Indoors Recap – 10 Questions

With great tournaments, comes a great amount of articles to write.  You thought #IndoorsWeek was over, but we have to do our duty as bloggers and recap the tournament!  The Guru kindly put together 10 questions for us bloggers to answer, depending on the region and who had the most time to mess around in a Google Doc at work. Anyways, it was a great weekend and this will give you a general recap of what happened at Indoors.  We made sure that every team got at least one question, with some other fun ones as well. We hope you enjoy, and read the conclusion for some upcoming articles that are coming your way in the near future.

10. Indoors history tells us that each year, one of the participants drops out of the top 18 in the country. As of right now, do you think it’s possible this happens to Kenyon?

Central: I think this is a distinct possibility. I absolutely believe they will fall out of the top 20 in the first set of rankings that come out on March 3rd. The real question is will it stick? Kenyon has history on their side in that they are a program that typically is in the top 15 every year. That bias (whether right or wrong) will inflate their ranking potential this year. They have a must win match against NC Wesleyan this weekend and then Stag Hen coming up as well that will give them a chance to get a big win. A loss to NC Wes who has already free falled from the hype train would mean Kenyon might struggle to stay in the Top 30. A win buoys them for awhile, but they still need a good win to justify them in the Top 20. They also need to be Whitewater’s biggest fan for the rest of the season. Personally, I think that Kenyon will be right around the 20-25 range come year end.

9. What went wrong for Wash U this year at Indoors and do you think they make NCAAs this year?

Central: Like Kenyon, Wash U had me worried at the beginning of the year. To say that Indoors was a tragic weekend for the Bears would be an understatement. All the props go out to Case for pulling the upset, but no one saw it coming. The Case loss proved that Wash U isn’t as deep as they have been in the past and they really don’t have the stud at the top of the lineup to carry them either. I figured that Wash U’s depth would be more than enough to overtake the guaranteed 2 points that Krimbill provides. This particular result is concerning and moving forward, Wash U is in a difficult position to qualify for NCAAs. The good news is that they will have plenty of opportunities as they will play Case again at least once as well as Chicago, both in April. UAAs also is another big tournament that can boost a resume so I am not counting the Bears out just yet, but right now they are on the outside looking in. At this time, I would predict that Wash U does NOT make the tournament and struggles to stay inside the Top 15 of the national rankings. Wait….did I really just say that?

8. How do you feel about Pomona-Pitzer’s overall performance? Are they a top 10 team right now?

West: If you’re a Pomona-Pitzer fan, you’re obviously disappointed with the result, especially since you’ve picked up a key Pool C loss to a borderline team in Carnegie Mellon, and you may have lost a little of the unassailable confidence the team was radiating after a string of close victories last year. BUT, there’s obviously no reason to panic. You’ve got plenty of chances against other Pool C competition, including essentially the whole NESCAC and a huge potential match against Case at the Stag-Hen if it happens. You’ll feel a little bit better about things once you get Malech back on the court. The big question is, “how the HELL did we go 0-3 with Bello/Yaz/Chadalavada at #3 doubles?” Coming into the tournament, I looked at that spot and thought it might be the only spot where P-P has an advantage over every other team in the field. That turned out to be laughably wrong, and if you’re a Sagehen, you need to figure that out pronto because getting a doubles lead has always been absolutely crucial to your success as a team, and you can’t continue to rely on Bello and Mandic winning tiebreakers. I have a feeling they’ll start playing a lot better when they get back to the friendly confines, but they didn’t really look like a top 10 team this weekend.

7. Was Trinity TX the third best team at Indoors?

West: Yes. Definitely. Case had a fantastic weekend, but they have a history of playing well at the beginning of the season indoors and then having worse results as the season progresses. Trinity won two matches this weekend without even playing their best tennis. I’ve seen Krull and Tyer play much better than they did this weekend, and Deuel/Niess looked really pedestrian at #2. Lambeth and Guin only played OK for what they’re capable of and they still went 3-0 against three pretty good teams. Their bottom two showed that they can compete with the best in the country when it comes to depth, and Lambeth showed flashes of the brilliant player he will eventually become. Basically, they had a pretty successful tournament, they learned what they have to work on (doubles), and I’m confident they will come back stronger is a couple weeks at the Stag-Hen.

