And here we are. We’ve finally made it! Despite what may be happening in the outside world, Blog continues on in it’s own little bubble. That means right now, the most important thing for us is FANTASY ROUNDS 10-12. These are some of the most frustrating rounds and also the most fun rounds for DIII Tennis, depending on who you are. This is where the lower guys get the love. We’re basically all playing D3Regional’s role in this article. Before we start, let’s get some upcoming events on your radar – we will be having the following articles this week.
- Spring Break Walla Walla! Pomona, GAC, Pacific, and Whitman will do battle in the Pacific Northwest. Expect some previews.
- More Season Previews!
- A Recruiting Look from our very own Adam Van Zee!
- START GETTING HYPED FOR INDOOR NATIONALS. THAT MEANS….
- DRAFT
- KINGS
- DRAFT
- KINGS
Okay, the hype train continues rolling into the next article. Rounds 10-12. Brought to you now.
ROUND 10
91) D3RegionalAS: Sebastian Castillo-Sanchez (RPI #1)
RPI’s youngest stud could be a force to be reckoned with this year, especially if he continues the winning ways he had in the fall. With a NE ITA doubles title and a semifinal run, losing only to “My momma don’t like you, but she likes Kai Yuen Leung”, (Northeast might have one of the best tweets of all time) this young talent seems to be a solid pick this late in the draft. He has a UTR of 12.36 and a TennisRecruiting ranking of 81, this kid is legit. After the Chicago/Coe match this weekend, I’m unsure if Chua will be playing 1 singles or if he’ll even be in the doubles starting lineup. If that’s the case, SCS will be my main squeeze at the top singles spot this fantasy season.
92) The Guru: Jordan Sadowsky (Williams #6)
This could end up being a crucial pick for me. In the first round, I took Eliot Rozovsky of Bowdoin who is in danger of not being in the lineup. The same goes true for Sadowsky, who didn’t see all that much time in the singles lineup last spring. He did have wins over Bates and Trinity CT though. My hope is that either Rozovsky or Sadowsky will get some solid playing time this spring and not make me vulnerable at #6 singles. Sadowsky played a pretty strong #2 doubles for Williams last year so he has a good chance to be a contributor there for me.
93) AVZ: Patrick Whaling (GAC #3)
Continuing with the theme from rounds 7-9, I will somewhat mail in this pick’s explanation. Whaling is a bit of an unknown because he is new to Gustavus. But when making these late picks, I was thinking about doubles and GAC is one of the best teams for that and can develop players into fantastic doubles guys (see Eric Butorac). Whaling has a chance to have a significant impact on the Gusties this year. He made the final of the fall ITA and will be paired with Al-Houni for doubles. Without seeing him play yet, I expect big things out Patrick “Beluga” Whaling.
94) D3Tree: Jordan Pitts (Trinity TX #3)
I’m going to be honest this could’ve been a fake name and I still would have drafted him. It was getting late in the draft and I was reaching for strong #3s on limited knowledge and I landed on the incoming 3-star Freshman Jordan Pitts. I saw Trinity TX and my mind was decided. Looking at TRN (125 nationally) and UTR (12.26) it seems I fared pretty well. Pitts made the QF round in both singles and doubles at his Fall ITA, losing to Fagundes of UT Tyler in both, so a respectable effort. Here is to hoping for a solid rookie campaign for the freshman!
95) D3RegionalNEC: Avery Davis (Redlands #6)
You know that feeling when you start to lose interest in your fantasy draft and you just make a quick pick to keep things moving? Yeah, that was kind of what happened here. I don’t know much about the Floridian freshman, but he’s a 4-star recruit with a high ranking of 137 on TRN and an 11.39 UTR. And that’s literally all I can say about him, besides that I hope he has a great year!
96) D3West: Joey Dulle (#2 Redlands)
With my singles lineup in the bag, I was trying to nab the best doubles player on the board in a position that I had available. With both of my #1 spots filled, Dulle was an obvious choice. After an OK freshman year, Dulle really came into his own last season, playing a serviceable #1 and #2 singles. His greatest improvement came in doubles, however; where, with his massive serve, he and Jake Ly managed to qualify for nationals with wins over all three of the other qualifying West region teams. He might not even play #1 doubles this season, but he’s an absolute force. I’m planning on dropping him to #3 and watching him absolutely destroy folks for my team. UTR: 11.39.
