Early Thursday morning isn’t too late to get the final Indoors recap out, right? We’ve promised my famous Studs & Duds article for Indoors to come out sometime this week and I’ve finally found the time to actually write this thing up. Studs & Duds is one of my personal favorites because I like giving credit to those players, coaches, entities, or ideas that had great weekends or bad ones. I would like to say this – if you are named a Dud, that doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing. I think all of us are old enough to know who played well and who played poorly in the tournament. I try and keep this blog and my writing especially very objective (with a small bias to the ASouth, of course), and with that comes some hopefully constructive criticism. Anyways, you’ve all heard about what happened this weekend, so let me just break it down into some things that did well and things that did not.
Stud: Emory Eagles
Easy stud here to start off the tournament breakdown. Emory was one of the only championship picks from the bloggers and they came through in every single match. What they did this weekend was extremely impressive, because they won in a ton of different ways. First round was an easy blowout against Kenyon, where they eased through and beat an easier opponent. It’s important to get those matches done fast in this type of format. Next, they played CMU and went down in doubles. They showed their singles prowess by taking three quick matches at #1, #3, and #5 and then closed it out. Lastly, they played a heavily touted Chicago team and swept the doubles, leaving Chicago with very little chance to come back against them. Emory made everyone notice them this weekend and they are my biggest stud of the weekend.
Dud: Wash U Bears
The Bears were an outside pick to win it all and they went out and lost to the hosts Case Western in the first round. Case is a good team, don’t get me wrong. But, no one saw this upset coming. It’s been a long time since Wash U has had this many questions this early in the season. Normally, D3Central will question them but we will talk him down from the ledge. We almost did it this time, but this time Wash U fell off the proverbial Indoors cliff. Wash U has some things to look forward to, such as Jason Haugen coming back from injury and the hopeful development of Konrad Kozlowski. Wash U can point to these things as a potential tournament changer. This was a bad start for the Bears, but they have a full season where they play Case, Chicago, Stag-Hen, and other opportunities to get back on track.
Stud: The Future of ASouth Tennis
If I were you, I'd tune into Jemison and Levine on Court 2 for a look into the future of DIII Tennis
— d3AtlanticSouth (@d3AtlanticSouth) February 20, 2016
Man, Jonathan Jemison and Daniel Levine put on a damn show! Jemison was my pick (as you all well know) for the best freshman tournament (and not close). Well, Daniel Levine made it close. Levine went out and won 2 out of his 3 singles matches, with his only loss to… Jemison. Both freshmen also went 2 out of 3 in doubles, albeit Levine played at #1 doubles against stronger competition. Jemison vs. Levine was an incredible match of ground strokers that truly impressed me. Levine simply has smooth strokes and whacks shots around the court, while Jemison is a bit more of a grinder/ball-striker. Awesome tennis to watch. Also, I can’t help but mention Adrien Bouchet, James Spaulding, Vayum Arora, and Chaz Downing, who all had great weekends as well. Cheers to underclassmen who are making an impact right away.
Stud: Sam Geier
Sam Geier was simply incredible this weekend. While he gets lost in all the hype about CJ Krimbill (and well deserved), Geier was potentially the best player on the court this weekend. One does not simply crush balls past Rafe Mosetick with such ease. Geier won all three of his matches, taking out Rafe, Yasgoor, and Jeremy Bush without losing a set. Geier’s forehand is so powerful that when he’s on fire, he’s really on fire. I would like to mention that Geier has beaten Chua and Humphreys already this year and is basically a lock for Nationals. Not too bad for the senior.
Dud: Pomona’s #3 Doubles Team
This was a rough weekend for Pomona’s #3 doubles team. They were switching with Chadalavada and Yasgoor with Antony Bello, but they were unable to take any matches at the lowest doubles spot in the lineup. I had heard that Chadalavada was potentially injured at the start of the tournament, so that’s a bit of an excuse there. Pomona came in expecting to win every time at the bottom and the exact opposite happened. If Pomona is going to have the same success they had last year, they need to be one of the strongest teams in the nation once again. That starts with some actual success at #3 doubles with a couple of All-Americans.
Stud: Home-Court Advantage
Every single Indoors year, it seems that the #8 seed and the host school pulls off at least one win that people don’t expect. Well, Case certainly proved that right this year by winning two matches that I would have tabbed them as an underdog pre-match. The win against Wash U was absolutely massive and I am sure they loved beating their rival in CMU. I simply don’t think they could have done this without the help of being on their own courts. It makes a lot of difference playing at home and Case showed that this past weekend. As you can see from my power rankings, I believe that Case and CMU are about the same in terms of quality of team right now, but that home court definitely put them over the edge.
