PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: 2/20-2/26

REGIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: February 20-26

We’re back with our 1st POTW of the 2017 season! Get excited. And if you’re one of the 1% who doesn’t care about POTW, we have our 1st power rankings coming out later this week. I”ll say it again. GET EXCITED!

A-SOUTH

Player: Adrien Bouchet

Team:  Emory

Results: 3-0 in #3 singles at indoors, 2-1 in doubles at #2

Recap: If you want to know why the two champions brought home the hardware this weekend, look no further than Adrien Bouchet.  Your two champions are obviously Emory and of course, myself for winning DraftKings.  Adrien Bouchet was the best #4 singles player in the country last year and could soon make a claim to be the top #3 once he gets more match wins under his belt.  Not to mention he’s now contributing in the doubles lineup and you get the potential of an absolute monster year for the sophomore.  By the way, I said he was gonna have a phenomenal tournament, and he did.

What’s next: More wins

Honorary Mention: Daniel Levine, CMU. I have to write something quick about Levine because he had an amazing weekend this week, taking over #1 singles and going 3-0 at the spot against Fojtasek, Manji, and Wu. Great job young sophomore. Oh, and this tweet.

Daniel Levine and Adrien Bouchet are the truth

— d3AtlanticSouth (@d3AtlanticSouth) February 26, 2017

Favorite part of 2017 Indoors: Other than winning Draftkings, it had to have been the doubles performance of Emory in the final.  3-0, no questions asked.

What you learned from Indoors in 5 words:  $20 is too much money.

Do/did you personally prefer playing indoors vs. outside: Indoors, more chance of me treeing and beating someone above my level.

MIDWEST

Player: Nick Chua

Team: Chicago

Results: 3-0 in #2 singles at Indoors.

Recap: Nick Chua stormed Indoors with a convincing 6-4, 6-2 win against one of the best 2s in the country in Pomona’s Graham Maassen, a 7-6 (3), 5-7, 10-4 grind over Wash U’s Jason Haugen, and a 7-5, 6-2 upset win against the greatest player to ever set foot on a tennis court, Jonathan Jemison. What impressed me the most was the fight Chua displayed. At Indoors last year, the Maroon went 0-3 in singles, with a couple of three set losses. This year, when things got tight, Chua came up big. While he probably isn’t happy that Chicago didn’t take home the title, he’s got to be pleased with his extravagant play. Congrats to my first ever player of the week!

What’s next: Chicago hosts D-I Niagara in a couple weeks before heading to sunny California for Spring Break where they will take on Colby, Tufts, CMS, and Williams.

Honorary Mention: Jeremy Bush/JJ Kroot, Wash U (3-0 at #2 doubles).

Favorite part of 2017 Indoors: McKenna Fujitani’s bucket hat. I’m still in awe that he plays matches wearing it.

What you learned from Indoors in 5 words: Chair umpires are still awful.

Do/did you personally prefer playing indoors vs. outside: Indoor.

NE

Player: Tyler Barr

Team: MIT

Results: 2-0 at #1 singles, 1-0 at #1 singles, 2-1 at #2 doubles

Recap: Ok, this is a bit of a stretch seeing as these matches were played over the entire month, but Barr and MIT deserve some recognition for their fantastic February. Barr played #2 against Bentley, and #1 against both Navy and Boston University, and didn’t lose a set through any of the three matches! He went 2-1 at #2 dubs with freshman Albert Go, with the only loss coming in a breaker against BU. Lots of people, including a couple of the writers are very high on MIT right now, so personally I’m very excited to what’s next for them…

What’s next: MIT hosts Bates on Saturday, March 4 in the NE match of the week. This will be MIT’s most important test of 2017 to date.

Honorary mention: Victor Cheng (MIT)

Favorite part of 2017 Indoors: Draftkings. D3AS may have won, but I have two top-three blogger finishes in two years. Plus the whole process (including the pricing) is all kinds of nerdy fun.

What you learned from Indoors in 5 words: No true favorite in 2017

Do/did you personally prefer playing indoors vs. outside: Outdoors, not even close.

WEST

Player: Chas Mayer

Team: Trinity

Results: 5-1 over Indoors (3-0 at #3 doubles, 2-1 at #2 singles)

Recap: The lone upperclassman in the Tigers’ singles lineup led by example this weekend. He and fellow-senior Clayton Niess proved to be the lock at #3 doubles McMindes was hoping they would be, dropping a total of 10 games in their three doubles matches, including an impressive 8-4 victory over Jemison/Omsky. In singles, Mayer lost to Jemison to open the tournament, but won his next two matches routinely. Looking forward, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the senior move up in both the singles and doubles lineups, as I had him pegged to play #1 at the beginning of the season. If the Tigers are going to stay in the top 15, they’re going to need continued excellent play from their upperclassmen.

