Players of the Week: 04/29-05/05

REGIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: 04/29-05/05

Yes, the bracket is out. No, we’re not happy about it. Our site has been down all day preventing you from truly getting the wrath of some of the bloggers, but we’ll do our best to bring it to you over the coming days. For now, you can find the men’s bracket here, and check out our “blind” resume comparison for what we believed would be the final Pool-C spot (spoiler alert, it wasn’t). We had this done before the bracket was released but haven’t been able to post it, so the 5 words on the bracket might seem a little outdated, but it just gives you some good insight into how happy and naive we were on Monday morning before the NCAA took that from us.

A-SOUTH

Player: Vishnu Joshi

Team: Hopkins

Results: Two wins vs Swat

Recap: The Jay’s are the Centennial Conference Champs yet again. Vishnu Joshi ends his year on a positive note with two wins against the Hopkins rival, at #3 doubles and the clincher at #1 singles. It’s been a steady year for Joshi and a nice way for him to end the regular season.

What’s next: NCAA Tournament

Honorable Mention: D3RegionalNEC

Five words about your feelings going into Selection Monday: Better f***ing put Brandeis in

NewD3CENTRAL

Player: Grant Morton

Team: Luther

Results: 4-0 over ARC Championship Weekend

Recap: Playing 3 Doubles and 2 Singles, Mr. Morton (unsalted) went undefeated en route to Luther’s ARC title. Morton dropped three games in Luther’s 5-0 win over Central in the semifinals, but his real glory would come later in the day. Coe took two tiebreakers in doubles but Morton and Norwood prevented the Kohawk sweep. Backed by the three berserkers at 4,5, and 6 singles who won six sets no closer than 6-2. Morton completed the 1-2 comeback in the finals by coming back from a set down against Nate Greiner to clinch: 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 (1 and 3 singels were in third sets). Morton secured Luther’s first title victory over Coe since 2011. Congratulations Luther.

What’s next: See where they’re dancing on May 6

Honorable Mention: Leo Vithoontien (Carleton), Euron Greyjoy (From Deep), Yassine Derbani (GAC), Scott Thielke via Reggie (Kenyon), Alex Cadigan (Kzoo), Pablo Cuevas (omg!!)

Five words about your feelings going into Selection Monday: Taylor Gang or Keep #BrandeisOut

NE

Player: Nate Eazor

Team: Middlebury

Results: 3-0 at #5 singles and 2-1 at #3 doubles (against Tufts, Wesleyan and Amherst)

Recap: I would call your attention to a D3 West tweet that perfectly sums up my feelings on Midd at the moment. Eazor was struggling hard enough that he was dropped from the #1 doubles team, and for a time dropped from the singles lineup all together. Now he’s back, and playing at arguably the highest level he has in his two years. This is not new, as some of Nate’s best tennis last year came in May as well. This weekend he paired with Andre Xiao to go 2-1 at #3 doubles, and crushed Jack Moldenhauer, knocked off Princeton Carter, and then avenged his loss to Harris Foulkes, this time only losing four total games! Big weekend from Eazor and if it continues his team might just present the biggest threat to CMS.

What’s next: NCAAs! Like the rest of us, Midd awaits their seeding and placement, but the Panthers should be hosting a region next weekend and be a top-4 seed (most likely No. 3)

Honorable Mention: Adam Guo (Midd), Noah Lilienthal (Wes), Peter Anker (Wes), Isaac Gorelik (Tufts), Jerry Jiang (Bowdoin)

Five words about your feelings going into Selection Monday: Brandeis in or we riot

NewDIIIWEST

Player: Julian Gordy

Team: CMS

Results: 4-0 this weekend at #1 doubles and #3 singles

Recap: May sound like a broken record here with the CMS praise, but a lot of credit has to be given to Julian Gordy this year. He is the lone senior in both the singles and doubles lineup and has been leading his team to the promiseland. He had a solid weekend as well, taking out two tricky singles players with relative ease.

