ASouth ITA Recap – Emory & UMW Regions

Last one to post previews, probably the last one to post a recap.  It’s ASouth here as always, looking to educate the masses on everything that goes on in the most entertaining region in the nation.  Not sure if I believe that, but let’s just say I do for now.  In this post, I’ll actually be recapping both the South and Southeast ITAs, because it’s all a big happy family.  The ITAs this weekend were obviously exciting, considering they always are, and we learned a whole lot about the teams that are the cream of the crop.  We also learned a good amount about some of the average/medium teams in the region, which is something that really stood out to me about the tournament.  Unfortunately for the lower ranked teams, too many people get knocked out early for us to really learn too much about them.   But, I’ll give it my best shot.  I’ll be doing this recap much differently than my fellow bloggers because no one wants to read the same thing over and over.  I want to make this a more intimate, individual type recap considering the ITAs is.. you know… an individual tournament.  Anyways, I’ll be doing this article “Risers and Fallers” style, kind of like how they throw Tony Romo under the bus every week.  That kind of thing.

Risers

Alex Ruderman, Emory – It just makes sense to say that the biggest riser in the ASouth was potentially the best player, Ruderman.  Ruderman took out a ton of his teammates in the Emory ITA (Halpern, Mosetick, others) and eventually won the singles championship fairly handily.  Not only that, but him and Wagner looked the part of a #1 doubles team by taking out a strong NCW team in the finals of the doubles bracket.  Starting off the year with two ITA wins is pretty huge for Ruderman, who quickly washed away the sour taste of last year’s NCAA tournament loss to Cardenas.

Senior Alex Ruderman just won his first ITA singles title 7-6, 6-4

— Emory Men's Tennis (@EUtennis) September 28, 2014

Hopkins Top of the Lineup – This was another good tournament as expected for the Hopkins top of the lineup.  Led by the double ITA championship of Michael Buxbaum, Hopkins was able to capture their notoriously tough regional in both singles and doubles.  I believe Buxbaum is the youngest player in Hopkins history to capture the Men’s singles title, and he successfully defended a championship with his sophomore partner, Emerson Walsh.  The Jays have to feel great about the young talent they have right now.  Additionally, Hopkins #2 player, Ben Hwang, showed no signs of rustiness or a summer off (not saying he did) and made it all the way to the semifinals, which seems to be status quo for the senior.  Although he lost to Alla of CMU in a pretty routine match, the Jays can count on him to be a rock solid #2 once again this year.

North Carolina Wesleyan – Well, we were all wondering about what the internationals were going to bring to the table this year, and it looks like they’re bringing us a three course meal.   They’ve returned Kjellberg, who apparently still isn’t 100% as he lost to Conor Winkler of Sewanee.  Hopefully, Robert will get healthy for the spring season so we can actually say he’s at full strength for the first time since Ebola wasn’t in the United States.  The story of the tournament for NCW had to be their next two guys, Sebastian Sikh and Fabio Periera.  Both had solid tournaments, with Sikh making the quarterfinals before eventually losing to Rafe Mosetick, and Periera making the round of 16 eventually losing to an Emory freshman in three tough sets.  It looks like NCW is back in business and should be in the top 25 this year.

Tyler Carey, Mary Washington – Tyler Carey always seems to go under the radar around these parts, which is mostly my fault.  However, Carey quietly crushed his quarter of the draw, losing no more than 3 games in any set.  When he went up against his toughest opponent Noah Joachim, he came back from a set down to take the second and third 6-0, 6-2.  Great showing of resilience from the senior Carey, who is looking like a lock for the individual tournament at the end of the year and a tough out for any of the top players slated against him during the season.  Here’s to hoping Carey has a good winter and comes back in the Spring with the momentum he gained from the ITA tournament.

