Ladies and Germs, the Texas Fanatic is back with an SW ITA recap for you all. I know there were readers (fine, reader) out in the interwebs clamoring for some expert opinion, so here it is. My addendums are in italics.
“SW ITA Recap
The SW ITA has come to a close and we have a multitude of players, coaches, schools, fresh meat and returners to share opinions about their performance. Like we all thought, the Trinity train came rolling through town and dominated the headlines. We had Paxton Deuel come back in the big way. After a year away from the tennis court, a reenergized Paxton manhandled this field with his relentless play. I give all the props in the world to a guy who rose from the supposed ashes of a career back to nationals in 12 months. He played with an explosive energy, and it seems to me as though he is gunning for the nation’s top spot. I too was incredibly impressed by Paxton, and you can put quotes around that, put it on a t-shirt, and put my name at the bottom with a dash next to it (props to whoever gets that reference). Now that I have gotten my man crush out of the way, let us talk about the nuts and bolts of this monster ITA.
There is no doubt that Coach McMindes has assembled a team that is ready to make a run through the NCAA field. Trinity has two national level singles players in Krull and Deuel with a national level doubles player in Matt Tyer. Tyer exerted his will and prowess on two UTTyler dubs teams, back to back, to win the SW ITA championship with Adam Krull. The addition of Tyer gives Coach McMindes options in dubs for the top of his lineup. Tyer showed everyone he is the best doubles player in D3 Texas. In addition, Mayer looks poised to take up the mantel in the middle of the singles lineup, and I would be stunned if Lambeth (a freshman) didn’t play in the top four as well. All told, it looks like Trinity has three major players that they did not have last year to ease the pain of their graduations. We all look forward to the defending ITA National Indoor champions taking the lead amongst the nation’s top team in the spring.
So, let us now switch the focus to the second surprise that was witnessed in San Antonio last weekend: the resurgence of the UT-Tyler Patriots. It all starts with the impressive play of the freshmen, Fagundez and Gomez, who both flashed brilliance throughout the weekend. The Pats also saw an unknown doubles team of Elwood and Puckey make the finals, beating Trinity’s top-seeded team along the way. The “real Daniel Budd” also stood up and and showed all that attended that he is going to be a formidable Top 8 regional guy again this year. The biggest surprise was the energy that UTTyler brought to each match. Bizot has energized his team and took the physical, emotional, and mental lead over every team in this ITA. We have not seen this kind of emotion from a UTTyler team in years. National contenders, watch out, this Patriot’s team looks as if they are beginning to believe.
D3West addendum: I don’t know what the heck the Texas Fanatic is talking about here. The Pats have always been an extremely energetic and positive team. They’ve become more physically imposing over the past couple years thanks to a new fitness coach, and now they have the actual tennis skills to put a scare in any 10-20 range team and even compete with teams in the top 10. This was absolutely a statement tournament for the Pats. The rest of the country should be on notice, but of course, they will ignore this ITA and the early season matches against DI teams and be surprised by how good they are later in the season. When that happens, someone can come back and find this article and copy and paste this paragraph in the comments section because we’re going to look like freaking Nostradamus.
Awards should be handed out for the four freshman, one newcomer and the player of the tournament.
Best Player: Paxton Deuel-TU
No question Paxton led the way with his dominate play and focused attention to each and every match.
Newcomer: Matt Tyer-TU
This transfer from Midwestern State, a D2 school in Wichita Falls, Tx, demonstrated a degree of doubles expertise that all in the crowd jeered and cheered about on each and every point.
Freshman Honor Roll: Arthur Fagundes-UTT, Gabriel Borunda-CTX, Wilson Lambeth-TU, Pablo Gomez-UTT
All four of these freshman will be DIII tennis’ next generation of national qualifiers after Krull, Budd, and Deuel graduate this year. Fagundes was by far the best, making it to the semis and being the only person to take a set from Deuel. Lambeth is a 6’5 beast with a forehand to match.
Now that the SW ITA is complete, our attention turns rapidly to the West regional, coming up this weekend.
That’s all for now. Talk to ya’ll soon.
Texas Fanatic”
Fantastic Tournament! GO TRINITY TIGERS!