Stud: Coach Todd
The Blog has always been a fan of Coach Todd’s hard-nosed coaching abilities and they showed up here at Indoors. He knew this was going to be a big tournament and it seemed like everything was in order for the Spartans. He’s created a monster in CJ Krimbill, put together two solid doubles teams behind him in the lineup, and coached up Dong and Dughi to be quality bottom of the lineup options. Prior to the tournament, we really weren’t expecting much from them #4-6. Of course, that’s where they ended up taking out Wash U, who also has one of the best coaches in the nation as well as a ton of talent. It’s hard to surprise the Bears, and Coach Todd did just that.
Dud: Case Sportsmanship
One thing that I was slightly disappointed in was the sportsmanship in the Chicago/Case match on Saturday afternoon. While I understand there were probably a lot of outside spectators there from Case, some of the things being said and being picked up on the livestream were simply obnoxious. When you fire up a guy like David Liu (not known to be that fiery) to shout back at you after a doubles point, you know you’ve probably gone a little too far. As Central mentioned in the tweet below:
Cheer for your team, not against the other.
— D3 Central Tennis (@d3centraltennis) February 20, 2016
That’s really all there is to it. Now, I don’t want to be too hard on college kids because I know what it’s like to be out there and I’ve said my own stupid things in the past. But c’mon, let’s make DIII a great place to play no matter where it is.
Stud: Overall Sportsmanship
This is the kind of stuff I like to see. While we are all playing for the championship, let’s play for it while being respectful to each other. It’s just better that way.
@RafeMosetick @uaatennis great match rafe, well played and good sportsmanship. See you again next time
— Nick Chua (@nickchua5) February 21, 2016
@uaatennis @CoastingCbf well fought… Looking forward to another match against him
— Rafe Mosetick (@RafeMosetick) February 21, 2016
Great match today against TU. fiery and respectful battle on every court. well deserved win for TU. @d3_west @TUtennis @d3AtlanticSouth
— Pomona-Pitzer Men’s Tennis (@defendthecoop) February 21, 2016
@defendthecoop same to you! Great match as always. Enjoy the battle. #ITAIndoors
— Trinity Men's Tennis (@TUtennis) February 21, 2016
Big ups to @EUtennis with a well played final. Great battle, great sportsmanship. See you in Orlando where it will be warmer than Chicago
— UChicago Tennis (@UChicagoTennis) February 21, 2016
Stud: CMU Freshmen
I was wary of what CMU would do in the tournament prior to the event, and for good reason. They had questions at the top of the lineup, in doubles, and at the very bottom. Kudos to the CMU freshmen for filling those voids. Levine and Arora worked magic at the top of the lineup, winning 2 out of their 3 matches. Levine was a stud at #2 singles, playing great tennis and probably the most fun to watch. Don’t forget Chaz Downing at the bottom of the lineup taking out Andrew Harrington and Josh Dughi. While CMU still has some questions to answer this year, they can take solace in the fact that they have three guys that will be holding this team up for years to come.
Dud: CMU’s #1 and #5 Singles (Alla and Kirkov)
This was a poor tournament for both Alla and Kirkov. Neither of them won a singles match all weekend, contributing to two close losses to UAA opponents in Emory and Case Western. Not only that, the matches weren’t close. Now, I named Shek a Dud last year at Indoors, and he responded with an incredible season. I hope that happens, because CMU can’t afford spots where they just can’t win. Let’s also remember that Shek beat Buxbaum back in the fall, so it’s not like he’s totally fallen off this year. Maybe it just takes him a bit to heat up. Kirkov simply hasn’t played great since injuring his wrist sometime last year. His lineup spot is probably in jeopardy with the emergence of Chaz Downing at the bottom of the lineup.
Stud: The Liu Crew
We actually had 3 “Lius” in the tournament, two of them being on Chicago! Max Liu (freshman) went undefeated at #6 singles without dropping a set, I believe. David Liu was one of the absolute studs of the weekend winning all his singles and 2 out of 3 doubles at the top spot. At the end of the year, he could probably end up making a case for MVP if all goes right. The Lius of Chicago propelled them to the final, and Chicago can rely on them at the bottom of the lineup all year. Michael Liu of Kenyon performed admirably in his first big-stage matches as well, taking out Pomona’s #3 doubles team as well as a surprising win over Johnny Wu in straight sets. He got more comfortable as the tournament went on.
Stud: John Carswell
Carswell was one of my players to watch coming in and boy did he prove me right. Carswell went on to 3 wins in singles, with only one of them being close. Carswell is a talented player and one that is probably tired of taking all the burdens of Wash U. He came out this weekend and was one of the only saving graces for the Bears. Just think, without Carswell, Wash U might not have even beaten Kenyon. Think about that for a second.
