2018 Middlebury Invitational Recap

2018 MIDDLEBURY INVITATIONAL RECAP

Hello again, boys and girls, and welcome to another year of The Blog! AVZ (the face of the Blog) kicked us off with a podcast featuring our headmaster, and D3RegNEC(k) posted his 5 burning questions yesterday. Today, I’m joined by the aforementioned RegNEC(k) and, making his bloggorial debut, please welcome NewRegional! As was conveyed in the podcast, NewRegional will be taking all of old D3Regional’s old teams, along with scattered others, while old D3Regional is working on making our site look and function better. Old D3Regional, gone but not forgotten.  

We’ve started to see the first results from the fall trickle in, mainly from the Central region, but all you NE fans got your first dose of tennis last weekend from Middlebury, VT. I know, with Will de Quant’s graduation and the fact that Wesleyan was not apart of this tournament there was an extremely disappointing lack of Periscope, but HOPEFULLY TEAMS WILL CHANGE THAT MOVING FORWARD. Six other teams traveled to Vermont last weekend, and here is our team-by-team recap.

Click here to view the results from the tournament.

#1 MIDDLEBURY

First Impressions

NE: Not the way the champs were hoping to start their title defense. They stunk at the top, and only had a few bright spots down below. Now, let’s remember that Midd always plays guys up in their tournament, as they basically act as two of the eight teams, but even so Cuba and Farrell should have been two of the three best players in this tournament without so much as a second’s hesitation and they both were ousted in the first round of singles. Midd has a bit of a history of coming out flat at the start of the fall, but that was NOT the case last year. Cuba beat Farrell in the A-Flight finals, van der Geest beat Vanezis in the B-Flight finals, and Schlanger/TVG won the A-Flight doubles. If that was the opening step to a national championship, I would have wanted to replicate those results.

What went well

NE: Although the first impressions are rather scathing, let’s give some props to Stanley Morris. A freshman from California, Morris was not Midd’s top recruit this year, and Coach Hansen thought the same thing considering he was seeded #2 in the B-Flight behind David Vilys (one of Midd’s other two freshman). Flat Stanley picked up wins over Shaff (Tufts), McLaren (Skid), Guo (Midd), and Coramutla on his way to winning the B-Flight singles.

What didn’t

NE: Most of the rest of the tourney. Guo got a solid win over Jeff Chen (Brandeis), and Farrell/Martin had a resounding quarterfinal win over Ng/Chen (Brandeis), but other than that the tournament was a Panther-sized disaster for the hosts.

Lasting impressions?

NE: In a word…none. It was nice to get all fired up in the previous little blurbs, but I don’t take this to mean anything we didn’t already know. Cuba and Farrell will be just fine (in fact better than that) at the top of this lineup. We will see what development we get out of Eazor and Xiao this year and see if they’re really ready to be middle of the lineup guys. For now, don’t raise the alarm just yet, Panther People, you’ll get a better sense of this team at ITAs in a couple weeks. They will have the homecourt advantage, but as we’ve seen before with this crop of Panthers that might not actually be a good thing…

#21 BRANDEIS

First Impressions

NewRegional: Call me a homer, but Brandeis was the most impressive team in action this past weekend. All in all, the Judges had 6 finalists, winning 3 of the 6 draws. In a tournament consisting of the defending national champs, and 3 top 25 mainstays in Bates, Skidmore and Tufts, I’m surprised and excited about Deis’ performance.

NE: NewRegional may be a homer, but he’s not wrong. The Blog has been touting Brandeis as team to watch all summer, and so far so good. The doubles were VERY impressive and I’m very much looking forward to seeing the Judges back it up against a stronger field at ITAs later this month.