Ian Wagner, Emory – This is a really big year for Ian Wagner.  After being a stellar player for his first two years at Emory, Wagner wasn’t up to his normal level of play last year, as he wasn’t the guarantee that everyone thought he would be.  Being a senior should change him back to his normal winning cadence and it looks like the ITA was a good start for him.  Wagner took out Avery SChober and Conor Winkler of Sewanee in straight sets before losing to Halpern in the semifinals of the tournament.  Not bad for a #3 player this year, eh.

Carnegie Mellon’s Doubles – While the singles portion of the tournament was mostly status quo for the Tartans, some props are in order for their doubles play over the weekend.  It wasn’t the most impressive performance, but it looks like they are worlds ahead of where they were last year.  They had two teams in the quarterfinals, and the highlight was the Beisswanger/Kumar team making the finals and coming within a third set tiebreaker of beating the defending champions Buxbaum/Walsh of Hopkins.  This was a huge surprise considering that team was not a strong team at #2 last year.  It looks there have been improvements in doubles over in Pittsburgh.

The ASouth Finals – Holy shittttt.  If you weren’t present at the matches or following on twitter, you missed nail biters in both the singles and doubles finals of the Mary Washington ITA.  Let me take you through this.  In singles, it was a matchup between Buxbaum and Alla, who were far and away the best players in the tournament.  Buxbaum came back from down 5-2 in the first set to win that set in a breaker (at love, no less) before losing the second set 6-2.  That’s when the fireworks happened.  The two traded breaks in an up and down set before Buxbaum finally finished things off on his serve at 5-4 up.  Thing is, Bux wasn’t done.  The doubles final was even better.  Buxbaum/Walsh and Beisswanger/Kumar split sets, which of course, ended up in a third set tiebreaker.  I’m fairly sure that Beisswanger/Kumar had three match points up 5-4, and then when they gave that up, Buxbaum/Walsh broke them to go up 6-5.  But it was not meant to be, as CMU came back and this thing went all the way to 8-6 in the breaker for the Hopkins team.  This was a sick match to watch, even on twitter.  I even skipped the Jay-Z and Beyonce On the Run special to follow it, and that’s dedication.

CMU Twitter Vocabulary – One of the highlights of the tournament for the bloggers was the interesting vocabulary used by CMU whenever they held serve after breaking.  For example, the tweet below:

Break perpetuated. 5-2

— Carnegie Mellon Tennis (@cmutennis) September 29, 2014

By my count, the words “perpetuated, consolidated, fortified, and secured” were all used.  And by the way D3West, no other account uses that vocabulary on twitter. So, suck it.

Neither Rise Nor Fall

Carnegie Mellon – This was a pretty normal tournament for CMU.  I had expected more because I think this is a team on the rise, but they had a few tough outs (Kirkov to Joachim) and really went status quo the whole tournament.  One of the championships would have been nice, but it wasn’t meant to be.  I would like to point out that Christian Heaney-Secord, their All-American #2 player from last year, did not play in the tournament.  I would expect him to play doubles with Duncan and be a force.  Not sure where he is, but I hope if he’s studying abroad he’s ready to come back and give this team a boost into the top 5.

Eric Halpern, Emory – Another year, another year in which Halpern didn’t get the ITA championship, but it’s not like that’s a huge disappointment.  He did express his disappointment on twitter (I see you) but you can always find me on the Halpern bandwagon.  This kid is motivated and an aggressor on the court, and that’s the kind of winning attitude that gets bred at Emory.  Expect a big season at #2 for Halpern for the Eagles.

Preliminary ASouth Rankings – Despite a lot of drama in terms of matchplay, there was nothing really that surprising that came out of either ITA.  Hopkins won their ITA in singles and doubles, but CMU was right with them for most of the way.  That’s a big rivalry to watch.  Mary Washington looks like a team that will hover around the 20s once again.  Meanwhile, Emory, NCW, and Sewanee proved they are the only teams worth thinking about the top 30.  All other teams didn’t see a breakthrough from any players and were unable to prove that they will take big steps forward.

