NE ITA RECAP

Another New England ITA, another showcase of the best depth the country has to offer. I’ll save the ramblings for the recap itself, but congrats to both Lubomir Cuba and Kyle Wolfe/Jerry Jiang on taking home the hardware. Rather than go through the actual event piece by piece, D3Regional and I are going to go through team by team and give our thoughts, musings, rantings and maybe even a hot take or two. I did not spell check, grammar check, or fact check. You get me/us unfiltered tonight. No commercials, no mercy. Singles draw. Doubles draw.

BOWDOIN (#1) – D3NE

WHAT WAS GOOD: Doubles, singles depth. Tough to call doubles anything other than a strength win you win the whole tournament. Wolfe and Jiang came in as the #3 seed, after playing together for a year in the #2 spot behind Tercek and Trinka. The duo basically rolled to the finals, not playing a match closer than 8-5 until a class finals that ended in a 10-7 superbreaker win over Cuba/De Quant (Midd) for the title and All-American status. While neither Wolfe nor Jiang had an oustanding singles tournament, they both did fine (with a nice 3-set 1st round win for Jiang over Samson (Wesleyan). However, Urken and Rosovsky were the singles stars for the Polar Bears. Urken had one of the toughest draws in the whole tournament, and made the quarter knocking off Reid (Colby), Barr (MIT) and Ellis (Bates) before falling 7-5 in the 3rd set to Marchalik (Amherst). This was also our first look at Rosovsky, one of the three Bowdoin freshmen. He didn’t disappoint, falling to Marchalik in the 3rd round, but knocking off the #6 seed Michael Liu (Wesleyan) in straight setts in the 2nd round before doing so.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: Singles? It’s tough to really find too much to fault Bowdoin with, seeing as they didn’t have their #1 and the brought home one of the two titles. The defending champions only provided one quarterfinalist, which is something of a nitpick, but I had to pick something.

WHAT MATTERS: In all honesty, this result doesn’t really get you over the moon excited about the 2016-2017 Bowdoin team, but that’s kind of how they handle their business. They don’t care a whole lot about flash, just solid results. The most important thing to take away from the ITA is that Bowdoin will not give up their title without a fight.

GRADE: B+

MIDDLEBURY (#3) – D3NE

WHAT WAS GOOD: The top of the lineup. Derbani beat #1 overall seed Steven Chen (Wesleyan). De Quant made the 3rd round and pushed eventual runner-up Arguello to 6-4 in the 3rd. Cuba won the whole darn thing. Derbani/Schlanger made the doubles semis, and Cuba/De Quant made the finals. Excellent results from all the guys Midd will rely on if they are to make another NCAA tournament run. Cuba lost to Leung at Middlebury earlier this fall, but rebounded in a big way, not dropping a set along his title run. Who does that remind us of?

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: The depth. Van der Geest lost 1&1 to Zykov, Schlanger lost to Marchalik in the 1st round, and Jackson/Van der Geest lost in the 1st round of the doubles. Brach/Martin were the lone bright spot of the Panther depth, winning two rounds before losing to Taylor/Grodecki (Williams).

WHAT MATTERS: Cuba was just a 10 point superbreaker away from taking home both titles and dual All American status! That’s really impressive for a guy who is still new to DIII tennis. Midd fans have always spoken very highly of Cuba, but now we have some results to back that up. He will do very well at whatever spot he plays in the Middlebury lineup, and he will allow De Quant and Derbani to be far more successful in the middle of the lineup than he would be at the top. In addition, the doubles results were very encouraging for Midd. Losing Smolyar and Campbell obviously hurt the singles lineup, but they were also two of the best three or four doubles players on the team as well, so seeing two teams make the semis has to make Coach Hansen smile. Not a lot of other teams win NCAA titles when Coach Hansen smiles…

GRADE: A-

WESLEYAN (#10) – D3NE

WHAT WAS GOOD: They made the 2nd day? Lyon and Roberts beat Go/Barr (MIT) after earning a bye and made the 3rd round of the doubles draw. Quick section.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: Yes. Chen was the #1 seed and lost in straight sets in the 2nd round to Derbani (Midd). Liu was the #6 seed and lost in straight sets in the 2nd round to Rosovsky (Bowdoin), Samson was a #9-16 seed and lost in the 1st round to Jiang (Bowdoin). Eusebio was unseeded but lost to Bunis (Brandeis) in the 1st round. Holtzman, the only Wes freshman in the singles draw, lost in straight sets to De Mendiola (Babson). The doubles teams went a combined 3-3, with all teams failing to win more than one match.