What went well

NewRegional: Pretty much everything. Doubles was particularly strong with Deis having 3 of the 4 finalists, with Tzeng/Kogan taking the A flight, and Vohra/Das taking down Coramutla/Tegtmeier In the B flight. While fall doubles isn’t always the most accurate predictor of spring success, this is an encouraging result for the Judges sans doubles national qualifier Aizenberg (abroad?). The Judges have historically played good doubles, and that will be a key for them this year as they look to compete with the best teams in the nation. Coramutla had a great run to the B flight finals, defeating Martin (Midd) and Grant (Tufts). This is a fantastic result from a sophomore who made more of an impact in the doubles lineup last year. Brandeis also found success in the C and D singles flights with senior Jackson Kogan making the semis of the C flight, Rajan Vohra making the finals of the C flight, and senior Tyler Ng winning the D flight without dropping a set.

This was also our first look at Deis’ #7 ranked recruiting class. 4-star freshman Adam Tzeng was placed in the A singles bracket and scored a win over Thompson (RPI) before falling to Biswas (Tufts) pretty handily. Fellow 4-star Jeffrey Chen picked up a routine first round win before losing a close one to Guo from Midd. While it would have been great for the highly-ranked freshmen to come in right away and dominate, the first college tournament is always a different animal. By no means are these bad results, and it will be interesting to see who Deis decides to send to ITAs

What didn’t

NewRegional: A flight singles. We’re nitpicking here, but when you have no players suffer first round losses, it’s generally a pretty great weekend.  As mentioned above, in A singles play, Biswas handled Tzeng in the second round, and while Nikhil Das took down Xiao (Midd #3-5) in the first round, he was taken out by Sorkin (Tufts #1 and my early favorite for ITAs [yes I know Urken is the defending national champion and yes I know Cuba won two years ago]) easily in the second round. Deis may lack a stud at the top of their lineup, but not much else.

Lasting impressions?

NewRegional: I’ll leave this to senior captain Zach Cihlar: “Our guys played real strong tennis across the board. To get three doubles teams into the finals and guys in three out of four of the singles flights finals is a testament to the depth of our roster. We have to build on it and we’re looking forward to carrying the momentum into the rest of the fall season.”

NE: Look at the newbie quoting players already. Unlike my takeaways from Middlebury, I do believe we can look at Deis’ results from the weekend as part of a larger trend. This team overachieved last year given their historic losses to graduation, and they are showing no signs of slowing down. If Brandeis performs well at ITAs (and not even this well, mind you, just solidly), I (along with a few other bloggers) will be co-conducting the bandwagon through the spring.

#22 TUFTS

First Impressions

NE: Young Boris is no longer a freshman, and he looks legit. This is not a surprise to anybody who saw him play/saw his results last year, but the Russian Rocket is primed for a very big year. He absolutely destroyed this tournament, not dropping more than two games in a set in any of his matches en route to the A-Flight title. Besides Boris, Tufts went 10-2 in their 1st round matches, flashing their depth and reasons to be excited even after getting hit hard by graduation.

What went well

NE: I already talked about Boris, I will make a wayyyyy too early prediction and declare that Boris make NCAAs WITH EASE this year, so let’s hit on some of the other positives. Tufts had an incredible first day, going 10-2 in the first round and sending seven people/teams to the semifinals on Sunday. It’s worth noting that Benny Biswas, who played mainly #5-7 for Tufts last year, was in the A-Flight, ahead of guys like Shaff and Grant whom he played behind last year, and had good straight-set wins over Eazor (projected Midd #3-5), and Tzeng (Brandeis freshman) before falling in a super in the semis. Also, shoutout to Isaac Gorelik, who comes from impressive lineage, his father was a badminton player and his mother did gymnastics for the USSR, winning the C-Flight in his first ever college singles matches. With wins over Niguidula (RPI), Kogan (Deis) and Vohra (Deis), Gorelik earned three wins over solid middle of the lineup players and is immediately thrust into the Tufts projected starting lineup.

What didn’t

NE: I’m nitpicking a little bit considering Tufts won two singles flights and at the very least had a semifinalist in all six of the draws, but of their seven semifinalists, the Jumbos only got two guys into the finals, going 2-5 on Sunday morning against what should be stronger competition.

Lasting impressions?

