The College of New Jersey Lions
Coach: Scott Dicheck (16th season)
Location: Ewing, NJ
Blog Power Ranking: #39
Twitter Handle: @TCNJ_Tennis – solid with updates
Overview: TCNJ is one of those teams that has just kind of been around for the past several years. Much like a Vassar, Rochester or RPI, TCNJ has had a couple nice results every year, but never that signature win to push them into the blogging spotlight. This year, folks, this could change as TCNJ has seven, yes seven recruits. They realistically have enough recruits to start all freshman and have a pretty solid regional team. However, they’ll be much better than this as they return all of their starters, including senior Pierce Cooper, ranked 16 in the east. Coach Dicheck has clearly done an excellent job at recruiting players from the state of NJ, and taking advantage of the fact that TCNJ is a public university, similar to Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The Lions had several very solid results last year. They beat Vassar 9-0, Rochester 6-3, and NYU 6-3, separating themselves from that pack. However, they had a tough 4-5 loss to RPI, and 6-3 losses to both Skidmore and Stevens. The RPI match in particular was extremely winnable, and although TCNJ ultimately jumped them in the final national rankings, they are one spot behind them in the Northeast, at 13. I’ll get more into their schedule later on, but the Lions have added several good matches to their schedule this year, giving them ample chances against nationally ranked competition. Projecting their lineup is going to be a heck of a task with seven new players, but I’m going to grind it out and give it my best shot. Here we go…
Key Additions: This is a long list, get comfortable…
Mitchel Sanders (3 star from NJ), Louis Abenante, Achyuth Balijepalle, Omar Bokhari, Timonthy Gavornik, Gerard Giordano, Matthew Puig (all 2 stars from NJ)
Key Losses: Ezra Klemow (did not start but was a captain)
Lineup Analysis:
Singles:
#1 singles: Pierce Cooper (senior): Cooper is one player that, if I was his close friend, I would be really proud of him. His freshman year, he was frankly a nasty bottom of the order singles player, going undefeated at #5/6, if the ITA website is accurate, which it certainly may not be. After playing an excellent #2 his sophomore season, he really came into his own last year. He went 12-2 at #1, losing only to Kai Yuen Leung of Skid and McKinley Grimes of RPI, and had wins over Matt Heinrich (Stevens) and Nick Litsky (Vassar), two really talented players. He made the semis of ITAs this year, falling in straights to Heinrich, but Cooper should be set up for a great senior season.
#2 singles: Jack August (junior): I promise I won’t write paragraphs about the rest of these guys. August, a junior who I assume is currently abroad, actually did not play his sophomore season, but came back last year to have a great year at #2. His overall record was 11-2, with the highlight wins being over Michael Feldman (stevens), and Dan Cooper (Vassar), and one of those losses being 6-4 in the third to Kit Green-Sanderson of Skid. It’s tough to know how August will match up in TCNJ’s expanded schedule this year (more on that later), but he should definitely be a solid #2 in the majority of the Lions’ matches.
#3 singles: Billy Buchbinder (senior): Buchbinder’s a slight wildcard for me. He didn’t play in singles at ITAs, and had slightly mixed results in singles. He went 9-4 overall, with a great win at #3 over Ben Foran, but outside of that, he didn’t have any great wins and basically just won all of the matches that he should. Who knows if Buchbinder will drop out of singles or move down and be more of a doubles specialist, but regardless, I expect this spot to be a tough one for the Lions against the top northeast teams.
#4 singles: Chris D’Agostino (sophomore): D’Agostino is a last name that is really tricky to spell, so please forgive me for any typos. I’m also going to use more pronouns for this section than I typically do. Anyway…D’Agostino was Mr. Three-Setter last year, playing a 3 set match in 7 out of his 14 matches. For all you math experts out there, that is half of them! He’s also one of those guys that can play down to some opponents but up to others, as he lost in 3 sets to Charles Drake, a really good #4 from Stevens and Alain Grullon, a solid #4 from RPI, but also lost in 3 to Ithaca, and won in 3 against Muhlenberg. I could see him playing lower in the lineup if he can’t be more consistent, but I also expect him to improve in his second year of college tennis.