WHAT MATTERS: I’m not one to overreact all that much, there are plenty of other writers for The Blog who do that often enough. One bad day does not condemn a season, however it must be a wakeup call. While the ITA is the most important tournament of the fall, it’s less important than even your least important dual match. Usually the ITA is the only fall tournament in which the Cards play, but they’re entered into the MIT tournament in a couple weeks that looks like it’s going to be the NE-ITA JR, so we will get a chance to see how they respond. Expectations have never been higher for a team that is in uncharted territory for its program, and the grade matches the expectations; however, I will be shocked if we don’t see some major improvement in a couple weeks.

GRADE: F

WILLIAMS (#12) – D3NE

WHAT WAS GOOD: The early rounds. Wow what a good first day of singles for the Ephs. Grodecki, Indrakanti, Taylor, Raghavan and Shastri combined to go 9-1 while beating guys like Jiang (Bowdoin), Gupte (Tufts), Bunis (Brandeis), and Ali (Tufts) and Heidenberg (Amherst). Shastri was the only Eph to fall before the 2nd day, losing to Marchalik (Amherst) in the 2nd round. When the singles draw came out I was a little surprised to see 5 Ephs, but they showed they all deserved to be there.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: Vlad Murad/Lubomir Cuba. Ok, well the opposite of that. The 4 singles players who made it to Saturday went a combined 2-4 that day. Grodecki and Indrakanti made the quarterfinals, but Vlad Murad (Colby) and Lubomir Cuba (Midd) were responsible for all 4 Eph defeats on Saturday. In addition, the doubles depth, or lack there of was a little disappointing. Grodecki/Taylor made the semis of the doubles draw, which is nice to see after playing #1 in Williams’ 1st two fall dual matches, but the two other teams fell early.

WHAT MATTERS: The team can’t all matchup against Murad or Cuba, and in general I was very pleased with what I saw from the home team. Losing Raventos is tough, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Ephs will be better in 2017 than they were in 2016. Like most of the teams in this article, the Ephs will compete at MIT in a couple weeks, and if they can provide another good showing I will consider them true challengers for the conference crown once again.

GRADE: B

TUFTS (#13) – D3NE

WHAT WAS GOOD: Young blood. The Tufts newbies keep them from failing as a couple of freshmen had a pretty good doubles tournament. Shaff/Niemiec cruised past a team from UMASS-Boston, and then took down two experienced doubles players in Ordway/Ellis (Bates). They lost to the eventual champs, but this was a good showing from Tufts’ #3 team in the draw.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: Singles! Gupte was the #7 overall seed, and while he had a tough draw with Alex Taylor (Williams freshman), a 1&2 loss was not expected. Gupte’s classmate Zain Ali went down by an even worse score, a 1&1 loss to Grodecki (Williams). Sophomore Ethan Chen won a set in his first round match against #6 overall seed Michael Liu, but couldn’t hold his one set lead (and Liu lost in straight sets to Rosovsky (Bowdoin freshman) in the following round).

WHAT MATTERS: Look, we know Tufts was hit hard by graduation, but we expected more from a team with high expectations that is ranked 13th in the country. We don’t know about Battle (typical injury recover timeline probably means he won’t be ready to go until the spring), but this team has a lot of options. Look for Coach Gregor to continue mixing and matching until he figures out something that works.

GRADE: D+

AMHERST (#15) – D3NE

WHAT WAS GOOD: First impressions. This was the first time we got a glimpse at the best recruiting class DIII has ever seen, and I was impressed. No, Coach Doebler didn’t leave with a title, but our first looks at Marchalik and Burney should have the Amherst coach giddy about what’s to come. Burney beat Kyle Wolfe (Bowdoin) in the 3rd round, and pushed Arguello to 7-5 in the 3rd (and was up a break in that 3rd set) in the quarters. Marchalik went a step further, making the semis, and taking out Schlanger (Midd), Shastri (Williams), Rosovsky (Bowdoin) and Urken (Bowdoin) along the way. Both freshmen also made the quarters of the doubles draw (Burney with Bessette and Marchalik with Zykov)

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: First impressions. While Burney and Marchalik either met or exceeded expectations, the same cannot be said for Kaplan and Fung. The duo were only entered into the doubles draw, but earned a #9-16 seed and a bye nonetheless. The pair lost a tight 8-6 match to Ko/Cheng (MIT), and will have to wait for a couple weeks to try and earn their first collegiate wins.