Dud: Nick Ballou and Wade Heerboth’s DraftKings Teams
All the love to Nick Ballou and Wade Heerboth, two of my favorite players, but damn, their teams were bad.
Currently, @wiggitywiggity1 and @NickBallou are last in the standings in DraftKings. Hilarious
— d3AtlanticSouth (@d3AtlanticSouth) February 20, 2016
Dud: The Line Judges
One thing that D3West and I can’t stand are line judges that insert themselves into a match that they shouldn’t. This happened not once, but twice while we were watching. Situation one happened in the Emory/Kenyon match between Aman Manji and Robert Turlington. If any of you know Aman, he is probably one of the nicest kids in DIII and has never gotten a point penalty in his life. He does, however, have a habit of saying “Dangit” after making unforced errors. Now I don’t know if the crowd was full of 3 year olds who have never heard someone say “dangit” before, but Manji got a point penalty and then a GAME penalty at 4-4 in the second set. Here’s D3West’s take.
I really wish Manji would stop saying "dang it." It's ruining the sanctity of the game
— D3West (@d3_west) February 19, 2016
Later on in the tournament in the Kenyon/Pomona #2 doubles match, Mike Roberts got pegged at the net by a ripped Mandic forehand. As many of us would do after getting pegged with a 70-80 mph forehand, Roberts groaned loudly in the form of “aghhhhhhhhhhh.” For whatever reason, the line judge interpreted this as the F-word, which of course, was a point penalty. Let me mention that this was at 2-1 in a tiebreaker. At 8-8 in a doubles match. At 1-1 in the overall score. Are you serious? Wade’s take. Here:
Inexcusable point penalty call by ref. Roberts groaned when he got pegged and ref claimed he said f word. Pathetic
— Wade Heerboth (@wiggitywiggity1) February 20, 2016
Stud: Adam Krull
Everyone knew Adam Krull was going to be a beast at #2 singles. Krull did not lose a match at singles throughout the tournament despite going down a set to Johnny Wu. He came back that afternoon and took out Maassen of Pomona with ease. While he only went 1-2 in doubles (more on that soon), Krull can be relied on for at least 1 point every match. When you’re counting to 5, that’s a pretty damn big deal. (that’s a point penalty, ASouth).
Dud: Trinity TX’s Middle of the Lineup
This was a weekend to forget for Lambeth and Tyer of Trinity TX. Both have a lot of talent and I truly believe they will be really, really, good by the end of the year. Lambeth is a freshman and this was his first big college match. Tyer just never seemed that comfortable Indoors. Indoors is not really a great indicator of how people will play for the rest of the year, especially Texas teams. I fully expect both these guys to step it up and be big parts of a Trinity run. On the weekend, Trinity TX went 1-5 at the #3 and #4 spots. I will say that Lambeth came up with a huge win over JK to seal the deal against Pomona!
Super STUD: Live Coverage, Video, and the Overall Tournament
Shout-out to Case Western and the ITA for holding an incredible event this past weekend. It really was a fun time following all the action. As someone commented, there were a ton of people watching the live video and actually a total of 16K views on the livestream! That’s more than this site gets in a weekend (but not by much, heh). That is a testament to the type of effort Case put into this event and the ITA. Great job all around. Additionally, we tried to play our part with our live tweeting, articles, and analysis throughout the event. I’m proud to say that this was the third year in a row we were able to get to all the matches in a preview or recap of some sort. I’ll pat myself and the bloggers on the back a little bit here. Great job everyone. There was a lot of hype for Indoors (from us) and this weekend lived up to it. DIII Tennis is really starting to grow and everyone here plays a part.
There you have it, folks. My Studs and Duds recap for Indoors, which is turning out to be an annual event. I realize that I couldn’t name all the Studs and Duds without making this article way too long, so if you have any more that you would like to call out, please feel free to do so. Also, shoutout to Stevens for pulling out a 5-4 win against Swarthmore yesterday. Way to work that fitness. With this, we officially end our Men’s Indoors coverage and are moving on. What a sad day. ASouth, OUT.
Many thanks for the fantastic coverage from all of the writers–as always, a great mix of analytical *and* appreciative commentary.
Wash U seems a bit undersized at the moment, without Putterman and Chu (both graduated) or Haugen. Most everyone playing at indoors was under 6 feet tall by a fair margin. In this sense, they remind me a bit of Emory ca. 2013-2015. Perhaps getting Haugen back will pay dividends.
