Northeast ITA Recap and Report Card

Howdy, all.  I’m back with a recap of last weekend’s Northeast ITA, with some help from good ol’ RegionalASouth.  I’ll keep this intro quick, but let me first give a shoutout to Kai Yuen Leung for taking care of business and winning the tournament in fairly uneventful fashion, proving he’ll be one of the top players in the country this year.  Also, big shoutout to Sebastian Castillo-Sanchez and Zack Ebenfeld from RPI for taking advantage of the wide open doubles draw and going all the way.  Good luck to everyone out in Arizona! Represent the NE well!

Skidmore (RegionalASouth)
What was good: I’m going to give you one chance to guess what I’m about to say. Kai is the best of the weaker region and like I predicted, rolled through without dropping a set. With a wide-open field this year, look for Kai to make a deep run and maybe even win it. (BOLD PREDICTION ALERT)

What could be improved: Doubles was pretty ugly for the Breds. Skidmore who has traditionally had very strong doubles, did not have a single team make it past the second round. If they want to do anything this spring, they’ll need to play around with doubles this off-season.

Rapid Reaction: Man am I looked forward to trash talking RegNEC over this Liberty League rivalry that’s brewing. After the ITA, I’m giving the edge to the young guns of RPI, but Skidmore just has a history of winning. In order to continue to win and make NCAAs, Kai will need to continue to play well and the rest of the team is going to need to put in some effort in the off season in order to make up with the rather lackluster performance here.

Grade: C+

Stevens (RegionalASouth)
What was good: Doubles. The Ducks had two teams advance to the semis and one move on to the finals, both losing to an incredibly talented RPI team, who could make a splash at nationals. While some could argue that the draw was weak, these are very solid results against regional opponents that they will be battling against to remain in the top 30 in the spring.

What could be improved: Singles. The Ducks only had two players advance past the first day. In order to capitalize on strong doubles, the Ducks will need to flex their singles muscles and out play teams, especially at the lower spots in the lineups.

Rapid reaction: Admittedly, I might have been a little harsh in my initial season preview. The Ducks will still have a hard time getting the signature wins against top 20 teams, but they have certainly shown that they have enough talent left to ruin someone’s season.

Grade: B/B+

NYU
What was good: Umberto Setter had his best performance to date with a run to the final, beating Oshinowo (RPI), Litsky (Vassar), and Koulouris (Skidmore) before falling to Leung in a competitive final.  The Violets also got two doubles teams in the quarters a doubles, a modest result that actually represents improvement for a team that has often struggled with doubles.

What could be improved: Ben Teoh, who played a respectable #2-3 singles last year, won one total game against Atwater (Hobart).  No bueno.  Also, after playing a tournament the first weekend of the fall, junior Ian Combemale was nowhere to be found.  Some more singles depth would help NYU (what team isn’t this true for?), as would a continued improvement in doubles.

Rapid reaction: Overall I think NYU should be pretty happy with where they are at right now.  Their top three spots should all be improved from last year, their doubles looks to be improving, and they probably had their best results at ITAs in a few years.  If Setter can win some matches at #1, NYU has upset potential, much like they did a few years back with Steve Wu manning the top spot.

Grade: A-/B+

RPI
What was good: Sebastian Castillo-Sanchez had a bit of a coming out party this weekend, absolutely tearing it up on his way to the semifinals.  As I tweeted, he lost eight games in his four matches on the way to the semifinals. Beating Danny Polk, the likely #1 for Stevens, 6-1, 6-1 is no joke, and if it weren’t for Leung, SCS could’ve gone all the way.  Doubles was even better, as he and Zack Ebenfeld became the school’s first All-Americans after winning the doubles draw. Big congrats to both of them!  Also want to mention that freshman Xavier Oshinowo was a point away from taking out eventual finalist Umberto Setter (NYU) in the second round.

What could be improved: Tristan Wise and Winston Yu had a disappointing loss to Hobart in the quarterfinals, and Wise also got beaten easily by Hobart’s Jonathan Atwater in the third round.  As I previously said, the Engineers will need Wise to really round out the very young team, so some improved results from him will be huge for them going forward.

Rapid reaction: After a tough Midd invite, RPI showed this weekend they might be closer to challenging for a Liberty League title than I had initially thought.  I still think they’re probably a year away, but they look like a team that should fully entrench themselves in the 30-40 range this year.

Grade: B+

TCNJ
What was good: No real upsets.  Every match that TCNJ really should be winning, they won.  A few, especially in the doubles, were closer than they probably should have been, but there were no results that jump out as being particularly bad for the Lions.