WHAT MATTERS: Before you Amherst haters get on my case, I know that all four Amherst pieces that made at least the quarters were seeded, but living up to that pressure in your first college match is very impressive. Multiple reports out of Williamstown mentioned just how good the Amherst freshmen (especially Marchalik) looked. Zykov’s 3rd round exit is only troubling because he was my pick to win it all, and I believe he’ll be a consistent producer in the spring. Throw in Heidenberg’s 1st round stomp and battle with Grodecki (Williams) and I consider this a very successful weekend for Amherst. Let’s see if they can build on it at MIT in a couple weeks.

GRADE: A-

MIT (#19) – D3NE

WHAT WAS GOOD: Depth. MIT’s 2nd and 3rd doubles teams put together a nice weekend, each one taking out a team that was probably favored over them. Ko/Cheng took down Kaplan/Fung (Amherst) before losing in the 3rd round and Go/Barr beat Indrakanti/Raghavan (Williams) before bowing out in the 2nd round to a seeded Wesleyan team. Those are encouraging wins because MIT has really struggled at the lower doubles spots in recent years.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: Singles! I though Cauneac was primed for a deep run, instead he drew the hot hand and fell to eventual runner-up Michael Arugello (Brandeis). Barr had an easy win over Okin (Emerson) in the 1st round, and ran up against Urken (Bowdoin) in the 2nd. They played two tight sets, but the Polar Bear prevailed. I think we’ll see Urken play as high as #3 this year, so that’s not too troubling. However, the final prong of the sophomore triumvirate fell hardest, as Ko got crushed 0&2 by Derbani (Midd). Derbani is very streaky, and had a good tournament, but that’s not the result Coach Hagymas and his former 5-star wanted. To top it off, MIT’s highest touted recruit in 2016 also lost in the 1st round, 4&2 to Roddy (Bowdoin). Tough 1st round matchups, but they are matchups that Cheng, Ko, Barr and MIT might well see again at some point later next spring.

WHAT MATTERS: I don’t think last year was a fluke for Cauneac, and I think the top of the MIT singles lineup will be as strong as it has been in a long time (and if we’re lucky we’ll see continual improvement over the next couple years as well). A disappointing tournament, to be sure, but no need to panic just yet. I’m very interested to see how this squad rebounds at their own invitational in a couple weeks.

GRADE: C-

BATES (#25) – D3NE

WHAT WAS GOOD: The 2nd round. Ellis made the round of 16 and Glover/Quijano made the doubles quarterfinals, so Bates didn’t lose a 2nd round match all weekend. However, neither of the aformentioned Bobcats won a match in which they were not favored. Ellis lost 1&2 to Urken (Bowdoin) and the duo of Glover and Quijiano lost an 8-0 match to Derbani/Schlanger (Midd). Granted, neither of these Bobcat entrants will hold down the top spot in either facet of the lineup, but it still was a rather uninspiring weekend from Bates

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: The doubles?? As I mentioned, Glover/Quijano made the quarters, beating a team from Springfield and the #2 or #3 team from MIT before falling to the presumed #2 team from Midd. However, Ordway/Ellis, a much more experienced team who earned a #9-16 seed, lost in their first match (2nd round) to a double-freshmen Tufts team. Bates’ third team of Davis and Davis (common surname, but I think we have established they are brothers? I hope?) got thrashed by another freshmen duo, this time from Colby. I was a little surprised to see more established guys like Schwartz or Feldman out of the ITA, but I trust Coach Gastonguay with his doubles about as much as anybody across the country.

WHAT MATTERS: A mediocre weekend, punctuated with some doubles troubles is not quite what the doctor ordered. Bates will be better if/when Rosen returns, but hopefully we’ll see a little more out of their other younger guys at their own tournament this weekend (which I will be recapping next week).

GRADE: C+

TRINITY CT (#29) – D3Regional

WHAT WAS GOOD:  Seniors William Boyd and Rutendo Matingo won their first doubles match, though it was over a team from Emerson.  Boyd had a nice battle with Timo Van Der Geest from Midd in the first round, falling 7-5 in the third.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT:  Pretty much everything.  Matingo lost first round to Sachin Raghavan of Williams in straights, and though Matingo/Boyd won their first doubles match, they fell 8-3 to an Amherst team in the second round.

WHAT MATTERS:  Trinity only got the bare minimum in at two singles players and one doubles team, despite them being ranked #29, so that shows what the committee thinks of Trinity, versus a team like Brandeis, ranked #30, who got 3 singles players and 3 doubles teams in.  I’m guessing Rex Glickman is abroad in his junior year, and outside of Glickman, Matingo, and Boyd, who played #5 last year, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Bantams, who really don’t have any guys coming up to replace seniors Matingo/Boyd.

