Overshadowed by #SmallCollegeNationals and the Amherst weekend was the annual Wallach Invitational at Bates College. I’ve always thought of this tournament as the little brother to the Middlebury Invite, as Midd really kicks off the northeast season, and the Wallach closes it out. Regardless, I really like this tournament because you can see how everybody improved over the course of the fall season, and get a good sense of what direction teams are trending towards heading into the offseason. I’ve been reliving my childhood lately and watching my fill of Adam Sandler movies, so I’m going to go ahead and make this the theme of this post, as D3Northeast and I recap the tournament tier by tier. Feel free to rip me for my movie picks, but in order from best to worst, I give you our 2014 Wallach recap!
The Wedding Singers
D3R:
Middlebury: It must have been pretty disappointing for the Panthers to only get one person (Frons) to the final day of ITAs this year, but fear not Midd fans, because they rebounded very well this year at the Wallach. After a tight first couple of rounds, Ari Smolyar rolled, and I mean rolled, through the semis and finals, taking out Granoff of Brandeis 0 and 1 and Carl Reid of Colby 1 and 2. The freshman Noah Farrell also had a nice run to the A flight semis, falling to Reid. Smolyar, who played a lot of 4 and 5 singles last year, looks like he will be the man at the top of the lineup this coming year, with Farrell right behind him. The B and C flights were a disappointment, with Frons, Palmer Cambell, Courtney Mountifield, and Allen Jackson all failing to make the finals. Jackson was actually the only one to even make the semis. Middlebury owned the D flight, getting 3 out of the 4 finalists, with Will De Quant taking it in an all-Midd final. The best doubles result for the Midd kids was De Quant and Chris Frost making the finals of the B flight. Honestly, this was not a typical Midd performance from them, just better than any of the other teams in my opinion. They will have to sure up the middle of their lineup for the Spring, as it looks like they will be solid at the top and bottom. Not a bad performance from Midd, but lots of room for improvement.
Tufts: Jumbos, jumbos, jumbos. With Kenney out and Karl Gregor in, I am very excited about these boys come Spring time. It looks like they were missing a few of their top guys at the Wallach this year, namely Telkedzhiev and Glickman. Nevertheless, this gave some lower guys the chance to get in the field, and they definitely made the most of it, with Battle and Cary taking the B doubles flight. Another notable performance includes Danny Coran making the finals of C singles. There’s a fun video online of his last point in his semis win over Jackson. Man was that a good last point! They struggled in the higher flights, with Rob Jacobson and Zain Ali both losing first round, although they had tough matchups in Granoff and Reid. Again, not a great performance from the Jumbos, but better than everyone else. With a few guys out, it is tough to know how people would have done in lower flights. I am excited to see them come the Spring!
D3NE: First and formost, D3Regional has done a great job with his analysis. For today, I’m just the Bob Barker to his Happy Gilmore. Which brings me to arguably the most important point I’ll make tonight. I’M ABSOLUTELY GOING TO RIP YOU FOR YOUR MOVIE PICKS! What do you think gives you the right to rank The Wedding Singer higher than both Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison. This is a travesty of epic proportions. D3AS, if you’re reading, and c’mon we both know you’re gonna comb this for mistakes, please set up an Adam Sandler themed poll for the site.
Anyways, I’m gonna have to disagree wtih D3R’s choice of top teams. He’s simply too nice of a guy to do this job. I wouldn’t put any one of the teams from this past weekend’s tournament in a top section. Instead, I’m going to focus my recap on some individuals. Ari Smolyar, and Kyle Wolfe took home the A and B flight singles trophies. Ari bounced back from a disappointing ITA by absolutely stomping all competition he faced, punctuating his run by taking down Granoff and Reid in the semis and finals. The most impressive thing about Ari’s run? He took down Brian and Carl while dropping a total of 4 games.
