STAG-HEN Exit Survey

STAG-HEN EXIT SURVEY

1) As always, we start with your tweet-length recap of the tournament

D3AS: We learned a lot about a lot of teams in this tournament, especially Wesleyan.
D3NE: The Dancing Polar Bear lives, don’t fret about CMS just yet, and the bottom of Pool-C has the potential to be a mess of epic proportions.

AVZ: Bowdoin impresses, CMS depth in question, and Wash U/Wesleyan both are not Top 10 teams.

NewCentral: @Emory, @Middlebury, @CMS

DIII West: An obvious hierarchy in terms of talent from the 8 teams. Bowdoin is absolutely a championship caliber team taking out CMS on their home courts with ease

2) What surprised you most throughout the tournament?

D3AS: Nothing really. I was down on Wesleyan this year and that has started already. Bowdoin is beastly and maybe that’s surprising but it really shouldn’t be.

D3NE: Wesleyan’s doubles. This was a strength for the Cards last year, and I may have undersold the importance of losing the #1 team of Michael Liu and Jake Roberts. Roji/Carter got a big win against Wash U today, but the lower doubles looked greatly outmatched, and they were swept by CMS. All that being said, there was no Samson and no Daniels against either CMS or Wash U.

AVZ: While I have been saying that Wash U is weaker this year for quite some time, I was a bit surprised at the showing that Wesleyan gave this week. It pains me to say that as Coach Fried is one of my favorites. It’s early so they have plenty of chances to redeem themselves this year including a big match with Carnegie later this week. They need to find some help at 5 and 6 and shore up some doubles play to regain our expectations.

NewCentral: I honestly couldn’t foresee a way for Bowdoin to get five points against CMS on their own courts; they floored me and CMS with an incredibly impressive tournament.

DIII West: Case Western battled hard with eventual winners, Bowdoin, in the first round before battling PP in the first round consolation coming up just short 6-3. Two of their three wins in this match were 7-6 in the third which shows the Spartans fight and determination late in singles matches. A nice cherry on top taking out Swarthmore for a 7th place finish.

3) What individual stood out to you most through the tournament

D3AS: Grant Urken. I didn’t think he was a top tier 1 and it looks like I was wrong. For him to beat Parodi in a tough match was extremely impressive. Bowdoin is looking even better now with Urken and Tercek virtually playing strong positions at the top of the lineup, Bowdoin is looking very, very formidable.

D3NE: I’ll go with somebody a bit less heralded and choose Justin Patel. Bowdoin’s #6 was talked about as their weakest point before the season, but that was due more to the strength of the top 5 than Patel/Zhao/Carstens. JP was down in all three matches at different points this weekend, and ended up splitting all three. His comeback against Wash U was after the team match was decided when it was just him out there, which is impressive given how easy it is to let down once the match has been decided. Today against CMS, he lost the first set to Jacobs 6-2, but then bounced back to win both the 2nd and 3rd sets 6-2. The lefty looked composed and played within himself to clinch a match and a tournament title.

AVZ: Since I was the first to fill this out, I will leave a couple layups for the others to use. But Sam Concannon went 3-0 in singles winning all three of his matches in a third set. Bowdoin, Pomona, and Swarthmore in 36 hours is a darn good showing if you ask me. I have been high on Sam since he was still a recruit and think he will continue to have success for Case.

NewCentral: Over the past three days Bernardo Neves has defeated Shekar, Peterson (Lehigh), Mandic, Jiang, and Eusebio. He has also been a rock in the center of Wash U’s doubles lineup. We typically measure tennis clout by how someone performs under dual match pressure and Bernardo Neves is 10-0 in dual match singles this year…

DIII West: Jed Kronenberg is a beast. Just a freshman, this PP #1 was able to win all three of his singles matches losing a mere 8 games!! He hits a big ball and is extremely loud and passionate when he is out on court. He didn’t play Urken or Parodi (arguably the best 1’s in the tournament), but to take out Wu, Hamilton, and Fojtasek all in under and hour is an impressive showing for the Hen to say the least.

4) What is one thing you learned about a team not under your “jurisdiction”?

D3AS: CMS may not be as deep as I thought they were. They got smoked at the bottom of the lineup by Bowdoin and that’s really what lost them the match. It’s very interesting to see where Gordy is these days and I expected him to be a force at the bottom of the lineup. CMS will probably figure it out by the end of the year, but this was eye opening for those that expected CMS to be a heavy favorite over Bowdoin.

D3NE: Case will not let anybody walk over them. The Spartans were outmatched against Bowdoin in the first round, but still played the eventual tournament champs CLOSER THAN EITHER WASH U OR CMS. They also lost in a close match against PP and then took out Swat earlier today. They fight, and if I’m an upper-level UAA team this is not a team I want to play in the 1st round of the conference tournament.

NewCentral: Bowdoin showed me just how much they deserve to be in title talks come May. Burney and Katzman showed me that they’re the best two doubles team in the country until further notice. Lastly, Bowdoin showed me that the CMS singles lineup may not be invincible.

DIII West: Wash U., though they ended up in third, still seems a step below the likes of CMS and Bowdoin. They have been able to compete with such teams on a yearly basis but it has been quite some time since we saw a big match against a tier-A team go their way. The Bears give themselves plenty of opportunities per season to take out an Emory, or Bowdoin, or CMS, and again this Stag Hen, they weren’t able to take out the Polar Bears.

5) What is something from the tournament that should not go unnoticed?

D3AS: Wesleyan played with a lot of injuries this tournament. They played without Joachim Samson the whole tournament and they played without Cam Daniels for two matches as well. Wesleyan is a damn good team. But, they need to get healthy and they need to get tough for the rest of the year. It’s going to be a battle the rest of the year with so many teams looking to get in via Pool C.

D3NE: THE LIVE STREAMING! Apart from the occasional buffering, CMS’ Playsight live streaming system worked to perfection. We have been VERY fortunate to enjoy the streaming systems of GAC and CMS for our two biggest tournaments this year. Big shoutout to Coach Settles and the CMS facility for putting on another fantastic (but yes Coach, it’s a grind) tournament.

AVZ: It’s only March. There still remains a lot of matches to play. Bowdoin and Wesleyan just got their season underway and Wash U has another match up with Chicago before UAAs.

NewCentral: UChicago def. CMU, CMU def. Trinity, UChicago def. Wash U, CMU def. Wash U, Wash U def. Wesleyan, and  Amherst def. CMU…and it’s only March. When Pool C becomes an amalgamation of blind guesses and magic-eight ball shakes, we will be able to consider this tournament’s (and Indoors) impact on Pool C in the same vein as the Fire Nation’s attack on the world.

DIII West: Pomona’s depth is something that should definitely not go unnoticed. The Hens went down 0-3 against Wash U in the first round and almost came back in singles taking 5 out of the first 6 sets. Though they didn’t pull out this match, they went 10-2 in singles against Case and Trinity(TX), with those two losses being 7-6 in the third. They very well could have swept these two conso teams in singles which would have been statement wins for this Pomona team. If they can figure out their doubles, they could be a powerful team late in the season.