#5/6 singles: Mike Stanley (junior) / Mitchel Sanders / Omar Bokhari / Tim Gavornik: Stanley was a decent #6 last year, but nothing amazing. The group of freshmen are all wild cards, and none of them wowed at ITAs. Sanders is the highest ranked coming in, but he lost in the first round of ITAs to a player from Hunter. Sean Fernandez, a sophomore, could also be in the mix, as he played #5 last year and also had mixed results. There are several guys who could reasonably fill these two positions, and Coach Dicheck will have way more options than he’s ever had before, and that’s a great thing. Nothing wrong with some competition for those spots!
Doubles:
With most of my regional teams, my doubles analysis goes like this. “[Insert team name here] won 2 out of 3 doubles matches against all the unranked teams they played, but got swept by all the ranked teams they played. To pull any upsets this year, they will have to really improve their doubles play”. However, TCNJ is one team that honestly played some really solid doubles last year, at least within the confines of their schedule. They swept Vassar and won 2/3 against RPI, Rochester, NYU, and Skidmore. Yes, they were swept by Stevens and lost 2/3 against Mary Washington in NCAAs, but to win 2/3 against several solid teams is a great sign. Freshmen Matt Puig and Tim Gavornik had the best Lions ITA doubles result, winning two matches and making the quarters, featuring an 8-3 win over Dan Cooper/Nick Litsky, the #1 doubles team from Vassar. It’s good to see that the freshmen can rip the ball too!
Schedule Analysis:
I have alluded to several additions to the Lions’ schedule, and here is where I finally reveal the long-awaited additions! TCNJ starts their season in late February (wow I have this preview out like a month ahead of time, I’m on my game!) against RPI. They will then travel to play Haverford College, a pretty solid ASouth team that could test the Lions. They’ll travel home to play NYU in what is always a good match, and then they’ll head down to VA to take on Mary Washington. The Lions played Mary Wash surprisingly close last year in NCAAs, falling 5-2, so it’s nice to see that good match turn into a good opportunity for the Lions this year. They will then travel out to Baltimore to take on Johns Hopkins, another great chance to play a highly ranked team. The year is not over yet folks, as they will come home and play Skidmore, NC Wesleyan (?!), Christopher Newport, Vassar, and Stevens among their best matches. That’s right, NC Wes and CNU is on the docket this year as well! It’s really great to see TCNJ ramping up the schedule, but how will they do?
TCNJ was in every single match they played last year. Their toughest matches were Skidmore, Stevens, and Mary Washington, and they lost 6-3 to the first two, and 5-2 to Mary Wash. Cooper was up a set on #1 Mary Wash player Tyler Carey as well when that match finished. Because they’ve lost no starters and have seven freshmen who are two stars or better, Coach Dicheck will have plenty of options for his lineup. They will have a couple easier matches before the big showdown vs. RPI, who is one spot ahead of them in the Northeast. In a best case scenario, TCNJ gets revenge on RPI, takes out NYU, Vassar, and CNU (currently #37 nationally), and challenges #25 Stevens, #22 NC Wesleyan, and #16 Mary Washington. I don’t think TCNJ is talented enough to beat Mary Washington, but if they get after it in doubles against NC Wes and Stevens, they absolutely have enough singles talent to pull out 2-3 singles matches, especially given that they split the singles matches with Stevens last year. They won at #1-3, and TCNJ should definitely be deeper this year. Would I pick the Lions right now? Nah. But it will be fun, and it can definitely be close. TCNJ is a big dark horse this year nationally, especially given the strong schedule they’ve put together. Look for their match against Christopher Newport to be a terrific one. Look for a preview of that one in a future Regional Roundup. Given that TCNJ is an independent team as well, they should be well positioned to once again score a Pool B bid to NCAAs.