Take a quick break from all the Indoors Week coverage and our NEW PODCAST with Coach Settles and enjoy a look at what’s going on in the Central and Northeast among the regionally ranked teams (and beyond!). This one’s long AF so settle in and enjoy!
To start, here’s my thoughts on the past week for a bunch of teams:
UW-Whitewater
The Warhawks have to be satisfied with three comfortable wins over Ohio Wesleyan, Wheaton, and Grinnell. While they were favorites in all three, things really seemed to go pretty smoothly and they can continue to build momentum moving forward. Individually, no one player really shined that much, but the Warhawks got some nice contributions for a bunch of different guys, which should hopefully help them moving forward. Zane Navratil and Grant Thompson are still likely going to have a tough go of it against some of the stronger #1s they will face, but both have shown so far that they are at least serviceable that high in the lineup and should be able to take care of business against the players they “should” beat.
Ohio Wesleyan
The good news was a great 5-4 win over Wheaton, where they bounced back from a doubles deficit to win at 3-6 singles, exploiting Wheaton’s shoddy depth, Junior Felipe Duarte was a big part of the win, earning a point at #3 doubles with Shouta Fukamachi and then winning easily at #6 singles. The bad news was that OWU lost to Grinnell, also a 5-4 decision. Again, the Battling Bishops went down after doubles, but interestingly this time it was the bottom of the lineup that let them down, losing at 4-6. There were a number of tight matches, including a couple superbreakers (ugh), so this one could’ve gone either way, and unfortunately the loss will keep OWU back a little bit from really rising in the rankings. Still, some positive signs for this squad early on.
Grinnell
I’m just now starting to learn about Grinnell, but it doesn’t take an expert to see that this team has improved from the past couple of seasons. Beating OWU and Wheaton are both nice results, particularly topping Wheaton after the season they had last year. A doubles sweep was key, especially the 9-8 win at #2 from Michael Conlin-Brandenburg (great name) and Sam Stickels. In singles, just like OWU, the Pioneers dominated lower in the lineup, winning at 4-6. (1-3 were all relatively close, for what it’s worth). My takeaway from the weekend for Grinnell is that they are another team in the mix probably somewhere in the 15-20 range in the region, which is a significant improvement on their unranked status coming into the year.
DePauw
The Tigers had a big weekend with three tough matches against nationally ranked teams, facing Coe, Kenyon, and Chicago. The Maroons put quite a beatdown on DePauw, not dropping more than five games in any match (singles or doubles), which is not a shock, but after seeing the fight Denison put up against Chicago, this result reinforces the gap between DePauw and Denison, two teams that always seem to be ranked together (perhaps unjustifiably). Kenyon was also a beatdown, though SLIGHTLY closer, with #1 doubles actually going to a tiebreaker. For context though, Kenyon’s same #1 doubles team lost to Wabash the day before. Okay, now the good news—DePauw actually game Coe a solid battle. That said, had a couple tiebreakers gone differently it could’ve been 8-1 for Coe, but still it’s nice to see DePauw at least pushing the Kohawks, especially in the middle of the lineup. It looks like the Tigers are going to struggle at the top and bottom of the lineup, but 2-4 might be their sweet spot in terms of being competitive.
Coe
Good job to the Kohawks for taking care of business against DePauw. Another tough result for Nate Ackert, who’s still technically nationally ranked at #50, but losing at #3 against DePauw is not going to keep him ranked. Good win for Alex Pintille from DePauw though in what looked like quite a match: 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(8). Also, this match was the 800th career victory for Coe coach and friend of the Blog Eric Rodgers! For that, we send him a massive congrats and a wish for many more! The Chicago match was a not-surprising 9-0, though Coe made some matches interesting. Luke Ford pushed Abhin Sharma to 6-2, 7-6(7) and Brady Anderson/Nate Ackert lost a heartbreaker at #1 doubles to fall national champs Jeremy Yuan/Tyler Raclin 9-8(10). Also notable in this match was Luke Tsai beating Brady Anderson, which really makes it hard to see a scenario in which Anderson returns to NCAAs in singles one more time in his senior year. The combination of this loss after losing to Carleton hurts, but the fact that Tsai isn’t even Chicago’s true #1 (not even close, probably) makes it hurt even more. Still, Anderson will continue to be a threat against the big names in the region on any given day.
