Guess what, regional fans? I’m back! With less teams! D3AS has gotten tired of reading massive regional roundups and decided it was finally time to not make me cover four times the amount of teams of anybody else. I will be focusing on New England and the West this year, and I couldn’t be more excited to get a chance to dive even deeper into those teams. Chris Newport and Sonny Dearth, I will miss you. In true regional fashion, however, I have decided to copy another blogger and basically write the same article as D3Northeast, taking a quick look at each of the teams that I will be covering this year. Of course, if another team in New England or the West makes a big push, I’ll start covering them as well, but this is just a starting point. I’ll go much deeper on these teams this winter once I can see how they did at their respective ITA tournaments, so have no fear.
#29 Trinity (CT)
Key Losses: Ford Traff (#1 singles and doubles), Aaron Segel (#4 singles), Carlos Ferreyros (#6 singles)
Player to watch: Rex Glickman (jr)
Quick thoughts: Trinity had a tough season last year except for a surprise win over Brandeis. At the Midd Invite, Trinity had a squad reach the semis of the B flight doubles, but there wasn’t a whole lot of fire besides that. Look out for Glickman, who got better as the year went on last year, though he didn’t play at the Midd Invite. With veterans Traff and Segel gone, this year looks like a rebuilding one for the Bantams.
#30 Brandeis
Key Losses: Danny Lubarsky (#5 singles, #2 doubles)
Player to watch: David Aizenberg (fr)
Quick Thoughts: This is a big year for Deis, who has veteran seniors manning the top of the lineup. They have a couple solid freshmen coming in, including David Aizenberg, who won the D flight at the Midd Invite. Aizenberg also teamed up with the sophomore Tyler Ng to make the finals of the doubles B flight. This will be a big year for Brandeis to try to make their mark on the UAA.
Babson
Key Losses: Roberto Perez (#1 singles, #2 doubles), Issac Thylen (#2 singles), Victor Vu (#3 singles, #1 doubles), Saif Rahim (#1 doubles)
Player to watch: Alberto De Mendiola (fr)
Quick thoughts: The Babson lineup kind of looks like what the Brandeis one will next year, meaning they lost their top 3 players and are looking to rebuild. Babo fell 8-1 to Colby over the weekend, after beating them 7-2 the year before. One bright spot is freshman Alberto De Mendiola, who got a terrific win over Carl Reid, 16-14 in a super breaker!
Colby
Key Losses: Mark HoSang (#4 singles, #2 doubles)
Player to watch: Scott Altmeyer
Quick thoughts: Coach Cohen is poised to take a step forward in his second year as coach of the Mules, who only lost one player and have two talented freshmen manning the spots at #3 and #4 in Scott Altemeyer and Zale Shah. Carl Reid and Vlad Murad are a very good #1 and #2, and moving Cameron Hillier and Shaw Speer down to #5 and #6 will only help their depth. The top half of the NESCAC is excellent, and Colby will have a very difficult time making the conference tournament, but they should be a much-improved team nonetheless.
#32 Lewis & Clark
Key Losses: Kevin Ross (#3 singles, #3 doubles), Daniel Haim (#5 singles)
Player to watch: Jackson Powell (fr)
Quick thoughts: The problem with these west coast schools is that they have very little fall action outside of ITAs, which hasn’t happened yet, so I’ll have more in-depth predictions in my season previews of these schools. Anyway, all complaining aside, L&C shocked the world last year on 4/2 with their 5-4 victory over Whitman, featuring two big singles wins from their two departing seniors. They have a couple good freshmen in Jackson Powell and Brendan Adams coming in to fill those spots, so there shouldn’t be a huge drop-off, as they go after Pacific for the #2 spot in the NWC.
Whittier
Key Losses: Sam Farmer (#2 singles, #1 doubles), David Stanko (#4 singles, #3 doubles)
Player to watch: Andrew You (sr)
Quick thoughts: Whittier had a bounce-back year last year with wins over Vassar, Occidental, and Chapman, and tight losses to Sewanee and UC Santa Cruz. Losing Farmer and Stanko will hurt the team’s progress with no freshmen coming in, though Whittier’s 2016 roster still isn’t posted on their website. Whitter finished 4th in the SCIAC last year which was a nice achievement, but they will likely be around 5th or 6th in the SCIAC along with Chapman this year.
