Atlantic South ITA Recap/Preview – RegASouth Style

Welcome to Atlantic South ITA Recap/Preview! This past weekend capped off a great weekend of tennis in Atlanta, GA and this upcoming weekend, we have another ASouth ITA coming up in Fredericksburg, VA on the ever so beautiful campus of the University of Mary Washington. But, before we dive into that, I know all of you have one burning question for me… How’s the new dog? Let’s be real, you probably don’t actually care, but I’ll tell you anyways. She’s great and I might even post pictures at some point this season, so basically you have to keep reading. Anyways, let’s dive into this “studs and duds” and “what to watch for” article. Please keep in mind that most of this content will be pertaining to the teams that I mainly cover, so for all those Emory, CMU, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore and Mary Washington fans, I am truly and deeply sorry. Also check out Real ASouth’s kick ass first article here.

Studs of Emory

NC Wesleyan’s Depth – Flex. On. Them. NC Wesleyan had a GREAT tournament. Iyer, Acosta and Puig were all quarterfinalists in singles, Iyer/Puig are heading to Rome, GA for the ITA cup and Acosta/Vallejo made the semis. That’s a great tournament for this team and these guys should be proud, but not content. Spoiler Alert: Even though Emory’s top guys won the tournaments in singles and doubles, they looked less deep than usual and it takes 5 points to win a match. With some offseason work, NC Wesleyan could become a very, very good and scary team. They just need to find an elite #1 singles player. 

Andres Carro and Jordan Brewer – The Tigers in purple were back at it again with TWO semifinalists, which is outstanding considering that Emory has absolutely manhandled this tournament since the stone age. I’m being dramatic, so don’t @ me. While Carro and Brewer, both lost two Emory’s top players in the semis, they picked up some quality wins along the way. Carro took down two of NC Wesleyan’s top players, Iyer and Revin, while Brewer took down Wanner of Emory and SAA rival Chatterjee from Rhodes. Look for whoever plays 1 for the Tigers to qualify for NCAA individuals in the spring.

Duds of Emory

Millsaps’ Singles – The Majors seem to be taking some steps back and that’s a shame after the success they have had in recent years. Only one player made it through to the second round of singles in the main draw, and it’s not like they were matched up with every Emory player or Sewanee’s top dogs. They played against SAA competitors Berry and Rhodes along with a couple of Sewanee’s freshman. This isn’t a great sign for this team’s, however it is still the fall and thankfully there is the off season that rewards those who work.

Rhodes’ Doubles – Similarly to Millsap’s singles, Rhodes’ doubles were not great, especially for a team that I thought could potentially take down Sewanee this year. Shaw/Morton lost to La Grange and Lloyd/Stich lost to SAA opponent Oglethorpe, and Lauture/Chatterjee lost to Sewanee’s 3rd doubles team. It is worth mentioning that the match was close. Regardless though, this need will need to figure out doubles before taking the SAA championship. The good news is that Chatterjee had another solid singles run with a trip to the quarters.

What I need to see more of…

Emory – Now I know that I said I didn’t really write about Emory, but looking at the results, I figured I’d put in my two cents. Only two players made it past the sweet 16 of this tournament in singles and one doubles team made it past the quarters. Granted, all three will be going to NCAAs, I was expecting this team to show some more depth, like they normally do in this tournament. I need to see more of this team before I label them “vulnerable”, but this will be something to watch for come Indoors in the spring.

Dual Match Play – Honestly we can analyze (and probably overreact to) individual results all we want, but at the end of the day, we see the true team once dual match play starts. So with that being said, please keep in mind that these are very preliminary observations and with some off season work, duds can become studs and with the lack thereof, studs can turn into absolutely duds and we won’t see that until dual matches begin.

Who/What to watch for at the Mary Washington ITA

This section is going to be tough because I don’t have the draws yet, but there are a few key things that are definitely worth mentioning so here we go!

The Departure of Perennial Studs – As a reader mentioned in the comments of my last article, CMU’s Levine and Downing have graduated. Right now they are probably designing/building the rocket that is going to take us to Pluto or analyzing what it would cost to do so. The two combined have won this tournament the past three years, so what happens know that they are gone? Pure chaos. And I. Am. Here. For. It. This will be one of the most even tournaments out there and I think that there might be 8-10 different players that could win it, which is freaking awesome.

Marc Feliu Gomez – For those who don’t know, Stevens is now in the ASouth with their recent switch to the MAC. Why is a team from New Jersey is now considered the Atlantic South? I have no idea, but I don’t make the rules, I just follow them. Marc Feliu was a solid #1 at singles in the NE and even qualified for NCAA’s at doubles, so watch for the sophomore to potentially be a dark horse to make a deep run in this tournament.

Leonid Sorkin – Sorkin had a good freshman season, but there were some whispers that he might be as good as Boris, so last season was deemed a “disappointment” for those that did have this opinion. My concern is that his only match this fall was against Bucknell and he had a fairly bad result, with a loss to a UTR 10.5… take that for what it’s worth, but I am very curious to see what happens this weekend.

Alec Angradi – The Salisbury junior qualified for NCAA’s last season without playing in the ITA, so I am very excited/curious to see how he does this weekend.This will be the only tournament they play this fall, so he might be a bit rusty in the first couple of rounds, but watch out for a deep run from the Sea Gull. I would put him in that group of 8-10 individuals that could win it all. 

Harry Shepherd – The former NCAA qualifier from Washington and Lee will be looking to go back to some form of Nationals with a deep run in the ITA tournament. He had a fairly disappointing season last year, taking some big L’s in matches that he should have been the favorite in. I’m looking for him to rebound in a very good way this season and a deep run at ITAs should be a good place to start.

Everyone Else – There are a ton of people that I could continue to list here and this article would go on for like 37.523 pages, but I dove into just a small number of the interesting individuals to follow.  In my opinion, the individuals that could realistically win this tournament are from Swarthmore, Hopkins, CMU, Mary Washington, Washington and Lee, Stevens and Salisbury, and most of those teams are out of my realm of expertise, so I apologize for the lack of extended coverage. It is worth mentioning that CNU has a solid squad and could have a couple of quarterfinalists, but none of them will probably be favored after that. If anyone can send me a draw, I will twitter stream of consciousness my predictions and interesting matchups along the way.

Thanks once again for reading! Like I said, get the draws to us for continued coverage and be on the lookout for a more legit recap next week. Is there something I missed? (There definitely is.) Let me know! Comment below, @ me on twitter or send an email. I’d be happy to answer any and all questions! Until next time, RegASouth out.