With the regular season winding down, it’s time for the most unique event on the DIII tennis calendar: The Ojai. Here are the draws. You’ll notice that the following changes have been made:
- The singles draw has decreased from 64 to 32, and the doubles draw has decreased from 32 to 16.
- The draw is not dominated by Stag- and Henlings hoping to make a dent. This is because each team has been guaranteed two spots. The purpose is to draw more teams to the tournament, allowing players like Spencer Watanabe (GFU) and Clark Wininger (Pacific) to compete for their NCAA-qualification lives. Plus, whenever just two players from a given team compete in an event, it doesn’t count towards the team’s dates.
- The remaining spots are allocated on an at-large basis for teams that want to send more than two, which is why you see many Bulldogs in the singles draw.
- The draw will now feature a first round consolation in both singles and doubles (backdraw matches will be no-ad with a tiebreaker for the third), so no more traveling all the way to Ojai for a nervy first-round loss.
One of the aims of these changes is to make it easier for players from other teams to make it down to the Ojai. Back in 2009, John Watts and the Wash U Bears made it to the Ojai, and it was absolutely electric. Because the tournament doesn’t count against a teams’ dates, players from UAA teams can make their way out west post-tournament. NESCAC players could fly out on the pre-tournament weekend for some high-pressure preparation. I would love nothing more than to see Jemison vs. Parodi for the Ojai championship next year at Libby Park. This tournament truly is the experience of a lifetime, so players and coaches, keep this in mind for next years’ tournament.
Singles Storylines
With the new format, there are no easy matches (not that there ever really were any), and there will be no low-lineup Stags playing their way to Libby Park, but there will still be plenty of intrigue.
- Can Glenn Hull continue CMS’ run of champions? With a sky-high UTR (13.54) and an unblemished spring record (16-0), the Stags’ silky senior may be the best player in the country right now, despite not playing #1 for his own team. Coach Settles gave his seniors the honor of playing at the Ojai, and, as the #1 seed, Mr. Hull has a very favorable path to the final.
- How will the NWC fare? Northwest conference players have always struggled at the Ojai (with the noted exception of Mr. Watanabe’s quarterfinal run last season), but many of them are looking for a good performance here to lock up a nationals spot. Watanabe, the #3 seed, is in precarious qualifying position after losing to Hewlin. He’s staring down the barrel of a nightmare first round match with Josh Gearou and his assortment of slices. On the other side of the draw, 6th-seeded Clark Wininger got a very nice draw, and should be able to win two matches en route to a quarterfinal clash with Chase Lipscomb. A win there would get him into the tournament. Zach Hewlin is the 4th seed and has played his way into pole position for a nationals berth, but a first round loss to Redlands’ big-serving junior, Joey Dulle could derail his hopes.
- Who will be the surprise finalist? Every year, it seams someone outside the top 4 seed plays their way to the finals. This year, I’m looking at two guys who have good reason to be playing with a chip on their shoulder. First is Whittier’s Andrew You, who didn’t get a seed despite an ITA ranking of 8. In recent weeks, he’s beaten Graham Maassen (PP), Ruthwick Pathireddy (Caltech), and Chase Lipscomb (Redlands). By virtue of his lack-of-seed, he’ll probably have a rematch with Chase in the second round. The second is Daniel Morkovine, who is (absurdly) ranked 20th in the West region. The fiery senior has picked up a couple losses at #3 singles this year, but he didn’t win the Fall ITA for nothing. I expect him to meet his teammate in the finals this weekend.
Doubles Blurb
One interesting byproduct of the new Ojai rules is that they end up throwing together pairs who haven’t been playing together. Obviously, the ultimate goal is to just win the tournament, but I can’t help but speculate how the ranking committee will weigh these non-traditional matches, as teams like Stone/Dugan (UCSC) and Wight/Wininger (Pacific) attempt to play their way in the tournament. Also, how would the committee weigh a Dulle/Ly loss to one of these makeshift teams? As always, I’m expecting upsets galore, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Dugan and Stone in the finals against Hull and (two-time defending doubles champ) Mork.
All told, it should be a fun weekend, and I wish I could be there, but while Hewlin and Jivkov are competing in California, I’ll be beating up on their teammates in Walla Walla. Keep the tweets coming!
Also, Texas fans look for a SCAC preview later this week.
