We had some early season West region action this weekend with the Santa Cruz Quad, which turned into the San Francisco Trio after Chapman pulled out and rain forced the action into the City, and that got me into the mood for another preview! Before we get to that a quick recap on this weekend’s action: Trinity came out victorious in both of their matches, with the major excitement coming at midnight PST in the San Francisco Tennis Center as they pulled out a thriller 5-4 victory over Whitman. It was a good showing by the Blues, who won two of three superbreakers to even the match at 4-4 with it all coming down to #4 singles. I imagine they played breakers instead of full 3rd sets because of the timing issues, but I would have loved to see those matches go the distance. It wasn’t the best doubles showing by the Tigers, but so much of tennis is finding ways to win when you’re not playing your best and Zoe Kaffen held on to beat Lori Sheng in a tough-fought clincher. Kudos to both teams for the first big treat of the season; they definitely earned their post-match In-N-Out.
Anyway, after all that let’s take a look at another top West region squad in the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens!
Location: Claremont, CA
Coach: Mike Morgan (2nd season)
ITA National Ranking: 8
ITA Regional Ranking: 2
Twitter Handle: @sagehenwtennis
Instagram: @ppwtennis
The Hens come into this year second in the region, and I’d also rank them 2nd in social media presence (behind only Southwestern). With a few more quality instas, I could see them moving into the top spot. I’ll be hoping for a few “Overheard in Claremont” posts this year.
2017-18 finish: The Hens had a subpar year by their standards — going 3-4 vs. the NESCAC (falling to Wesleyan, Tufts, Williams, and Midd) and going 0-3 against CMS. On paper, the SCIAC had a huge talent gap: PP went 1-18 in match play against the Athenas and 58-1 against everyone else. The Sagehens season ended 5-0 at the hands of CMS in a match that was much closer than the final score would indicate.
Key additions: The Sagehens have 3 new players coming in this year: Margherita Andreassi (3-star; Santa Rosa, CA), Melisha Dogra (2-star; Lake Oswego, OR), and Maria Lyven (Kiev, Ukraine)
Key departures: Maryann Zhou (#2 singles, #1 doubles), Summer Garrison (#3 singles, #3 doubles), Shivani Doraiswami (#4 singles, #3 doubles), and Emily Chen aka the SwagHen (#5 singles, #2 doubles). Also shoutout to former head coach Ann Lebedeff, who was inducted into the ITA Hall of Fame after last season
Bold prediction: The Hens claim the torch from the PP Men’s team a few years ago and play almost every match to 5-4, and Maria Lyven edges her way into the individual tournament.
Lineup analysis
The Sagehen lineup will look very different this year with lots of key departures, including seniors Mary Zhao, Shivi Doraiswami, and EmChen. The loss of Summer Garrison will hurt; with her not playing this year PP will have a massive hole in the middle of their lineup. I think Lyven could be a stud at the top, but as you’ll see depth will be a big question mark for the Hens as they work through their always grueling schedule.
1. Caroline Casper (SR)
There’s not much I can say about Casper that hasn’t already been said — an All-American yet again, Casper took home the fall regional title for the second time and made the semis in the ITA Cup. She’ll be an anchor at the top of the lineup for the Sagehens, and I personally can’t wait to watch her matches against the best in the nation.
2. Maria Lyven (FY)
Fresh off a gap year, Lyven has stepped into the #2 singles role as a first year and I don’t think she’s lost a set yet. A powerful baseliner from Ukraine, expect to see a lot of long rallies from her this year.
3. Arianna Chen (SR)
Chen was almost a guaranteed two points last year, going 11-2 at #5/6 singles and 14-5 at #1 doubles (with Zhao). She’s moving back into the #3 spot where she played briefly her sophomore season, and I’ll wager she has more success this time around in her final semester.
4. Marghi Andreassi (FY)
Andreassi hails from NorCal, and will no doubt find her way into the singles lineup after dominating NCS for four years at Montgomery. Where exactly she’ll play by the end of the year is anyone’s guess, but her game should translate well into doubles and she’s paired well with Lyven so far. My main worry is the many long nights she’ll spend in Edmunds as a CS major…at the very least she’ll be able to sympathize with Caltech.
5. Jay Kim (JR)
Kim’s relatively new to the lineup — before this year the only dual match play she saw was against Whittier (according to the ITA). Readers should be familiar with her name though: her older sister Joy played at the top spot a few years ago before Casper took it over.
6. Melisha Dogra (FY) / Jacinta Chen (SO) / Rebecca Salaway (JR)
I’m gonna level with y’all…I have no idea who will play #6. Coach Morgan will have a lot of names to choose from and we’re likely to see a revolving door here.
Schedule Analysis
As of writing, the Hens sit at 2-1 with wins over Caltech & Oxy and a 5-4 loss to Cal State LA at way less than full strength. I get the sense Coach Morgan is still trying to figure out where to play everyone because there’s an amorphous blob of talent after Arianna Chen. He won’t have any more matches to figure it out before Indoors, which will tell us a ton about where the PP team can go this year. The Hens will take on #11 CMU first before playing either Emory or Sewanee. While I love my Hens, I don’t see any way they beat Emory in the semis and if they can come out of Indoors in 3rd place I think it’s a trip well spent.
After that it’s the usual guantlet of NESCACs and I’m sure the Hens are overjoyed about having 10am matches every day of their spring break. Williams, Bowdoin, Tufts, and Midd come to town, and the Ephs should be on #UpsetAlert because it will be very easy to overlook the Hens in anticipation with their semifinal rematch vs. CMS later that week. If PP can reverse their fortunes from last year and go 3-1 against the ‘CAC, then they’ll have the same argument for their own region they do every year. I’m still waiting for the NCAA to prove me wrong, but until they do it’ll be Claremont regionals forever.
The Gusties visit Pauley on April Fools, and then it’s the rest of SCIACs where, if last year taught us anything, there’s only one match where the Hens should be challenged. If the Hens can get their doubles in order I can see them pulling off the upset vs. CMS with victories at the top of the lineup. What do you think? Can the Hens finally get back to the top of the SCIAC this year? Let us know in the comments! In the meantime, I can’t wait for Indoors right around the corner!