The Women’s Bloggers all came together to give you our picks for player of the week, some of our reactions to Regionals this past weekend, and some of our late night thoughts. Stay tuned for more regional recapping and NCAA coverage in the coming days.
D3ASW
Player: Taylor Garcia
Team: Washington and Lee
Results: 1-0 at #2 singles, 1-1 at #2 doubles on the weekend
Recap: While we have two ASouth teams in the Elite 8 and W&L is not one of them, W&L’s match with Sewanee was one of only three 5-4 matches this weekend (the others were Nichols over Colby-Sawyer and UT Dallas over Linfield). Given the epic-ness of the W&L/Sewanee match, I think Garcia deserves the nod, as she won W&L’s lone doulbes point with Georgia Wright, then went on to completely dominate her singles match against a very strong Ellie Czura to even the team score at 2-2. The match took like 25 minutes.
What’s next: Summer break
Honorable Mention: Danna Taylor (CMU), Jannabelle Wu (CMU), Ysabel Gonzales-Rico (Emory)
NCAA Regionals in 5 words or less: Too few upsets, RIP bracket
Your most anticipated Elite 8 matchup: CMS vs CMU. I still think CMS will win easily-ish but this will give us an idea of how vulnerable they are in KZoo. CMU is playing pretty well.
Something that keeps you up at night: Who really let the dogs out??
D3NEW
Player: Camille Smukler
Team: Amherst
Results: 2-0 at #2 singles, 2-0 at #2 doubles (with partner Anya Ivenitsky)
Recap: Smuckler was absolute FIRE for Amherst this weekend. In both matches (vs. TCNJ and Hopkins), she was the first one to finish her singles matches and put the Mammoths on the brink of victory. PLUS, those matches she took were fast. Like I refreshed the page once and she had already won the set fast.
What’s next: The Mammoths are KZoo bound where they’ll face off against NESCAC foe, Midd. They’ve been blanked by Midd two times in the past three weeks (more on this coming later in my match preview), but Smukler and Hughes were tied up in a battle when the match was called at NESCACs. My bet’s on the Mammoth junior to get a point on the board for her team this time round, especially given how well she’s been playing so far this tournament.
Honorable Mention: THE WHOLE MIT TEAM
NCAA Regionals in 5 words or less: @MIT I totally called it 😉
Your most anticipated Elite 8 matchup: Emory vs. Chicago (yes, I’m more excited for an all-UAA matchup, don’t @ me)
Something that keeps you up at night: *SPOILER ALERT* Wondering 1) how one gets a summer bod like the Mountain’s and 2) who gon kill Dany???? ASW hot take: it’s going to be Ed Sheeran’s character I’m calling it now.
D3CentralW
Player: Marjorie Antohi
Team: Chicago
Results: Went 2-0 at #1 singles and 2-0 at #2 doubles
Recap: Marj had a dominant weekend, as she only gave up a total of 2 games in each of her singles matches against Lake Forest and Carleton and won both of her doubles matches with relative ease with partner Daryl Ellison.
What’s next: NCAAs vs Emory!!! The last time this matchup happened, which was in the finals of the UAA Tournament, Chicago pushed Emory to 5-4. Although I think Emory will wake up and take this match with more ease, I am curious to see how it will all unfold!
Honorable Mention: Not many close matches in the Central region for regionals but the closest one was a 5-2 win for Carleton over UWW in which first year Jeanny Zhang took a 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-1 win at #2 to clinch for the Knights.
NCAA Regionals in 5 words or less: I’ll see you in KZoo! (I AM Central, after all.)
Your most anticipated Elite 8 matchup: Emory vs Chicago
Something that keeps you up at night: The lack of upsets in the NCAA Tournament so far! For all the talk we’ve been having about upsets there were only two (so far):
19 MIT d 7 Bowdoin 5-3
UR UT Dallas d 31 Linfield 5-4
D3WestW
Player: Kathy Joseph
Team: UT-Dallas
Results: 1-0 at #1 singles, 1-1 at #1 doubles
Recap: Joseph came up huge for the Comets in their match vs Linfield, first winning at #1 doubles in a breaker for their only doubles point (with partner Sindhu Ravula), and then taking out one of the West’s top players in 3 sets to complete the comeback! She was the last match on, and her 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 win over Michelle Uyeda gave UT-Dallas their first ever NCAA victory.
What’s next: Joseph and Ravula will travel to Kzoo for the doubles championship end of next week. Kathy is an alternate for singles as well.
Honorable Mention: Sydney Lee, Sarah Bahsoun (both CMS)
NCAA Regionals in 5 words or less: So grateful for Playsight
Your most anticipated Elite 8 matchup: MIT vs Wesleyan
Something that keeps you up at night: The Fermi Paradox. Alternatively, did I lock my door? I should probably check, but also I’m already in bed and don’t want to move. I then weigh the pros and cons of getting up and double checking for at least 20 minutes
D3Analyst
Player: Viktoriya Tabunshchyk
Team: MIT
Results: 2-0 at #1 doubles, 1-0 at #2 singles (with the clinch over Bowdoin)
Recap: MIT pulled off the only upset in the Sweet Sixteen across the men’s and women’s draws and it’s hard to pick just one player from the MIT team as my POTW. It was clearly an entire team effort since MIT totally flipped the doubles results from the first time they faced Bowdoin (sweeping doubles instead of getting swept). But freshman Viktoriya Tabunshchyk came up big for the Engineers and pulled out a 3-set win in her #2 singles match against Bowdoin for the 5th point, so I’m going with her. I turned on the live stream for a hot sec and saw her hit an ace much harder than I’ve ever hit a serve so that’s cool too.
What’s next: The Engineers are off to KZoo! They face Wesleyan in the Elite Eight. It’ll be a tough match for MIT given Wesleyan’s solidness all season and recent performance at NESCACs and regionals, but I’m sure MIT will give it everything they have.
Honorable Mention: Juliana Herrera (Nichols), Lara Rakocevic (MIT)
NCAA Regionals in 5 words or less: I’m currently winning bracket challenge
Your most anticipated Elite 8 matchup: Emory vs. Chicago
Something that keeps you up at night: I’m pretty sure looking at my computer screen for late-night blogging isn’t great for my sleep.
Did we miss anyone that deserves a shoutout? Let us know in the comments below!