Hello again everyone! After a few weeks getting caught up on my flannel and pumpkin bread game, I realized I should probably write another article! All of my teams have wrapped up their fall seasons, meaning now is a good time to look at their report cards! Though I always used to hope my grade school report card would get delivered to the wrong address or that they’d forget about me, this is one report card I’m excited about!
These grades are based on my expectations for each team. We’ll cover who exceeded expectations, who didn’t, and who hit an easy five iron right down the fairway. If you don’t like your grade, good thing you have a few months of training to prove me wrong in the spring! Let’s get into it.
Caltech
Grade: C+
Tournaments Played: ITAs
Recap/Explanation: This grade would have been much lower if Wei/Shanker hadn’t continued their tiebreak magic and made a run to the finals of the doubles draw. Maybe I was expecting a little too much from this team, but they are coming off a year where they beat Pomona. After graduating no lineup players, I expected them to have a good chance at finishing second in the SCIAC this year. While the West ITA is an opportunity for CMS to flex and have 10(!) guys in the A-flight draw, I had hoped for a stronger singles performance from Caltech. Shanker was the #3 seed, and was upset in the first round by Casey Morris (CMS). James Wei had a solid tournament, and won his first two matches before falling to Katzman in 3 sets, but the Beavers did not win another match in the A-flight. In the B-flight, Connor Soohoo made a nice run, winning three matches before losing to Stark (Pomona). Also in the B-flight, first-year Nathan Zou picked up a nice win over Bicks (Pomona). Shanker/Wei were the only Beaver winners in doubles, losing to #1 seed Cummins/Libao in the finals.
Look, I’m not worried about Shanker and Wei, they proved last year that they can compete with anyone in the region, in both singles and doubles. Caltech ran into problems last year with doubles (swept by Cal Lu and Redlands in two 5-4 losses). Playing just one fall tournament only gave Coach Cohen one opportunity to try out pairings, but doubles and #6 singles are going to be the keys to success this year for the Beavers. We’ll see Shanker and Wei at the ITA Cup coming up this weekend!
Colby
Grade: B-
Tournaments Played: Middlebury Invitational, ITAs, Wallach
Recap/Explanation: Colby was fairly busy this fall, playing in three tournaments with tough competition. The highlight of the fall was Scott Altmeyer winning the Wallach A-flight for the second year in a row, and beating Boris at the Midd Invitational. We’ve already talked about Scott at length, but that wasn’t the only positive development coming out of Waterville this fall. First-year Jan Wenger beat Sebastian Castillo-Sanchez (RPI) at Middlebury, and pushed Aizenberg to 7-6 in the third at ITAs. While it would have been fantastic to get the win, the fact that Wenger was able to push one of the top players (and a senior to boot) in the region is hopefully a sign of things to come. If Wenger is able to compete at the #2 spot this year, this will open things up at the bottom of Colby’s lineup. Colby did not find much success in the B-D flights at Middlebury or the Wallach, but Max Schuermann did pick up wins over Yohannes (RPI) and Pentousis (Tufts). He’ll likely slot in at #4 this year and provide some stability in the middle of the lineup. Colby’s doubles was suspect, but Altmeyer/Wenger picked up a nice win over the #1 seed of Wynne/Williamson (Skidmore) at Middlebury, so they should be competitive at #1 doubles against most teams. We don’t know what the doubles teams will look like this spring as Sumukh Pathi (projected #3 singles, #1/2 doubles) was abroad in the fall, but the addition of Wenger means that Colby’s doubles should be better than last year.
