2019 Women’s ITA Indoors Recap + Team Grades

After a weekend of thrilling matches (and some not-so-thrilling matches), the gang is back together to bring you a 2019 ITA D3 Women’s Indoors Recap, in which we will go school by school and talk about their performances this weekend. As you’ll see below, here on the women’s side of Division3Tennis.com we believe in grade inflation, and as long as you show up we’ll give you at least a B.

D3WestWomen’s spent her entire weekend glued to her screens and catching every juicy moment of the action, and although a prior commitment prevented me (ASW) from doing the same, we can’t go any further without properly dispensing props to host team Sewanee for putting together such a well run tournament and providing BBQ! As players/fans we often don’t appreciate how much work goes into hosting these big events, but it takes months of human power to put a national tournament together. Aside from one small glitch in the live scoring the weekend was flawless. Well done, Sewanee. Side note: I spent 72 hours in nature and in that time saw 3 dead armadillos, a dead coyote that was actively getting eaten by birds, and countless dead lizards. I also had to use one-ply toilet paper. Nature sucks, y’all.

On that note, let’s dive into the individual teams.

Emory Eagles: Grade A+

ASW: All is right with the world and the ASouth has the national championship once again. The Eagles steamrolled both Sewanee and Pomona-Pitzer 9-0 on their way to the final. The final against CMS was much tighter, but the Eagles were very strong at #2 and #3 doubles and stayed steady in singles despite a big push from CMS that resulted in 3 first sets for the Athenas  in what felt like 5 minutes. It was a real team effort, and the Eagles were able to pull out the win despite the lack of Daniela Lopez (#2 singles) in their singles lineup. Sophomore Defne Olcay is turning out to be a huge asset for the Eagles, and she was able to pick up a straight set win over Nicole Tan at #2 in the finals, pushing her team within closing distance. Shout out to the freshman Emma Cartledge and Jessica Fatemi for playing well and clinching the championship for their team. Both won in two extremely tight sets, knowing that the rest of their teammates were struggling so their matches mattered. To get that kind of experience as a freshman is huge and they are establishing themselves as dependable teammates early on. Looking forward, the Eagles have got to be pretty confident about their season. They have matches lined up against Amherst, Wesleyan, and Middlebury in the future, and I’m particularly excited about the match against D3NEW favorite Midd.

CMS Athenas: Grade B

West: Despite how hard they played, I can’t give CMS anything above a B here. While they went 19-7 in matches this weekend, given the skill they have and expectations coming off last year’s championship I judge them on a different standard. How they perform against the Emorys, Williams’, and Midds of the world will tell us more about the Athenas than wins against everyone else. So let’s dive in to some of the good and bad.

Cat Allen and Caroline Cox have (again) cemented themselves as the top doubles team in the country, not yielding more than 3 games to an opponent all weekend. The two have fantastic chemistry on the court and are a big confidence boost for the rest of the team in tight matches. Allen continues to be one of the top singles players out there, going 2-0 on the weekend and battling in the 3rd set with Gonzalez-Rico when the championship match was called. Meanwhile, Rebecca Berger is an early candidate for the Blog’s Most Improved Player award, staying undefeated on the year and winning seemingly every breaker. Hats off to her.

I’ll keep my hat — ok, you caught me, my visor — on for the rest of CMS’s doubles and to a lesser extent their depth. #2 and #3 doubles managed only 4 games against Emory, and given the strength of the Eagles singles lineup CMS will need a W from one of those teams to pull off a future upset. The depth wasn’t as strong as I expected; Bahsoun in particular had a tough weekend losing to Chicago’s Pandey in a 3rd set breaker and falling to EU’s Fatemi in straights. This was the first intense environment for Bahsoun and fellow freshman Lee, and better for them to experience that now than in May. One thing’s for sure though — after this weekend, the title runs through Atlanta.

Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens: Grade A

West: I was really impressed by the Hens play this weekend. We knew going into the weekend that depth would be an issue, and it was (#4-6 singles went 2-7, and #2-3 doubles went 1-5). However, we learned that this is a mentally tough team that’s #Lyven for big moments. Somehow PP battled back from a doubles sweep against CMU and fought off a deeper and probably more talented Chicago team to take both matches in 5-4 thrillers. Yea, they got swept by Emory, but given the talent difference, fatigue from the late night before, and likely emotional exhaustion after the CMU comeback I’m willing to give the Hens a pass. Remember, this was a team that most of the blog (me included) thought would lose to the Tartans in the first round, and they’ve proved us wrong in a big way.

