West Region ITA Report Card

Because the ITAs typically represent the first and only look we get at West region teams prior to the start of the season in earnest, I would like to take a second to recap the ITAs, and pen a few thoughts on each of the major competitors. We’ll go chronologically

Northwest ITA

George Fox: A-

I know what you’re thinking: how could you possibly give the team that won both the singles and doubles championships for the first time in school program anything other than an A? Well, I’m stingy. Spencer Watanabe’s performance was truly incredible. The guy beat four Whitman players en route to the championship without playing a set closer than 6-3 the entire tournament. In doubles, he teamed with a freshman, Alex Namba, and no team was able to play them closer than 8-5. That’s a truly dominant performance. As far as the rest of the team goes, I’m less enthused. The rest of the team went 3-6 in main draw singles action, with Matt Biggi, the freshman, being the lone bright spot. Their other three doubles teams all lost in the first round. Jacob Farmer did make the final of the singles consolation draw, but all told, the Bruins are going to need more than one player to play well if they want to get back into the NWC tournament. They have enough pieces to make a decent team, but at the moment, they’ll need Watanabe to go 2-0 every single time to stay competitive with LC and Pacific, let alone Whitman. Everything else aside, I’ll be rooting for Watanabe at nationals to add a little parity to this West region.

Whitman: C+

Whitman had a nice little tournament going until Watanabe came in an blew things up. Their singles players won all 6 Round of 16 matches they played, and they appear to have a nice core going into the spring season. Hewlin had a disappointing tournament, but I expect him to be back at #1 in the spring. Freshman Ben Kirsh had a very nice run to the finals, and Whitman will need him to be a solid #2 after being weak at that position last season. Daniel Foster, another freshman, had a nice win over Clark Wininger from Pacific, and they return Jivkov, Hoeger, Carter, Rapoport, and Ho. Doubles will be a question mark, as it has been the last couple of years, but Hoeger and Carter will be a fine #1 team. At this point, I question their heart more than their talent (which never used to be the case for Whitman), so it will be an important offseason for them, as they try to get back into the top 20.

Lewis and Clark: C+

The Pios came in with high hopes for this tournament, and came out with mixed results. On the good side, Texan Michael Brewer came back from injury to notch a trio of impressive victories (most notably a 3-set win over Hewlin) en route to the semifinals before getting smoked by Whitman’s Kirsh, likely due to fitness issues. The rest of their players went 8-9 in main draw singles action, including Ro16 appearances from Attia and one of the WheelBarrows (Gordon). They also went 7-5 in doubles, with the Barrows’ reaching the semis with a win over Hewlin/Ho before getting beat by the scorched-earth, steamroller that was Spencer Watanabe. All told, the Pios showed themselves to be a deep team ready to compete for a conference title, though definitely still playing second fiddle to the mascot-less Whitman team, who will always be the Squirrels in my book.

Pacific: C-

After three consecutive runner-up finishes in the NWC, I know the Boxers were hoping to make more of a splash in the tournament, but they always seem to have a hard time in the fall. They’ve never managed to get a player past the semis in singles or doubles here, though they do seem to improve over the off-season and play better in the Spring. This year, they managed to get three players into the Round of 16 (Reuben Mulhern, Clark Wininger, and Josh Bernstein), but that’s where their tournament stopped in singles. As the #3 seed, Wininger’s 3-set loss to Foster, the Whitman freshman, was particularly disappointing. They went 9-10 overall in main draw singles matches, and their doubles tournament wasn’t much better. They placed two teams in the quarters, but didn’t get past there and finished 5-4 overall. Harkening back to last year, I predicted the Pios would finish second based on Fall results, and the Boxers surprised me by beating the Pios relatively soundly twice over the course of the season. Here’s to hoping Jackson’s squad can go back to the drawing board and do that again.

West ITA

CMS: A

The Stags are the only team that will be finishing the Fall semester with a 4.0 after dominating the most competitive of the three ITAs. Day 1 got off to a relatively inauspicious start when 4-star freshmen Jay Yeam and Jake Berber went down early, but the rest of the Stags lineup picked up the slack. Seniors Alex Brenner, Daniel Morkovine, Max Macey, and Glenn Hull all made the quarterfinals where they were joined by freshman Daniel Park and Nikolai Parodi. We all know what happened after that, as Parodi took down Hull and Lipscomb before losing a nail-biter in the finals to Mork. I’m told that Parodi appeared to be the better player in the final, but Mork won due to his experience and tenacity. Doubles was actually more impressive for the Stags in my mind. This ITA is incredibly hard to dominate on the doubles court because pretty much every team is strong and you have to win four prosets just to make the final, but the Stags did just that. They landed three teams in the quarters and monopolized the final where Mork/Gordy beat Parodi/Hull for the title in relatively routine fashion. By adding this regional title to his two Ojai championships, Mork has to be considered one of the best doubles players in the country. The only question moving forward for the Stags is whether or not they have anyone to step into the #1 role, after the Stags have one the past two NCAA singles championships. One thing is certain: they have plenty of depth.