97) D3Regional: Michael Arguello (Brandeis #1)
I had my eye on the Laser Show pretty much the entire draft and was just waiting on my chance to grab him, and I’m happy that I got him as late as I did. Arguello has had a solid Brandeis career for three years, moving between #1, #2, and #3 interchangeably with Ryan Bunis and Brian Granoff. Between this three guys, whoever has played #3 has been one of the better 3’s out there, whoever has played #2 has been solid, and the #1 has often been overmatched against the top schools. However, with the insane fall season that Arguello just had, I think there’s a good chance he changes that narrative. Arguello made the finals of the NE ITA with wins over Will De Quant (Midd), Alex Cauneac (MIT), Gil Roddy (Bowdoin), Oscar Burney (Amherst), Vlad Murad (Colby), and a loss in the finals to Lubomir Cuba (Midd). All of his wins other than Murad were over guys with a UTR higher than 12 (with Murad as a solid 11.76), really showing how great this run was, with three of the wins being in three-setters over the course of just two days. My only concern with this pick is how good Aman Manji was this fall as well, giving me apprehension because I don’t know how much Arguello will actually get the chance to start in my lineup. That being said, Arguello has been a solid #1 doubles guy for the past three seasons, and I think I can definitely utilize #LaserShow as a doubles specialist if needed.
98) D3NE: Ryan Bunis (Brandeis #2)
I may not be as excited about Bunis as D3Regional is about Arguello, but Bunis played #1 for the Judges last year, but I think playing behind Arguello will give the senior many more chances to come away victorious in 2017. Last year he did score wins over Gupte (projected Tufts #1) and Cauneac (projected MIT #1), and this fall he took down Kyle Wolfe (Bowdoin projected #2-3) at the Bates tournament. Ryan is a senior who has improved every year so far, and I expect nothing different this year. While it would be a stretch to say he’ll start over David Liu, I’d feel very comfortable turning to Bunis in case of Liumergency.
99) D3AS: Mark Fallati (Swarthmore #1)
In the draft, I actually ended up drafting players from the same team back-to-back on two separate occasions. Surprisingly, those two teams were CMU (Rozenvasser, Wadwani) and Swarthmore (Larkin, Fallati). I probably could have picked Anton Zykov here (as Midwest did right after me) but I decided to go with the ASouth player as I am a big believer in Mark’s work ethic and commitment to tennis. I honestly cannot say the same about Zykov simply because I don’t know too much about the inner workings of Amherst. When you’re deciding between two people, I usually like to go with the choice I feel I have the most knowledge about. Fallati could have very well won the ASouth ITA but ended up losing in a close battle to Jaycen Courtney Murphy of Wilkes (who wasn’t picked, btw), but I believe that Fallati has the opportunity to be a top 20 player this year. He’s a two way player who will play #1 doubles for Swat as well, so I can slot him in at the bottom of my doubles lineup if need be. This wasn’t a home run pick, but I’d say it was a solid double.
100) D3Midwest: Anton Zykov (Amherst #1)
Anton Zykov is a champion. In 2014, he was an impressive freshman on Amherst’s NCAA winning team. However, there have been questions surrounding the buy-in of Amherst players since Coach Garner’s departure. That said, I think it’s reasonable to believe that Anton Zykov has not been a part of that drama. Last year, Zykov was dealing with injury for a good part of the season yet managed to qualify for NCAAs in singles. Interestingly enough, he is the first senior I drafted up to this point in the draft, and I expect him to be a leader both on and off the court, guiding Amherst’s freshmen and the plethora of rookies I have on my team as well.
ROUND 11
101) D3Midwest: Petar Jivkov (Whitman #5)
I’m not going to lie to you. I know next to nothing (read: nothing) about Petar Jivkov. Someone briefly mentioned in the group chat during the draft that Jivkov was solid, and since I needed a backup 5 and knew nobody else on the board, I felt obligated to take the senior. Whitman is a solid team, and it’s never a bad thing to pick a senior from a top 25 squad. Plus, I needed balance since I had drafted four freshmen yet only one senior up to that point.