Augustana
Augie went down 8-1 to Kzoo despite some close matches, earning their sole point at #3 doubles with Caio DeRezende and Rodrigo Medeiros. DeRezende pushed Daniel Henry to a superbreaker at #1 before falling, but overall not a whole lot to say about this one. The closer match of the weekend was Augie narrowly defeating Calvin on Sunday. Calvin? Yes, Calvin, another school/team I know nothing about. Good on the Vikings for getting the W. What was interesting was that Sam Totten and DeRezende switched and Totten played #1. Not sure why, and in my mind DeRezende is the better #1, but there are always plenty of factors that I have no idea about as a Blogger so I’ll just sit here and wonder for now. Anyway, Augie continued to show they are a flawed team this weekend, but with Wheaton losing all three of their matches it certainly makes me think Augie will at least be able to challenge the Thunder for the CCIW this year.
Wabash
We know Wabash always fights, and they did against Kenyon despite the gap in talent. The Little Giants had a nice win at #1 doubles with Reifeis and McAuley taking out Weston Noall/Alex Rieger, but that was it for Wabash in an 8-1 loss. Reifeis lost a battle at #1 to Zalenski 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3 and Kirill Ivashchenko also split sets at #4, but clearly Kenyon’s just the better team.
Carleton
The Knights faced Crown College and lost two games in the entire match to start the weekend, so that’s something. I thought their match with UW-Eau Claire could get interesting, but they made me look foolish, cruising against the Blugolds to an 8-1 win. A solid weekend of just “holding serve” for Carleton.
Wooster
Shoutout to Titas Bera for win #100 and taking out one of the best players in the region in Herman Abban (Carthage). Titas has been a stalwart at the top of the Wooster lineup and it’s great to see him pull of a big win like this. It was also a key part of their 5-4 win over Carthage, which is a nice way to get the season going! I’m most impressed by the names of their players, though. The four singles winners for Wooster: Titas Bera, Nathan Devereux, Joaquin Abos Amo, and Jorrit de Rouw.
Luther
Gotta give a mention to my boys from Luther. Lots of lopsided scores against Gustavus as expected, but I tip my cap to Cole Schneider for out of nowhere upsetting Yassine Derbani at #5 by a 4-6, 7-6, 10-8 score. Schneider also won in doubles, pairing with Brian Murman to win at #3. Shoutout to Cole for two wins that were equally unexpected and impressive!
Ithaca
The Bombers fell to Rochester to open their season in a match I thought they had a chance to win. The fact that it was in Rochester instead of Ithaca definitely hurt them, but regardless of where it took place it’s a result that doesn’t leave me too optimistic for Ithaca this year. I’ll reserve judgement until there’s more of a sample size and they have more matches under their belts, but my first impression of Ithaca this spring is pretty meh.
Rochester
The Yellowjackets surprised me with a 7-2 win over Ithaca after falling to Vassar at home last weekend. Convincing wins at 1 and 2 doubles got them a nice lead, and in singles taking five of six is always good. Tanmay Thakkar and Yifan Shen won easily at 3 and 4, and Masaru Fujimaki had a very nice win over Minos Stavrakas at #1 in a battle, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
PREGAME SONG OF THE WEEK!
Yesterday the Blog Group Chat sent in dozens of suggestions that I don’t remember, but the one that I did comes from the Headmaster himself, D3AtlanticSouth. I’ve literally never heard this song before, so if it sucks, blame him. And if YOU have any SOTW suggestions, send them my way!
Coming this weekend
Carthage vs Whitewater
Not a lot to say about this one. Whitewater has enough depth to win easily, and with Herman already taking a few losses there’s not as much intrigue at #1 either. Still, it’d be nice to see Zane Navratil or Grant Thompson (whoever plays 1) to get a good win here.
Rose-Hulman vs Oglethorpe
Rose Hulman heads south for Spring Break starting this weekend and Oglethorpe should give us a better sense of how they look this year. Last weekend they destroyed Principia College, which tells me nothing. Transfer Ian Landwehr is playing #1 as expected and I’ll be watching to see how he does in his first slate of matches. Next Tuesday against Augustana should be fun as he goes up against either Totten or DeRezende.
Wheaton vs Wabash
Wheaton won a battle last year, and after losing three matches this past weekend, including to NCAC team OWU, I definitely think Wabash gets their revenge this year. Reifeis has the game to beat freshman Anderson Park and he and McAuley have been playing good doubles so far this spring, and the edge goes to Wabash in terms of depth, so all that adds up to a Wabash victory. I have a feeling the Little Giants are licking their chops leading into this one.