What’s next: NATIONALS

Honorable Mention: Whitman, Trinity (TX)!

Five words about your feelings going into Selection Monday: ESPN have DIII tennis brackets?

REGIONAL NE/C

Player: Ian Landwehr

Team: Rose Hulman Institute of Technology

Results: 4-0 in HCAC tournament

Recap: NewD3Central is completely out of control, taking a player for Luther for his POTW before I had the chance. As I said in the Group Chat: Stay in your lane, bro. Anyway, while the boys from Luther deserve the most recognition, Ian Landwehr from Rose should get some love as well. It’s not as sexy when your team wins the conference every year, but credit to Landwehr for once again helping Rose punch their NCAA ticket. In the final against Earlham, landwehr and Austin Perry earned one of the Fightin’ Engineers two doubles points with an 8-4 win at #2, and then in singles Landwehr, ranked #14 in the Central and boasting a 17-4 record, won 6-4, 6-1 at #1, the most straightforward of RHIT’s three singles wins in a 5-2 win.

What’s next: NCAA Regionals! According to ASouth’s bracketology, Rose will likely be a 3-seed with Kenyon and either Wash U or Mary Washington. Though Landwehr’s got a solid record, he’ll just miss NCAA singles qualification, with losses to Chen (Case), Neves (Wash U), and Yoshino (Kenyon).

Honorable Mention: Alexander Kalb (Yeshiva), Henry Siercke (Eastern Nazarene), Ryan Chasse (Thomas), Samuel Nettleton (Wartburg)

Five words about your feelings going into Selection Monday: Enough speculation! It’s bracket time!

REGIONAL AS

Player: Michael Moody

Team: Hampden-Sydney

Results: 2-1 in ODAC tournament

Recap: Yes, I know the Tigers didn’t win the ODAC, but they made the finals for the first time in who knows how long and they deserve to be recognized. Michael Moody has been pretty solid for this team all season and came up HUGE at #1 doubles and #2 singles against Virginia Wesleyan in the conference semis. Congrats to the tigers on a big step forward and a great season!

What’s next: Gearing up for next year!

Honorable Mention: My teams that make the NCAA tourney! @W&L, @Sewanee and @NCWes

Five words about your feelings going into Selection Monday: Someone is finna be shafted

NEWREGIONAL

Player: JT Wynne

Team: Skidmore

Results: 2-0 vs. RPI in the Liberty League Championship Match

Recap: After taking a 5-4 decision against RPI earlier in the year in a match that couldn’t have been any closer, Skidmore beat RPI 5-0 on Sunday to punch their ticket to the NCAA tournament. Though Skidmore won 5-0, the match was a lot closer than that. In doubles, Wynne and Noah Williamson eked out an 8-7(5) win over Sebastian-Castillo Sanchez and Andrew Imrie, the #9 doubles team in the region to take a 3-0 into singles. After a quick win at #6, Wynne closed out SCS 6-2, 6-4 to clinch the win while RPI led on all other singles courts.

What’s next: The NCAA tournament! In his last Pool C / Bracketology article, Prophet ASouth has them as a #2 seed heading to Amherst where they’ll try to upset the Mammoths

Honorable Mention: Leo Vithoontien (Carleton)

Five words about your feelings going into Selection Monday: Brandeis finna win a natty

AVZ’S PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Player: Grant Morton

Team: Luther

Justification: I announced last week that I would have taken the Luther player had the win been for the AQ bid for NCAAs and I am sticking to my word. Morton for Luther had a key role in upending Coe from many consecutive trips to the tournament. Coach Strand finally was able to break through and take down Coach Rodgers in the post Brady Anderson era. These teams used to battle it out quite a bit in year’s past and I look for this rivalry to continue in the many years ahead. Fun fact: Coach Strand got the Luther job beating out a young gun coming from Earlham College. JT Wynne is my honorable mention here.

Five words about your feelings going into Selection Monday: It’s out and it sucks.