102) D3AS: Mike Roberts (Kenyon #4)
We were really stretching here in Round 11, which led AVZ and D3West to start clamoring for a shorter draft next year (which I will consider). When picking here, I had two spots left – #4 singles and #5 singles. None of the #5 singles players were going to start on my team, so I basically wanted to see if I could find ANYONE who could potentially start for me at #4. Mike Roberts is that guy. He’s going to have to pick up the slack at Kenyon this year with the potential of even seeing the #2 singles spot. While I don’t think he’ll have success all the way up there, with great opportunity comes the potential to become a great sleeper pick here. Roberts will have to contribute high in the lineup for both singles and doubles for Kenyon. I’m hoping that he’s taken that to heart and really worked on his game to fulfill some big shoes. If not, well, I can start Adrien Bouchet at #4 and be totally fine. By the way, the #BenchMob boost I get from Roberts should not be understated.
103) D3NE: Zach Hewlin (Whitman #1)
Oh no…somebody call the police…there’s been a robbery. While I know there are a plethora of talented #1’s out there, getting an NCAA semifinalist in the 11th round seems an absolute steal. He was 14-4 against DIII competition last spring, and the 4 losses came to Deuel (TU-graduated), Butts (CMS-graduated), Tercek (projected Bowdoin #1), and Metzler (projected Kalamazoo #1). On his NCAA run, he took down Chua (Chicago projected #1), Leung (projected Skidmore #1), and his holiness RAFE (Emory-graduated). Yes, he had a somewhat disappointing fall, but to me that is clearly a blip, and not something we should come to expect. While his UTR is strangely low (11.79), I think Hewlin is the most likely guy from the back ½ of the draw who could end up starting on my team.
104) D3Regional: Sam Malech (PP #3)
At this point in the draft, as I was with Arguello, I was simply looking for the best value that I could get. Given that my other #3 Tiago Eusebio of Wes had a slightly rocky fall, Malech was a guy that I know can be a really solid backup. He bounced between #3 and #5 in his sophomore campaign, getting wins over Parker Wilson (Redlands), Charlie Werman (Chapman), Alex Schidlovsky (Williams), Josh Goodman (Emory), Clayton Niess (Trin TX), and Pat Ordway (Bates) among others. He also got to the third round of the West ITA tournament this year, taking out Alfred Simental (CMS) and Connor Soohoo (Cal Tech) before falling to Glenn Hull of CMS. Malech will be solid wherever he plays in the lineup, and he’s definitely a guy I want on my team.
105) D3West: A.J. Flora (UCSC #3)
Does AJ Flora have any history of success at or near the top of the singles lineup? No. Was he even playing #3 singles for UC Santa Cruz when they started their season this weekend? No. Do I have any reason to think he’ll be a consistent contributor for my team? Probably not. But Alexander Flora can say something that nobody else in DIII tennis can say: he beat a USC player in a dual match. Boom. Get at me, 11th round pick.
106) D3RegionalNEC: Ethan Chen (Tufts #4)
At this point I knew I only had #4 and #1 singles left to fill, and I took Chen mainly because Tufts was the highest ranked team that still had their #4 available. The sophomore didn’t crack the lineup full time last year, so I’m not sure he’ll actually be playing at #4, especially with some highly ranked freshmen recruits. His fall was up and down, though he had a nice win over Allen Jackson (Midd) and took sets off of Michael Liu (Wes) and Timo van der Geest (Midd). I also very much like the fact that he won a match vs Babson last spring by the score of 4-6, 6-0, 6-0. Love a good ol’ backdoor double bagel.
107) D3Tree: Chad Stone (UCSC #2)
Chadwick* Stone. Drafted as my backup #2 and already has three duals under his belt playing the top position. Wick has had a brutal schedule going up against USC, Santa Clara and NAIA’s Westmont College this spring, Eating L’s in all three matches. This will undoubtedly harden and prepare him for division 3 play. I admire the slugs hunger to lace up and play in mid-January and have befriended the Slugs’ #3 Levchenko on twitter who provides me with timely and accurate boxscores of their events. In order for my fantasy program to be a complete powerhouse top to bottom I need guys like Wick to perform at a high level this year.
108) AVZ: JT Wynne (Skidmore #5)
This is somewhat of a homer pick and purely for #benchmob reasons. JT “All I do is” Wynne is an Indianapolis product and a multi team state champion. He plays with enough fire in his gut that could fill a whole team. The guy would shave his head into a mohawk and tie team colored ribbons throughout his head to show his spirit for the state finals. You can hear him from 10 courts away pumping up his teammates to take down the primetime teams on the northside of Indianapolis. North Central is a powerhouse and JT was a staple for a long time. If anyone can answer why they yell, “What day is it? THURSDAY!” I would be forever grateful. Because Thursday is only correct one day out of seven.
