Regional Round-Up – Week Ending 3/4

What’s up d3 world! We’ve been getting a little sass lately about all the great regional matches that I haven’t been covering, so I’m gonna try to cover it all in one lengthy post. First, I will recap the past weekend, and then I’ll react to the new ITA rankings from 3/3. I’ll finish by previewing the upcoming week of matches, and boy are there a lot of them! Hope everyone enjoys the post. Let’s get started!

The Week That Was:

Saturday:

Swarthmore def. NYU 5-4: Garnet!!! This was my regional match of the weekend, and boy did it live up to the hype, not that I really hyped it up all that much… NYU surprisingly came out and took two out of three doubles matches. Sidd Thangirala and freshman Ian Combemale are two big hitters who absolutely owned Ari Cepelewicz and Mark Fallati at #1 doubles. Captain Billy Smithline got it done at #2 doubles with his partner Karan Goyal, but Swarthmore rolled at #3 with a big 8-4 win. Singles was a Garnet of a different color, as Mark Fallati (#2), Ari Cepelewicz (#3), and Blake Oetting (#4) all had quick straight-set victories. The best match came at #1 singles, where John Larkin took out Sidd Thangirala 6-4 in the third to clinch the match 5-4. NYU was missing their top two singles players, and likely #1 doubles team, Aaron Meltzer and CJ Leong. Meltzer has apparently quit the team but CJ should be back, which will be a nice boost for the Violets. Going forward, Swarthmore has to be happy with the top of their singles lineup, although they lost pretty quickly at #5 and #6 against two NYU players who would not have started with a full NYU lineup. The Garnet have to continue to improve down at the bottom, as well as in their doubles play. As for NYU, I touted the middle of their lineup going in to the season, with Combemale and Goyal both having very strong ITA tournaments. Comebemale, Goyal, and DeMichiel will all have to step up their singles games, as their season moves on with Skidmore next weekend. Swarthmore takes on Stevens next weekend, with Washington & Lee a couple days later, both of which should be really good tests for the now 27^th ranked Garnet.

Vassar def. Coast Guard 9-0: This was a good bounce-back match for the Brewers after they were smoked by TCNJ the weekend before. Coast Guard has some talented players at the top of their lineup, but Nick Litsky and Daniel Cooper took care of them with ease. Vassar has a big test this coming Friday against MIT, and another tricky one against the Babson Beavers the next day.

Cal Lutheran def. Occidental 6-3: Oxy is always a team I have my eye on in the West region, and they battled pretty well in singles against Cal Lu. I wanted to highlight Josh Dancu’s terrific win over Moises Cardenas. Dancu, who transferred from DePaul a couple of years ago and is now a senior, is a terrific player who has lost a lot of really close matches against the SCIAC elite over the past couple of years. It was nice to see him pull this one out, even though he did lose in straights to David Reed of Christopher Newport the day after…

Coe def. Kalamazoo 9-0: This was the first real test for Coe besides their opener against Chicago, and they came through this with flying kolors (spelled like a Kohawk). They only lost one set in the entire match, at #6 singles, and I’m starting to become a big fan of Coe’s #1-#3 singles players, Noah Sprinkel, Riley Galbraith, and Brady Anderson. I’m not sold on #4-#6, but against Kzoo they were more than enough. Coe’s next big test comes up next Monday in Florida against mysterious McMurry, with another tough one against Texas-Tyler the next day. It’s great to see these matches on the schedule, as they’ll be a great indication of just how good the Kohawks are.

Case Western def. Rochester 7-2: I was following this UAA matchup very closely on Saturday afternoon, and for about fifteen minutes it looked like Rochester was going to shock just about every division three tennis fan in the country. Rochester took two out of three doubles matches, and even though Chris Krimbill won at #1 in about a half hour, Rochester took 2 of the other 5 sets (at #3 and #6), and then split at #4 to force a third set. Alas, it was not to be for the Yellowjackets, as the Spartans turned pretty much all of their singles matches around at the same time, pulled out 3 three-setters, and ended up taking every singles match. This was a good showing by the ‘Jackets, and like I alluded to in my preview, they will be strong at #3 and #4, and not bad at #5 and #6. #1 and #2 will be tough all year, as it was in this match, but if they can continue to play good doubles, they can overcome this. Rochester flies out of the cold weather to Cali this weekend, where they have two more UAA showdowns against Carnegie and Wash U, and they’ll also take on Chapman.

