REGIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: 04/15 – 04/21
It’s here, ladies and gentlemen. DIII crunch time is upon us! We have a ton of crucial matches this week including many conference tournaments. We will be bringing you UAA previews all week, along with Power Rankings, bracketology, updated Pool-C, another alumni interview, and SO MUCH MORE! As always, we start the week by looking back and crowning our Players of the Week. This time we’re pulling back the curtain a bit, and giving some insight into the famous Blogger group chat. Don’t forget, AVZ has once again chosen his OVERALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK which you can find at the bottom of the article.
A-SOUTH
Player: Chaz Downing
Team: CMU
Results: 2-0 singles, 1-1 doubles this weekend
Recap: With not much going on in the ASouth this week, the winner of the ASouth ITA (how long ago does that feel) gets the nod this week. Downing is the first person to deal Austin Diehl an L in over 35 matches, so this was a no brainer pick. Unfortunately for the Tartans it was after they had already lost, but I’ll recognize anyone that stops a streak that long.
What’s next: UAA Tournament
Honorable Mention: Ray Boppana (CMU)
Favorite topic in the Blogger Group Chat: Produce
Favorite running joke in the Blogger Group Chat: one syllable last names
If you could change one thing about the Blogger Group Chat: Less RegionalNEC giving us shit
NewD3CENTRAL
Player: Jake Zalenski
Team: Kenyon
Results: 2-0 in 5-4 win over CMU (1 Singles, 3 Doubles)
Recap: Zalenski led the Lords to a 5-4 revenge win over CMU on their home courts this past weekend. Kenyon rode a sweep to a quick clinch, highlighted by Zalenski’s shellacking of one of the nation’s premier players: Daniel Levine. Levine bested, no whooped up on, Zalenski last year, so it’s a good show of his (and Kenyon’s) progress that he was able to flip the script to drastically. Yes Cianciola went and did the same thing the next day against Levine, but Zalenski was able to stymie the Big Red’s claim to the POTW by winning his doubles match and giving Kenyon the opportunity to secure the win.
What’s next: NCAC Championships in Indianpolis at North Central HS (home of 54767 courts)
Honorable Mention: Tim Ciancola (Denison), Stephen Gruppuso (Oberlin), Fabio Fognini (Italy)
Favorite topic in the Blogger Group Chat: Late Night + anything
Favorite running joke in the Blogger Group Chat: N/EC wants it, “I’m going to be away from my phone for x hours, do your worst,” or “slugtoy”
If you could change one thing about the Blogger Group Chat: more memes from people not named newCentral.
NE
Player: Andrew Finkelman
Team: Wesleyan
Results: 1-0 at #3 doubles & 1-0 at #1 singles, both vs Amherst
Recap: #FINK hasn’t gotten nearly as much credit as he deserves this season. He didn’t have as good a fall as we thought he might coming off a phenomenal freshman campaign, but he’s been on fire of late, taking down Lubo Cuba 6-3 in the 3rd to help clinch a win over Midd, 6-2 in the 3rd over Arturo Kam when his team needed his point against Williams, and on Sunday beat Sean Wei in straight sets to help the Cards clinch early! Before any of that, Fink paired with Marcus Sweeney and with the match score already tied 1-1 the duo bolstered the Cards to a 2-1 lead with a tiebreak win at #3 dubs.
What’s next: The Cards are at in-state rivals Trinity on Wednesday, and then host Colby and Hamilton to end their regular season. Wes is looking at anywhere from a No. 2 seed to No. 4 seed at NESCACs depending on how the rest of the regular season shakes out, but if they take care of business this week they are as good as locked into NCAAs!
Honorable Mention: Adrian Roji/Noah Lilienthal (Wesleyan), Oscar Yang/Justin Patel (Bowdoin), Noah Farrell (Midd), William Turchetta (Amherst), Ross Kamin (Tufts)
Favorite topic in the Blogger Group Chat: When we get historical and start looking back at old posts/the classic commenters.
Favorite running joke in the Blogger Group Chat: I’m a sucker for the dumb classics. The joke that AVZ lives in the Central time zone still gets me every time. Either that or the belief that anything north of Manhattan qualifies as upstate NY.
If you could change one thing about the Blogger Group Chat: Less of a certain a-type personality harping on people to post/follow the schedule…it’s me guys…I do that.
NewDIIIWEST
Player: Wilson Hamilton
Team: Trinity (TX)
Results: 2-0 against Southwestern in the finals of the SCAC conference championships
Recap: Hamilton, like the rest of his team, cruised through their SCAC tournament, but Hamilton provided the clinch against Southwestern in the finals. ALSO, he was able to step it up at 3 doubles to make sure Trinity headed into singles with that coveted 3-0 lead.
What’s next: NATIONALS
Honorable Mention: Bradley Cummins (Redlands)
Favorite topic in the Blogger Group Chat: where’s DIIIWest?
Favorite running joke in the Blogger Group Chat: Is DIIIWest alive?
If you could change one thing about the Blogger Group Chat: Let’s do some weekend FaceTimes!
REGIONAL NE/C
Player: Rami Hemaidan
Team: Coe
Results: 2-0 vs Luther
Recap: Kind of a quiet week for my teams (shoutout to both Easter and Passover), but we had a very good match between Coe and Luther for American Rivers Conference (formerly known as IIAC) on Friday, where the favored Kohawks took it 5-4. Freshman Rami was the only double winner for Coe, winning 8-6 at #2 alongside Nate Ackert and then tying the match at 2-2 with a 6-1, 7-5 win at #3 singles. In the end it was Ben Hediger at #6 who clinched for Coe, but Rami gets the POTW nod for his contribution for two points.
What’s next: Next Sunday against Loras and Wartburg and then the ARC tournament, where a big rematch with Luther looms.