NE: I was totally sold on Sorkin before this tournament, so welcome to my bandwagon. In addition, Tufts has a developed a rep for being deep well into their bench and that appears to be no different. We don’t get to see all that much of it in the springtime, although Coach Gregor does seem to rotate his lineup more than most coaches, but it’s important to know in case of injuries or people without #loyalty. A very positive first weekend from the Bos and I look forward to seeing what Boris and Co. do when they return to Middlebury for ITAs.

#24 BATES

First Impressions

NE: Bates found more success this year than in recent years at this tournament, but that is an unfortunately low bar. The Bobcats performed well at the top, getting a finalist in both A-Flights which really is a good sign considering their loss of Ben Rosen. However the first impression of the depth leaves something to be desired, even if Bates was missing multiple projected starters.

What went well

NE: Welcome to DIII, Pieter Wernink! The three-star freshman from NY is by far Bates’ top recruit this year, but he went above and beyond that. The young Bobcat earned a win over Cuba (yes, it was a walkover, but hey for a 1st every collegiate match he didn’t lose to Cuba), knocked off JT Wynne (projected Skid #1), and Ben Biswas (projected Tufts #2-4) before falling to Sorkin (projected Tufts #1) in the A-Flight finals.

What didn’t

NE: Outside of Wernink, no Bobcat won a singles match. In fact, outside of the A-Flight no other Bobcat won a set of singles. Historically Bates has struggled at the bottom of both their lineups, but recent years have shown some improvement. Bates fans are hoping that improvement continues this year, otherwise it could be a struggle to keep their top-25 ranking.

Lasting impressions?

NE: While one guy out of eight winning a singles match shouldn’t breed confidence, my lasting impression from Bates’ weekend is that young Pieter can ball! People this weekend said he can hit the ball a ton and has good upside, but a win over Wynne in his first real match is a great result. The Bobcats were missing Kauppila, Eisenberg, and Yadav, all of whom started last season. As they often do in the fall, Bates appears to shorthanded and you shouldn’t read into their results from the lower flights all that much. All in all, more positive long-term takeaways here than negative for the Cats.

#26 RPI

First Impressions

RegionalNEC: A little bit underwhelming, but no huge red flags either. Yeah they took a lot of losses, but it’s a pretty strong tournament. Lots of new faces in there, and the reappearance of Winston Yu! Good tournament or bad, I wouldn’t write that much into the weekend.

NE: Not an overwhelming start for a team looking to build off the best season in program history. The Boy Troys only had one semifinalist in any of the flights and that came in the B-Doubles draw. This remains an extremely young team (I don’t think they have a starting senior), but their 2018-2019 debut was nothing to write home about.

What went well

RegionalNEC: A young team got some match experience against a high level.

What didn’t

RegionalNEC: Much of the tennis didn’t seem to go too well. They won five total matches, only two in singles. Only Niguidula/Wu won more than one match, so I guess it was a pretty quick trip up to Vermont for the Engineers. Looking a little bit closer though, I think another that didn’t go well for RPI was luck. Some close losses and a lot of bad draws against guys that ended up making runs.

Lasting impressions?

RegionalNEC: None. Nothing that happened this weekend leaves me feeling significantly differently about RPI this year. My biggest takeaway is that we get a general sense as to what their lineup might look like, but even that is subject to major changes.

NE: I agree with NEC here. I thought Niguidula might be in the B-Flight, which only speaks to possible strengths in the middle of the lineup, but nothing really sways me from the weekend.

#29 SKIDMORE

First Impressions

RegionalNEC: Lots of new faces! This is a very new look team, which certainly adds some intrigue, but also means there are plenty of question marks. The guys that we’ve seen for a few years now, namely JT Wynne, Travis Leaf, and Jack McClaren didn’t do anything of particular note.

NE: Similar to RPI, this is a young team who finds itself in an unfamiliar position. Also similar to their Liberty League rivals (too soon?), Skid had a mostly forgettable weekend. T^2 (more on that name later) made the semis of the D-Flight singles, but he was the only T-Bred to make it past Saturday.

