This Week in West: Whitman/Swarthmore and Redlands/Mary Washington

If the last two “Spring Break Walla Walla”s were the first two Godfather movies, this year’s iteration is definitely Godfather III. It’s OK in that it still has live streaming and at least one good match, but it’s not one of the best movies of all time. I apologize for mixing metaphors, but with Cal Lutheran in full free fall and the third participant falling through the cracks, the weekend has basically boiled down to a main event (Whitman vs. Swarthmore) and an undercard (Cal Lutheran vs. Lewis and Clark). I’ll tackle the undercard briefly:

Cal Lutheran vs. Lewis and Clark

The Kingsmen are reeling after back-to-back losses to Caltech and Christopher Newport, but that tends to happen when you lose 5/6 of your starting lineup to graduation/transfer/other things and you don’t exactly have Amherst’s B-team. The lone bright spot thusfar for the Kingsmen this season has been Gio Valdez, who seems to be winning all of his matches in 10-pointers. Beyond this match, it will be interesting to see if he can notch a big individual win over Hewlin and perhaps sneak into NCAA’s down the road. With regard to this match, Lewis and Clark is far and away the better team on TRN, but some of the 3-stars listed on the page don’t appear to have ever made it to Portland. Nevertheless, the Pios appear to be relatively deep, and the Kingsmen are getting absolutely reamed at the bottom of the singles lineup (losing 3-6 in their last two matches). I see the Pios taking 2 of 3 doubles matches and notching wins at 3, 5, and 6 with Brewer and Ross back in the singles lineup this weekend for a 5-4 win. They will undoubtedly rejoice in their first ranked win before Cal Lu promptly falls out of the national rankings in a few days’ time.

Swarthmore vs. Whitman

Though Swat was surely disappointed not to come away with a big win over Stevens in their season opener, they’ve looked pretty good in their first two matches. The big questions coming in for them are going to be how they deal with the travel and whether or not their depth will be able to hang with that of the Squirrels (especially after losing 3-6 against Stevens). Fallati has stormed out of the gate this season, and if Swarthmore is going to win against Whitman, I think he’ll need to notch another big victory over Hewlin. Whitman hasn’t seen significant DIII action yet, but they’ve looked pretty good against DI competition. Their #1 doubles team of Hewlin/Locklear won against both Idaho and Seattle U, which is nothing to sniff at. I’ll do a brief match-by-match.

#1 Dubs: Powell/Fallati (Swat) vs. Hewlin/Locklear (WC)- Hewlin and Locklear are on fire. They win 8-5

#2 Dubs: Vernier/Cepelewicz (Swat)vs. Hoeger/Carter (WC) – Coming off an impressive win over Stevens, the freshman/sophomore combo withstands the serving onslaught from the Whitties for a 9-8 win.

#3 Dubs: Larkin/Oetting (Swat) vs. Friedman/Jivkoc (WC) – In a match of junior/sophomore 3-star tandems, I’ll take the Squirrels and their big returns on their home court.

#1 Singles: Fallati (Swat) vs. Hewlin (WC) – Fallati continues his breakout season with a big 3-set win over Hewlin. 7-6, 4-6, 6-3

#2 Singles: Larkin (Swat) vs. Locklear (WC) – Locklear’s penchant for 3-set matches comes back to haunt him against an experienced opponent. 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

#3 Singles: Cepelewicz (Swat) vs. Friedman (WC) – Friedman puts away Cepelewicz in a hurry before the Swat sophomore can get things going. 6-1, 6-4

#4 Singles: Vernier (Swat) vs. Carter (WC) – Carter serves his way past Vernier indoors. 7-5, 7-5.

#5 Singles: Oetting (Swat) vs. Jivkov (WC) – Jivkov has proven he can win this deep in the lineup, though he has trouble at 3 or 4. Two quick sets for him here. 6-4, 6-3

#6 Singles: Powell (Swat) vs. Rappaport (WC) – Powell regains some confidence after a disappointing finish against Stevens and ousts Rappaport in his first significant college match. 6-3, 4-6, 10-8

All in all, I have a 5-4 Whitman victory. I think Swarthmore and Whitman are on similar footing this year, but the home courts will just push the balance in Whitman’s favor.

Mary Washington vs. Redlands

This is definitely the most intriguing match of the weekend. I noted that Redlands has played some clutch tennis lately, but I should also point out that this appears to be the new normal for them, at least when it comes to the beginning of the season. Last year, the Dawgs won two tantilizingly close early matches against Wesleyan and Mary Washington before faltering a little down the stretch. The year before, they notched a great 5-4 win against Cal Lu at Indoors before losing a bunch of close matches later in the season. Mary Washington will be coming into this match with a bone to pick after losing two tight ones the Dawgs the last couple years. They’ve performed well on their home courts (as they always do), but they’ll be trying to take the show on the road. We’ve got two teams with similar strengths (singles and doubles depth), so the match might be decided at their relative weaknesses.

#1 Doubles: Gilmore/Griffin (UMW) vs. Dulle/Lipscomb (Redlands) – Redlands is still playing with their doubles lineup, but if they stick with these guys, I’ll take the Eagles duo in a close one. 9-8 UMW

#2 Doubles: Hurwitz/Perugini (UMW) vs. Ly/Hunt (Redlands) – The Grad student and the junior come up big as Hunt works his way back on the tennis court. 8-6 Redlands.

#3 Doubles: Cragg/DLJ (UMW) vs. Wilson/Patterson (Redlands) – DLJ seems to be a more natural doubles player than Wilson. I haven’t seen the other guys in action. I’m leaning towards UMW based on their impressive win over Stevens. 8-6

#1 Singles: Gilmore (UMW) vs. Dulle (Redlands) – I really wish I could see the way Dulle is hitting the ball because it must be much better than last season. Gimore seems to be relatively the weakest spot for the Eagles this season. This could be the swing match and I’m leaning towards Dulle to come up big in the big moment. 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 Redlands

#2 Singles: DLJ (UMW) vs. Lipsombe (Redlands) – Lipscomb continues to experience some growing pains against an experienced and sneakily-craft senior. 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 UMW.

#3 Singles: Griffon (UMW) vs. Johnson (Redlands) – Redlands’ other star freshman comes up just short an another epic three setter. 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 UMW.

#4 Singles: Hurwitz (UMW) vs. Wilson (Redlands) – Wilson continues to dominate at the bottom half of the singles lineup. 6-2, 6-4.

#5 Singles: Hughs (UMW) vs. Hunt (Redlands) – The Grad student cools off the streaking freshman in yet another marathon three-setter. 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 Redlands.

#6 Singles: Miles (UMW) vs. Ly (Redlands) – Always go with experience at the bottom of the singles lineup. Always. 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 Redlands.

Looks like I’ve predicted another 5-4 Redlands victory. Who do I think they are? Pomona-Pitzer? I was really questioning whether or not they would be able to have a good season this year with so much riding on the play of their youngsters (sophomore at #1, freshmen at #2 and #3), but they’ve ended up with a lot of experienced winners at the bottom of the singles lineup, which is almost always a recipe for success. As long as their young guys continue to improve and grow, they will only get better as the season progresses, and they’ll be in good hands in the future. Looking forward, their schedule only gets tougher, so they’ll have to improve throughout the season if they intend to keep winning these close ones, which I believe they do. I’m very much looking forward to this match, and I’m hoping for another big victory in the West region, as both Redlands and Mary Washington tend to be lynchpin teams in the rankings. Teams who beat these guys end up in the top 15. Teams who lose to these guys end up in the 20’s. A win for the Bulldogs would be a boon to the whole region. No pressure.