Then I have much to look forward to in the next 8-9 years! Much appreciated
What a brilliant take on negating Case’s wins due to a homecourt advantage that was created by bad sportsmanship. Which one is it? Good homecourt advantage or bad sportsmanship?
Are you saying that you can’t create a great home court advantage without bad sportsmanship? While it helped with their wins, there are plenty of teams that have great home court advantage with great sportsmanship. Think about that.
So if you want me to answer your question, it was good home court advantage, as well as a great coach (who I mentioned), and motivated and fighting players. Don’t make things black and white. That leads to stupid arguments and they get nowhere.
You know as well as I do that your team is one of the most hard-nosed and workmanlike teams in the nation. You played with them for 4 years. However, you should also know about sportsmanship from playing for 4 years. There’s nothing wrong with asking you guys to win with grace. If anything, I’d rather have you not diminish your great accomplishments by showing poor class.
First off, love the blog. Definitely helps me stay current with what’s going on in the tennisphere. Not trying to start WWIII here, just wanted to voice a few opinions.
I disagree with the notion that home court advantage plays such a huge part in deciding college tennis matches. The major difference comes down to indoors vs. outdoors, and I think most teams at indoors should have had plenty of practice indoors prior to competing for a national championship (coaching). Saying that Case had a home court advantage because they were playing in Cleveland and had a few parents and the girls team cheering for them is really taking away from their accomplishment. I would even go as far as to say there is more pressure on kids playing in front of their “home crowd”. I can understand having a home court advantage if you practiced on the same courts everyday, or had rowdy frat bros yelling obscenities at the players, but that’s not what happened here.
As far as sportsmanship goes, I agree that winning/losing with class is the way to go (can’t emphasize this enough). That being said, I think there’s a lot more to having good sportsmanship than tweeting a nice message to your opponent after the match. I understand Case is under a magnifying glass because they had a few questionable moments last year, but lets not take away from the fact that what’s happening in these matches is nothing we haven’t seen before with other schools. I played for Case a few years ago and I don’t remember anyone having a problem with our sportsmanship back then. I can’t comment on the team now because I haven’t been around them enough, but I can’t imagine much has changed. Anyways, just trying to have Case shake this stigma of poor sportsmanship because I think other teams/coaches read these articles and prepare their players for chippy matches with Case, which ultimately leads to chippy matches with Case.
I’ll chime in because that’s what we are here for. I agree with you that Case is under a magnifying glass. That will continue until the atmosphere changes. I honestly don’t think that Case is full of bad kids that do not know how to conduct themselves on the court. What I do think is that as Case began to rise onto the National scene, they started to create a reputation for loud and intense matches. I firmly believe that Case is a team that thrives on being known as the bad boys of D3 tennis and if anything welcome it. The few well known instances of the past year or two have not helped and they have turned from loud and intense team to one that goes a bit overboard with how they support their teammates/chastise opponents. From my perspective and after watching pretty much all of Case’s matches on the live stream, it seems that there is one distinct bench player voice that is inappropriate. One player can make all the difference.
The good news is that they can change this stigma if they wish to. Look at Chicago as a prime example. Many years ago, they would have been considered the most hated team in D3 tennis because they were a bunch of pricks. Fast forward a few years under a new coach and you have a team that was given the sportsmanship award at indoors. Coach Todd could fix this stigma. I just don’t think that the desire is there to be any different than the team they have represented themselves as in the past year or two. I hope I am wrong on this one.
Finally, what Case did this past weekend was phenomenal and that cannot go understated. Whether it was in Cleveland or Florida, the two wins they got were massive and they deserve all the credit for making it happen. Their hard work and grit are the reasons why they win matches and it was on full display at Indoors.
Stud: all of your previews, coverage, and recaps of #IndoorsWeek! Awesome work!
Dud: where are the previews or hype for the other #IndoorsWeek? Will the women’s tournament also have live streaming?
I just looked at the Depauw and ITA websites, and it doesn’t look like they will have live streaming, but you should check the Depauw women’s tennis page again on Thursday and Friday morning to see if they get an official tournament site up and running that might have it. And once again, while we understand your frustration in the inequity between the men’s and women’s coverage, please keep in mind that between the original bloggers and the current ones, the men’s blog has been steadily growing for the past 8 or 9 years. The women’s blog, by comparison, is in its infancy, and is written by people in their free time for absolutely no compensation. Thanks for your continued interest and patience, as we continue to work on the women’s aspect of our coverage. If you know someone who would like to write more articles for the women’s side, please feel free to e-mail us.
Thanks for the kind words! I am trying to get a Women’s Preview out tonight or early tomorrow morning, am doing my best! Dual-writing is tough!