6. Should CMU be pleased with their 4th place finish?

ASouth: Yes, and no. If we’re looking at the finish prior to the tournament, CMU is happy to get 4th place and happy to take home that title.  They set themselves up with a great win against Pomona to get that big win that we all wanted from them. Additionally, their doubles performance this weekend was exceptional, taking 2-1 leads on Pomona, Emory, and Case, which is something I never would have expected. There were A TON of good things that came out of this weekend for the Tartans. The part that the Tartans should be disappointed about is that they are still the projected #4 seed in the UAA which presents a potential minefield when making it to the NCAA tournament.  The projected #5 seed right now is Wash U, a team that no one wants to play when playoff performance is on the line. The Tartans had an exceptional opportunity to almost lock in a Pool C bid by beating Case yesterday and weren’t able to do it.  That, to me, is the biggest disappointment for them.  So overall, great tournament, but it could have been better.

5. I would imagine Case will be top 8 in the country after this tournament. Are they good enough to stay there for the whole season?

Central: Continuing on my usual negative stance on teams in my region, I do not believe Case will stay in the top 8 for the entire season. Again, I don’t want to take anything away from their wins over Wash U and Carnegie because both are really impressive. Considering that they are conference opponents only increases the importance of each win. But in a year where the Central region is down as a whole and Carnegie also is a bit down, by the time the season progresses, other national teams will rise to the top slowly lessening the impact that these wins will have on Case’s resume. They also will have to beat those two teams again to prove that it wasn’t a home court, indoor, heightened pressure win that wouldn’t have happened on neutral ground. I do believe that Case will have another big upset in them which will keep them in the top 15 this season which is above my initial expectations, but I also think they are susceptible to a not so great loss. Relying too heavily on Krimbill will be their downfall as he can’t be afforded a bad day for Case to continue to have success.

4. Who do you think was the best player at the tournament?

Central: There are probably a few people that one could argue was the best at this tournament, but I am going to stay in region and say that CJ Krimbill and Sam Geier are a cut above the rest. Krimbill isn’t a surprising choice, but the season that Geier is putting together is impressive. I am not sure he can keep it up, but if he keeps that forehand powering through players, he will be tough to beat. I am sure others will say Krull or Jemison and they had fantastic weekends, but something has to be said for the top player playing both #1 singles and #1 doubles.

ASouth: This tweet says it all.

Is Sam Geier the best player in the country indoors? It's possible

— d3AtlanticSouth (@d3AtlanticSouth) February 20, 2016

Greek: There are many ways of looking at “best,” but I’m going to define it as the best all-around player (singles and doubles). Three players won five out of six matches over the weekend: Jonathan Jemison, CJ Krimbill, and David Liu. Only one of those was playing No. 1 singles and doubles: Krimbill. For that, I think it’s fair to say that the Case senior was the best player. I’ll also give a shoutout to Sam Geier for playing out of his mind in singles.

West: I don’t think you can really have this conversation without at least mentioning Deuel’s 3-0 record against Chua, Yaz, and Bush, but Krimbill was definitely the MVP of the weekend. His weekend was also a harbinger of what’s to come for the season for Case. Much like the old Ballou days, if Krimbill doesn’t go 2-0, Case isn’t winning against top 10 teams. Fortunately for the Spartans, he’ll go 2-0 often.

3. Give your thoughts on Chicago’s weekend. Where can they improve to become a national title favorite?

Central: Obviously one can point to doubles as a point of emphasis that Chicago needs to improve on. I was very surprised at the Emory sweep mainly at #1, but I really think that Chicago’s lineup will be just fine at the top two spots. It’s doubles so anyone can win. They do need to find the right combination for #3 and I personally hope to see Max Hawkins back in there with Tsai. I know he has some crazy Chicago academic commitments right now, but if he and Tsai can pair together with the same success they had last season, they will be very good at #3. The middle of the lineup was a bit disappointing as well so Leung and Pei are going to have to become better big match players for the Maroons to find success against the best.