109) The Guru: Ari Cepelewicz (Swat #4)
With my other non-NESCAC pick, I took Ari Cepelwicz who will be a direct contributor to my team name. Ari is a strong backup for Samson at #4 after having a pretty good season last year at #3 for Swat. He had wins against W&L, Hopkins, L&C and NYU. Swat is looking to improve on their strongest year in recent memory in 2017 and the veteran will be a big part of that along with Larkin and Fallati. Cepelewicz did not have a great fall with two losses at the ITA, but I hope he will rebound as soon as spring starts.
110) D3RegionalAS: Derek Levchenko (UCSC #5)
To be honest, I knew absolutely nothing about Levchenko before I made this pick. I saw two of his teammates get taken off the board and with the uncertain state of their athletic program, I wanted to show the Banana Slugs (probably the coolest mascot ever) some love and give Lil’ Levy a shot. With a UTR of 11.19, he seems like a pretty reliable backup if needed. Will he replace Josh Goodman at 5 in my lineup? Probably not, but long live the Banana Slug and keep athletics in college!
ROUND 12
111) D3RegionalAS: Kyle Henry (Stevens #3)
At this point in the draft, there were 3 main reasons why I made this pick: I drank a lot of Kool Aid, he has a high ceiling and he should be a pretty good doubles player. Let me explain. The Kool Aid was a deep red color that pairs nicely with duck. The reason I believe he has a high ceiling is because he took down Leung of Chicago (UTR 11.96) in 3 sets last spring. Some hard work in the off season might provide more consistent, high level results this year. Doubles seems like it would be a strength of Henry’s since he’s listed on the roster as 6’4”. Him and his partner were the 2 seeds in a weaker NE ITA and had a solid showing, making it to the semifinals. Will he see my starting lineup? Maybe, maybe not, but I do know that the Kool Aid tasted damn good.
112) The Guru: Pat Ordway (Bates #5)
I clearly had to make my last pick of the draft a NESCAC player, and given that it was a #5, Ordway was definitely my best bet. Ordway had a win over Skidmore #2 Kolouris in the fall and was very up and down last year. He had wins against MIT, Swat and Brandeis and took Jerry Jiang to 3 sets. Arora should be a strong starter, but Ordway can hang with some of the top #5 players in the NESCAC if it comes to that. I was pleased to end up with 10 of my 12 players (and both of my coaches) from the NESCAC.
113) AVZ: Sven Kranz (Chicago #6)
Oh man, I was so pumped to make this pick. I sat on it for the final 6 rounds knowing that no blogger in their right mind would consider taking a player that we didn’t even have listed on the draft sheet because he was slotted in at #8 on the Chicago depth chart. SVEN was the biggest steal of the draft. It’s hard to tell how much playing time he gets this season, but it really doesn’t matter. (editor’s note: that’s not really how this whole thing works, but it’s AVZ so we let him have his moment.)The guy would be the best #6 in the country on any other team. Hell he would be one of the best #4’s in the country on any other team. Outside of a couple odd losses last year, Kranz was a beast. He ended up getting hurt in the last match of the year so I hope he has recovered, but his last win came over Mr. Morkovine from CMS. Morkovine was the second pick in the draft this year. I repeat, my pick at #113 has a direct win over the #2 pick of this draft just last year in the postseason when it counts the most. Kranz is a guy that I literally could plug into anywhere in my lineup and see results. He had two wins over Bush from Wash U (my starting #4 singles player) last season as well. If this pick isn’t genius, I don’t know what is.
114) D3Tree: Brady Anderson (Coe #1)
Last pick of the draft and I hit a fadeaway 3 at the horn with a guy in my face to win it all on the road in overtime in front of the opposing team’s bench… etc. Point is I went B1G and clutched it. Little known Brady Anderson of Coe College has already paid dividends for my squad by racking up an impressive 6-1, 6-4 over Chicago #1 and 18th overall selection David Liu. There were a lot of objectively safer 1s still available to be drafted, but with a big dual looming just weeks away and a chance to get a signature win to start the season I decided to roll the dice. Even better than the win itself was that I was able to witness it in person. The junior got off to a hot start winning 10 of the first 11 games and had chances to make it 5-0 in the second. The second bagel or breadstick was just too much carbs to handle. If Anderson can maintain this level of play throughout the season he will prove to be a vital fantasy asset.