GRADE:  D

D3NE’s HOT TAKE: It’s also worth noting that just days after the ITA, Trin beat Coast Guard 5-4. USCG is regionally ranked, and no Glickman for Trinity, but this is shaping up to be a year where the Bants are closer to the bottom of the NESCAC than the middle.

BRANDEIS (#30) – D3Regional

WHAT WAS GOOD:  Michael Freaking Arguello!  Arguello came basically out of nowhere and made one heck of a run all the way to the finals, an awesome result for the senior.  After taking out 5 seed Alex Cauneac (MIT) 2 and 2 in the first round, Arguello got on his three set grind, beating Gil Roddy (Bowdoin), #9 Will De Quant (Midd), and #9 Oscar Burney, all in grueling three setters.  He then beat #9 Vlad Murad 5 and 0 before falling in straights to Lubomir Cuba of Midd.  More on Arguello in the What Matters section.  Ryan Bunis had a nice first round win over Tiago Eusebio of Wesleyan in three sets, and Brian Granoff/Bunis had a first round doubles win over Allen Jackson,Timo Van Der Geest of Midd.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: Mostly doubles.  Brandeis only won one doubles match among three teams, and for a team in singles where every spot should be solid but no spot looks like a lock, doubles is going to be very important.  Tyler Ng/David Aizenberg got a first round bye after their solid Midd Invite, and lost in the second round to a Middlebury squad.  Arguello and sophomore Jackson Kogan lost in a tiebreaker to Princeton Carter/Joachim Samson of Wesleyan.  Brian Granoff, who made NCAA’s in singles back as a freshman, lost in the first round of singles to Anton Zykov of Amherst, certainly a tough first round match.

WHAT MATTERS:  Arguello matters.  Brandeis last year had three very interchangeable guys in Ryan Bunis, Brian Granoff, and Arguello.  Whoever played #1 was a little over matched against the top guys, whoever played #2 had about a 50% chance to win against a ranked team, and whoever played #3 could beat almost anybody.  If Arguello can carry this play and become that #1 guy that Brandeis has been missing, Brandeis becomes a much more dangerous team.  It’s nice that Brandeis got that third singles player into the draw or else Arguello may not have even played!

GRADE:  B+  

D3NE’s HOT TAKE: #RollDeis. Fantastic result from Arguello, who has become more than just a tough out. If Granoff can get back to where he was, the top-3 should be a force. The jury on the dubs is still out, and it has certainly been a weakness in the past. Still looks like a 6th place UAA finish, but they look a lot closer to 5th than they have been during previous regular seasons.

COLBY (NR) – D3Regional

WHAT WAS GOOD:  It has to start with Vlad Murad, who had a pretty great run all the way to the semis.  After an easy first win over Lenny Siegel of Clark, Murad won 0 and 2 over Luke Carstens of Bowdoin, had a sweet three set win over Sachin Raghavan of Williams, won again in three sets over Brian Grodecki of Williams, before finally falling to Arguello.  In doubles, Carl Reid and Murad, the 2 seeds, kept the good times rolling by getting to the quarters, falling to Lubomir Cuba/Will DeQuant of Midd 8-5.  Freshman duo Zale Shah/Scott Altmeyer also won their first match, 8-1 over Duane/Dylan Davis from Bates.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT:  It was an extremely tough first round match but Carl Reid fell routinely to Grant Urken of Bowdoin, the best 6 in the country last year and certainly a guy who will play higher this year for the Polar Bears.  Cam Hillier/Shaw Speer also lost in the first round of doubles to a Springfield team.

WHAT MATTERS:  Honestly a lot of the question marks that I have surrounding Colby comes down to their depth, which weren’t answered in this tournament where only Reid/Murad played singles.  They will be better this year than last, and it really comes down to how Shah/Altmeyer fit into the #3/4 spots in the Colby lineup.  Murad will be a good #2 this year as he showed in this tournament, and in the past, Reid could be counted on to have a chance against almost anybody, though there are now questions about whether that is the case this year.  Nevertheless, Colby will be solid at #1/2 singles and #1 doubles, as they have been in the past, but with these new freshmen and Hillier/Speer moving down a couple spots each, Colby should be much deeper.

GRADE:  B

D3NE’s HOT TAKE: What he said. Strong at the top, depth issues, should be able to challenge the middle of the conference. Nice result for the senior, Vlad. Nice Twitter presence from @ColbyCoachCohen.