Whitman
“Whitman freshman.” Get used to seeing those two words next to each other, both in the rest of this post and for the rest of this season. That might not be a great thing against the rest of the nation, but youth certainly served Whitman this weekend.
The top-seeded Whitman freshman, Chase Friedman, had a tournament to forget, losing in the first round and then again in the consolation, but that didn’t stop the rest of the freshmen from showing off. Whitman freshman Robert Carter picked up a nice 3-set win over the #5 seed and advanced to the semis of doubles. Whitman freshman Adam Rapoport tuned the #2 seed, and got a nice 3-set win over Rivers before retiring in the quarterfinals. Whitman freshman Gary Ho gutted out a marathon win over a top 200-player before grinding his next opponent into submission despite the fact that his previous match was about 40 minutes longer than his opponents’. He’s basically a coach’s dream #6 singles player. Whitman freshman Zach Hewlin didn’t do much except win both the singles and doubles tournaments. He recovering nicely from losing a two-break lead in the second set to Malesovas in singles, and teamed with sophomore Jake Hoeger to comeback from dropping the first set in doubles. I love Hewlin’s “Whitman shoulder-chip” potential. Whitman players typically subscribe to the “You Didn’t Recruit Me and Now I’ll Beat You” doctrine, and Hewlin’s a 2-star who leapt up about 200 spots in the rankings over the summer: very La Cava-esque if you ask me.
In other news, Jake Hoeger had a fantastic singles tournament to go with his doubles victory. I fell in love with his doubles game last year, so hopefully he can translate some of that energy to the singles court. Add in Jivkov, Noyes, Locklear, and Diaz (a new name), and it’s gonna be quite a battle for the starting lineup in Walla Walla this year. I’ve named eleven potential starters so far, which makes Whitman look a lot like a less-experienced version of Pomona-Pitzer. I don’t know if I like the idea of replacing La Cava and Roston with freshmen, especially in the doubles lineup, which is why Rivers and Malesovas will be absolutely instrumental for Whitman this year. They’ll have to put poor tournaments behind them and lead by example on the doubles court. Either way, Whitman should be stronger in deep singles, and if they can put things together in the offseason, they could be poised for another top 15 finish.
The Other Guys
Pacific
The Boxers really impressed me in their first round of singles. Depth is usually a problem for Northwest conference teams, but they managed to get 8 players out of the first round while having a non-seeded player (Wight) upset Whitman’s highest-seeded freshman in the first round. That never would’ve been possible for any NWC team a couple years ago, but the Boxers showed some depth here.
Things turned sour in a hurry from there, however, as Pacific went 1 for 8 in the second round, with two of their seeded players losing to Whitman freshmen. Doubles didn’t add much more reason for optimism, as only one of their teams got out of the first day, but that team did make the semifinals (they’ve had a doubles team in the semis each of the past two years as well). Moving forward, it looks like the Boxers will have to rely on their depth if they want to keep the #2 spot in the conference. They’ll also need a big year from Battaglia, as it looks like both of their conference rivals will be stronger at the top this year.
Lewis and Clark
I’m sure Coach Dreves fancied his chances placing someone in the finals or at least the semis this year. After all, his 3-star recruit from last year was the #2 seed, had a win over Malesovas on his record, and seemed to have a favorable draw, while his prized freshman recruit had the highest TRN ranking in the region. Both of his studs were shot down by Whitman freshmen, but that doesn’t mean the Pios don’t have a lot to be positive about. Despite failing to get a single player into the quarters, they got 6 players through to the second round and clearly have a strong nucleus. Their top two guys had disappointing tournaments, but their #3 player took Malesovas to a tiebreaker in the first set, their #5 player took a set off one of Whitman’s 3-star sophomores, and their #6 player took a semifinalist to 3-sets in the first round. They didn’t do much in the way of doubles, but this team is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was last year.
The Pios are still a year or two away from seriously challenging Whitman, but Coach Dreves must be the John Calipari of DIII tennis when it comes to recruiting. He’s somehow convinced multiple 3-stars to come play for a no-name team in a bubble for four years on both the men’s and women’s side. The key for them will be getting their doubles up to snuff. With a lot of young guys in their lineup, that might be tough. It looks like they’ve got a match with Pomona-Pitzer on their schedule, which is cool, but these Northwest Conference teams really need to be scheduling matches with teams like Stevens, MIT, Depauw, Washington and Lee, and Whitewater if they want to sneak into the bottom of the national rankings.
George Fox
The Bruins’ tournament got off to a pretty ominous start. Only three of their players made the second round, and those that lost, for the most part, were slaughtered. Fox turned things around quickly from there, however, as they managed to get a player in the semis and another in the quarters. Andy You, supposedly their third best player, tallied nice wins over Diaz from Whitman and Battaglia from Pacific before going down to an injury semis. Liley, meanwhile, had one nice come-from-behind victory over Jivkov before succumbing to cramps against a Whitman freshman. They had more of the same in doubles, as only on team made it out of the first round, but the team that did made it to the quarters and put a scare into Hewlin and Hoeger.
Looking forward, the Bruins will have to rely pretty heavily on those top three if they’re going to compete in the NWC. They’re looking like the 4th best team in the conference to me, though they could easily beat Lewis and Clark or Pacific on the right day.
Any idea on who Andy You is? Freshman? What a huge run he made all the way to the semis taking out a guy from Whitman and Pacific’s #1. Seems like he’s going to be a huge threat in the NWC excited to see what he does.
I’m pretty sure he’s a transfer from Hope International, but I’m really not sure. That being said, it’s hard to tell how impressive his run really was.
http://www.tennisrecruiting.net/player.asp?id=469211
Negatives: He was the 3rd seeded player on his own team behind Liley and Watanabe. He barely got past the first round. Then, with Whitman’s #1 freshman laying an egg in the first round, he only had to beat the #12 player (or so) on Whitman’s roster (in three close sets) to get to the quarterfinals.
Positives: Routine win over Battaglia. Took Hewlin to a tiebreaker in the first set.
It will be very interesting to see how he does this season, but unless Fox’s schedule is considerably better than it has been, he won’t have a chance to do much.