ASouth: I love talking Chicago and will add myself into this question. Chicago simply needs more big match experience and probably, some more luck. Winning an NCAA championship is tough especially when you haven’t been there. We talk so highly of talent, but the fact of the matter is there are other factors that go into the formula.  Hard work, experience, and luck are the three most important ones. Chicago saw what it would be like this weekend to go through 3 tough opponents, which is what NCAA quarters would be.  Except, they would get someone like CMS instead of Case. Yikes. I think this will be one of those situations much like CMS where it takes Chicago a year or two to get enough experience to win it all. That is not a bad thing by any means.

2. If you had to rank the UAA teams based upon how they will finish at the end of the year, what are your rankings 1-5 right now and why?

Central: 1. Emory, 2. Chicago, 3. Wash U, 4. Case, 5. Carnegie. The reasoning behind this would be Emory proved they are a whole lot better than advertised and I think Wash U shores up #5 and #6 singles that would give them the edge over Case and Carnegie. If I stick with what I said above and Wash U not making the tournament, this would have only one at-large big for the UAA. I am not sure I believe that to be possible, but it very well could happen.

ASouth: Since the UAA is my jam, I wanted to put my 2 cents in here. My rankings would be Emory, Chicago, CMU, Case, and Wash U. I’m never a fan of betting against Wash U, but the troubles they are having at the bottom of the lineup will continue to rear their ugly head until someone can get their game figured out down there.  I look at Jason Haugen as a potential candidate to save them, but no one even knows what happened to him this weekend.  My optimism for CMU is this – they seem to have figured out their doubles, and their loss to Case featured a three setter in Zheng and a straight set loss at #5 with Kirkov. Let’s remember that Kunal Wadwani missed this whole weekend due to a random rolled ankle in practice or just a scrimmage match.  He’s a big part of their success and leadership down at the bottom of the lineup.  Also, you have three impressive freshmen in Levine, Arora, and Downing, who theoretically should get better as the season goes on.  I’m back to being on the Tartans bandwagon.

1. What was the most impressive thing you saw from Emory this weekend?

ASouth: Easily the most impressive thing about Emory this weekend was their performance at #3 and #4 singles. I went into the tournament thinking that this team would struggle in the middle, but Aman Manji was the truth at #3 singles. His dismantling of Kenny Zheng was so impressive and his wins against Turlington and Pei were equally as impressive. Shoutout to the hard worker that he is and a big reason why Emory has announced themselves as a national contender.  Adrien Bouchet, the freshman, was another question mark going into this.  A lot of people thought JB was slotting Bouchet in at #4 to get his other guys down in the lineup, but Bouchet went out there and went undefeated for the weekend.  Again,if Emory has the strength to compete everywhere, they’re in the driver’s seat right now for the championship.

Greek: Rafe Mosetick. The blog has been hyping up the senior all year, but I didn’t jump on the bandwagon until I watched him play this weekend. Prior to that, I knew he was a very good No. 3 singles player who had a good fall, but I honestly thought the blog was giving him too much credit. Boy, was I wrong! Not only do opponents have to hit 10 winners per point against him, but his ability to pump up his teammates after every single point is amazing. He is the real deal — a leader with fire and talent. I was also pleased to see a lot of good sportsmanship out of him.

Thank you, thank you, bloggers for your hard work getting this done so fast. After a couple more Indoors articles (we don’t want to beat a dead horse y’know) we will officially be moving on from Indoors like a Kardashian moving on from an ex. Look out for my always interesting and sometimes controversial “Studs and Duds” article from Indoors, where I will give props to the best and lambast the worst.  Kidding, I’ll just point out things to improve on. The way some people react, you’d think I was taking their first-born child. Anywho, I hope you enjoyed. ASouth, OUT.