If blogging was my actual job, my boss aka D3AtlanticSouth would not be too happy with me. I have struggled mightily at getting out articles this year, but luckily we have some awesome bloggers including the new D3Central and D3West who have been crushing it. There are a couple of Northwest teams that I have not written about all year, and an article on both of them has been long overdue. The Lewis & Clark Pioneers and the Pacific University Boxers are two of my favorite teams and are both teams that have been hanging around the top 40 pretty much since I started doing blogging. In this article, I’m going to do a pre-cap of sorts, taking a look at each team’s lineup, their results so far, and take a peek at their schedules the rest of the way. Let’s start with the #Pios.
Lewis & Clark Pioneers
Location: Portland, OR
Coach: Patrick Dreves
ITA Ranking: UR nationally, #7 in west
Blog Power Ranking: #32
Twitter: @lclarktennis
Hashtag: #P10S #rollpios
Overview
The Lewis & Clark Pioneers are an experienced bunch, sporting four seniors in the #3-#6 singles spots, so this is a big year for them to go out with a bang. The Pios have already had a good start to the year, with a near-upset of Trinity and a nice win over Caltech, with more opportunities yet to come. The Pios are currently stuck at a level where they are sort of in between the teams like George Fox Fox, Pacific, and Southwestern, and a little behind the UT-Tyler’s and Trinity’s of the world, but they are slowly but surely gaining steam and getting a little better every year, which is a testament to Coach Dreves and how him and his coaching staff develops his players. This is a huge year for the Pios given their senior-laden lineup so let’s dig a little deeper.
Key Additions s
Ramez Attia (2 star), brother of #1 singles player Raed Attia, Marc Hayashi (2 star), Riley Vickers
Key Losses
Michael Brewer (#2 singles, #2 doubles), Ben DeLuca (#6 singles, #3 doubles)
Lineup
#1 singles: Raed Attia (jr) – Attia has held the #1 spot for the Pios pretty much since he stepped foot on the NWC campus, and he has been about an average #1 in his career, usually losing to ranked teams and winning against the unranked teams. He has played at what looks like a similar level this year, going 2-4 so far this season with the wins being against Puget Sound twice.
#2 singles: Jackson Powell (so) – Powell has been simply awesome this year in his sophomore season, bouncing back and forth with Gordon Barrows at #2/3 and winning all of his matches, among those being Wilson Lambeth of Trin and Joey Dulle of Redlands. This is one of the Pios’ strongest spots in the lineup.
#3 singles: Gordon Barrows (sr) – One half of the Barrows brothers, Gordon Barrows, has had a nice start to this season, getting a good 3 set win over Caltech. A strong season for Barrows will be key as the season moves along.
#4 singles: Brenden Barrows (sr) – Brenden Barrows has been solid this season as well, taking out Lars Wiik from Trinity in 3 sets, as well as James Wei of Caltech.
#5 singles: Kei Inoue (sr) – Inoue had a very strong win over Jace Akagi-Okuma of Trinity, as well as a straight-set win over Miha Valencic of Caltech. He looks to have taken a big step forward this season after not really being a consistent starter in his first three years. Gotta love the grind.
#6 singles: Pim Trouerbach (sr) – Trouerbach was a consistent #3 singles player his freshman year and hasn’t really played
consistently since then, but he looks like he is back, with a 3-1 record so far this regular season.
#1 doubles: Brenden Barrows / Gordon Barrows: Currently ranked #6 in the west, the Barrows bros got a win over Caltech this year, but also have losses to Trinity and Redlands. The 9-8 loss proved particularly costly in the 5-4 overall team loss.
#2 doubles: Jackson Powell / Pim Trouerbach – Powell and Trouerbach got a quite solid 8-0 win over Caltech earlier this year. Powell also played with Inoue and Attia a bit earlier this year but it looks like this is the team right now.
#3 doubles: Raed Attia / Kei Inoue: Attia and Inoue have bounced around a little between #2 and #3 this year, and have a 5-2 record this spring with the losses being to Redlands and Trinity.
Schedule Analysis
The Pios have had a good start to a season where they have already played several meaningful matches. They started their season with a trip to Walla Walla, where they fell 8-1 to Redlands and 5-4 to Trinity. The Trinity match was one that they certainly could have won, as they lost 2 of 3 doubles, with #1 doubles falling 9-8. Wilson Hamilton of Trin took out Raed Attia 6-3 in the third which ultimately clinched it for Trinity, as the Pios got wins at #3, #4, and #5 singles. The Pios continued their season with an 8-1 win against Caltech that looks like a very good win after Caltech’s recent 6-3 win over Christopher Newport. Since that win, the Pios have had three relatively stress-free NWC conference wins over Willamette, Puget Sound, and Pacific Lutheran.
Their next big test will be coming up this Friday as they will host Whitman, with matches against Whitworth and Southwestern to round off the weekend. The Pios also have a California trip planned in early April where they will play Gustavus Adolphus and Pomona in back to back days.
