Women’s New England and Northeast ITA Recaps!!!

New England Recap

I am seriously late with my review and am expecting a big cut in my salary, but following the format of my counterpart, @D3Northeast, I did a report card for each regionally ranked (from the spring) team in the New England and Northeast ITA regionals. Let’s start with the much stronger of the two regionals, the New England Regional. First let me say that this freshmen class is a pretty impressive group. 25 of the 64 singles players in the New England regional were freshmen; 5 of 8 quarterfinalists were freshmen!!! Let me also say that the play of the Williams team was also impressive. Not only did they win both the singles and doubles draws but they had 4 of the 8 quarterfinalists in singles and 2 of the semifinalists in doubles. Barring injuries, Williams should have a great shot at getting back to the winners podium at NCAAs. Without further ado, here is my report card.

#1 Amherst
Grade: B-

Graduation hit the national runner ups hard. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a national caliber team, but they will have to rebuild big time. Freshman Vicki Ip seems to be the new #1 for this team. She made it all the way to quarterfinals and just barely missed a spot in the semifinals by losing in 3 sets to fellow freshman Aandrita Deb from Tufts. Hard hitting Sue Ghosh and an improved Simone Aisiks (who saw little to no playing time last year) will probably round out the top 3. In doubles, Ghosh/Ip made it all the way to the semifinals before losing to the eventual runner ups from Bowdoin.

#2 Williams
Grade: A

Williams totally dominated this tournament, it wasn’t even close. They had 8 players in the singles draw and 4 teams in the doubles draw. Half of the singles quarterfinalists were Williams players. Both finalists in singles (Shin def Raventos 6-1, 7-6(5)) were from Williams. Seniors Curran/Pylypiv took the doubles crown.

#3 Bowdoin
Grade: C+

Bowdoin was not able to get any players into the singles round of 16 (when was the last time THAT happened??) BUT they did advance a doubles team all the way to the finals and that team will be playing in the Small College Nationals (the Williams team declined, as they have a dual match v Amherst this weekend.) I understand players may be abroad for the fall, but they will have to toughen up their singles in order to be competitive for the top spots in the NESCAC.

#4 Middlebury
Grade: C-

Middlebury did not have a good showing at ITAs this year, as no one made it to Saturday in the main draws. Fields, who earned the top seed in the singles draw was ousted by one of the pesky Williams freshmen in the 2nd round. This is another highly ranked team that did not get any players into the singles round of 16. They got one team into the 2nd round of doubles but then were beaten by the eventual champions. Their usual #1 player Gerger was on the sidelines recovering from surgery. This is another team that will have to work hard in the off season if they want to challenge the teams above them and want to hold off the teams below them.

#5 MIT
Grade: C+

MIT had an ok tournament as their top player, Elysa Kohrs, made it to the round of 16 in singles (they have not had someone break through to the quarterfinals for a while now) and their top doubles team of Kohrs/Tam made it to the quarterfinals.

#6 Tufts
Grade: B

The Tufts team is made of all sophomores and freshmen! One of their freshmen, Aandrita Deb made it all the way to the semifinals before falling to a fellow freshman from Williams. They didn’t do so well in the doubles, as their top team of Deb/Meltzer fell to a Williams team in the second round. their other 2 teams got tough draws as one team fell to the #1 seed from MIT and the other lost to the eventual champions from Williams.

#8 Trinity
Grade: C

Trinity is another team hit hard by graduation. Ferjanic was able to get to the round of 16 in singles but that was about it for the Bantams. She wasn’t able to play doubles as her partner got injured during the singles portion. Look for Wesleyan to take their place in clinching the last NESCAC playoff spot.

#9 Brandeis
Grade: C

Brandeis’ Carley Cooke made it to the round of 16, and their top doubles team of Cooke/Cohen won a round in doubles, but not much else to see. Other than Cohen playing at #2, I don’t see too much different with this team from last year.

#10 Wellesley
Grade: C-

Wellesley did not have a strong ITAs, as everyone was in the backdraw at the end of the first day, BUT then they go and pull a huge 5-4 win against Babson a week later. I did not see that coming, but kudos to them for being able to stick with it and play some tough matches to eke that one out. That match came down to the #1s (how exciting is that??) and Sojung Lee was able to get the W against Alex Freeman for the team win. C- for the tournament but A+ for that win.

#13 Wesleyan
Grade: C+

Just like their men’s team, Wesleyan is making big moves via their freshmen. Actually I’m not sure whether any NON-freshmen played for them at ITAs!!! One player advanced to the singles round of 16 and one of their doubles made it to the quarterfinals. Not bad for all freshmen! Their top freshman was actually playing in the Pan Asian games so they should have a pretty decent team this year.

#14 Bates
Grade: C-

Not much to see here. No one made it out of the first round of singles and one doubles team won one round in doubles.

#20 Wheaton
Grade: D

Even less to see here. No one won a first round match.

Babson
Grade: B

Babo had no regional ranking last season but I’m including them here because they are a different team this year and are sure to get a regional ranking. They got a singles player into the quarterfinals as well as a doubles team into the quarterfinals. Overall they stepped up from their usual and had a really good showing at ITAs. However, on either side of ITAs they have had devastating 4-5 losses to MIT and Wellesley to put them at 3rd in their conference.

Northeast Recap

The Northeast Regional is significantly weaker than the New England Regional, as you can see from the list of regional rankings in each section. Freshman Kate Christensen from Vassar took the singles title. It did not look like she ran into a lot of competition, as she took all 5 matches in straight sets, and of her ten sets, FIVE of them were won 6-0! The team of El Dessouki/Lai from NYU took the doubles title. Looking at their roster, it looks like both players are transfer players!!

#7 Skidmore
Grade: C-

As I mentioned in my season preview, Skidmore was hit hard by graduation so they will have to rebuild big time this year. So it is not surprising that they were not dominant at all in this year’s regional. As a matter of fact, they only had 1 player made it through to the quarterfinals where she lost to the eventual finalist (who lost to Christensen 6-0, 6-0).

#11 Vassar
Grade: A

I’m giving Vassar the early edge in the Liberty League over Skidmore for the championship. I know anything can happen in the off season, but it’s looking like Vassar is just the stronger team. Not only did they claim the singles title but they were runner ups in the doubles bracket.

I’m going to give #12 SLU, #15 Hamilton, #16 Williams Smith, #17 RPI, and #18 SUNY Geneseo all a grade of C+. Lots of tennis, but no outrageous and spectacular performances.

Although NYU did not have a regional ranking last year, I’ll include them here, as they are the ITA regional doubles champions. Looks like Coach Choy has found a couple of transfers to beef up the team.
NYU
Grade: B+

That’s it folks!  We have a few more matches on the docket to keep an eye on before the fall season ends:

10/8 13 MIT def 15 Tufts 5-4 – looked like quite the match

10/10 Babson at Bates

10/11 3 Williams at 2 Amherst

10/15 15 Tufts at Babson

And a couple of the conferences have conference championships.