A Mini Recap of NCAAs

Phew! Aren’t you glad that’s over? No? Me neither! Now it’s time for some serious withdrawal. Luckily, the writers will be working hard to try and avoid that wretched end of season feeling with recaps, previews, interviews, and of course, RANKINGS! My first post-NCAA piece will be something like a recap where I detail a few things that went well, a few people who can learn from the experience, and the amazing seniors who had the good-fortune (yes, good fortune, even for those who lost) of ending their careers at Nationals. As always, please email me at @D3Northeast@gmail.com if you have any questions, concerns, or just wanna chat. ENJOY!

WINNERS OF THE WEEK

Amherst

Well, this one seems pretty self-explanatory. Amherst cruised by a tough Emory team, overcame a sweep at the hands of Trinity Texas, and upset CMS to win it all. Even if we move on from their team glory (why would we ever want to do that?) the Jeffs still own a singles championship in Joey Fritz, and a doubles semifinalist in Fritz and Reindel. All in all, the week could not have gone any better for the Jeffs. I’ll delve a bit deeper into both Amherst and our next winner in my NE NCAAs recap.

Joey Fritz

Ok, technically that’s not true. Fritz was a few sets away from equaling one of the toughest feats in all of NCAA athletics, the Triple-Crown. That being said, this week all Joey could’ve dreamed and more. He was the clinching match in the NCAA Team Finals AND he cruised through the Singles bracket and finished off the title with a demolition of the Nation’s top ranked player. No single player accomplished more this season than good old Joey. Simply put, he was a man on a mission.

Trinity Texas

While the Tigers may have been left reeling after blowing a 3-0 lead vs. the eventual National Champs, they should still be VERY proud of all they accomplished this week. This team sent Wash U packing in the quarters, a feat no other team has managed in nearly a decade. This team played the National Champs closer than any other team in the tournament. This team fought back to beat a very good Middlebury team and take home the 3^rd place trophy. This team deserves some major props. Thankfully some have been given to both Coach McMindes and Mr. Moreno.

Joe Dorn

While no CMS fan will be happy with their week, Mr. Dorn does deserve his fair share of praise. Joe did not lose a match for the Stags at during the team portion of NCAAs. Mr. Facial Hair (an award in which Pierre Planche comes in a close 2^nd for his dirty stache, but Dorn gets the nod for the Fu Manchu/beard combo) won dubs vs. Hopkins, Midd, and Amherst, and beat Chris Dale in the Team Finals. Dorn was also up 6-1, 5-4 on Ben Hwang from Amherst when CMS clinched, and he fought back from a 6-2 set down to force a 3^rd set vs. Brantner Jones. This was actually just as important as anything else that happened in that match because it totally swung the momentum. In the Individual Singles competition, Dorn took down Carswell, Loutsenko, and Heerboth en route to a semifinal exit at the hands of Wood.

Claremont-Biszantz Tennis Center & DIII Fans

Let’s be honest, this was a GREAT tournament. It had it all, team matches that went down to the wire, major upsets, awesome Individual tournaments, and so much more. Both the NCAA and the Claremont staff did a marvelous job running this tournament. Everything seemed to run without a hitch, which is nearly impossible. CMS has the weather, the courts, the facilities, and the benefit of having Pomona’s courts right next-door for practicing. A job-well-done to any and everyone who had a hand in the production of this year’s tournament!

UNDERCLASSMEN WHO WILL LEARN FROM THEIR “NCAAs” EXPERIENCE

The other writers and I have said it again and again, experience is one of the most important things come NCAA time. Obviously, anyone who has even been to Nationals gained something from their experience, but here are select few who I believe will very much benefit from their NCAA experience this year. This list is in alphabetical order.

Skyler Butts (CMS)

For most of this year, we all thought of Butts as totally untouchable at #4. His only two losses before this week came to a player who at the time was the #1 player in the entire country (Alla at Small College Nationals and Wood in the Ojai Semis. Let me repeat, Skyler did not lose a singles dual-match ALL YEAR LONG! Then something funny happened, Ari Smolyar took a quick 6-1 set in the NCAA semifinal. It was just the 8^th set that Butts’ dropped all season long. I’ve heard that Ari played some brilliant tennis and that Skyler just didn’t have it that day. But even after being down match points to Mr. Smolyar, Butts still somehow (even on his worst day) came back to win the match. We learned a lot about him from his fight that day, and I believe he will come back next year as a stronger player. He will have a few demons to exorcise; especially after a 1^st round exit in both singles and doubles. Rumor is that he will be focusing on tennis this summer (something of a rarity these days) and my guess is that next year at this time we’ll be talking about Mr. Butts in a very different light.

Michael Buxbaum (Hopkins)

The NCAA Gods did not smile down on Mike this week. In their team match, Buxbaum had to deal with a fresh Wood for both singles and doubles. While he did rock the backwards cap, Warren got the better of the freshman in both cases. At the Individuals portion of the week, Buxy again was given a tough draw (though there are no easy matches) in Nik Marino and an Amherst team led by none other than Mr. DIII-2014 himself, Joey Fritz. The freshman had an outstanding year, and he should be an anchor at the top of Hopkins’ lineup for a long time now (though the Blue Jays have a somewhat disturbing trend of young guns playing #1 and moving down in the lineup in future years). The doubles team of Buxbaum and Walsh will continue to grow and should remain a force for years to come.