Conclusion
The Pios are right on the cusp of being a really good team and probably should be in the rankings right now, though potentially the Caltech win combined with Caltech’s win over Chris Newport might get them in the 3/15 rankings. Their #7 ranking in the west looks about right, and although they had the loss to Trinity, this showed that the Pios are a legit team that is ready to take the next step. The middle of the Pios singles lineup combined with their doubles prowess should make them a formidable team all season long, and I would be surprised if they were not the #2 seed going into the NWC tournament.
Pacific University (OR) Boxers
Location: Forest Grove, OR
Coach: Pete Yellico (1st season)
ITA Ranking: UR nationally, #9 west
Blog Power Ranking: UR
Twitter: @BoxerTennis
Hashtag: #GoBoxers
Overview
The Pacific Boxers look to be in a tricky position this season after losing their top 3 guys to graduation. Clark Wininger was one of my favorite guys to follow for some odd reason that I can’t explain other than because his name had Win in it and he won a lot. This year, the Boxers have another couple of experienced seniors locking down the first two singles spots in their lineup, but a lot of youth after that, with just one junior on their roster and eight sophomores / freshmen. They also have a new coach in Pete Yellico after the departure of Brian Jackson, so this looks like it is going to a rebuilding year for the Boxers. Let’s get more into their roster and schedule.
Key Additions
Jonathan Chung (2 star), Riley Boyden (1 star), Joey Balleweg (1 star), Garret Katayama (1 star), Scott Rowe (1 star)
Key Losses
Clark Wininger (#1 singles, #1 doubles), Josh Bernstein (#2 singles, #2 doubles), Reuben Mulhern (#3 singles, #2 doubles)
Lineup
#1 singles: Oscar Wight (sr) – Wight played mostly #2 last year and had a good win over Ioannis Brokakis of NC Wesleyan among mostly losses against ranked teams. He had a big win over Jake Bethards this year of Whitworth in 3 sets, saving the 5-4 win.
#2 singles: Sage Katayama (sr) – Katayama has moved up to #2 this year after mostly playing #5 last season. The ITA website is very out of date for the Pacific Boxers which is making this difficult, but I don’t believe Katayama has yet won a match in singles this spring, losing to Hardin-Simmons, Whitworth, and Whitman.
#3 singles: Jonathan Chung (fr) – Chung has had a very good start to his first freshman spring season, beating Hardin-Simmons and Whitworth, along with a nice super-breaker win over Daniel Foster of Whitman. Chung is the guy for the Boxers to build around moving forward.
#4 singles: Sean Murphy (so) – Murphy had a tough loss to Whitworth, falling 2 and 1, among other results. He was in and out of the Boxers lineup last season, usually starting against the lower NWC schools.
#5 singles: Rayden Murata (so) – Murata has been clutch this year for the Boxers, winning 6-0 in the third against Thomas Remington of Whitworth along with a super-breaker win against Hardin-Simmons.
#6 singles: Riley Boyden (fr) / Griffin Fraser (jr) –The #6 spot has been a bit of a revolving door for the Boxers, with nobody yet running with the opportunity. Ford Nakagawa has also seen time in this spot.
#1 doubles: Oscar Wight / Sage Katayama – Wight and Katayama currently are ranked #10 in the west after a semifinal ITA appearance. That being said, they also fell 8-0 to Alex Hwang and Daniel Foster of Whitman earlier this year.
#2 doubles: Sean Murphy / Jonathan Chung – Murphy and Chung have done a nice job this season, with wins over Whitworth (9-8) and Hardin-Simmons (8-3).
#3 doubles: Ford Nakagawa / Rayden Murata or Riley Boyden / Joey Balleweg – Nakagawa and Murata were moved out of the lineup in favor of Boyden and Balleweg after an 8-4 loss to Hardin-Simmons. Murata and Nakagawa played #3 pretty much all of last year for the Boxers, so they are certainly an experienced team.
Schedule Analysis
The Boxers currently have amassed a 2-2 record which computes to a .500 winning percentage. They are most recently coming off a weekend where they fell 8-1 to Whitman but got a 5-4 win over Whitworth in a match that had 4 three-set singles matches! This gives Pacific the inside track to the #4 seed and a berth (birth?) in the NWC tournament. This weekend, the Boxers will host NWC foes Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound. Their next challenge comes towards the end of March when the Boxers will travel to Texas to take on Southwestern, Schreiner, Trinity (TX), and Colby in what should all be good matches. They will finish off their regular season with matches against Lewis & Clark and George Fox in what will likely determine seeding at the NWC tournament.
Conclusion
The Boxers have been phenomenal at developing talent for a number of years, taking guys who were originally one and zero stars like Clark Wininger and Josh Bernstein and turning them into top of the lineup singles players that made Pacific around a top 40 team every season. The only tough thing about this strategy is that players will develop for three years and by their junior or senior season, they are great contributors, but when they graduate, it creates a big gap, which is where Pacific finds themselves now with a big group of inexperienced freshmen and sophomores. However, they have a couple of great seniors to mentor these young guys, and a motivated young coach who was an assistant under Coach Jackson for four years and certainly can carry on the Boxer’s tradition of development. I look forward to following!
l&C is a good team, well coached and much stronger than Geo Fox. L&C is deeper. Look at Conf Championship last year. Leach isn’t going to change that equation enough to make up for the depth at L&C.