Cal Tech
Key Losses: Rushikesh Joshi (#1 singles, #1 doubles),
Player to watch: KarthikPraveen Nair (fr)
Quick thoughts: Cal Tech had a historic year last year, winning their first ever nationally ranked match. They will lose their #1 guy, but the Beavers are poised for even greater things this year, bringing in two 3-stars and a 2-star. With these additions, Coach Gamble’s squad should be even better this year!
George Fox
Key Losses: Chris Lilley (#2 singles, #1 doubles), Mitchell Miyashiro (#5 singles, #2 doubles)
Player to watch: Spencer Watanabe (jr)
Quick thoughts: George Fox has been in the 4th or 5th position the last couple of years in the NWC along with Whitworth. They are losing two starters but are getting three 2-star freshmen, and I think George Fox could get as high as 2nd in the conference with the right development. Watanabe at #1 will be legit, and I’m looking forward to following his season as well!
Chapman
Key Losses: Brett Buford (#1 singles, #1 doubles), Hunter Morris (#4 singles), Chris Damion (#3 doubles)
Player to watch: Justin P. Thompson (jr)
Quick thoughts: Chapman had high expectations coming into last year, and their season, to be frank, was disappointing with an overall record of 5-15. Losing their #1 will not help, and it doesn’t look like they have any incoming freshmen. Justin Thompson (JPT) is one guy to watch, as the junior was a great #2 his freshman year, and really dropped off last year. Charlie Werman and Thompson could be a solid #1/2 punch if things break right.
Cal Lutheran
Key Losses: Gio Valdez (#1 singles, #1 doubles), Chris Hartman (#4 singles, #2 doubles), Jesper Lunding-Johansson (#1 doubles)
Player to watch: Sebastian Ariza, Jake Haffner, Christopher Hagler (all 2-star freshmen)
Quick thoughts: Cal Lu struggled last year after an early season win over Whittier. Things don’t look up for the Kingsmen, who are getting three 2-stars, but are also losing three starters, including their #1 in Gio Valdez. Coach Gennette does a nice job at developing talent, so the Kingsmen shouldn’t be counted out in the second tier of SCIAC teams, but they certainly look a step behind Cal Tech at this point.
#31 Pacific (OR)
Key Losses: Brennan Faith (#1 singles, #1 doubles), Chris Dalton (#5 singles, #2 doubles)
Player to watch: Clark Wininger (sr)
Quick thoughts: Pacific looked down going into last year, but had a surprisingly solid season, rolling to a second place finish in the NWC with their only D3 losses being to Denison and Whitman. Brennan Faith is a big loss at #1, and it will be fun to see what Wininger does at that spot now. Coach Jackson has done a great job with his team the past couple of years, and they should be right with Lewis & Clark and George Fox in the NWC. Get ready for some battles between those teams this year!
Keep following the blog over the next few weeks for more team previews, various invitational coverage, ITA’s coverage, and more!
I think that chapman Werman will make a run this year. I can easily see him going almost undefeated in the sciac and possibly making a run in the ncaas in singles or doubles.
Whittier’s so-called “bounce back” was only in relation to a disastrous prior season where they barely eked out a few Ws. However, they still finished under .400 overall last year which was nothing to crow about. Now they’re poised to go backwards again. In 2012/13 (under coach Bojalad), they were ranked #17 nationally with a strong roster of Seneviratne, Konstantinov, Schommer, Herron et al. Belletto arrived the next season and got strong results from Konstantinov/Schommer but their team ranking dipped, followed by an over the cliff plunge following Schommer’s graduation and Konstantinov’s pro folly. They’ve never recovered. As an aside, supposedly Konstantinov gave up competitive tennis entirely. This was one of the few guys with a W over Warren Wood. Sad turn of events to a strange story.
Interesting story. None the less they still had a pretty decent year 4th in the SCIACS is clearly not bad considering cms,pomona,redlands etc. I do agree with you in that i dont see them making an improvement this year if they havent got any new recruits. It will be interesting to watch them and the whole d3 West this year!