Honorable Mention: Derek Kreiger and Riley Yost (OTTERBEIN), Sebastian Castillo-Sanchez (RPI), Ben Hediger (Coe)
Favorite topic in the Blogger Group Chat: Any argument between ASouth and CHB.
Favorite running joke in the Blogger Group Chat: “Who is the guru?,” “Can’t wait to read it in three weeks” or any reference to RegASouth being the Channing Frye of the chat,
If you could change one thing about the Blogger Group Chat: Bring back The Guru.
REGIONAL AS
Player: Harry Shepherd
Team: Washington & Lee
Results: 2-1 at 2 doubles, 1-1 at 1 singles against Emory, Sewanee and Emory & Henry
Recap: The former NCAA singles qualifier has been struggling a bit this year, but had a flash of brilliance this weekend with two solid wins. The first was at 2 doubles over ASouth powerhouse, Emory. The second was at #1 singles against Sewanee’s Andres Carro, who is currently ranked in the top 5 in region. While that win might not have been enough to sneak him into qualifying for
NCAAs, this is certainly a good sign for the junior looking to get back in top form. I am not sure if he has been dealing with injuries (he’s been sitting out matches), but the recent win over Carro and competitive match against Jemison is positive in building momentum going into the end of this year and his senior season.
What’s next: A conference matchup against Virginia Wesleyan!
Honorable Mention: Alex Angradi (Salisbury)
Favorite topic in the Blogger Group Chat: Unclutch names
Favorite running joke in the Blogger Group Chat: New Central’s Millennial Calendar
If you could change one thing about the Blogger Group Chat: Guru’s departure
NEWREGIONAL
Player: Sean Murphy
Team: Pacific
Results: 2-0 against Lewis & Clark
Recap: Pacific beat Lewis & Clark 6-3 in what is always a good rivalry match in the Pacific Northwest. Sean Murphy played #3 doubles with senior Griffin Fraiser and the pair took an 8-5 win. In singles, Sean played #2 and pulled out a 7-6(7) and 7-6(5) win over Ramez Attia to clinch the match for the Boxers.
What’s next: Pacific played Willamette on Sunday and are gearing up for the NWC Championships next weekend. Pacific will be the #3 seed, taking on George Fox – hopefully will have a tournament preview out this week!
Honorable Mention: Max Zimmerman (Hamilton)
Favorite topic in the Blogger Group Chat: Produce
Favorite running joke in the Blogger Group Chat: Massive Media Market, absinthe bars with law professors, MIT
If you could change one thing about the Blogger Group Chat: My first two days
AVZ’S PLAYER OF THE WEEK!!!
Player: Jake Zalenski
Team: Kenyon
Justification: Call me a biased blogger this week as my choice has come down to the two central players from Kenyon and Coe. I love seeing the Luther/Coe rivalry picking back up as it used to be one of the better conference battles for the AQ spot each season back in my coaching days. If that match was for the AQ spot, I would have picked Hemaidan from Coe this week, but instead I have to give the nod to Zalenski from Kenyon. He is having one of the quietest dominant seasons in my recent memory. He has one D3 loss this year and that was back in September to Hillis from Wash U at ITAs. He absolutely crushed Levine from CMU who is having a down year, but still been to the quarters of individuals on multiple occasions. The blog team has been so mesmerized by Austin Diehl’s winning streak (which just ended) that we forgot to notice how dominant Zalenski has been. I can almost bet that if you asked the D3 tennis community to name the top 5 most dominant tandems at 1 and 2 in the country, Kenyon wouldn’t be even on the radar. This team is a very dangerous team as the doubles are clicking and what lately has been guaranteed points at 1 and 2. For reference, Zalenski and Diehl both won against Amherst and also were on the way to winning both against Wesleyan (Zalenski was unfinished in the third set with Fink). It seems that this Lord isn’t just dangerous as an opponent for a team poised to make an Elite Eight run, but a guy who could very well see himself in the individual national champion conversation.
Favorite topic in the Blogger Group Chat: Life Planning Side Chat is where it’s at.
Favorite running joke in the Blogger Group Chat: The best meme ever sent by NewCentral. Never forget.
If you could change one thing about the Blogger Group Chat: Having to explain to people who see my phone blowing up with 100+ messages from “guys I have met through the internet” has proven awkward and difficult.
Is Zalenski Diehl at #3 doubles the biggest stack in D3 tennis history? I think yes. Not sure how nobody has complained about that yet. Going on two years now.
Presumably, your comment is based on the fact that Zalenski and Diehl are strong singles players. Not so much at doubles however. I don’t know what needs to be shown to establish stacking, but consider the following: This season, Zalenski’s record when playing with other than Diehl is 1 and 0 at No.1; 6 and 4 at No. 2; and 2 and 0 at No. 3. Pretty average I would say. Diehl’s record when playing with other than Zalenski is 1 and 7 at No. 1. Pretty lousy I would say.
Diehl and Zalenski playing with other partners and their subsequent records have nothing to do with stacking. Stacking is when you purposefully put better players lower in the lineup to ensure a win. In doubles, it is a common move for a team that is not very good at doubles (Kenyon). Using your own argument and evidence above, Diehl and Zalenski SHOULD be partners. However, putting them at #3 is not fair as they are a good team together. Seeing that Kenyon as a team is bad at doubles (objectively not subjectively), Diehl and Zalenski are their strongest team and therefore should play one. If that didn’t make sense or you don’t think it’s a good argument, then we disagree fundamentally on what stacking means.
Early in the first set against Levine, Zalenski blew out his left shoe in the same manner as Zion Williamson of Duke. This time it was an NB and not a Nike shoe. Fortunately no injury resulted. Also fortunately, his parents had a backup pair of shoes – NB’s also – in their car.