John Carswell (Wash U)

Tough week for the freshman. Much like Mr. Butts, Young Master Carswell had been the closest thing to a lock outside of a Baldwin factory.  Johnny-Boy didn’t lose a singles match to a DIII opponent all year long (his only DIII loss came to teammate, Jeremy Bush, at the semis of their Fall ITA. He won a number a 3 setters and super tiebreakers, and anyone who’s anyone knows that the kid is a fighter. So the rumors of him playing through a high fever come as no surprise. Unfortunate timing for Coach Follmer and the Bears, but give Haugen, Coach McMindes, and the Tigers all the credit in the world for pulling off the quarterfinal upset. In the Individual Singles, Carswell drew an opponent he had already beaten this year in Joe Dorn. However, the last time they played, Carswell narrowly escaped with two tight tiebreaker victories. Joe exacted his revenge on Carswell this time, and sent the freshman packing for the summer. John will undoubtedly use this past week as motivation for next year’s campaign. The Bears only graduate one singles (Noack) and one doubles player (Hirsh) from this year’s team, and should be one of the country’s best in 2015.

David Konstantinov (Whittier)

As you all may have been able to determine, the theme here is great players who had mediocre NCAAs. DK is certainly included on that list. Sputnik had a great regular season, including a ridiculous run where he went 9-0 and dropped a total of 33 games (including wins over Scandalis, Dancu,  Martinez, LaBarre, and Malesovas. DK also played the big boys tough this year, splitting his matches with Wood and Lipscomb. I had the Russian Rocket pegged for a big run at NCAAs, but he ended up bowing out to Halpern in the 2^nd round. No shame in losing to Halpern, but the Poet couldn’t be pleased with that outcome, especially considering he almost won in straight sets while cramping. In the Doubles competition, Konstantinov and Schommer did earn All-American status with a 1^st round win, but the two blew a set and 4-1 lead over Amherst in the quarterfinals. This was DK’s 2^nd blown lead in as many days, and he let everyone at the Biszantz know just how frustrated he was. It was tough to watch. If he keeps his head on straight, DK will be one of the top players in the country next year, and there’s no reason to think otherwise.

Warren Wood (CMS)

Technically Wood doesn’t count as an Underclassmen, but he fits the rest of the category so well that I couldn’t leave him off my list. Warren was pretty easily the consensus #1 player in the country entering NCAAs. He had beaten some of the best players in the country with relative ease, and won every close match that he had played (including an 8-0 record in tiebreaks during the year). He had taken a couple of losses on the year (Micheli and Konstantiov) but he went into NCAAs as at least a part of the #1 overall seed for all 3 events (Team, Singles, and Doubles). You all know the team story, Wood fell to Fritz in 3-sets and Amherst took home the hardware. As for the Individual tournaments, Warren played some great singles only to get smoked in the finals by Fritz again, and the team of Wood/Dorn lost in the 1^st round of the doubles. 3 #1 seeds and no trophies must be very difficult to swallow. LUCKILY, Warren has another year coming. If there were anything in the world to motivate a person, I’d have to imagine it would be back to back 2^nd place finishes. Wood will be the pre-season favorite to win it all next year, and I personally can’t wait to see what he brings to the court next year.

SENIORS WHOSE CAREERS CAME TO AN END IN CALIFORNIA THIS WEEK

One of the biggest goals of THE BLOG is to get the athletes the recognition we all feel they deserve. So with that in mind, I’m going to take a minute to recognize all the seniors who ended their careers this week in California. I’m sure there were some seniors who made the trip out with their team even though they didn’t get to play (for example I know that guys like Brenton Arnaboldi and Teddy Fitzgibbons were out there cheering on their guys). Each writer will be doing team season-recaps and each senior will most certainly get a mention in those articles. If I missed a player who started this week, please accept my most humble apologies. Feel free to comment below. Hats off gentlemen, thank you for your service to your teams and your fans!

Ayush Bajoria (Emory)

Byron Balkin (UW-Whitewater)

Timmy Berg (Bates)

Chris Dale (Amherst)

Joey Fritz (Amherst)

Greg Haugen (Trinity Tx)

John Healey (Case Western)

Jeffrey Hirsh (Wash U)

Jackson Isaacs (Emory)

Alex Johnston (Middlebury)

Brantner Jones (Middlebury)

Eric Klawitter (Case Western)

Danny Knight (Skidmore)

Ben Kopecky (Depauw)

Neel Kotrapa (CMS)

Andrew La Cava (Whitman)

Simon Lavoie-Perusse (Emory)

Andrew Lebovitz (Middlebury)

Oliver Loutsenko (Skidmore)

Matt Micheli (Williams)

Sam Miles (Depauw)

Nicolas Moreno (Trinity Tx)

Tim Noack (Wash U)

Zhenya Pereverzin (CMS)

Derek Reinbold (Case Western)

Justin Reindel (Amherst)

Chris Schommer (Whittier)

Steven Wu (NYU)