A cow and an elephant wander into the desert…

Happy Friday, boys and girls, and I hope it’s a particularly good Friday. CMS just clinched early over Chicago, and PP overcame yet another doubles deficit to take down Stevens, so we can now turn our heads to Saturday’s slate of matches. Although the ASouth has a couple intriguing matches tomorrow such as CNU at Hop and a depleted W&L team at Swat, the real meat of the Saturday schedule is a busy day out in the desert. Redlands hosts two NESCAC teams tomorrow, and both teams are in the top-15 of our most recent Blog Power Rankings. Tufts will take on Redlands at 1 p.m. EST, with Williams taking on that same (or similar) Redlands team immediately afterwards. Now, I understand how difficult it can be to put together a schedule with only a certain amount of dates, but the idea of playing two top-25 teams, let alone two top-15 teams on the same day seems like a recipe for disaster. D3West has been kind enough to join me and offer both his Redlands expertise and his fantastically cynical view on life. Enjoy. 

#15 Tufts @ #18 Redlands, Saturday at 10 a.m.

D3NE: I always feel as though doubles plays an even larger role in these spring break matches than later on in the year. Neither the Jumbos nor the Dawgs have played particularly inspired doubles of late. Tufts was down 2-1 against Vassar, Stevens, and Chicago, but their singles depth overcame two of those three deficits. Redlands has been having their doubles issues as well, and I think the Dawgs need a doubles lead if they are going to have a real shot at this match. Telkedzhiev has yet to win a singles match yet this spring. His losses are all to good players (Hewlin, Heinrich, Chua, and Reid) but he’s yet to get that big win in 2016. Gupte has been playing some excellent tennis, and I think he’ll be favored over either Lil’ Lipscomb or Dulle. Glickman has also been playing his best tennis since his freshman year, and I think Tufts should be favored there. The bottom of the lineup is a little iffier for the Jumbos, but Jacobson/Ali/Coran (or whoever slots in at 6 tomorrow) are all good players with decent results this spring, and should win at least one, probably two, and maybe even all three spots. HOWEVER, let’s remember that this match now means more to Tufts than Redlands. The Dawgs lost to Wesleyan and Whitman in the last two (ish) weeks, and no longer have a realistic shot at a Pool-C bid. A team with nothing to play for can be dangerous. All in all, I like the doubles to be close, but Tufts to pull away in the singles. I’ll take my Jumbos in a comfortable 6-3 win.

D3West: Whitman def. Redlands 7-2. Tufts def. Whitman 5-4. That’s pretty much all you need to know about who is favored in this match, but that doesn’t mean that Redlands has no chance here. The Dawgs’ depth, which was treating them so well early in the year has abandoned them in recent matches against better teams. They went 3-9 at 4-6 singles against Wesleyan, Tyler, Amherst, and Whitman. Their bottom singles guys are in for another test against Tufts, who beat Stevens on the strength of their singles depth alone. Singles depth is important for Redlands, but the real key is going to be doubles play. Other than a doubles sweep against pre-collapse Mary Washington, Redlands has been pretty weak on the doubles court this year. Tufts has not, but we all know how things can go on any given Saturday. The recipe for a Redlands upset starts with a doubles lead (2-1 with wins at 1 and 3 after a switch in the doubles lineup), and ends with wins from Lipscomb at 1, Dulle at 2, and Hunt or Ly at 5 or 6. Despite Tufts’ solid depth, Whitman was able to win a couple matches at 5 and 6, which means Hunt or Ly could do the same on a good day. Telkhedzeiv is far from a top tier #1 singles player at this point, and that match will be a good chance for Lipscomb to get acclimated to the top position he might occupy for another four years. Dulle was playing like a passable #1 singles player, so hopefully he’ll be strong at #2 for the rest of the year for Redlands. More realistically, I think Tufts takes ⅔ doubles and wins at 2-6 singles for a 7-2 win.

#14 Williams @ #18 Redlands, Saturday at 2 p.m.

D3West: I’m not going to give this match a whole lot more attention than it deserves. Williams would be a big favorite even if Redlands weren’t playing a match earlier in the day. I guess the only chance Redlands has is to come out and win two doubles matches before taking 1 and 2 singles again. If Johnson has a big match at #3, that’s another position I could see Redlands winning on a good day. My prediction is a doubles sweep from Williams followed by singles wins at 3-6 for another 7-2 victory for the Purple Cows. It’s a NESCAC world this year, and we’re all just living in it.

D3NE: Can I tell you how much I love the final sentence of D3West’s little blurb? Let’s hope it’s true, because as of this second I think the UAA still has an edge in terms of Pool-C teams even though there’s little doubt in my mind who would win a conference positional battle (e.g. the top UAA team plays the top NESCAC team all the way down to 8). Let me try to rein it in a bit, and get to the matchup at hand. Forgetting the fact that Redlands will be playing it’s 2nd tough match in a matter of hours, I do agree with D3West in that if Tufts will beat Redlands then it’s hard to think that Williams won’t do the same. The two teams do present somewhat similar matchups as well. Williams’ doubles are good, and I would be very surprised if the Ephs didn’t take at least a 2-1 lead on a tired Redlands squad. The Ephs are very solid all the way through their lineup. They lost at #1 & #2 to PP on Wednesday night, but it would surprise me if Raventos and Shastri didn’t bounce back soon. Grodecki’s win wasn’t a surprise, but they way he beat Kim (a senior) should have Coach Greenberg beaming with pride. Raghavan and Deepak Indrakanti (4-star freshman from Cincinnati) are very talented pair anchoring the Eph’s lineup, and the fact that Indrakanti is playing above Sadwoski already is a great sign for Williams’ fans. Schidlovsky is always an up and down player. Al can beat the best, but he can also lose on any given day and therefore #4 is probably the place where Williams is most susceptible to a Redlands upset. I like Williams to beat a dogged Dawgs team with relative ease, and set themselves up for a big time matchup with CMS on Wednesday.