What could be improved: No real upsets.  On the other side of the coin, TCNJ had precisely zero impressive wins.  The few matches that I would consider toss ups, like August vs Stavrakas (Ithaca) and D’Agostino vs Atwater (Hobart) all ended up as losses.  As I’ve said before, TCNJ isn’t going to beat themselves, so I don’t expect them to suffer any bad losses this year.  That said, some of their close losses are going to need to turn into wins for this team to really move up in the rankings, given that their talent level is fairly middle of the pack.

Rapid reaction: A somewhat disappointing tournament for TCNJ, with zero semifinalists in either draw.  I think the loss of Pierce Cooper is really going to be tough for them to overcome this year, as I don’t see anyone fully ready to step into the top spot.  Doubles was also not as strong as has been the case in the past. The spring is still a ways away, and I don’t believe this weekend is a fully representation of the level TCNJ is capable of playing at.

Grade: C

Ithaca
What was good: Minos Stavrakas proved his seed was deserved and his nice fall was no fluke, beating Laso (Vassar) and August (TCNJ) before losing to eventual champion Leung.  He and Michael Gardiner also made the quarters of doubles with nice wins of teams from Skidmore and TCNJ.

What could be improved: This team didn’t win a single match without Minos.  While he’ll hold down the top spot, Ithaca is going to need some better play from Gardiner and Liam Spiegel, among others.  I don’t expect Ithaca to be strong at the bottom of the lineup, so their path to victory requires some wins in the middle of the lineup, which is problematic given last weekend’s results.

Rapid reaction: The Bombers only lost one player, so with the addition of Stavrakas, they should theoretically have improved, but their results don’t seem to indicate that right now.  After beating Rochester last season, Ithaca won’t be able to fly under the radar this year against teams that could be ripe for an upset, so it may be tough for IC to post a similar result.  Stavrakas is still the best player Ithaca has had in awhile, so if they can build around him, this team could be headed in the right direction.

Grade: C

Rochester
What was good: Sam Leeman and Andrew Nunno made the semifinals of doubles, knocking out the top seeded team from NYU.  Leeman wasn’t even in the doubles lineup for the ‘Jackets last season, so that’s obviously a nice jump for him.  

What could be improved: Masaru Fujimaki held his seed and lost in three sets to Litsky (Vassar), and while I think he’ll be a decent #1, there’s not much depth right now in singles for UR.  They’re only other singles win was freshman Yifan Shen, who beat a player from Nazareth before getting walloped by Koulouris (Skidmore).  This is a team that could really struggle in the 2-5 singles range.  Projected #2-3 singles player Aaron Mevorach is abroad this semester though, so his return should help.

Rapid reaction: The semifinal run in doubles was encouraging, but overall the weekend leaves me thinking UR is going to be on the outside of the top 40 again this year. I will say though that this team has a history of turning lower level players into solid mid-lineup guys, so all hope is not lost in Rochester.

Grade: C+

Hobart

What was good: Three guys into the Round of 16! I said it on twitter but it bears repeating that no other team had more than two guys make it to the third round.  Jonathan Atwater easily beat Teoh (NYU) and Wise (RPI) before falling in a good match to Koulouris (Skidmore).  Keep in mind he was Hobart’s #3 last year.  #1 Jonah Salita had a long battle with Koulouris before falling, and freshman Alan Dubrovsky had a decent win over freshman Vishal Walia (NYU) and a surprising win with Danny Kot over Wise/Yu (RPI).

What could be improved: The win over RPI was nice, but the doubles could’ve been better.  Not sure why Salita only played singles, and also where the heck Michael Rusk was, but regardless of who they put out there I think Hobart still has further to go on the doubles court.  Given the underclassmen-heavy team, this is pretty much to be expected.

Rapid reaction:  I’m excited about Hobart this year!  I would put them only slightly behind Skidmore and RPI is terms of power rankings for the Liberty League. They’re still a year or two away of good development from challenging from the conference title, but if Michael Rusk returns to the lineup, this is going to be the best Hobart team in quite some time. Of all my team’s, I’m most looking forward to seeing what they can do this spring.

Grade: A-

That’s all for today! Have a great weekend, and be sure to keep an eye on how our NE players do at Small College Nationals in Arizona.  Real quick prediction: Kai finishes 1st or 2nd, Zack and Sebastian finish 7th or 8th.  Prove me wrong, boys!