Thursday. September 26, 2019.
C.R.E.A.M. With minute exactness, to the smallest particular, to a Tee. The Central gears up for ITA season. Issue 1
Welcome Back to the Central Region!
Everyone knows that ASouth’s first article of the year is the official start of blog season (even if it’s a recap article of last season). So VOILA – I am Here!! This past week half of my teams were idle with Wash U, GAC, Case, Denison, and Oberlin competing in various Invitationals as the teams prepare for their ITAs.
My region’s first ITA is coming up tomorrow and competition will continue through the weekend as Carleton, GAC, HAMLINE (or nah), UWW, and others convene in St. Peter, Minnesota. The overwhelming singles favorite is the King in the North: Leo Vithoontien. Vithoontien will likely cement his All-America status for another consecutive year with his performance this weekend and will have a very good shot at the Double-Double of ITA titles.
The Kalamazoo ITA is the following weekend with the rest of the central teams competing there – most notably: Chicago, Wash U, Kenyon, and Case. Austin Diehl, the people’s pick, went out early in last year’s ITA despite having a game built for the long slog of ITA weekend. It’s too early to pick a winner for the Kzoo Invite because it is fairly draw dependent due to amount of matches the winner is expected to play over the weekend. The big favorites for me have to be Chicago Player X, Y, and Chicago First-Year Z, Ethan Hillis, or Zalenski/Diehl with 15-0 James Hopper of Case and Kalamazoo’s Ian Yi being the dark horses to look out for.
Look for more in depth analysis and ITA picks as their draws become available to me.
The Teams: What it do baybee?
#4 (1) University of Chicago:
Last Week: idle
Next Time with U Chicago: Central Region ITA at Kalamazoo, Michigan: Oct 4-6
#9 (2) Washington University in St. Louis:
Last Week: Drake Invitational:The big headliner from Wash U’s Drake Invite is that Ethan Hillis, a junior this year, hasn’t skipped a beat. The newly minted upperclassmen went 4-0 against D-1 opponents (I thought y’all were D1!?) finishing with a three-set victory over Orel Ovil (Wichita State) 6-1, 6-7, 11-9 in the Championships. The first day was the kindest to the Bears as six players won matches in four flights (A, C, D, E). Invites are always funky, but at least the flight system shows that the Bears are going to be relying heavily on their top two (Hillis and Neves) to create upset opportunities against the nation’s best. Hillis broke the streak of Southside ITA champions, and is hoping to be the first repeat champion since N. Chua while his teammate, last-years semifinalist and seemingly built-for-ITAs, Bernardo Neves will also be a popular late round pick. We’ll know more about who’s in town (those pesky juniors love to travel abroad and Wash U has some big third year contributors) and who really worked this Summer come ITA weekend, but I would like to point out a nice homecoming for senior Bear transfer: Ricardo del Olmo Parrado who returns to Kalamazoo for ITAs a summer after transferring to Wash U.
Next Time with Wash U: Central Region ITA at Kalamazoo, Michigan: Oct 4-6
#11 (3) Kenyon College:
Last Week: idle
Next Time with Kenyon: Central Region ITA at Kalamazoo, Michigan: Oct 4-6
#20 (4) Gustavus Adolphus College:
Last Week:Drake Invitational:GAC heavily populated the C and D draw at the Drake Invite with four singles players in each draw. The eight went a respectable 8-15 in their singles matches, but a point of concern might be that they went defeated against every Wash U Bear they played in those two groups. The middle/back half of the lineup is becoming more and more important as you rise the national ranks as top team 6s are better than top 25 1s. The singles highlight for GAC at Drake was the play of their projected #2 Michael O’Neil. O’Neil went 2-1 but notably defeated Wash U’s breakout from last year – Daniel Li: 1-6, 7-6(8), 10-3. Gustavus’ ITA is this weekend, and while they’re no longer the favorite to take home singles hardware (Leo SZN, well Libra but whatever), a strong team showing could squash any talk of Carleton commandeering their Conference.
Next Time with GAC:Midwest Region ITA at St. Peter, Minnesota: Sep 27-30
#12 (5) Case Western Reserve University:
Last Week: Toledo Invite (A Team), Oberlin Invite (B Team):It was a hectic weekend for the Spartans as Coach Todd sent his army to two sites – Toledo and Oberlin (Commonly known as the Ohio Pincer Technique). The Toledo gang was headlined by the emergence of Case’s best recruit since Fojtasek, James Hopper. Hopper along with Case’s 1, Chen (One half of the famous “Chennessey”) were both selected for the All-Tournament team in a draw full of D1 competition. Hopper improves to 15-0 on the year (8-0 singles, 7-0 in doubles with Powell) and looks to be in the mix for a deep ITA run in both draws. I’d also like to highlight the absolute war that Matt Chen won over D. Vuktoic of Toledo: 6-7(11), 7-6(5), 10-8. Elsewhere in Ohio, Coach Todd sent the other portion of his team to Oberlin to compete in the Oberlin Invite against players from CMU, Denison, Oberlin, and various Midwest D2s. The Oberlin crew went a collective 14-9 in singles and 7-5 in doubles with first-year Diego Maza leading the charge with a 6-0 effort on the weekend. Normally you’d want to be on the Toledo trip because it implies that you’re in the top half of the team and eyeing a lineup spot, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Maza or Squire (also 3-0 in doubles) get a shot in the doubles lineup early this season. If you were impressed by Chen’s score line above, peep Austin Lawrence who outdid his contemporary by defeating S. Topper of Oberlin: 4-6, 6-4, 19-17!! Case has found moderate success at the Fall ITA in recent years but the results from the first couple weekends in September indicate that the Spartans may have worked a little harder this Summer, and I believe that hard work will show with a deep run…or two.
