WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME, boys and girls! Before we can really move onto the 2018-2019 season it is only fair that we recognize the best of what was. Yes, we usually do the Blog Awards at the end of the spring season, but we busy, lazy, and ready for summer vacation. Oh…and some people didn’t bother making their selections until two days ago. Here’s how this works. We had a six-blogger panel made up of D3AS, AVZ, D3RegNEC, D3RegAS, NewCentral, and myself, and we listed our top-eight choices for the major awards, and five for the All-Blog awards. A first place vote was worth eight points, second place vote worth seven points, all the way down to one point for an eighth place vote. I know our panel didn’t have any West region bloggers, but after four months of waiting we gave up. As you can see, The Blog is back and full-steam ahead. Check back throughout the next week for our ITA previews. Congrats to all our award winners! Which do you agree with? Which do you disagree with? Who did we miss?! Let us know in the comments and we’ll try to defend our selections.
Grant Urken took home MVP honors, earning a 1st place vote from 2/3 of our blogger panel. He finished the year as strong as possible, winning the NCAA singles title and earning himself (and his ever-smiling coach) a picture on our homepage. The usual suspects continue down the list with Parodi, Cuba and Levine comprising an extremely strong top-4, all of whom return this year! Parodi and Cuba each netted a 1st place vote from our panel as well. We have some seniors on this list in BG, MO and Zach, all of whom will make an appearance on the Senior of the Year list as well. Finally a quick shoutout to Jack Katzman, the only freshman to make the MVP top-8, and also the only non-#1 player. Incredible list of guys, all of whom had remarkable seasons and deserve to be recognized on this list.
This was probably the closest race out of any of our awards, but give it up for Bernardo Neves, who wins the award after earning just a single point more than our MVP, Mr. Urken, who earned just two points more than Grodecki. Neves went from playing #5 at the start of the year, to playing #2 behind senior/legend Johnny Wu, earning a spot at NCAAs, and winning a round knocking off another senior/legend in Steven Chen to become an All-American! With Wu gone, Neves and Hillis will probably battle for Wash U’s top spot, but Neves should have the advantage. Urken actually won this award last year, but will have to settle for a close second this year. After that, we had another tight race for 4th, as Wynne, Diehl, and Shephard all finished within two points of each other as well. This was also one of our deepest categories, with about 15 guys receiving votes including a bunch of guys who will be mentioned in our All-Blog selections.
This could be my favorite overall award, so it makes me very happy that I wasn’t the only one to vote BG as my #1. In fact, THIS AWARD WAS UNANIMOUS, with each and every one of our six writers voting your favorite visor wearing player as their #1. Beeeeeeg had a great career and we are sad to see him leave, but so did many other seniors on this list. BLT won a national championship, Mo won Small College Nationals and was apart of the GAC team who upset Chicago, WDQ won a national championship, Hewlin must be like a 43-time All American at this point, Chua was a program changing player, taking Chicago to new heights. Brady and Ben were #1 players on their team for years and always were more than up to the task. It’s tough to go wrong with any of these guys, which is why between D3AS and myself we submitted an extra 10 guys who we thought deserved some mention (shoutouts to Kyle Wolfe, Gil Roddy, Luke Tsai, Scott Rubenstein, Kyle Schlanger, Tommy Entwistle, Grant Gideon, Alec Josepher, and Justin Kang).
Let me tell you something, the future of DIII tennis is quite bright. Check out this list that doesn’t even cover Sorkin, Bopanna or Yuan! This list could have basically just been the next group of guys on the MVP list. At times last year, there were serious cases to be made for Wei, Katzman, JK, and even Cassone were not only the best players on their team, but the best players in their regions! You know how high the Blog is on Leo Vit, #Fink and Lil Barr as well. Plus, the never-ending debate about whether the name is pronounced Joe-shee or Jaw-shee? Somebody help us out. Personally, I’m #TeamJaw. You could pick any single person on the list above and I wouldn’t fault you for thinking they can win a singles championship not only during their careers, but as sophomores!