John Carroll vs Wooster
JCU is the best team in a weak conference, and Wooster is one of the weakest teams in a stronger conference. That means it’s tough to predict how this one is going to go, but after Wooster’s nice win last weekend I think this one will be competitive. JCU pushed Wabash decently well already this spring, and Wooster is a significant step down from there, so I tend to lean towards JCU, but I could see this one going either way.
Coe vs Mary Washington, Sewanee, Stevens
Lost in the Indoors attention is an interesting quad taking place at Mary Washington this weekend. It’s almost like the Indoors NIT (or the CBI). My take on Coe at this event is that one win is okay, two is great, three is amazing, and zero is rough but not the end of the world. Stevens should be the closest match, and while these teams don’t have much head-to-head history and Stevens has only played once this spring, my gut is to give a slight edge to Coe, possibly just because they have more matches under their belt. For the weekend, it’d be great to see Brady Anderson get back on track and at least go 2-1, and in general I think the Kohawks success will hinge somewhat on doubles. I think 4-6 singles is going to be a weak spot, but if they can get some doubles leads and then scrap away at 1-3, they should be okay. Even if they lose all three matches, it’s still a good weekend of matches against some different competition from the usual Central teams. I said it before, but I love that this quad is happening!
Stevens vs Mary Washington, Sewanee, Stevens
I feel bad that I never actually wrote a Stevens preview this year. It was partially out of laziness and now at this point I’m into the actual part of the year where I can write about actual matches, but still I apologize to the Ducks. The preview basically would’ve been a longer version of this: “Remember Heinrich? Man, he was good. The Ducks won’t be back at the level they were in those days, but should be similar to last year’s team just with no random Charles Drake appearances. They’ll completely sleepwalk to the Empire 8 title, as it’s even more of a foregone conclusion now that Ithaca is gone.” For this weekend, my take is similar to what I think of Coe. Anything more than one win is great, if they manage to go 1-2 that’s okay, and 0-3 would be unfortunate but not a huge red flag. Danny Polk has the game to be a solid #1 and has a shot in all three of his matches, and I think Will Persson at #3 is in for a strong senior year (he had a nice win over Lehigh last weekend). Freshman Keegan Morris at #2 is intriguing, and the jury is still out on whether or not he’s going to be able to hang that high. The good news about this weekend for Stevens is that if nothing else, it’s a lot of good match play and it gives us all our first real look at the 2018 Empire 8 Champions.
RPI vs Rochester
I’m excited to get our first look at the Engineers this weekend, as they have the potential to be a dangerous Northeast team this year. Last year they barely edged Rochester 5-4 in a match at RPI, so you’d think that going to Rochester this year could mean trouble. In theory this is true, but these teams have different trajectories and I forsee RPI winning pretty comfortably, probably 7-2 or 8-1. That said, RPI threw in some stinkers last year so if it’s another battle I wouldn’t be shocked, but I just think that, at least on paper, the talent gap between these teams is enough to outweigh other factors and should give RPI a pretty easy win to start their spring.
NYU vs Vassar
Another debut this weekend involving a Liberty League and UAA team! NYU is always unpredictable, as I wrote over and over again in their season preview, so I’m mostly just going to sit back and “watch” this one before commenting too much on it. If this match was at Vassar I’d think it could be close, but NYU is the home team and the Violets should take care of business against the Brewers, even if Allen Sokolov is back for Vassar. I’ll predict 7-2 for NYU just for fun, but like the RPI-Rochester match, if it turns out to be much closer I wouldn’t be stunned.
DePauw vs Earlham
Earlham’s coming off a tough 5-4 loss to Hope last weekend, while DePauw was facing much tough competition. Before the spring started I would’ve predicted a closer match, but right now I think DePauw is just plain better. Earlham seems to be a but volatile and if they put it all together I could see them really making a match out of this one, but DePauw wins 8 out of ten times and I think this weekend will be one of the eight. Still, a good match for both teams—good test for Earlham, and good chance to get a win under their belts for DePauw.
Thanks for reading! Sorry if I missed any matches! Feel free to comment, email, tweet, etc. You know the drill. Oh, and enter Indoors Draft Kings! Listen to our Podcast with Coach Settles of CMS! Enjoy #IndoorsWeek and all the rest of the great tennis out there this week!