Next Time with Case: Central Region ITA at Kalamazoo, Michigan: Oct 4-7* (One of two teams that put the Oct 7thon their ITA schedule)
#26 (6) Denison University:
Last Week: Oberlin Invite:The Denison site leaves MUCH to be desired, but thankfully the collective reporting on the Oberlin Invite by other teams helps me fill in any Big Red gaps in my knowledge. Gotta deal with those known unknowns first right? It seems like the three main doubles teams from Denison this year are going to be last year’s incredibly competent classmates of Rotnov of Weisberg, Dennen and Purnode in a classic JD, JP situation, and lastly breakout first year Cianciola and Denison’s new hop Jack Bulger will team up to finalize their doubles teams this year. Cianciola and Bulger went 3-0 at the Invite with victories over CMU, Case, and Tiffin, while the other two teams both went 2-1 over their matches. Singles was less conclusive from the Large Red, but it seems like we’ll see Denison trot out Cianciola and Rotnov as a 1-2 punch with Bulger, Purnode, Weisberg, Dennen, and McNamara fighting for 3-6. Cianciola ended last season on a hot, hot, hot streak and a successful run this Fall could set him up in a poll position for NCAAs instead of mid-table spot where fate and destiny are weaved by ITA officials using 2ndedition etcha-sketches and bootleg magic nine balls. I’ve never considered Denison a “Fall Team”, but this new crop of youth and leadership could invigorate the Gigantic Red to new heights as the leaves change in the always lovely Midwest.
Next Time with Denison: Central Region ITA at Kalamazoo, Michigan: Oct 4-6
#29 (7) Kalamazoo College:
Last Week: idle
Next Time with Kzoo: Central Region ITA at Kalamazoo, Michigan: Oct 4-6
#38 (8) Carleton College:@D3RegionalNEC’s territory
Last Week: idle
Next Time with Carleton: Midwest Region ITA at St. Peter, Minnesota: Sep 27-30
UR (9) University of Wisconsin, Whitewater:@D3RegionalNEC’s territory
Last Week: idle
Next Time with UWW: Midwest Region ITA at St. Peter, Minnesota: Sep 27-30
UR (10) DePauw University:
Last Week: idle
Next Time with DePauw: Central Region ITA at Kalamazoo, Michigan: Oct 4-6
UR (11) Oberlin College:
Last Week: Oberlin Invite
The bad news for Oberlin is that their 1, Stephen Gruppuso, went 0-6 at the Oberlin Invite – his ITA performance will determine whether we chalk that bagel up to it being the OC Invite (if you know, you know) or if he has a lot of work to do in order to bring his game to the level of the other 1s in this region (which Oberlin will need if they hope to reenter the national dialogue). The worse news is that they were below .500 as a team in singles and well below that figure in doubles. The good news for Oberlin is that we have the reemergence of Zachary Vaughn who went 2-0 in singles, and is a recognized catalyst for the Yeomen in singles. Oberlin leans heavily on their top three of Gruppuso, Cohen, and Vaughn, for results so they’ll need to provide much better performances than this Invite if Oberlin hopes to stay relevant. The Yeomen carry a very different looking bottom half of the lineup into ITAs this year with Billerbeck, Nuss, Dill, and Hopper fighting for lineup spots. Oberlin hasn’t been successful in the main draw at ITAs since AVZ’s favorite match when Drougas met Liu (on par with when Harry met Sally) or the wildly surprising doubles run of blog favorite Manickam^2 and R. Gittings. This current crop is the most talented team Oberlin has had on paper this decade, but we’re still waiting on some results…hopefully Kalamazoo proves fruitful.
Next Time with Oberlin:Central Region ITA at Kalamazoo, Michigan: Oct 4-7*
This is just a quick update of top teams in the Central Region – look for more articles this upcoming week especially as we get closer to The Big Kahuna – the Kalamazoo ITA. Any questions, comments, and concerns can be directed to my email (newd3central@gmail.comor my twitter: @NewD3Central). As always, Central Rules Everything Around Me.
- newCentral
Good stuff. Thx