Kyle’s run was equally impressive, though not nearly as flashy. Wolfe took down Tan, Frons, and Leung, all of whom are projected to start on competitive teams this spring. This could be Kyle’s break out performance, and I know Coach Smith is expecting big things from this freshman class. Now if only this Polar Bear teammates would all play the same event…
The Happy Gilmores/The Billy Madisons
D3R:
Colby: Great tournament again from Reid, who I think is going to have one of the most consistent careers in division three tennis history when it is all said and done. The guy was rock-solid as a freshman, and is completely backing it up so far this year. He is extremely tough to beat, and just does not make errors, so hats off to him. A tough first round match for Vlad Murad, who I think can be a great #2 singles player behind Reid for the next three years. Murad got his revenge as him and Reid won a bunch of tight pro-sets on their way to the A flight title. Shoutout down to the D flight as well where freshman Shaw Speer had a nice 10-point breaker win over Schlanger of Midd. I do not think these guys have the depth to truly compete with the Nescac elite this year. I’ll be covering them all year though, so I’ll be rooting for them all the way!
Bowdoin: I’m giving these guys bonus points over Skid because they won a higher flight, with Kyle Wolfe winning the B singles flight. Definitely a great tournament for him. But besides that, the Polar Bears did not have much of anything else going on. Bragg took Smolyar to a super-breaker, but that was about it. They did not even have a player in the D flight, so I am assuming they have a few guys abroad, hopefully not injured! Although Chase Savage also was not in this tournament, and he had a great ITA tournament, so he is definitely around. Anybody have some insight to this? Similar to Tufts, I think Bowdoin would have done better with their full lineup intact, especially Luke Trinka.
D3NE: Honestly, I’m still so mad about the Wedding Singer inflated rating. I dont want to inflate the egos of any player I’m writing about. Sorry yall, you’re not Happy Gilmores, you’re results were more tier 2. That being said, I’m giving Carl Reid and Vlad Murad a “B” grade for their weekend performances. A “B” is a very good grade, especially when it comes from me (or Colby for that matter), but it isn’t an “A”. The team of Reid and Murad does deserve an “A” for their doubles play. The Mules took a couple of tight matches, and beat a couple of teams that will be in the discussion to play #1 for Trinity, Skidmore, and Bowdoin. However, their singles play keeps the Mules tandem from taking home top marks. Reid did make the A flight finals, including a nice straight set win over Farrell in the semis, but Smolyar had his way with Carl in the finals. Murad had a tough draw with Smolyar in the 1st round, and did push him to 4&4, but after taking down Conrad Harron at ITAs, I thought Murad might be able to pull off another shocker.
The Big Daddy’s/The Waterboys
D3R:
Skidmore: You could pretty much copy and paste the Bowdoin recap and put it in here, except exchange Kyle Wolfe for Lucas Pickering and B flight for C flight. Great tournament from Lucas! Sanderson and Tong had a good tournament in doubles, getting to the quarterfinals. I don’t know a lot about Skid except that their coach used to be a professional snowboarder, and that they lost a heck of a player in Oliver Loutsenko. They have lots of freshmen though, so they will be fun to follow. They are definitely still my pick to win the Liberty League. Sorry to any (Vassar) Brewers or (RPI) Engineers that may be reading this.
Trinity: Ford Traff had a Bantam-sized run to the B flight finals, as him and Moose Mbithi made the A flight finals, losing 9-8 to Colby. One guy who I am a little nervous about is Ned Mandell. This guy used to be a lock at the top of the lineup, but he lost quickly to Coran of Tufts. The whole city of Hartford is hoping this guy can pull it together, and so am I! In addition, Carpenter lost first round to Noah Bragg. Trinity is always a tough team to predict, but I will try my best and I think they will get jumped by Wesleyan and Tufts, but just finish in the top 30. I was a huge fan of their assistant coach, Rich Bonfiglio, who left at the end of last season, so I think that might also have a negative effect from a strategic standpoint.
D3NE: D3R, you’re dead to me! Big Daddy is clearly a top-3 Adam Sandler movie. I’ll admit that the Waterboy has its flaws, but it’s also hilarious, and also just so damn quotable. Whatever, I don’t even care. Players taking home “C” grades are Allen Jackson and Kit Sanderson. AJ has been talked up by multiple blog readers/commenters, and while he’s certainly shown flashes of brilliance, this fall hasn’t quite lived up to his fans’ expectations. Jackson rolled through to the semis of the C-Flight, but was then stopped by Tufts’ Danny Coran. I thought this entire flight was Jackson’s to lose, and my bracket had him beating Pickering in the finals. Semis are never an awful result, but thought more was going to come from AJ in singles. In B-doubles, Frons and Jackson won only one match before falling to the eventual champs (Battle/Cary) in the quarters. Again, Jackson certainly passes with his “C” grade, but it’s not something to post on his fridge.
