Saturday against Cal Lu. The two losses this weekend essentially ended Redlands’ post-season aspirations. One loss to P-P could have been remedied by a win in the SCIAC tournament, but the two losses will be too much to overcome. In the end, I think this Redlands season was really delayed by terrible injury luck. By the end of the season, three very key players will have missed significant time with injuries (Wilson, Cummins, and Hunt). If they had been healthy, there’s no doubt in my mind that they would’ve beaten Williams, CMU, or P-P, which would’ve been enough to get them into Pool C. So it goes…

CMS def. Cal Lu 9-0

Good call by me saying that Cal Lu’s best chance for a point outside of Cardenas was #2 doubles, right? (For those who aren’t going to click the link, they lost 8-0). Anyways, the only real story here is that #1 singles match once against. Wood has been an absolute beat in tiebreakers this season. He’s 7-0 and his tiebreaker wins against Deuel, Lipscomb, and Cardenas are the difference between him having an undefeated season and looking like an “OK” #1 singles player. Dude can flip the switch.

CMS def. P-P 8-1

I guess the main takeaway from this match is that P-P can get up and play doubles when they are really fired up. The Sagehens came the closest out of anyone this year to taking a lead on the Stags, and that’s a minicomplishment in and of itself. Unfortuantely, the Stags are just too dominant in singles right now. With Marino back in the lineup and Morkovine hitting his stride, there’s really nothing P-P could do to stop the CMS juggernaut even if they had taken a doubles lead, and it might have been a little depressing for them to see their season’s eventual and inevitable end first-hand. The interesting storyline to follow in the coming weeks is whether or not Marino can sneak into the NCAA tournament as a #3 singles player. I’ll cover that in This Week In SCIAC.

Cal Lutheran def. Redlands 8-1

During the Saturday madness, D3NE asked me, with Redlands losing and Bowdoin looking vulnerable, who would be next in line for Pool C? The answer is Chicago. Yeah, Chicago. The Maroons now have wins over Depauw, Denison, and Cal Lu to go with an indirect over Redlands and a loss to UW-W that the selection committee is bound to ignore in May. The Maroons also have the best chance at picking up a signature win later this season, as they still have matches against Case, Wash U, and a potential UAA 3rd-place match. That’s three chances they have to win themselves a Pool C spot. Right now, all of these teams are on the outside looking in.

Meanwhile, Cal Lutheran really seems to be rounding into form. Cardenas had two very nice matches this weekend. Even though he lost to Wood (just barely), he picked up another key win over Lipscomb to prove his elite-ness and lock himself into a top 8 spot (if he wasn’t locked in already). It’s obvious that their top 2 in singles in doubles is extremely solid (see previous article), but their singles depth is continuously improving, particularly Fergus Scott, who has come out of nowhere to have three ranked wins this season. They’ve got two huge matches this weekend against P-P and UCSC, and they need to win them both if they want any chance at all at an outside Pool C bid, which would be a long shot even if they win out.

That’s it. Keep an eye out on Thursday for “This Week In SCIAC” with special guest appearances from Trinity, Tyler, and UCSC.