Be still my heart. Nothing makes me happier than seeing that THE TOP 4 COACH OF THE YEAR RECIPIENTS are from the NE. This was an interesting vote, because while all of our panel was choosing between the same nine or ten coaches, we were all over the place in terms of our voting. The only coach who was top 1/2 of the votes for every ballot was Conor Smith, who also earned the majority of the first place votes. In the past three years Bowdoin now has three-consecutive Final Fours, two Finals appearances, and one National title, along with a singles national championship, and multiple ITA wins. We’ll see how the Polar Bears respond after losing Tercek, Wolfe and Roddy, but congrats to Coach Smith! Other names that need mentioning are Coach Satkowski leading RPI to the program’s first Liberty League title and Sweet-16, Coach Lamanna dealing with the graduation of three of the strongest players in Brandeis’ history, Coach Belmonte for leading CMU to their massive win over Wash U in his first season as head coach, and Coach Hansen for…oh yeah…winning the national championship!
Looking back on all these awards makes me sentimental, but nothing does that quite like the Match of the Year category. Great players are something, but great matches are the reason we all fell in love with this stupid sport that still occupies way too much of my life even years after graduating. We kicked off the year with an AMAZING Indoors tournament, that saw two matches place in the top five of the year. Two NCAA matches, one an upset and the other a crowning achievement finished in the top two spots! And the fact that we included Rochester over NYU for 7th place at UAAs and Grinnell defeating Coe, in the regular season no less, should show just how far the Blog has come over the past decade. Regional writers keeping us honest and I love it. This is the easiest category for us to miss a couple worthy options. We did have more that didn’t make our list, but we’d love to hear from you. What Loras vs Ripon style match that would have D3Tree changing his shorts did we miss?
And now our All-Blog teams! Pretty easy decision at the top here, five of the six writers voted the Panther duo as their top team, but a shoutout to Wabash who did earn the final 1st place vote. This was a pretty comprehensive list as only six teams received votes from any of our panel, so props to the top Eagle duo of Rubenstein/Spaulding as well. Cuba and Schlanger were nasty all year long, Tercek and Urken have to be one of the most intimidating looking doubles teams of all time, even if they’re basically the gentlest of giants. The Wabash duo was the talk of DIII for most of the year as AVZ even wrote an article (which NEVER happens) campaigning for the duo. Just looking at this list, there is only one team that could return in 2018, as each of the top four teams lose 1/2 of the partnership. Levine and Downing are both seniors this year, and have to be considered one of the favorites to take home not only this award, but a doubles championship in 2019.
Our second unanimous decision so far, as Raclin/Yuan were one of the best teams in the entire country, regardless of lineup spot. In addition, it wasn’t like they got hot late in the year or anything of the sort, they had this award wire to wire, grinding through the Central ITA to come away with a win, and winning Small College Nationals by knocking off Tercek/Urken in 3 full sets in the finals. Farrell/de Quant were actually a unanimous 2nd place vote as well, which is a little surprising considering their injury history last spring. Tight race for 3rd, but ultimately the Polar Bear duo beat out the Stag #2 pair for 3rd team honors. We could see reprises of multiple of these teams in 2019, and it would not be shocking to see any of them at the top spot to start the year.
This was perhaps my easiest decision outside of #5 singles. Sadowsky and Kam were lights out all year and I’m shocked this wasn’t a unanimous vote. More love for the NE as we were three of the four teams receiving votes. This is Wesleyan’s first award, so I’m happy that the Cardinal seniors were recognized for something even if they would be the first to tell you they were disappointed with the ultimate result of their season. The Emory duo is the only one that has a chance of playing together again this year, but it looks like Cassone is playing with Spaulding and Jemison is back with his old pal Bouchet. D3AS has assured me that Emory almost always changes their doubles teams around, so the dream of repeating awards is not dead.
We’re back to the big ballers with each of these #1’s comprising the top-five of our MVP voting as well. Special congrats to BG who is the only senior on this list. Urken, Levine and Cuba are back for their senior years now, while Parodi is just a junior. This was a very close race, as Parodi had the better regular season than Urken, but the title (and direct win over Parodi along the way) pushed Urken over the top, as he beat out Niko by a single point. Parodi, Levine and Grodecki were all the #1 players in their regions for most of the season. I don’t think any of us would be AT ALL surprised to see two of the four guys on the above list in the 2019 singles finals. Quick hat tip to Mo Alhouni who was the only other player to receive a vote.
