STEP. INTO. MY. OFFICE. Since NewD3Central is still trying to find that person that ghosted him last week, the Chicago Men’s tennis team gets what they always wanted. A preview from yours truly. In all honesty, this is probably the last thing that Coach Tee wants in our always interesting twitter relationship, but he knows that I am a fan of Chicago even though I put up a tough facade on the surface. The Maroons are your #1 team in the nation right now, so it would seem quite strange for us to not preview their Spring Break and the matches that are to come. I have about 36 minutes before 2PM to preview this Spring Break, so let’s get to it before I waste any more time covering for NewD3Central.
Chicago Feeling Like….
Just an FYI, this team has not lost yet this year. That includes the boys from Atlanta, Wash U, and Case in an away match against the 300 people that showed up at Cleveland Racquet Club. It’s been a while since we’ve seen this team in action (they’ve probably finished their second trimester by now, which means finals), but we pretty much know what to expect. A damn good team. This might be the most unheralded #1 team at the end of March we’ve ever had. Not sure if that’s because everyone still subscribes to the whole “Chicago being CHicago” mantra of the past (Coach Tee will hate me for that), but it’s quite crazy. This is a legit national contender and could even be regarded as the favorite at this point given that Middlebury is off losing the top two singles positions to George Fox. Anyways, that’s your Chicago status update – so just hit me with a like and we can move on.
Chicago Looking Forward to….
Let’s take this time to map out the Spring Break schedule for the Maroons and go through some implications of each match. I really have my eyes on one match that I think is the biggest deal, but crazy things have been happening in DIII Tennis this year. Anything can really happen, on or off the court…
Today, 7PM ET – @ Pomona Pitzer
Thursday 3/28, 11:30AM ET – vs. WIlliams @ CMS
Friday, 3/29, 12PM ET – @ CMS
Three matches, three teams ranked in the top 20. Boy, do I wish my teams could use Pomona Pitzer as a warmup match for playing outside in the sunny state of California. And that’s exactly what the Maroons are doing. Chicago will need to get their legs under them for their first match since FEBRUARY 24TH! That’s right, the Roons have not been in real match action for a whole month. So, there might be some “rust” here from not playing outside and also not being in match action, but I doubt it affects the Maroons all that much. Pomona has not been strong at doubles for the past 3 years and it’s not about to change. Chicago is on another level. While the Maroons might mistakenly give up a point in doubles, expect them to take a 2-1 lead at least into the singles portion, where they expect to roll.
ASouth’s Rapid Reaction Prediction: Chicago, 7-2 (Kronenberg wins over Kerrigan)
Okay, so now we covered the warm-up match for Chicago. (Sorry, Pomona. Use this as bulletin board material if you so please). Their next match occurs on Thursday the 28th against the currently in the news WIlliams Ephs. Now, I will focus on the tennis as D3NE did in his Spring Break Pre-Cap of the Williams team, because we have other things going out and we are primarily a tennis blog. A few years ago, this match would have been a marquee matchup. But, I think with Williams graduating so many seniors this past year and really relying on youth this year, this match will not be all that close. Again, Chicago is a national title contender. I hopefully don’t have to beat that into YOUR TINY MINISCULE BRAINS (just kidding), but a national title contender will roll through this match by the tune of 6-3 or 7-2. Williams does have some veteran talent that the Maroons need to be wary of and they’ve historically played great doubles as well. So, an upset formula exists in this match. Let’s just not forget that Chicago has Yuan/Raclin playing at #1 amd two extremely strong teams playing behind them. We’re talking about a team that no one will sweep all year. If they do get swept, I’ll donate $50 to Coach Tee’s charity of choice.
ASouth’s Rapid Reaction Prediction: Chicago, 6-3
The Big Kahuna – Chicago @ CMS
Before you take a look at CMS’s results from the past week or so (beat Wesleyan, lost to Amherst, beat MIT), remember that those matches were played indoors on the opposing team’s home courts. Coach Settles scheduled that trip in order to have his team play Indoors. After all, it rains in Kalamazoo a lot and that’s where the Stags are going to be at the end of the year. They got great competition out in the Northeast, but I will take some of those results with a small, small, grain of salt. CMS did mash Bowdoin on their home courts by the score of 7-2, so to think Chicago is an overwhelming favorite in this one is quite foolish of you. There are some key things to watch in this match – Chicago has the doubles advantage (I believe they do with almost every team in the nation) and they have studs across the lineup. It will be interesting to see if Parodi or Katzman plays #1, because it is well-known that #1 singles might be the “weakest” part of the Maroon lineup. CMS could have a shot to take the top 2 singles matches if they keep Katzman at #2. Interesting to watch will be the potential Park/Rodriguez matchup at #4 singles, as Park has been lights out so far this year. Going up against Rodriguez will be tight but Rodriguez has not necessarily played in a ton of huge matches and could potentially determine the match (that could be 3 singles wins for CMS!).
All that being said, I’ve tried my best to map out where exactly CMS can win this thing. At the end of the day, Chicago has a crazy good #6 player in Josh Xu, Yuan and Pei at #2 and #3 bringing great experience and an advantage in almost every match, and the strongest doubles lineup outside of Middlebury. It’s getting to look like CMS is going to need this one to go perfectly if they are to beat the Maroons, even on their home courts. I expect Chicago to win at #1 and #3 doubles, #1, #3, #4 and #6 singles, for a 6-3 win over the Stags. STATEMENT win from the Maroons here as they go on an undefeated Spring Break.
General Chicago Thoughts
As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think we’ve talked enough about this team. They are truly the only team with no more than 1 “weak” spot based on the current results. Middlebury has a shot, but they haven’t played enough matches. The only real question is going to be if they can keep it up all year. That’s not a knock on the Maroons. It’s just pretty damn hard to beat everybody all the time. If Chicago can keep a #1 or #2 overall seed going into NCAAs, they should be looking at a team like Bowdoin/Amherst in the Elite 8, which is something that they can definitely handle. Coach Tee has set up an intelligent schedule – after this Spring Break, the Maroons play Case and Wash U again before headed over to the UAA Tournament. There’s plenty of good competition for Chicago to play despite not lining up with a ton of Spring Breaks. Nice job here.
Alright folks, that’s the last I’m going to write about one Central team and no ASouth teams again. Emory, I’m coming for you soon. Or maybe the whole ASouth will get an article soon. Catch you tomorrow peeps. ASouth, OUT.