It looks like it is my turn to step it up for the blog. I get a message from ASouth at 11 PM asking if I can do the preview. The things I do for these guys. I guess he still owes me 50 bucks so I should be nice to him. Anyways, it was a crazy day of tennis with both the UAA conference tournament and the Ojai tourney. Much props to Ballou for helping us out in Cali and I look forward to reading his previews for tomorrow. Anyways, I will briefly recap the UAA semis and then do a final preview. Here goes nothing!
Wash U 7 Case Western 2
I must say I am a little disappointed in the Spartans, but only because I think they didn’t show the fight and grit that we are accustom to. Clearly I wasn’t there in person so I could be wrong, but they had some chances to make this a match, but didn’t pull through. As I mentioned in my tweet, I got every doubles match wrong so I must be the expert of all things Central. It just goes to show that with doubles, anything can happen. The new combo at 3 dubs in Stuerke/Fojtasek stepped it up for Case and got the lone win. In singles, one and two went exactly as planned. Putterman got crushed by Krimball and Wash U’s true #1 Carswell beat Drougas. That second set was a must for Case, but they didn’t pull it off. I expected the rest of the matches to go to Wash U with the exception of 4 singles and Reinbold blew leads in both sets. Case has to be better if they want to pull off any upsets in the future. Wash U needs to keep doing what they are doing.
Carnegie 6 Emory 3
While I picked Emory before the match, I am not terribly shocked at the upset. What I am shocked about is Carnegie swept dubs! WHAT? Carnegie is terrible at doubles! Either they have been putting in crazy hours to make them better or they just all happened to click on the right day. I am sure they have been working hard, but I think today was just one of those days where it all worked. One and two doubles both won when it was 5-5 at 3 so I think the team momentum gave the Tartans the fire to sweep. When that happens, you aren’t going to beat a singles lineup with the fire power of CMU. I actually told ASouth that I thought Emory could take 5 of the singles matches and they almost did losing 2 of them in three sets. It would have been an epic comeback that is for sure. Carnegie has got to be rolling in final with a ton of confidence and they are a dangerous team that is a force to be reckoned with.
Final Preview
Wash U vs. Carnegie Mellon
This is a rematch of the first round of the stag-hen invite back in March that Wash U took down 6-3. What the scoreline doesn’t show is two factors that are important things to note. The first is Wash U swept the doubles. Carnegie can’t afford to have that happen again to beat the Bears. Secondly, Wash U won all of their singles matches in three sets. What this shows is there is a huge opening for the Tartans to exploit and pull off another upset in two days. Right now we will see who has the fitness to win in the toughest conference in the country. Yes I said it. Here is my breakdown of each match:
1 Doubles: Putterman/Bush vs. Heaney Secord/Duncan
Advantage Wash U. Yes the Carnegie team is playing well and beating Emory at one is huge, but this is Wash U we are talking about. Putterman and Bush are a national title contender in doubles and should be able to take down this streaking Carnegie team.
2 Doubles: Carswell/Cogan vs. Kirkov/Beisswanger
Advantage Wash U. This is a different combination than Carswell and Cogan beat back in March, but I think they are clicking on all cylinders especially after beating Drougas and Healey from Case who is a formidable duo to say the least. I think CMU has a shot here, but only a small one.
3 Doubles: Hirsch/Chu vs. Kumar/Zheng
Advantage CMU. CMU has their best chance at 3 doubles? That doesn’t make much sense considering they were probably the one team least likely to win today. However, as much as I am trending up on Wash U at 1 and 2 doubles, I am trending down on them at 2. The new tandem takes a close pro-set. If it goes to a breaker, I will always favor Wash U however.
1 singles:Putterman vs. Alla
Alla wins. Enough said. Putterman shouldn’t be playing 1 singles. Plain and simple. I’m sure Alla is tired after today’s match, but I still think he wins! But he has to be well enough to play.
