Reg ASouth State of the Region: Spring Break Edition

Ah spring break, the warm air, the sunshine, the sunburn and most importantly the tennis. It’s a wonderful time of the year and there are always so many matches to cover so instead of writing a long drawn out intro, I’m just going to get right to it. Here I’ll be discussing how each of my teams fared over their trips and briefly touching on players that could reach the NCAA individual tournament. Let’s do this!

Swarthmore

Spring Break Results: L CMS (0-9), L Trinity (4-5), L CWRU (3-6), L Hope International (3-6), L Redlands (1-8), W Whitman (5-4), L Cerritos (1-8), W Sewanee (5-4)

Grade: B+

What a spring break trip. 8 matches in 4 days and 6 of them were against ranked division 3 teams. Phew. I bet the Garnet are ready to get some much needed days off. I was slightly disappointed in the last place Stag Hen finish for Swarthmore, but I am impressed with how they rebounded and

came back strong against Whitman and Sewanee. I know Whitman was plagued with injuries going into the match and that they aren’t the same team outdoors, but this is still a quality win for the Garnet. Swarthmore has established themselves as a top 5 team in the Atlantic South by defeating W&L pre spring break and fending off Sewanee to cap off the California trip. I am very curious to see where this team will sit in the national rankings when they come out on March 29th. I can see them being as high as 20 and as low as 29, so I am interested to see how the committee feels. Also it’s worth noting that Fallati has not quite had the season that I was expecting. At this point it’s going to be very hard for him to qualify for NCAAs with losses to Harry Shepherd and Jack Gray on top of the fact that CMU is quietly having a very good season and will probably send multiple players. Fallati will have an outside chance to get in if he runs the table, but otherwise, I just can’t see it happening.

Sewanee

Spring Break Results: L Swarthmore (4-5), W Whitman (5-4), L Tufts (4-5), W Salisbury (9-0)

Grade: B

The Tigers are still out in California and should roll through Whittier tomorrow, but I want to look at little the early part of the break. I knew that the match against Swarthmore would be a good one, and it didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately the Tigers ended up on the wrong end of a 5-4 score, but at

the same time, this result isn’t completely negative. Sewanee fought like hell after getting swept in doubles and nearly got the best of the Garnet, but the experience of Fallati and Co. proved to be too much. It is also worth noting that his was their first match of the trip for Sewanee and the last for Swarthmore, so the Garnet already had the experience of playing in the sun, while the Tigers were most likely still transitioning from indoors. I’m not trying to make excuses for the team, just stating factors that could have played a role in the matches. Moving on, the Tigers then took advantage of the outdoor Whitman team and similarly to the Garnet, proved they can play in the next tier. Another close loss to a rather talented, yet unpredictable Tufts teams, caps off the notable results. Also keep an eye out for Jack Gray to make a push for NCAAs towards the end of the season. He has started off very strong, with only two losses on the season, both to out of region opponents.

Millsaps

Spring Break Results: W St Ambrose University (9-0), W East Texas Baptist (8-1), L Kenyon (1-8), W Haverford (6-3)

Grade: B

I don’t know how anyone could hate this team. They have a great twitter presence, are built on a bunch of 1 and 2 stars that worked their asses off and compete with nothing but grit and class (so I’ve been told by some coaches). They had a pretty good spring break trip as well holding serve against teams that were worse and falling to a Kenyon team that is having a very good season. They earned their first ever national ranking by taking down Southwestern and I think they could have what it takes to upset UT Tyler this weekend, so keep your eyes on this one. I also have been noticing that Henry Friedler has not been in the lineup and he was one of the Majors most consistent players last season at third singles. If he is out with injury and can come back this season, this will be a major addition to the team.

Christopher Newport

Spring Break Results: L CMS (1-8), L Cal Tech (3-6), W Chapman (8-1), L Redlands (1-8)

Grade: C-

What looked like such a promising season for the Captains has very quickly turned into a dud, and their spring break trip pretty much summed it up. It wasn’t the losses to CMS or Redlands that

were worrisome, but the loss to Cal Tech. Yes, yes I know Cal Tech has brought in back to back top 20 recruiting classes, but they are a team who has been out of the rankings until recently. These are must win matches, especially after the season CNU put together last year, but it seems the Captains have taken a step back. I am very curious to see how they do against UMW this weekend. These are two programs that seem to be going in the opposite direction, but I wouldn’t be surprised if CNU can keep it close. It is a rivalry match after all.

W&L

Results: L Swarthmore (3-6), L Johns Hopkins (4-5), L UMW (4-5)

Grade: B

As you may notice above, it simply says “results” as opposed to “spring break results”, that’s because the Generals don’t take a trip! The travesty. March Zheng and Harry Shepherd probably

spent their break fooling around with blockchains, bitcoins and ethereum. Kids these days. Anyways, they still got some quality matches in against other Atlantic South opponents and had decent results. At the beginning of the season, I didn’t think they could hang with any of these teams, but overall, they have shown that they are a team on the brink and overall they are a fairly young team. I think next year this will be a very dangerous squad, but for now, they will remain in the “could pull off an upset” category. Harry Shepherd is also putting himself in a very good position moving into the back half of the season going undefeated and notching wins over Fallati, Joshi and Miles. If he gets in to the individual tournament I sincerely hope we see a match between him and a former Emory teammate. That would be sweet.

NC Wesleyan

Results: Nothing notable

Grade: N/A

Similarly to the Generals, it looks like the Battling Bishops stayed home for spring break and took advantage of the opportunities to beat up on some teams that aren’t really relevant. I hate how front heavy this schedule is and it could definitely come back to bite the Bishops come tournament time with the lack of experience against quality opponents.

Rhodes

Spring Break Results: W St John’s University (6-3), L Coe College (1-6), W Wabash (8-1), W Carthage (6-3), W Saint Vincent College (9-0)

Grade: B-

Rhodes had an early spring break this year and I’ve already talked about it, so no point in beating a dead horse. They’ve put together a fairly “meh” season so far, but the real fun comes in the back half with matches against Sewanee, Millsaps and Birmingham Southern. Until then, we sit and wait.

Notable Upcoming Matches:

Millsaps vs Birmingham Southern (3/25)

Millsaps vs UT Tyler (3/23)

CNU vs UMW (3/25)

Rhodes vs Emory (3/24)

Finally, I wanna give a special shoutout to Va. Wesleyan for their win over Centre. That was a huge upset according to UTR (51 over a 58) and the Marlins should be quite proud of that one. Also I don’t think I’ve ever gotten as many likes on a tweet as I did for that one, so good work Marlins fans, keep it up! Anyways, as always, tweet at me, email me and leave a comment, so we can have some witty banter. Until next time, Reg ASouth out!