Casper and Lyven were phenomenal at the top two spots, with Lyven showcasing her bruising game and monster forehands for the first time at the national level. However, it was really Arianna Chen that made the difference for me; after losing to Caltech earlier this week she dominated CMU’s Rao 6-0, 6-1 and clinched vs. Chicago in 3 sets. Great to see the senior bounce back. Now if the Hens can get their doubles going they can keep this 5-4 train rolling.

Chicago Maroons: Grade A-

West: Chicago finishing in 4th is right where they were slated given their seed, though I’m sure they would have loved to win the 3rd place match vs. PP. Either way, 3rd is the best the Maroons could have reasonably done in this tournament so I can’t dock them much for losing 5-4 on Sunday. And considering this is a team that started FOUR freshman, they played phenomenally well in their first big-stage environment.

Their talent level was on display in singles, where they went 6-0, 2-4, and 3-3 against MIT, CMS, and PP, respectively. Chicago’s depth is particularly strong, with Nicole Semenov and Annika Pandey going undefeated at #5 and #6 this weekend, and it makes me wonder just how good Chicago could be with Handa still on the roster. Either way, this class has started out on fantastic footing and Coach Tee has a lot to look forward to.

As expected with such a young team, doubles was a bit of a struggle and no doubt will be an area of focus in practice for the next few months. While dynamite in singles, Semenov/Pandey went winless at #3 doubles and Chicago went 4-5 overall. There’s some improvement to be had at the top single spots as well if the Maroons want to take the next step as a program. All in all, a successful weekend for Chicago and a lot of hope that one of these days this team will get past the Elite Eight.

CMU Tartans: Grade B

ASW: The tartans finished in 5th place this weekend after a heart wrenching loss to Pomona-Pitzer in the first round. Although they outperformed their seed and shouldn’t be disappointed with their weekend overall, the fact that they were up 3-0 and 4-2 at one point against Pomona-Pitzer has to sting a little bit. Had they won that match they could have lost to Emory and Chicago and still deserved at least an A- on the weekend. Some bright spots on the weekend for them include #2 Doubles team of Rao/Ollis, who won all 3 of their matches convincingly. I gave Vinaya Rao some Twitter flak for losing 0 and 1 against PP but to her credit, she was lights out in doubles this weekend. Danna Taylor also had a strong weekend at #1 singles/#1 doubles. It’s not easy to play 6 tough matches in 3 days but she picked up really solid wins against PP in dubs and against Sewanee and Wash U in singles. There were no positions in the lineup that were real duds for CMU, and I think that’s a positive thing going forward. In terms of how this weekend affects the rest of their season, I think the Tartans are a little disappointed that they won’t be climbing the rankings (MIT might drop but the highest I can see them moving is #10). If they want to climb back into the top 10 and potentially earn a #1 seed at NCAAs, they will need to pull off a victory against Emory, Wesleyan or Amherst later this season. After this weekend I’m not confident that will happen. They will most likely have a shot at Chicago at UAAs which might have some big implications if they’re still hovering at the #10 ranking. That PP match was a huge opportunity for them and unfortunately they failed to capitalize.

Wash U Bears: Grade B+

ASW: Let this be a life lesson that expectation management is more important than the actual results. Wash U entered the tournament as the 8 seed, and thus anything other than an 8th place finish would be a success. The Bears managed a 6th place finish, and though this likely speaks more to MITs relative weakness than Wash U’s strength, the Bears should still be happy to leave Nashville with a win and two losses. After a head scratching loss to #21 Trinity TX (no dig at Trinity, just unexpected), I think we were all a little worried about the trajectory of Wash U’s season. The good news is that they can walk away from this weekend thinking ‘at least we aren’t MIT’. The bad news is they got dominated by CMS and took a pretty convincing loss to UAA foe CMU.

Let’s talk about the individual matches. The CMS match was over in probably a little over an hour after CMS swept doubles and picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win at #5 singles and 6-0, 6-1 win at #1 singles. I guess that worked out to the Bears advantage since they were a little fresher the next day against MIT, and every little bit helped in that 5-4 victory. The top of the singles lineup came up big for the bears, as Ally Persky picked up an impressive win over MITs Rickeman, and #2 and #3 singles also managed to put points on the board. Against CMU, the Bears were able to take a 2-1 lead in doubles before CMU picked up 4 wins in singles to finish the match.