Sunday:

Stevens def. RPI 7-2: While Swarthmore/NYU was the regional match to watch on Saturday, Stevens/RPI was certainly the regional match of the day on Sunday. Not only are these two schools ranked very similarly in the northeast as well as nationally, but with both of these colleges being strong tech schools, this was certainly the battle of the mathematicians. RPI jumped out to the 2-1 lead after doubles, with none of the pro-sets being all that close. The Ducks really flexed their singles depth, however, taking #1, #2, #5, and #6 in quick straight-set fashion to take the match. Michael Feldman at #3 and Charles Drake at #4 each won in ten point tie-breakers over Tristan Wise and Al Grullon Gonzalez. At this point, Stevens is simply a deeper team than RPI, but I have to give credit to RPI for fighting hard throughout doubles and almost taking a couple singles matches. RPI has a Liberty League weekend, playing St. Lawrence and Skidmore, while Stevens heads down to play Swarthmore (more to come on that at the end of this article!)

Johns Hopkins def. Washington & Lee 7-0: Not a whole lot to recap with this match. Michael Holt won the only set for the Generals at #3, but there is not a lot of positives for them to take away. Next Monday is a big test for the Generals against Swarthmore, and it will be interesting to see how they bounce back.

Wash U def. Sewanee 8-1: Avery Schober had an excellent win over John Carswell, even though Carswell has had trouble beating anybody at #1 this year. At least Schober kept the trend going! Sewanee has the weekend off before they head out to Cali! Matches against Carnegie, Redlands, Trinity CT, Denison, and Salisbury await the Tigers.

Carleton def. St. Thomas 5-4: I had to give a shout-out to the Knights after they won their 8^th straight match to start the season. This one came in thrilling fashion over MIAC foe St. Thomas. It’s hard to really get a handle on just how good Carleton is, although the win over Carthage is nothing to scoff at. The real test comes in about two months, when the Knights will take on Gustavus. For now, just keep on winning Carleton!

Ranking Reactions:

Swarthmore up 12 spots to 27: This is a pretty ambitious move by the ITA, as Swarthmore barely took down NYU, who was ranked 30 and moved down to 33. Swarthmore has a ton of great matches coming up, so they’ll be able to prove themselves time after time. For now, congrats to the Garnet for cracking the top 30!

Stevens up 9 spots to 31: Stevens has played a bunch of matches already this year and I think this rise is well deserved. After a tight 5-4 win over NC Wesleyan, the Ducks fell 6-3 to #30 Denison and #17 Mary Washington, and defeated RPI 7-2 this past weekend. Matt Heinrich has backed up his terrific fall with a solid 3-1 record so far this season at #1, with his only loss being in 3 sets to Robert Kjellberg. Charles Drake, Stevens’ #4 is also worth mentioning, as he has gone 3-0 so far this Spring, although he did not play against Mary Washington. Similar to Swarthmore, Stevens will play a few of the other regional schools over the course of the season, so they’ll have to get some good wins to stay at #31.

NC Wesleyan from unranked to 32: NC Wes is back! After losing Robert Kjellberg last season, NC Wes lost pretty much every match that they could have lost, so they have already had a better year this year than last just by beating Denison. Kjellberg went 3-0 against Stevens, Mary Washington, and Denison which is a great sign for the Bishops. Kjellberg at #1, Sebastian Sikh at #2, and Fabio Pereira at #3 went a combined 8-1 against those 3 teams, so these spots are looking like a big strength. However, spots #4-#6 went 4-5 overall, so while this is not a terrible record, I expect these spots to be inconsistent throughout the year. Doubles is a bit confusing, as they won 2 out of 3 against Denison, who typically plays very good doubles, and got swept by both Stevens and Mary Washington. The Bishops have a few conference matches before they take on Bates on 3/19, where Kjellberg vs. Pierre Planche should be a great match. I hope the Bates Tennis Twitter is up to the task.

NYU down 3 spots to 33: NYU has only played one match this year, losing to Swarthmore, so this move makes sense. NYU plays a short schedule, but it’s a good one, so they’ll have chances to get back in the top 30. If the Violets get CJ Leong back on the team, and get Ian Combemale, Karan Goyal, and Matt DeMichiel to win more than 10 games combined in 6 sets, they’ll have chances to take down the likes of Skidmore, TCNJ, Vassar, Stevens, MIT, and Brandeis. If they don’t, I could see them losing the majority of these and dropping further in the rankings.

Brandeis down 3 spots to 34: To be honest, the Judges got a bit of a raw deal in these rankings. Sure, they went 1-3 on their Cali trip, but they beat Chapman, lost 5-4 to #25 Cal Lu in a match that could not have been much closer than it was, and lost 7-2 to #3 CMS and #19 Redlands. Injuries were a big issue for Deis during their entire Spring break, so I hope they are healing up and getting ready to take on Middlebury and Stevens on 3/14 and 3/15.