Fallers

Evan Charles, Mary Washington – Man, this was a disappointing tournament for Evan Charles.  After being named someone to watch for in my preview, Charles went out and ended up losing in the first round of the main draw losing to Daniel Albers of Salisbury.  Now, Albers is a tough player don’t get me wrong, but I thought Charles would be able to come through.  In doubles, Charles and Carey were the #2 seed and ended up losing to Dubin/Weissler of Hopkins.  Tough tournament for Charles and I still have faith, but a little bit less nowadays.

Washington and Lee Generals – What in the world happened to Washington and Lee this tournament?  They had two players that were expected to at least make the Round of 16, Shamshiri and Michael Holt.  Well, Shamshiri lost to a player Bridgewater College, who lost the next round to a relatively unknown Mary Wash player.  That player then lost to Noah Joachim.  Not a great showing there.  Meanwhile, Holt lost to Edward Corty of Hopkins, which isn’t a terrible loss, but not one that I’d expect out of Holt.  W&L also had a seed in doubles that went out to a relatively unknown CMU team.  Overall, there is lots of work to be done from the Generals if they want to stay in the top 30.

Robert Kjellberg, NCW – I touted this guy like no other before the tournament because I figured a whole year not on the college circuit would get this kid back to full health.  Instead, he comes back not 100% and gets ousted by Winkler of Sewanee.  Although Winkler is a good player, Kjellberg is an ex-runner up from the Fall Nationals.  The fate of NCW’s season really depends on Kjellberg being the top 5 #1 he used to be.  Right now, he’s trending down.

Tanner Brown, Hopkins – Yikes. A first round loss for last year’s #1 seed.  It would be okay if he lost in the first round to a player who actually made it to the quarters, but that didn’t happen.  Hopkins only potential weakness might be the middle of the lineup right now as Brown and Dubin disappointed.  Also, Erik Lim did not participate in the tournament.  Uh oh…

The Lower Ranked Teams – Despite a few seeds here and there, there was no breakthrough from the lower ranked teams like we normally see.  In the Mary Wash ITA, there were 3 quarterfinalists from Hopkins and CMU and 2 from Mary Washington.  The Emory ITA saw 6 players from Emory and 1 each from NCW and Sewanee.  Notice how I’ve talked about all of those teams already in this article.  It’s tough to give these teams attention when we haven’t seen any big steps from people for the past two years.  Maybe next year.

Jack Kasbeer, CMU – Asouth giveth, ASouth taketh away.  I thought Kasbeer had a chance to surprise a lot of people in the tournament given his spring semester off, but he definitely disappointed in his first go round.  It sucks that he got a semifinalist in the first round, but a 6-1, 6-3 loss isn’t really any cause for excitement.  In doubles, he teamed with doubles powerhouse William Duncan and proceeded to lose to Christopher Newport’s #1 team.  Not a good showing considering Duncan is like a three time All American at #1 doubles.  Things keep going this way, Kasbeer is going to be taking a semester off from the starting lineup in the spring (aaaaaaaaayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee).

NCW’s Twitter Presence – New estimated time for NCW’s twitter presence is 2025.

D3West – What a chump, amirite?

The Timeliness of My Articles – I would like to take this time to apologize for getting previews out very late and obviously this recap about a week after the tournament.  Things have been busy around these parts but I’m doing my very best.

Final Thoughts

I’ve really covered a ton of things in this article but the ASouth is looking like a very competitive region at the top this year.  I actually think this region could have three top 5 teams if everything works out correctly.  We have three of the best players in the nation in Ruderman, Alla, and Buxbaum.  Sewanee looks like it’s on the rise with a great performance from Winkler and some solid performances out of Schober, Roddy, and others.  NCW is back in the hunt and will easily win their conference this year.  Overall, it’s just a good time to be in the Atlantic South.  And with that, ASouth, OUT.