2 singles: Carswell vs. Heaney-Secord
Carswell wins. Heaney-Secord is really good most days and can beat just about anyone. However, Carswell has yet to be beaten this year and should always be counted on for a win. It’s hard to argue with that.
3 singles: Bush vs. Duncan
Bush wins. This one was an absolute battle the first time around. Bush won in 3 very close sets over Duncan. It’s really hard to pick against a guy who has already beaten someone and I am not going to do it here either, but I expect another epic scoreline.
4 singles: Noack vs. Kirkov
Kirkov wins. Noack must have worn down his opponent today as he came back from being down in both sets to take the victory. Kirkov’s fitness will play a big part in this match as Noack is the last player you would want to play if you are tired. If he still is able to play at a high level, I think he wins. They should have plenty of recovery time to return to form.
5 singles: Kratky vs. Zheng
Zheng wins. Zheng took a loss today which I am sure is weighing on him a bit. This really will be a test to see how he bounces back. I just don’t think Kratky is as good as he needs to be to take down Zheng at five.
6 singles: Chu vs. Wadwani
Chu pulled out a close three setter in the last one and I think the match will come down to this spot again. Either player could win and it should be a tight match the whole way!
Well according to the match by match comparison, I have it being 4-4 with six singles to be decided. Coach Follmer gives his team a win with his coaching so I am saying Wash U takes this 5-4. If one of the CMU guys gets taken out after today’s barn burner, then this is a definite win for WashU.
D3ASouth Takes on Case/Emory
Ha! F all of y’all I’m here to take on the third place preview. This is going to be a quick one (I want to drink) but obviously this is a match between two top 10 teams that needs to be semi-previewed. First off, big ups to Wash U and CMU today, really amazing tennis and now they are both rewarded. Imma hit you with a fun fact for this one – Emory has three losses on the year. Emory has been swept in doubles in all three of those losses. In addition, Emory has never missed the finals of UAA. Well, now they have. Now, they play a Case team that is upset about their performance today and has the tools for a doubles sweep. This one could get ugly. You may be surprised with my pick and I don’t really care. It’s go time.
Like I said, Case has the tools to upset Emory. Why? Because they have a sick doubles lineup with a new #3 team that took the match from Wash U. I’ll tell you right now that I’m picking the second sweep in two days for Emory as Case comes out big and throttles Emory at every single spot. I just have a feeling that Emory will be a bit sluggish while Case never comes out sluggish. The swing match in doubles will be at #1 doubles, because Ruderman/Wagner is by far Emory’s best team at the moment. That being said, Case has the doubles fundamentals to take every one. I think they do, and Case goes up 3-0.
Moving onto singles, this becomes a question of “Where does Case win the singles matches?” Let’s keep in mind that Case didn’t really have a tough day today in singles because they got beat pretty handily by Wash U. This bodes well for them now that they have a tired Emory team that just suffered a heartbreaker. So, where do I think they’ll get the spots? First off, I’m going to say Mr. Derek Reinbold comes up big time against the suddenly vulernable Ian Wagner. Wagner lost some steam in today’s third set and is coming off two losses now. In my eyes, the confidence is down for this player and Reinbold will come out swinging. This one will be close and might be three sets, but Reinbold is the winner. The next match I have for Case is… at #1 singles. Krimbill has the fatigue advantage once again as he plastered Putterman today. Meanwhile, Ruderman grinded with Alla in a three setter where both kids were extremely tired. Krimbill comes out to prove himself as one of the best players in DIII and beats Ruderman in straights. For the rest of the matches, I don’t see Emory having a problem winning. One spot to watch is Will Adams at #6, where he took an injury timeout today and had trouble closing the match. That ended up being his downfall as he lost. Watch out for Healey because if he gets hot who knows what can happen. Overall, I’m picking a 5-4 win for Case as they come home with the third place trophy that they wanted out of this tournament.
ASouth, OUT.
test