East Meets West: Tuesday, March 29 and Wednesday, March 30
Happy Monday, boys and girls, and welcome to Part I of this week’s collaboration effort between D3West and yours truly. As we move towards April, my NE teams will head back to the frozen tundra they call home, and D3West and I will be relegated to our own little corners of the country (actually, his little corner takes up like ½ of the geographical landmass that is the United States). I know you all enjoy these joint previews, so treasure these moments while you can. Middlebury will play its first meaningful match out West on Tuesday when they attack the Coop. Williams, who is in the midst of a very successful spring break trip, will try to wrap up their trip with an upset win over the Stags in a rematch of the 2013 NCAA title match. We’ll be back later in the week for yet another tag team take on Midd/CMS (which goes down on Saturday evening).
#2 Middlebury @ #10 Pomona-Pitzer, Tuesday at 7 p.m. EST
D3West: Well, Middlebury came into the season as a trendy pick to win the national championship with its senior-heavy roster, but the enthusiasm is somewhat diminished after they barely escaped a home match against Wesleyan with a 5-4 win. Pomona-Pitzer started the season strong, but close losses to Williams and CMU currently have them likely on the outside looking in in terms of Pool C, with this being their last chance to get a key non-conference Pool C win on their resume before entering SCIAC play. Basically, this is an important match. It’s hard to judge how good Middlebury is right now because they’ve only played one significant match, but if that one match is any indication, they’ll be relying a lot on strong singles depth and Farrell at the top of the lineup (sounds a lot like P-P, doesn’t it?). The one quirky part of this match is that we have two traditionally strong doubles teams who aren’t necessarily playing great doubles right now.
Well, one of them has to win more doubles matches than the other, and I’m going to go with the Hens. Midd has been in California for a while, but I always like P-P on their slow home courts. I think P-P wins at 2 and 3 to take the 2-1 lead. After that, things are looking a little less peachy for the Sagehens. Maassen is playing well, but Farrell could be the best player in the nation, so it’s hard to go against him there. Yasgoor seems to be a perpetual #2 singles player, but he is massively successful at that position, so I’ll take him there. Midd is a huge favorite with Campbell at #3, and I have to think their depth is going to be stronger, as well as Malech and Mandic have been playing. I think Midd wins 1, 3, 4, and 6 singles to take the 5-4 win.
D3NE: Good way to start the week. We really don’t know too much about Midd at this point. They looked very strong to open the year against Bates, but faltered a bit in a 5-4 win over Wesleyan last weekend. Here’s what we do know about the Panthers. Farrell is really good at the top of the lineup, Smolyar should be a rock at #2, Campbell is an All-American playing at #3, De Quant is a rising star at #4, Derbani is raw unproven talent at #5, and Van Der Geest has been nothing but solid at #6. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Well the issue for the Panthers may be one that Coach Hansen hasn’t faced in a long time, a doubles issue. Midd was down 2-1 to Wesleyan last weekend. That being said, they also swept Bates the weekend before, so perhaps we don’t really know yet and this week will give us a good indication? Similarly, PP’s doubles have not been wonderful so far, and for that reason I’m thinking Midd takes a lead into singles, with wins at #1 and #3 dubs. Maassen has been playing very well, but how can you pick against Farrell? Yaz at #2 seems a little unfair, but so does Smolyar. I think this one goes three sets, or a super if Midd has already clinched. Campbell should be favored at #4, and De Quant should certainly be favored at #4 if Bello is playing. Malech at #5 gets an edge over Derbani, but this will be another very good test for the unproven junior. Mandic (or the revolving door dejour) will get a good test with Van der Geest, and I see this one going 3-sets as well. All in all, I like Midd to clinch about 5-2 and play a couple supers or meaningless 3rd sets afterwards.
#14 Williams @ #5 CMS, Wednesday at 7 p.m. EST
D3NE: Oh my goodness, the whole NESCAC should be licking its collective lips going into this match. Another basically no-lose scenario where one team can put the conference on its back with an upset. While at first glance CMS seems like the stronger team, don’t be so sure. I too was a little worried headed into this preview, however when you look at the individual matchups, Williams is more than just an longshot. The Ephs play great dubs, and although CMS came out firing against Chicago, the Stags’ doubles game has been slightly off point. If Williams can take a 2-1 lead, this could get interesting real fast. Butts and Raventos should be a battle, but the top-Stag has been getting his groove back of late. Hull has proven himself to be one of the streakiest players in all of DIII, but he’s on a good streak right now. When Hull plays well, he can beat Rafe, and I like him over Shastri. However, Rohan has the game to potentially frustrate Hull so keep an eye on that one if it stays close early. Grodecki has been playing out of his gourd, and while it’s tough to favor him over Morkovine, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. #4 is a perfect spot for the Stags, with Macey playing the best tennis of his career and Schidlovsky winless on his season. Alvin is a streaky player with a big game as well, so this is either an up and down 3-setter, or two quick sets for Macey. #5 is another Eph strong point, and although Yeh is a damn fine player I like Raghavan to take a necessary point for the Ephs. The match could come down to #6, and while Indrakanti has had an excellent start to his career, Vermuri has had the same start. If the Stags are fully healthy, I like them in a 5-4 match that might not come down to the last match on, but stays interesting almost the whole way through. Some might call it a regional bias, but others are starting to join me and see that this is the year of the NE!
D3West: Don’t let the “14” next to Williams’ name fool you, Williams will be climbing into the top 10 in the next ITA rankings (which come out tomorrow). I would not be at all surprised to see Williams take this match, but after CMS’ 7-2 drubbing of Chicago, it feels like they may have righted the ship a little bit: Butts is as good as ever, but now Hull is playing like the #2 singles player I knew he could be, and Macey is playing lights out at #4. Yeh is clearly one of the best #5 singles players in the country, but the two relative weaknesses in CMS’ lineup appear to be at #3 and #6 singles. Williams, on the other hand, has two clearly defined strengths: singles depth and doubles. Between the three doubles positions and the bottom two singles positions, Williams went 9-1 against P-P and Redlands, which is not an easy thing to do. If the Purple Cows are gonna pull off the upset against the Stags, they’ll have to play to their strengths and find an upset somewhere else in the singles lineup. Here’s how I see it going down: I think Williams takes a 2-1 lead with wins at 2 and 3 doubles. After that, I think CMS takes over and wins 1, 2, 4, and 5 singles relatively routinely for a 5-2 win before Grodecki continues his incendiary play with a 3-set win over Mork. CMS will clean up in garbage time with a 10-pointer victory at #6 singles for a 6-3 final score. Make no mistake, Williams is definitely dangerous to CMS, and the Stags really don’t want to lose this match and put the whole SCIAC in the NESCAC’s back pocket. Right now, CMS is our only hope.