Washington & Lee down 3 spots to 37: Not a whole lot to react to with the Generals, except that they moved down with other teams moving up. Swarthmore is coming up next Monday, so they will immediately have a chance to move back up.

Coe down 3 spots to 38: Similar to Brandeis, this is a bit of a tough deal for the Kohawks. Sure, they have not really beaten anybody, but they just beat up on Kzoo 9-0 and only have one loss, to #10 Chicago. Unfortunately for Coe, I think they are outmatched in all of their big matches (UT-Tyler, Washington U, Gustavus) except for their very last match on 4/26 against #22 Wisconsin-Whitewater. Their match against McMurry next Monday 3/9 should also be a good one.

Rochester down 3 spots to 40: This is more of the same, as Stevens, Swarthmore, and NC Wesleyan’s rises are Rochester’s losses. Rochester’s biggest match the rest of the way is against NYU on 3/28, as that will play a big part in determining UAA seeding, depending on who wins the Brandeis vs. NYU match. Rochester will also have to defeat Chapman, TCNJ, and RPI if they hope to stay in the rankings.

RPI drops out of the rankings from 38: With three teams rising who were ranked lower than 38, the Engineers sadly fell out. Their win in the opening match over TCNJ went largely unnoticed, but was a nice 5-4 victory. McKinley Grimes had a good win at #1 over Pierce Cooper, and freshman Tristan Wise and junior Al Grullon Gonzalez each won against TCNJ and lost in ten point breakers to Stevens. I’m a big Tristan Wise fan, and I’m looking for him to have a very solid year at #3 singles, maybe even moving up to #2 if Brandon Mazzara struggles. If RPI wants to get back into the rankings, they’ll have to take out either Skidmore or Rochester, and win tricky matches against Occidental, George Fox, and Vassar.

What To Watch For:

Another great lineup of regional matches is coming up this weekend, and here’s my take on the big ones. Rankings next to each team are based on our most recent power rankings. The site I’ve been using to get schedules (http://d3sports.com/sports/mten/2014-15/schedule) looks like it is missing a few matches. For instance, they don’t have a single Stevens or Coe match on there. What gives! So if I miss a match, kindly let me know in the comments and I’ll try to at least give my thoughts in a comment.

Friday:

Vassar @ MIT: Neither team is ranked in our power rankings, but MIT is #39 in the ITA rankings and is still a very talented team, and this is their first real test. Neither team plays great doubles, so I will focus on the singles. Kevin Wang vs. Nick Litsky should be a nice match at #1, as both hit a super clean ball, but I will go with Litsky in this one. At #2, both Kenny G(ea) and Daniel Cooper have struggled so far this year. Gea has a forehand unlike any other (in a good way) and Daniel is a tricky lefty. Both are tough on indoor courts, but I think Gea will rebound inside the MIT bubble. Both teams drop off after #2, but Vassar drops off a bit more than MIT. I’m taking MIT in three of those four spots, so they will take four of six singles matches. I ultimately see them taking two out of three doubles as well, and I’m predicting they take the match 6-3.

Saturday:

#31 Stevens @ #35 Swarthmore: This has to be the regional match of the weekend. From an ITA rankings perspective, Stevens has a lot to gain, as Swarthmore is now #27 in the country. For doubles, Swarthmore recently lost 2 out of 3 to NYU, while Stevens has been up and down in their matches. I do think Matt Heinrich/Ben Foran will continue their good play and win at 1, and they will also win at 2, but lose at 3. The top four singles spots should all be really good matches. I like Heinrich at 1 over Larkin, and I also think Ben Foran will beat Mark Fallati in a marathon match at #2. However, Ari Cepelewicz and Blake Oetting will rebound and take #3 and #4. At 5 and 6, Stevens should have more depth than Swarthmore, and they’ll take one of the two for the 5-4 win.

#41 NYU @ #30 Skidmore: If NYU can take a couple doubles matches and find their #1-#4 singles players that were so good last year, they can definitely take this match. However, after struggling so much against Swarthmore, I don’t see it. If CJ Leong comes back and plays #1, he’ll have a good match with Kit Sanderson, especially on indoor courts. However, since he likely has not been playing a whole lot, I’ll take Sanderson. I’ll take Thangirala at #2, and for NYU to eek out a doubles match somehow, someway. Skidmore takes it 7-2.

