Central Rules Everything Around Me: Issue 2

Tuesday. October 1, 2019.

Central Rules Everything Around Me: Leo reigns supreme but the North remains Black & Gold. (Issue 2)

The Central kicked off its ITA season with the Midwest Regional up in Minnesota hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College. Leo Vithoontien of Carelton was Vegas’ favorite coming in to the tournament, while the doubles draw was more open since there wasn’t a clear-cut favorite between the top three seeds: (1) Derbani & Aney (GAC), (2) Vithoontien & Iyer (Carleton), (3) O’Niel & Fouchier (GAC).

The Doubles Final featured GAC’s Michael O’Neil & Daniel Fouchier and Luther’s Cole Schneider & Nyathi Motlojoa. The Gustie third seeds enjoyed a bye first round before defeating Tibrewal & Kaslow of Grinnell 8-3. The duo followed that result with an 8-2 victory over Christensen & Roseth of UWEC. The seven seeds from Coe were the duo’s first seeds (UWEC upset the 9^thin the round before GAC) but they were felled quickly by O’Neil & Fouchier 8-6. In a semifinal matchup with the tournament’s best player, the Gustie duo flexed their musicle and grit in a quick victory over Vithoontien & Iyer 8-2. Meeting them in the finals were Schneider and Motlojoa whose path as the fifth seeds was just slightly more interesting. They too opened with a bye before flooring their second-round opponents from Macalester 8-1. The LutherNorseMen defeated the nine seeds lying in their draw 8-4 before upsetting the one seeds from GAC at home in an electric tiebreaker. Their semifinal was a classic trap match as they had just defeated the 1 seed on their home courts in a breaker, but the duo of Schneider and Motlojoa were able to defeat the four seeds from UWW 8-5.

The finals were a tight affair as O’Neil and Fouchier were able to ride homecourt and their abilities to a three-set victory over Schneider and Motlojoa coming from behind to win: 3-6, 6-3, 10-2.

The singles tournament was a one-man show from the beginning with Vithoontien dropping 23 games in his six matches. He defeated four GAC players including Derbani, Aney, and surprise finalist Indraneel Raut on his way to another ITA championships.

The singles semifinals featured three Gusties while the doubles tournament was won by a pair of Gusties. Carleton will come into their dual matches this season with the best player in their conference, but GAC continues to show unparalleled depth and lower lineup strength in singles and doubles compared to its contemporaries. While a few of the matches went the distance, the physical toll of this tournament showed its fangs again with the majority of the final day’s matches being oneway traffic (Doubles final excluded).

My earlier unresearched, half-substantiated predictions aside, I think that GAC has shown that they deserve to be the favorites in the conference until Carleton (or someone else) gives us a reason to believe otherwise. (PS: still put me down for a 5-4 Carleton def. GAC upset within the next two years – chaos is a 2-1 Carleton lead)

The ITA Cup features different qualification requirements this year, so Leo Vithoontien, Indraneel Raut, Michael O’Neil, Daniel Fouchier, Cole Schneider, and Nyathi Motolojoa will travel to the ITA Cup in Rome (Georgia) Oct 17-20. However, I believe that only Vithoontien, O’Neil, and Fouchier receive automatic All-American status for their efforts this weekend. Look for in-depth analysis of the Kalamazoo ITA this week as draws come out, and as always slide in the DMs or @gmail if you have any comments, questions, or concerns.

– newCentral