Hey D3West You mentioned some NWC players needing this to lock up a spot for qualifications. I wanted to know in your opinion which players have the best cases for spots in singles? Personally based on current rankings 1-5 are lock downs i think everybody can agree. 6-8 is where it gets interesting for me. I can see Whitman’s guy getting in but i don’t see the other 2 having a huge case based on schedules and wins they have unless they win the whole Ojai of course. Would be great to hear your opinion, great article as usual! Should be an interesting Ojai
Thanks for the comment! I totally agree that 1-5 are essentially set in stone at this point, and here’s how I see the last two spots right now:
6. Hewlin – the dude has a bunch of out-of-division losses, which matter, but his divisional record is pretty stellar with wins over Wininger (x2), Watanabe, Maassen, and, most importantly Mayer. The Nationals bid is his to lose at this point.
7. Watanabe – The Bruin was ranked 6th in the most recent ITA rankings, but that was before he lost to Hewlin. He’s probably at 7th or 8th right now. His ranking is basically predicated on his fall performance, when he won the ITA. He didn’t really play anyone this year, but he only lost one DIII match (to Hewlin). In the past, I’ve seen committees reward good winning percentages over some players with more impressive wins, but a bunch of losses
8. You – Overall, I feel You’s record should place him ahead of Watanabe at the moment. His West region record features wins over Lipscomb, Maassen, and Braaten (CLU), but the losses to Vassar and Haverford are what kept him down. He suffered some collateral damage from Yasgoor’s injury in not getting a chance to play him, but he did well to beat Maassen. He also got absolutely shafted in the draw here, but that’s OK because he’ll likely get a second chance at Lipscomb. He’ll also presumably get matches against Parodi and either Yasgoor/Lipscomb in the SCIAC tournament, so in my mind he’s got poll position for that 7th spot. If he doesn’t get it, he might be a good candidate for an at-large bid because the Central and ASouth are relatively weak singles-wise this year.
9. Clark Wininger – Wininger’s definitely on the outside looking in right now with multiple losses to Hewlin, a loss to Watanabe, and a damaging loss to NWC’s #1. That being said, he did beat Al Houni, which helps a lot. (He, also, suffered from an unfortunate PP lineup decision when the Hens pulled both Maassen and Yasgoor in Walla Walla, but he beat Bello). That being said, his record is good enough that if he were to make a run to even the semifinals or something, he would probably have done enough to jump both Watanabe and You.
The way I see it, these bottom three guys all have pretty similar records, and a big tournament from either one of them could put them over the top. If Watanabe beats like a Hull, all of the sudden he has a win over Hull and just one DIII loss to Hewlin, not bad. If You beats Lipscomb again, I don’t see how anyone justifies keeping him out of the tournament. Wininger needs a run, but if he were to beat the winner of Lipscomb/You and take out Mork/Hewlin, I think that would definitely earn him a nationals bid.
So basically, I guess I feel that the resumes of the NWC kids are more comparable to the So. Cal kids than you do, maybe, and I think this could be a make-or-break opportunity for them, especially Watanabe, who hasn’t really seen national-level DIII competition a whole lot this year.
If they want to include more teams than why would they decrease the draw sizes? They could have kept the draw sizes the same and still accomplished this. Also, why did Redlands get the extra singles entries instead of CMS?
It’s true that the same thing could have been accomplished without decreasing the draw size (the guaranteed two spots is really the kicker to get teams to come play in a way that does not take a date away from their team). I believe the idea behind the smaller draw is to make it so only top, top players can qualify, to the point where it’s an honor to even be included. Redlands got the extra singles entries because CMS did not put forth more than two entries.
Can a Mork win over Parodi catapult him up in the rankings to qualify for nationals assuming he doesn’t lose during the SCIAC championships? He’s had a couple losses at 3 but a number of those ahead of him turned in real duds at Ojai.
I’ve made my feelings known re: Mork’s position in the nationals picture, and I think he is pretty clearly one of the eight best singles players in the region. Looking at the rankings, however, I don’t think he’s about to jump from 20 to 7 on an Ojai finals appearance (I don’t think a win over Parodi would’ve helped either).
Considering I don’t really know how the “at large” selections work, I think he might have a shot of picking up one of the at large bids, but we’ll just have to wait and see.