I think the biggest positive on the weekend for the Bears was doubles. Their 2-1 lead over MIT was ultimately what made the difference between winning and losing, and they were able to take a 2-1 lead against CMU, who had swept Pomona-Pitzer just 2 days before. The talent is there, it’s just a matter of keeping it together through singles too. I think the biggest negative for the bears on the weekend is their depth- 4-6 singles went 0-8 on the weekend (with #4 singles going unfinished against CMU but to Hodge’s credit she was up 4-0 in the third set). When you have a weak bottom half of the lineup and you go up against Top 10 teams, you can’t rely on your top players to win every time and this is going to be a big hurdle for Wash U to overcome this season. We’ve already seen that Wash U is vulnerable against lower ranked teams like Trinity TX, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished the season in the 15-20 range in the rankings, with 20-25 not being completely out of the question.

MIT Engineers: Grade B-/C+

NEW: I’m being a little kind here and also factoring in some good grade inflation for a weekend that can only be described as disappointing for the Engineers. I think i speak for all us women’s writers when I say we were pretty high on this MIT team. After finishing last season on a high and coming into this spring ranked in the Top 10, I was really expecting big things from this team (we all predicted a close 5-4 match with Chicago), and, unfortunately, they failed to meet expectations. Fun story: ASW and I were texting frantically trying to figure out what happened because live stats failed us and we evidently were wrong about “literally everything,” and we were pretty shook when the results finally came in. Also, please picture ASW trekking a mile away from her camp tent just to check in on Indoors – that’s dedication, y’all. (ASW here: D3 tennis > nature, not even close.)

Ok, back to MIT, I can start with the highs: Vanessa Kitova went 2-0 at #6 singles, making her the only MIT player to not drop a match this weekend. Others who had a good weekend are freshman, Amber Shen, who went 1-1 in singles and then partnered with Ashley Teng to go 2-1 in dubs. Lara Rakocevic also played some good singles, but couldn’t put it together in dubs. On the flip side of things, MIT’s top player, Libby Rickeman had a weekend I’m sure she’s hoping to forget. The sophomore didn’t pick up a single win all weekend.

I was super high on this team coming into the weekend, but it really looks like they’re going to have to go back to the drawing board if they want to be a serious threat to top 10 teams. Their lineup seemed pretty stabilized, so unless they’re going to mix things up, they’re going to have to look for some fire to pump them up and power them through the season. It is still early in the season, so I don’t want to write them off just yet, but the Engineers are really going to have to step it up.

Sewanee Tigers: Grade B-

ASW: OK the Tiger’s may have gotten 8th place but I refuse to give any grade lower than a B. Considering they were seeded 7th I’m not that disappointed by an 8th place finish. They also did a great job hosting this tournament — the BBQ dinner was a nice touch and a must for anyone visiting Tennessee, so props to Sewanee for that. Although I was unable to take advantage of it, per D3WestWomen’s report the live streaming was on point.  We all know that Emory is the bane of Sewanee’s existence so I’m willing to overlook the 0-9 loss in the first round. Ellie Czura was great at #2 singles, picking up wins over a very strong Vizelman from CMU and Teng from MIT. At #1 doubles, the team of Catherine Owen and Ellie Czura earned a clutch win against CMU’s Taylor/Strome, which may be their ticket into the NCAA Doubles tournament. So there were definitely some bright spots on the weeknd. The bottom half of the singles lineup is struggling against these top teams and that’s something that will have to change if Sewanee wants to break the Top 10 this season. They’ll have plenty more shots at Top 10 opponents this spring but from where I stand they won’t be able to pull those off. I do worry a little bit about their showdown with #15 Bowdoin in two weeks in California. I haven’t seen much out of Bowdoin yet this season but if they don’t take that match seriously they might get upset.

Thanks to all these teams for a weekend of solid tennis. D3WestWomens was entertained, and that’s all we really go for in life, is it not? The weekend has given us a lot to look forward to in the coming months — will CMS rebound from this upset? Can MIT get it together? Will Emory take this momentum and dominate the rest of the country? Spring Break is fast approaching, and we’ll get a lot more juicy matches in the upcoming weeks. The NESCAC teams are about to come out of hibernation, which will tell us a little more about that possible Midd Championship D3NEW has been telling me about. Until then, I’m going to enjoy my warm showers and sitting toilets.