Redlands: B+

Sagehen fans may be mad about this, but the Bulldogs definitely seemed to be the second best team in the SCIAC over the weekend. Sophomore Chase Lipscomb led the charge, running the gauntlet of Vemuri, Gearou, Gordy, and Macey before falling to Parodi in the semis, but freshman Avery Davis, Jake Ly, Parker Wilson, and Joey Dulle all made it to the Round of 16. All four of those guys lost to Stags in a veritable dual match on Saturday morning, but it was still an impressive showing. Overall, they went 15-10 in main draw singles action. Doubles was less impressive, with three out of five teams, including the #1 seeds Dulle/Ly, going out in the first round, but Lipscomb/Cummins 2.0 made it all the way to the semis before falling 8-5 to the eventual champs. They certainly have some work to do when it comes to doubles pairings!

Pomona-Pitzer: D+

The Sagehen tournament got off to a bad start when Graham Maassen disappeared from the draw, and it didn’t get a lot better from there. Overall, they went 11-12 in singles, with the lone bright-ish spot being Jake Yasgoor’s run to the semifinals. Joshua Gearou and Sam Malech both made the Round of 16 before falling to the top two seeds, and five players, including seniors Josh Kim and Spencer Simonides, lost in the first round. Doubles was marginally better. They got two teams into the quarterfinals, which isn’t quite up to their usual standard. It was certainly a weekend Bickham’s squad. They’ll have to go back to the drawing board this fall, and hope for an in-form Maassen to show up in the Spring if they want to make a run at the Stags and Pool C.

UC Santa Cruz: C-

The Slugs were the only other team to place a player into the Round of 16, so they’re being listed here as the 4th best team in the tournament (though it’s really a tossup between them, Chapman, and Cal Lu). AJ Flora picked up two nice wins over Spencer Simonides and 4-star freshman Jay Yeam before falling to Max Macey for the best Slug performance. Despite falling in the first round, Chad LeDuff had a nice run in the backdraw with wins over Marko Mandic and Jake Berber. Derek Levchenko picked up a nice first-round win over Tine Valencic from Caltech before making a nice run to the finals of the second round backdraw. Despite winning just one main draw doubles match the year after Richter and Sirovica won the whole thing, Hollister/LeDuff did win the backdraw. Overall, the Slugs have six solid player that will make them a tough out for anyone ranked 20-40, but the headless horseman that is the UC Santa Cruz Fighting Banana Slugs is still sprinting off towards the apocalypse with some of the worst scheduling I have ever seen.

Chapman: C-

I should probably go with Chapman here on the strength of Josh Starsfield and Charlie Werman’s semifinal doubles run alone. Along the way they beat three solid teams before falling to Hull/Parodi from CMS. Werman also picked up a nice singles win over Matthew Davis from CMS, and but that was the only main draw singles win for them. The Panthers also got smoked in the first round consolation, with Brock Dehaven, a 2-star freshman expected to play in the middle of the lineup for them, winning a grand total of two games in three matches. No Justin Thompson, no Chris Damion, no Sam Mitteldorf.  Aside from that one bright spot, there really wasn’t much to write home about for the Panthers. If they get a few more players ready in time for the season, they might be able to place 4th in the SCIAC, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Cal Lu: C

I really miss having the Kingsmen as a nationally-ranked team in the West region. They always kept things interesting in the SCIAC, so it’s nice to write something relatively positive about them in this post. After a terrible 2016 season, they seem poised to take a step in the right direction this season. Ransom Braaten picked up a very impressive win over Jake Berber in the first round. Chris Hagler won a main draw match. Jake Haffner took a set off Brad Cummins (Redlands). Haffner and Lucas Tilly took down top-seeded Jake Ly and Joey Dulle, and advanced to the quarterfinals of doubles. It’s not much, but they didn’t have many players in the draw (on account of being so terrible last season), so it’s definitely a step in the right direction. They are definitely prepared to compete for 4th in the SCIAC.