FRESHMAN! Jack Katzman was picked first by five of our six writers, and ran away with the 1st team honors. Tercek edged out Neves by a single point for second, and while it may not be the Luke’s most important accomplishment during his career, finishing his senior year as the second best #2 singles player and as a part of the second best #1 doubles team in the country is quite something. Neves already took home the MIP hardware, and we’re very excited to see what the young man can do for an encore as Wash U’s new #1. You already know that we’re expecting big things from Cassone both in this year and through the rest of his career. Finally a shoutout to Austin Diehl who gets Kenyon into the award conversation for the first time this year. There were a bunch of guys who received votes here including a couple NE freshman in #Fink and Lil Barr. Of all those guys, only Tercek graduates, but we should see at least a few of these #2’s ascend to the top spot in 2019.
What a great group here at #3 singles. I guess that should be obvious considering these are the best in the country, but many this is a strong showing, including at least three guys who could have played #1 for most teams around the country. For the first time we have a bunch of seniors, with each of our top-3 graduating this past spring. Tsai probably had the best regular season of all these players, but Wolfe did what he always does when it mattered most, and was a beast during the tournament. Given Tercek playing at the top of the lineup and Roddy basically never losing any matches at #5 singles, Wolfe’s success sometimes goes a little bit under the radar, but I’ve always said there’s nobody I’d rather have as the last guy out there, competing in a 4-4 match, at their position than Kyle Wolfe. However, if I couldn’t have Wolfe, both Tsai and de Quant would be GREAT choices. Tsai was spectacular to start the year, and ended up playing some #1, while WDQ missed some time due to injury, and his return coincidentally coincided with Midd’s ascension to the top of the rankings. Finally some love for freshman as Bopanna and Sorkin both garnered honorable mentions along with the junior Whaling. Sorkin and Whaling actually tied, which is we have an extra honorable mention in this category.
We get deeper and deeper into the lineup but the strength just keeps on showing. Kyle Schlanger was yet another unanimous 1st team selection, with Yuan and Bouchet battling for 2nd-team. Almost all of these guys come back this year (Schlanger is the only graduate), and with the exception of Gordy they should all be expected to play higher in the lineup than #4. Lots of guys who made All-Blog at spots above #4 singles played here or lower at one point in their careers, and it wouldn’t surprise many people to see somebody like Jeremy Yuan earning All-Blog honors playing closer to the top of the lineup this year. There is also a surprising amount of doubles talent from our #4 singles honorees, with Schlanger, Yuan, and Gordy being part of three of the top doubles teams in the country. Finally, shoutout to Chase Johnson who was the only other player to receive votes from the panel.
The least shocking result of any of our awards was Gil Roddy taking the unanimous top spot on the 1st team All Blog. My dude doesn’t do anything but win. In fact, an emailer made sure to note that not so Lil Gil was 15-0 in NCAA Tournament matches over his career, including a national championship clinching win when the Polar Bears won the program’s first and only title! After Roddy, we had an extremely close race for the next few guys. Park finished one point above Eazor who used a great NCAA tournament to finish one point above Harrington. I’m going to be totally honest with you, not a single blogger voted for anybody but the top four guys listed above. I threw in Kevin Ma as an honorable mention, because the kid was a bonafide #2 player by the end of the year, but would have played five all year for Herst if they had maintained their original lineup. Roddy and Harrington graduated, but look for big things from Park/Eazor/Ma as all three have a great shot to move up into at least the middle of the lineup, and likely higher for K-Ma.
Finally, we have our anchors. Arturo Kam was the unanimous 1st Team selection, going 12-3 at #6 last year and also won matches higher up in the lineup. He has also had a busy summer, winning an ITA summer circuit event and looks poised to make a much needed jump as the Ephs graduated Grodecki/Sachin Raghavan/Sadwosky. Like Kam, Patel and Xiao are also hoping to make a graduation fueled jump, as Bowdoin lost Tercek/Wolfe/Roddy and Midd graduated WDQ/Schlanger/TVG. All three guys have the opportunity to impress, and any of the three could become the next Urken, who, never forget, started his career by winning first team All-Blog at #6 singles. Senior shoutouts to Scott Rubenstein and Charlie Pei who made the honorable mentions, and were the only two other people to even receive votes.