Coach: Peter Burling (26th season)
Location: Granville, OH
Preseason Ranking: #35
Twitter Handle: @dennistennis
Overview
Oh when I saw that ASouth put out the schedule of who we are to do team previews for this year, I crossed my fingers hoping that both Denison and Depauw would be delegated to D3Regional. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case and I got the Denison Big Red to do first. Oh joy! I am going to do my best to give an unbiased review of the Big Red without putting any of my own criticisms in there. Ok who am I kidding?!? This team continues to under perform in my mind and it isn’t the players fault. They just have lost the ability to recruit the talent needed to be a top 30 team. They have been fortunate that the black hole exists in the ranking process and the ranked field has grown to 40. Since they were hit extremely hard by graduation (Cempre, Veltman, LoDuca), this is a very young and inexperienced team that will struggle mightily to stay in the rankings.
Lineup Overview
#1 Jackson O’Gorman-Bean: As I was writing this, I decided that Mr. O’Gorman-Bean needs a nickname so I don’t have to type out the long last name all the time so JOB was born. And yes let the biblical references begin now. JOB has the prettiest form on both of his groundstrokes so it is tough to see how he can be beat. He was somewhat of a surprise to me last year with some of his success mainly coming at the #3 spot. Like in the bible, JOB is going to be given many difficulties this season as the top spot is a new beast and the level of competition will take a huge jump. He will compete no doubt, but will struggle to get many wins. Veltman was .500 last year at this spot, but Denison was 3-17 at #2. One can’t expect that will change with a lower level player stepping up unless he had a crazy summer of training. JOB might need some divine intervention to turn things around. See what I did there?
#2 Jack O’Koniewski: The story is similar with O’Koniewski. He had relative success last season at #4 going 11-8. That’s a solid record against a decent schedule, but stepping up two spots is going to be very difficult for him. I don’t expect any revelations with him either, but playing this high in the lineup will certainly help him as an upperclassman in the years to come. Look at that silver lining. Am I reaching?!?
#3 Jaime McDonald: I can finally speak somewhat positively about Denison. While whomever they put at the 3 slot won’t compete at the national level, they should find some success against the majority of the NCAC and other lower regionally ranked opponents. McDonald also is stepping up two or three spots from his sophomore season where he was 8-5. We are getting to the point where I haven’t seen much of these guys playing because they are either lower in the lineup and not of interest or just didn’t play at all. I reiterate that McDonald will have success against weak opponents, but only able to be competitive against regional and national opponents.
#4 Kevin Brown: Freshman #1! Typically I am excited for freshman to make the lineup, but at this point I don’t think the Big Red has a choice. The good news is I think this bunch of freshmen are solid back half of the lineup guys. The bad news is they need studs at the top. Brown is a 3 star recruit who probably should be playing 2 or 3 for this team, but his youth will likely keep him starting at #4. If he does play 4, I think he will have quite a bit of success. Denison is always known for “doubles and depth” and Brown will bring both things as he will likely play the top spot in dubs with JOB. If Denison wants to find any success this season, the importance of Brown cannot go understated. He will need to win both of his points and that is a lot to ask of a first year player.
#5 Blake Burstein: Freshman #2! Seriously this is almost impossible to find things to talk about. His profile says he is a 4 time team and individual state champion, but Michigan high school tennis is a class system and that means he played weak competition. But it does show that he knows how to win which is a bonus. You can’t teach that right? The bad news is he had a fall to forget losing to two players in the Oberlin Invite that I had never heard of. He is going to need to be a big player for Denison in the spring.
#6 Colin Bahin: Freshman #3! I can’t say I know much about how good the tennis in Montana is, but this freshman comes in with high expectations to perform like the two other freshman. Six singles has been a staple win for Denison in years past and will be relied upon once again. All I really have to go off of is to say that Bahin’s TR.net ranking rose drastically in his high school years so hopefully that means he has a high ceiling.
Doubles: The lone bright spot for Denison will be their doubles. They have historically been a doubles specialty team and I don’t see that being any different this year. JOB and Brown had a great showing at the fall ITA and could be a formidable duo come spring time. I am not sure who will play the back half of the doubles lineup, but if it looks like their one fall dual match, Burstein and O’Koniewski will be at #2 and Bahin and another freshman John Armstrong will be together. Whomever they throw out there, I think will be stronger than most just because Denison plays aggressive and disciplined doubles which can take you a long way. They are going to need all the help they can get and doubles will certainly help.
The Schedule – Key Matches and More
http://denisonbigred.com/sports/mten/2015-16/schedule
This schedule is chalk full of trap matches for the young inexperienced lineup for Denison. Any losses to the following teams will knock them out of the rankings for good. Pacific, Allegheny, Kalamazoo, and Oberlin all pose serious threat to the Big Red. When you add in some of the top opponents like Chicago, Kenyon, and Depauw it could be a long year for Denison. They also have three D1 opponents on there that clearly are out of their league. I can’t speculate too much on how I think the season will go, but I see at least one loss to the first group and then drubbings to the top ranked teams. I would be absolutely shocked if they have a record above .500 at year end and are fortunate that Depauw is down this year as well and a shot at taking down them for second in the NCAC as long as they don’t lose to Allegheny or Oberlin first.
Conclusion
I was going to steal ASouth’s 3 keys to the season portion of the preview, but it would be a real struggle to find 3 things that are realistic. I want to be a Denison fan I really do, but they have been crushed on the recruiting trail by teams like Kenyon, Chicago, Wash U, and Case who just load up on depth when that depth is what has made Denison successful in the past. They never really have had a true #1 singles player, but have always had 6 guys who were great up and down the lineup. Over the last 3-5 years, they have gotten weaker and weaker. That is the state of D3 tennis right now. The rich get richer and mediocre/poor lose out. Sadly Denison is on the wrong end of that. I swear I am not a hater, but it might be time for some new energy in the Denison program.
Ayyy don’t forget Owen Smith tho, will probably play 3