#30 Denison @ Kalamazoo: This central matchup will be tighter than people think, and I like Kalamazoo at a few positions. #1-#3 should all be tight matches, and I think Kalamazoo will actually take a couple of them. However, Denison is just too deep, and will take #4-#6, and a couple of the doubles matches, and will take it 6-3. D3 Central agrees with me, and predicts 7-2 in favor of the Denison Big Red.

Sunday:

#9 Carnegie Mellon vs. Rochester (in Claremont): Tough matchup for the Yellowjackets, but a UAA matchup with big tournament implications nonetheless. Rochester is coming off two doubles wins over Case, and that means they can certainly take a couple over Carnegie. However, on the slower outdoor courts, Carnegie will have a little more time and I think they’ll take 2 out of 3 because of this. The best chances for Rochester to win in singles is at #3 and #4, but the Tartans are pretty darn good at these positions too. A couple matches will go three sets, but Carnegie ultimately will take it 8-1.

Monday:

#5 Wash U vs. Rochester (in Claremont): More of the same in this one. Maybe Ian Baranowski at #3 pushes Jeremy Bush at 3, as Wash U has struggled at this spot, but Bush has excelled at #4 this year, so I don’t see it. 9-0 Bears.

#35 Swarthmore @ #34 Washington & Lee: This is a huge Atlantic South matchup, as Swat is now 10 spots higher nationally than Washington & Lee but still a spot lower in the regional rankings. I know what we’ll get with Swarthmore, good singles, especially at the top, and inconsistent doubles. I’m not quite sure what to think of Washington & Lee. The Generals’ lineup is completely different four matches in than it was in the opening match against Hopkins, so it’s tough to make predictions. Going off of their recent matches, at #1 singles, I like Jordan Krasner of the Generals to take out John Larkin the Garnet in a tight match. The rest of the matches should be very tight, but I’m going with the rookies Mark Fallati and Ari Cepelewicz (Swat) at #2 and #3, and Robert Eckstein and Michael Lukas (W&L) at #5 and #6 (or whoever they throw out there). #4 is the big match, and could be the deciding match, as doubles should also be close. It looks like it will be Ethan Markman (W&L) versus Blake Oetting (Swat), and in the battle of the freshmen, I think Oetting pulls it out in three. However, I don’t think it will be the decider, as I see the Generals pulling out two doubles matches and taking it 5-4. This match should be fantastic nonetheless.

#22 UT-Tyler vs. Wabash (in Florida): Big opportunity here for #wabashtennis, who I hear is on the move. UT Tyler does drop off at spots 5 and 6, and if Wabash was deeper, I’d give them a real shot at those spots. If they grab a couple doubles matches, things will get interesting, but I’m thinking a 7-2 win for Tyler, with Wabash getting wins at #2 doubles (Mark Troiano/Michael Makio) and #4 singles (Will Reifeis).

#40 Coe vs. #33 McMurry (in Florida): This is a great matchup between these two teams as I really have no idea how good either of them are. McMurry is a talented group who pushed UT-Tyler to the brink, and Coe has beaten up on everybody they’ve played, except for Chicago. Spots #1-3 are huge for the Kohawks, as they drop off after Brady Anderson, and McMurry is very deep. I think Coe takes 2 of those 3 matches, with Noah Sprinkel and Brady Anderson both winning. I do think McMurry will take #4-6 singles. Sprinkel and Riley Galbraith should win at #1 doubles, and McMurry should take 3. #2 is the big swing match and I’m thinking McMurry takes it. Ultimately, McMurry has too much depth and I’m predicting they pull it out 6-3.

Tuesday:

Rochester @ Chapman: This is a good rematch of a match that Chapman won 6-3 last year. Both teams are a little better this year than last, and Rochester will be ready for this one. Chapman tends to fade in close matches, and Rochester won’t get swept in doubles this year. 5-4 Rochester.

#40 Coe vs. #22 UT-Tyler: Another good match in the Florida sun. Who needs Cali spring break! I do like Noah Sprinkel over Daniel Budd at #1, and Old Man Wootton versus Riley Galbraith should be another great match. Just like with McMurry, Coe is just a couple of players short at #5 and #6. If Coe takes 2 or 3 doubles matches, this match gets interesting, as Coe could sweep 1-3, but UT-Tyler plays solid doubles, and Chris Wootton/Frankie Fischer are still rolling at #1 (undefeated in d3 matches so far). Coe plays them tough, but the Patriots take it 6-3.

So there you have it, regional fans. If you read until the end of this article, well then give yourself a pat on the back and find something else to do. Until next time, d3regional out!