As I mentioned in the POTW article, we played witness to a truly great match on Sunday that showed both CMS’ greatness and vulnerability. In the last month and a half, the Stags have gone down in doubles to P-P (twice), Redlands, Middlebury, and Williams. They may have won all of those matches, but they’re certainly playing with fire. Heading into the regional tournament, they have an unusually easy road to the Elite Eight ahead of them. Seeing as only 5 west region teams made the tournament and four of them are in this region, I should probably preview this regional.
(Small side note: my only real gripe with this draw is Trinity’s placement in Atlanta. If they’re both flying, why not send Tyler to Atlanta and Trinity to CMS. CMS gets a tougher 2 seed, and Emory gets the easier draw they deserve by having an undefeated season? If such a draw would be too easy for Emory, why not swap Trinity and Whitman? That way, Emory gets a true #2 seed and Trinity gets a better shot at advancing. I’m sure a flight from Walla Walla to Atlanta ain’t cheap, but they’ve done it before.)
Anyways, onto the matches.
Round of 32
CMS vs. Cruz
I know I’ve said this several times, but Cruz really is a victim of terrible scheduling. They scheduled 3 ranked DIII teams, and none ranked between 13 and 40. Now they’re unranked for the first time in decades. Nice. Anyways, this is a match we’ve seen a couple times over the last few years. Cruz can certainly keep up in doubles, especially with Richter back in the doubles lineup after missing a chunk of the season with what I can only assume was a reactivation of his previous SARS infection, but after that, there shouldn’t be much drama. It’s difficult for me to express in words how disappointed I am in this Cruz season. Richter and Soper deserved better than a coaching carousel and constant talk of dissolution of the program (the fate of the entire UC Santa Cruz athletics department is set to be decided by a student vote, btw. Nice.). I’m guessing the Slugs pick off one doubles match and keep a few singles matches close, but CMS will clinch with quick wins at 1, 4, and 6. 5-1 CMS.
Whitman vs. Tyler
This is really the only match featuring West region teams this weekend with any doubt about the result. In their regular season meeting, Whitman bounced back from their Lewis and Clark loss to beat the Pats 5-3 (with Gomez 2 games away from the match for Tyler). Tyler has obviously been snake-bit this season with basically six 5-4 losses to ranked teams, but they have a couple advantages heading into the match. First, their graduation was last weekend, so they’ve been able to practice to their heart’s content this week. Second, they are desperate. For Tyler, this is their last chance at a ranked win. For Whitman, their season is obviously on the line, but they can’t have much faith in their ability to beat CMS. They’re in the middle of finals, and this match basically is the difference between a year-end ranking of 19 or 22. I know I already did this, but I gotta think this Tyler team is going to win a match this year. It’s gotta happen. With Locklear/Hewlin falling apart at the end of the season, I’m not sure what Whitman’s doubles lineup is going to be, but here’s my best guess:
I’ll take Fagundes/Fischer over Hoeger/Carter 9-7 at the top spot. After that, I think they’ll split the bottom two with Hewlin and a new partner winning at #2 and Joey Fischer taking over at #3. Up 2-1 heading into singles, the Pats will find a way to win with Budd over Locklear at #2, Gomez over Friedman at #3, and McIntyre over Carter at #5. Hewlin and Fagundes will be locked in a tight third set, while Ho and Rapoport/Jivkov will win at 4 and 6, respectively for a 5-3 final in the favor of UT-Tyler.
CMS vs. Whitman/Tyler
The Stags have already definitively beaten both of their regional final opponents. In both matches, the Stags dropped one doubles and one singles match. I don’t think it will happen like that this time around. CMS has been absolutely tearing it up in their recent Regional finals, and I think Butts/Mehall/Seifert/Yeh will play inspired tennis in their final home match to bring home a resounding 5-0 win. No drama.