What went well

RegionalNEC: Tristan Thiebaut (great name) had a nice run to the final of the D Flight, and Noah Williamson won a round in the A Flight.  They could both end up having a big impact in the Skidmore lineup this year, or we might never hear from them again. Also, Connor Biernat and Kevin Ha beat #2 seeds in B Flight Doubles Stanley Morris and David Vilys (Midd) 8-1.

What didn’t

RegionalNEC: JT Wynne won a tight match against Pathi but then fell to Wernink (Bates Freshman), which he has to be frustrated about after Lubo withdrew, leaving the draw pretty open for him to make a run. Also, Travis Leaf has been a decent mid lineup guy for Skidmore and the Thoroughbreds could really use a nice year out of him, but he started things off with a 2&2 loss to Carl Grant (Tufts) and an 8-4 loss in doubles. Again, it’s one tournament—not a huge deal. But in keeping with the section heading, things didn’t go well for him this weekend.

Lasting impressions?

RegionalNEC: Lots of new names to learn for this year. Skidmore used to a pretty consistent team that was pretty easy to predict. Not the case this year, in what feels like a bit of a transition season. It definitely seems like they have enough talent to stay competitive with RPI, but how this young team develops in the offseason will likely be a key factor in their success going forward.

NE: See above. Perfectly said by NEC

NR (but they should have been) COLBY

First Impressions

NewRegional: First off, I want to give Colby some respect for being the only unranked (though they should have been) team in the tournament, and also the only team to be playing without a coach. Colby has a young team, and being without a coach for the first three weeks of the fall isn’t easy. Colby generally has a strong Twitter game, and it appears that Junior Captain Scott Altmeyer has been picking up some of the coaching slack, good on you Scott!

NE: Player-Coach is a pretty awesome thing to witness, even if you kind of hope you never have to see it. A lot of teams have players double as assistant coaches, but to see a player step up like that speaks well of both his character and the previous coaching regime. In terms of tennis, while I don’t love raining on anybody’s parade I was not overly impressed with Colby’s results. Sumukh’s retiring and tough draws the rest of the way meant that Coach Scotty was the only Mule to get a win, making this a worse version of Bates’ weekend, and that’s not enough to inspire confidence.

What went well

NewRegional: Scott Altmeyer. The only player to notch a victory for the Mules, Scott followed up an impressive win over Farrell (Midd #2) with a win over Williamson (Skidmore #2-4) before falling to Sorkin in the semifinals. Scott played a lot of top players close last year, and might have played himself into a seed at ITAs. While Colby didn’t win any other matches this weekend, they weren’t blown out by any means. Sophomore #2 Sumukh Pathi was playing JT Wynne (Skid #1) close before being forced to retire. In B flight singles, freshman Max Schuermann and sophomore Garrett Reiter both fell in superbreakers to players from Midd. While no one likes to lose, its good for younger players to be playing tight matches in the fall and will hopefully pay dividends in the spring.

What didn’t

NewRegional: Doubles and lower flight singles. Once again, Colby’s 3 doubles teams were competitive but all fell in the first round. However, doubles can be coached, and Colby did have a strong, ranked #1 team in Almeyer/Pathi last year. Once Coach Reeb gets settled up in Waterville and can figure out the best #2 and #3 doubles, Colby could be playing much better doubles come spring. A second area of weakness was lower flight singles. Colby was weak at #6 last year and graduated their #4 and #5 players as well. It would be great to see someone step up this fall and fill that gap. It didn’t happen last weekend, but no reason to hit the panic button after week one (Shout-out to everyone on my fantasy team going on the trade block after a 1 point Week 1 loss).

Lasting impressions?

NewRegional: Scott Altmeyer kept it short and sweet on how the weekend went: “I think we competed closely with a lot of teams, but we have work to do if we are going to win those competitive matches.”

NE: What is Colby going to do with its depth issue? Nobody was expecting the Mules to come out and win a bunch of flights this weekend, but given that Colby feels they belong in the same conversation with most of the teams in this tournament, they will need to work their asses off (thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all season),  if they are going to compete to work their way back towards the top-30 and their eventual goal of making NESCACs. Again, I try not to draw too many conclusions from the first weekend of the season, but depth will be an battle in 2018-2019 for Colby.