Like Jackson, I had big expectations for Kit Sanderson at the beginning of this tournament. Kit killed it at the Middlebury Invite earlier this fall, and earned himself a seed in the Northeast ITA. However at Bates, Kit struggled with Pat Ordway (likely a #4 for Bates) in the 1st round and then was beaten handily by Granoff in the quarters. Sanderson’s doubles results were a bit better, making the semis with partner Tong before falling to Reid/Murad. Perhaps I’m being too hard on poor Kit, but the fact that I’m holding him to higher expectations shows what caliber of player I believe him to be.
The Everything Else (50 First Dates, Mr. Deeds, Don’t Mess With The Zohan, Click, Little Nicky, Anger Management)
D3R:
Brandeis: Most of the Judges won their first round, and lost their next, which is a definite improvement over the Midd Invite. Granoff finally got a victory, and actually got two, beating Jacobson of Tufts and Sanderson of Skid! Unfortunately he got crushed by Smolyar. They got three good doubles wins as well, over Middlebury and Tufts in flight A, and Bowdoin in flight B. Granoff/Lubarsky and Arguello/Cherkin (who were actually the #1 seeds!) both nearly made the semis in flight A as well. Nobody made a deep run, which is a concern, but Brandeis is certainly improving, and I know Coach Lamanna will be on these guys to play a ton over the winter and get even better.
Bates: It is hard to be too tough on these guys when their two top players were battling it out down in South Carolina, but the hosts did not have a good tournament. They won zero matches in the A flight, one in the B flight (a play-in match against Brandeis won in a super breaker), one in the C flight (against Colby, yay), and none in the D flight. They did have one team make the finals of the doubles B flight, so that is something I guess. Yes, if everyone is down one flight, with Ellis and Planche added in, I think guys like Ordway and Lee make some runs, or at least win a match. This is likely the worst result for the ‘Cats at their tournament in a while, so I’m calling them the Zohans of the weekend.
D3NE: At least we finally got into some bad movies. However, Mr. Deeds is clearly a cut above the rest of this detritus. I’m not going to fault Bates for winning the ITA and being 2 guys short, they had to play up, even if they didn’t have a single good result. No, my “F” grade goes to Amherst, and the tournament organizers. Every year, Amherst sends its B-team to Bates for this tournament, and every year the Jeffs still do surprisingly well. HOWEVER, as D3R will get to in his conclusion, the gap between the elite and the rest of DIII is shrinking. This year, Amherst no longer has a C squad, or even a full B team. Their roster lists only 14 including at least one who is abroad (Fife). When Amherst was sending B-team players like Chris Dale (who ended up playing #2 for the champs), they could get away with it. No disrespect to players like DeBracamonte (who has found lots of success at the lower flights in this tournament) or Mitau, but they are not Chris Dale.
I’m sure there are other teams who would consider sending their full squads. Perhaps another NESCAC team like Williams or Wesleyan would play? Or maybe an up and coming team from out of conference like Stevens, RPI, or NYU would make the trip? Who knows, maybe the organizers use the same teams each year because they are the only teams silly enough to make the drive up to Maine. I just don’t like the idea of Amherst thinking they can get away with sending the bottom of their lineup because their top guys are playing a more important team match, nor the idea of the Tournament Directors agreeing to let the 4 Amherst guys in just because their jerseys say “Jeffs”. Enough ranting. Imma throw it back to D3R for his conclusion. It’s been real
D3R: Looking more in depth at the results as I wrote this article, I think that it is clear that the gap between teams is getting smaller in division three tennis. Middlebury used to dominate almost every flight at the Wallach but they just are not anymore. They still had the best tournament of any team, but they are not head and shoulders above everybody else. Meanwhile, Colby and Brandeis are improving, and if Pierre Planche and Chris Ellis of Bates were around, I think the gap gets even smaller. I am really excited to see some of these dual matches this Spring, and I would not be surprised if the black hole gets even a little bigger this year, after last year’s craziness. Anyway, D3NE and I are out, look for some team previews from us coming out this winter! I’m gonna go watch more Adam Sandler movies.