What’s next: The Tigers have a couple weeks of training before they head to Florida for Spring Break matches against Kenyon, Stevens, RPI, and Amherst (March 12-15)

Honorary Mention: Jake Yasgoor, Marko Mandic, Josh Gearou

Favorite part of 2017 Indoors: The last round of backdraw matches, when the West region went 2-0 to finish 3-3 overall and beat their respective seeds!

What you learned from Indoors in 5 words: Pomona-Pitzer has woken up

Do/did you personally prefer playing indoors vs. outside: Outside (love the grind)

REGIONAL

Player: Brian Granoff

Team: Brandeis

Results: 4-0 in singles against CMS, Redlands, Glendale CC, and Cal Tech, 2-2 in doubles

Recap: Granoff is getting the POTW honors due to his singles results, where he had a really great week out in Cali.  I came into this season thinking that whoever played #3 out of Michael Arguello, Ryan Bunis, and Brian Granoff would have a chance to be a really elite #3, and Granoff has already proven that in spades.  He started his spring break with an easy 0 and 0 win over Andre Liu of Cal Tech, a retirement against Glendale, and then two full three-set wins over Joey Dulle of Redlands and Daniel Park of CMS.  Although he struggled in doubles against Redlands and CMS, his singles results were very strong, showing that Granoff is in great form entering this season.  If the Judges are going to make noise this season, Granoff continuing his strong senior season will be huge.

What’s next: Brandeis takes on Stevens this Saturday, with NYU the following weekend, two mid-Atlantic schools where Deis should be slightly favored

Honorary Mention: Ben DeLuca (Lewis & Clark), currently undefeated in singles and doubles this season at #5-6 singles / #2-3 doubles, giving the Pios some great depth

Favorite part of 2017 Indoors: The awkward Flo Tennis interview at the end where every Emory player says that they feel “dank”

What you learned from Indoors in 5 words: 3-0 doubles leads win championships

Do/did you personally prefer playing indoors vs. outside: Outside for sure!  I absolutely love the outdoor grind with wind and sun.  It’s how tennis was meant to be played.

REGIONAL-AS

Player: Jordan Brewer

Team: Sewanee

Results: 5-0 against UMW, NC Wesleyan and Stevens

Recap: Brewer was probably Sewanee’s biggest contributor this weekend racking up 5 wins against pretty stiff competition. He played two matches at 6 singles and arguably his biggest win came against UMW’s Derek Hagino who boasts a UTR of 11.44. Pairing with Aubrey Davis at 3 doubles, the duo went 3-0 on the weekend against some historically strong doubles teams. Moving forward, look for Brewer to continue to add depth to the Tigers lineup and to contribute in turning some of those 4-5 losses to 5-4 wins. The Tigers will be a team to watch out for in the upcoming weeks.

What’s next: Sewanee has two very big matches this upcoming weekend against Swarthmore and W&L. I expect the Tigers to continue the upward trend and take both of these matches before heading out to sunny California for Spring Break.

Honorary Mention: Kai Yuen Leung – Skidmore (2-0 over LL rival Vassar), Aubrey Davis – Sewanee (5-1 against UMW, NC Wes and Stevens)

Favorite part of 2017 Indoors: I really liked the resurgence of a PP team that had a pretty slow start to the year. Wins over Case and Kenyon should be good confidence boosters going into the long slew of teams headed out West for their Spring Break trips.

What you learned from Indoors in 5 words: Never bet against D3 ASouth.

Do/did you personally prefer playing indoors vs. outside: Outdoors because the balls bounce higher and give you more time to react.

REGIONAL NE/C

Player: Matt Steiner

Team: Wheaton (IL)

Results: 2-0 in Wheaton’s 5-4 victory over Wabash on Saturday

Recap: This weekend, three matches between teams I cover came down to a final set with the overall match tied 4-4. Any of the three guys who clinched could’ve won this award (they’re all honorary mentions), but I’m giving it to the only player who won two points to help his team across the finish line. Steiner, along with fellow senior Justin Ancona, put Wheaton ahead with a huge 9-8 victory at #1 doubles, and followed it up with a 6-0, 6-4 win at #3, setting the stage for his teammate Dane Paulsen to clinch the match. Steiner is on a 10 match win streak, having not lost since the spring opener to Kalamazoo.

What’s next: Steiner will look to continue his excellent form down in Orlando as the Thunder make their way south this week. Four matches are on the slate, with the biggest being a spring break rematch of last year against Coe.

Honorary Mention: Dane Paulsen (Wheaton), Alexander Luckmann (Vassar), Suryansh Patel (RPI)

Favorite part of 2017 Indoors: Jonathan Jemison’s reaction when it’s suggested that they go to Five Guys to celebrate in this video: https://twitter.com/FloTennis_/status/835903375615090688

What you learned from Indoors in 5 words: Clueless for May’s championship outcome.

Do/did you personally prefer playing indoors vs. outside: Indoors