Whittier: C-

Whittier is another team that won just one main draw singles match, but they had some good results in the back draws. Most tellingly, their players went 3-0 against Caltech players, which might be a barometer for where the two programs stand in relation to each other in the SCIAC. Andrew You came in with a seed and lost in the first round, but he and Elmer Van Butselear made it to the semifinals of the doubles backdraw. Overall, I would say it was a disappointing tournament for the Poets, but with such a small sample size, it’s really hard to tell where they stand in the SCIAC. If they can make some improvements in the offseason, they could also potentially compete for that 4th place SCIAC spot.

Caltech: D+

It’s pretty hard to sugarcoat the Beavers’ showing this past weekend. They went 1-5 in main draw singles matches, and followed that with a 1-5 showing in backdraw matches. They also went 0-2 in doubles matches. The only possible saving grace for them is the fact that their top two recruits, Miha Valencic (a top 150 recruit) and Karthik Praveen Nair (a top 300 recruit), didn’t play in the tournament for one reason or another. Coach Gamble is probably hoping they can come in and play a solid 1-2 in the Spring, as the Beaver grapple with something they’ve never had to deal with before in the program’s history: expectation.

Texas ITA

Trinity – A-

This tournament was an unmitigated success for the Tigers. In a field more competitive than every, they placed 8 players in the Round of 16, 4 in the Quarters, and got contributions from all over their lineup. Senior Chas Mayer continued his steady improvement over his career, beating several strong players including UT-T’s Vinivio Hadlich en route to the finals. TU also got strong showings from their freshmen: McKenna Fujitani came through qualifying to make the semifinals by beating Niko Snovely (SW) and Scott Wilding (UMHB), while Jordan Pitts dominated on his way to the quarters before getting soundly beaten by Fagundes. Matt Tyer repeated as doubles champion with new partner, sophomore Wilson Lambeth. Another pair of sophomores, Liam Crawley and Cameron Bilsbarrow also suprised some folks by making the semis. The question for TU remains, however: do they have anyone who can step into the top singles spot and be successful? They’ve shown that they have plenty of singles depth, and they will always find a way to win some matches at all three doubles positions, but is Chas Mayer really ready to win at #1 singles? Perhaps Fagundes was really just too good this weekend, but the way both Mayer and Pitts went down to the Patriot indicates that perhaps they have some work to do.

UT-Tyler: B+

It’s hard to nitpick with a team that won the singles title for the first time in team history. It’s harder to nitpick with a player that lost a grand total of 20 games in six matches, but as a team, the tournament was not perfect for the Pats. On the less-good side, the Pats saw a number of promising young players lose early: Jose McIntyre, Ryan Elwood, Cameron McCarthy, Venezuelan Gabriel Hidalgo, Argentinian Pablo Gomez, 3-star freshman Joshua Vanwinkle, and Jake Cunningham all lost within the first two rounds. They only managed to place four players in the round of 16, compared to 8 for Trinity. The Pats did go toe-to-toe with the Tiger in doubles throughout the whole tournament, getting two teams in the semifinals and coming within two points of winning both the singles and doubles championships. My takeaway from the tournament is that the Patriots are still half a step behind the Tigers at the moment. They will be able to hand with anyone in doubles, but, like last season, they will have some vulnerabilities in the singles lineup. Fagundes will be favored in most matches at #1, but they’ll have to shore up the middle of their lineup to compete with the top teams. McIntyre and Gomez were solid at #3 and #4 last season, but they’ll have to be even better to help Tyler avoid another string of 5-4 losses. They should be strong at #5 and #6, but I thought that would be the case last season, and they ended up struggling at the bottom of the lineup. They have many players capable of winning on a national level, but they need a few guys to really step up in the offseason to be as dangerous as they want to be. They were a few points here and there from being ranked in the top 15 last season, and I think they can put it together this year. #KoolAid

Southwestern: B-

Even with #3 seed Niko Snovely losing in the first round, the Pirates had a successful tournament. 3-star freshman Alexis Dimanche picked up a few big wins over Kevin Lee and Wilson Lambeth from TU to make a semifinal appearance (the first semifinal appearance from a non-TU/UTT player since Casjen Rico beat Niess, Jordan Mayer, and Deuel to make the finals). They went 7-6 overall in main draw singles matches (one of just three teams to win more matches than they lost in the tournament), and managed to get a doubles team in the quarterfinals. This was easily the strongest ITA tournament result for the program in the last several years. Though they won’t be challenging for a SCAC title any time soon, with the right schedule, they could sneak into the top 40, which would be big for DIII Texas Tennis.