115) D3RegionalNEC: Spencer Watanabe (GFU #1)
I feel like the quality of picks in Round 12 was significantly better than any of the preceding five rounds. That might just be me, though (sadly…). Anyway, it was a great way to cap off the draft by taking a singles and doubles ITA champion from this fall. Not only did Watanabe take both titles, he absolutely rolled through the singles field in dominant fashion, making his #17 national ranking feel perhaps a bit low. Regardless, Spencer has been a fun player to follow throughout his career, as he’s steadily improved to become a great #1 player and the first All-American in program history. He’ll give me some much needed help on the doubles side of things, and while I’d be cool with him starting any day, he’ll also make an excellent backup to Al Houni.
116) D3West: Robert Stroup (Case #4)
Put yourself in my shoes… The draft has been going on for an hour and a half. The Headmaster is so insecure about whether or not the Tree is enjoying the draft that it’s making everyone uncomfortable. You’ve run out of Butts/Poon/Tang/Dong/Bush related puns and self-respect. You need a #4 singles player, but know that you’ve pretty much already made your team. What would you do? If you answered “Pick the first #4 singles player you see,” we have something in common. Welcome to the team Stroup! Looking forward to that second-year-Coach-Todd bump making this look like a good pick!
117) D3Regional: Max Hawkins (Chicago #6)
I had a mini-freakout with my last pick that my doubles play was going to be lacking, given that some of my top picks (see: Aman Manji, Grant Urken) have not been accomplished doubles players. I thought my singles depth was pretty solid so it made sense to go with a doubles specialist. That made senior Max Hawkins and his crazy hands an easy choice. Hawkins and freshman partner Tyler Raclin won the Central ITA tournament and got fifth in the Oracle Cup, culminating with a straight-set win over Emerson Walsh/Mike Buxbaum of Johns Hopkins. Coach Tee actually switched up the partners for their match against Coe, where Hawkins played #3 with Luke Tsai and won 8-3. Hawkins started at #2 doubles pretty much his entire freshman and sophomore years, before bouncing in and out at #3 last season. It might be a risky pick, but with my last pick in the draft, going with a guy who had a terrific fall season in doubles seemed like a good move.
118) D3NE: Alex Vanezis (Middlebury #6)
I was targeting Vanezis for my final round pick from the very beginning of the draft. I figured I wouldn’t have a shot at Tsai, but I wanted a backup #6 with big upside. Alex is the best of the Middlebury freshmen, and he will probably earn a starting role at some point early on in the season if he hasn’t won the job already. It’s tough to give the #6 spot to a freshman over a more established guy like Van der Geest or Jackson, but I believe Vanezis will not only start this year, but win this year somewhere near the bottom of Midd’s lineup.
119) D3AS: Jackson Kogan (Brandeis #5)
Well, this wasn’t my best pick of the draft. I don’t really have much to say about taking Kogan here except that I needed to fill my #5 spot. This was a spot I valued in the first two rounds, so it made sense to me to leave it until the end of the draft to pick a backup. No other #5 singles players out there really gave me any value, so I decided to pick a young guy from up and coming Brandeis to see what happens. Who knows, it could be a masterpiece like those artists that throw paint at the wall and sell that shit for like $30MM dollars.
120) D3Midwest: Jake Zalenski (Kenyon #3)
Mr. Irrelevant is the title given to the final pick of the NFL draft. Yet, Zalenski is anything but irrelevant. Only a freshman, the Lord won the consolation bracket of ITA Regionals and has been just impressive as of late. January has been quite the month for the Zalenski. At the Cleveland State University Men’s Open UTR, the freshman claimed the title, beating projected Case #1 James Fojtasek along the way. Just this past weekend, in Kenyon’s first match of the season, Zalenski played #2 singles and won in straights. This pick looks even better when you consider that my starting #3, Erik Kerrigan, played #6 for Chicago this past weekend. Looking forward to big things from Zalenski.
Conclusion
And there you have it folks. We have completed the fantasy draft, but not the analysis. Expect some fantasy matchups next week as we did last year. Until then, make do with the articles on the site. We outchea. ASouth, OUT.