George Fox
Grade: B-
Tournaments Played: Pacific Northwest Invitational, ITAs
Recap/Explanation: George Fox put together a solid fall season, playing the Pacific Northwest Invitational and the Northwest ITA. Luke Lemaitre beat Will Leach in the finals of the Pacific Northwest Invitation, and then Leach went and won the Northwest ITA, beating Kirsch (Whitman) in the finals, after Kirsch beat Lemaitre in the previous round. Rox Rogers also made the quarterfinals of ITAs, beating Biggi (Whitman) before losing to Kirsch. The Bruins also had three doubles teams make the quarterfinals, with Leach/Namba falling to Whitman in the finals 16-14 in a third set superbreaker. It was nice to see Leach and Lemaitre continuing to play at a high level, and Rogers making the quarters was encouraging. However, this is pretty much the same fall that George Fox had last year, and they ended up losing 8-1 to Whitman. Leach and Lemaitre are legit, but I don’t think the Bruins got much better.
Hamilton
Grade: B
Tournaments Played: St. Lawrence Fall Classic, Union’s Dutchmen Invitational, ITAs, Hamilton Invitational
Recap/Explanation: Talk about getting your shots up, Coach Brisotti put his players to work this fall! It looks like #1 Max Zimmerman is abroad this fall, which is a bummer because I would have loved to see him play at ITAs. Hamilton controlled the Dutchmen Invitational and took 3 out of 5 doubles matches against Rochester at the Hamilton Invitational –they didn’t play Rochester in singles. Hamilton struggled a little more at the SLU Classic and ITAs. The Continentals played Hobart tight in doubles matches, but were outplayed in singles. At ITAs, junior Rob Dotterer had a great run to the quarterfinals, beating Suraj Mahtani (Skidmore) 7-5 in the third before losing to Dubrovsky (Hobart). First-year Matt Bartok made an immediate impact in doubles, partnering with Dotterer to make the finals of the SLU Classic, losing to Dubrovsky/Ayman (Hobart) 8-7. Coach Brisotti should be happy with his teams performance, and cmon, the dog tweets boost their grade.
Lewis & Clark
Grade: C-
Tournaments Played: ITAs, beat Willamette 8-1
Recap/Explanation: It wasn’t a great fall for Lewis & Clark. Ramez Attia was the only Pioneer to make the round of 16 at ITAs, and Attia and Lynette combined for L&C’s best performance of the weekend, making the quarters of doubles. Lynette and Kristian Peev, L&C’s top two recruits, lost in the first round of singles to Tom Chang (Whitman) and Alex Namba (George Fox), and Brendan Adams lost to Rogers (George Fox) in the round of 32 (Adams won against George Fox at #3 last year). Lewis & Clark is more talented than last year, but they did not put it together during ITA weekend.
MIT
Grade: C-
Tournaments Played: ITAs
Recap/Explanation: MIT’s only action this fall was at ITAs, where they sent two singles players and one doubles team. Sophomore Michael Zhao picked up a big win over Kevin Ma (Amherst) in the first round, but pulled out of the tournament before his second round match against Pentousis (Tufts). Albert Go lost in the first round to Ward (Middlebury), and Go and first-year Derek Shen lost 8-0 in doubles to Tzeng/Chen (Brandeis). Zhao took a big step forward last year, and his win over Ma shows that he has continued to improve. It’s unfortunate he had to pull out after that match. What I don’t understand is how a team can have the #3 ranked D3 recruiting class, and only play one fall tournament. I would’ve liked to have gotten a look at MIT’s first-years, and getting them fall experience can only be a good thing. I don’t get it.
Pacific
Grade: B
Tournaments Played: Pacific Northwest Invitational, ITAs
Recap/Explanation: Expectations have lowered for Pacific over the past two years, but the Boxers are still going out there and battling, and they are great at developing talent after it arrives in Forest Grove. Pacific had a solid showing at ITAs, with three players reaching the round of 16, and Reyn Miyagawa reaching the semifinals, his best win coming over Foster (Whitman #2) in the quarters. Miyagawa started last year at #3 before working his way up to #1. Making the semis should definitely be a confidence booster. He also teamed up with Joey Hu to make the semis of the doubles draw. The other Boxers to make the round of 16 were Sean Murphy and Rayden Murata. Murata pushed Immergluk-Mueller (Whitman) to a third set, and Murphy played a close first set with Lemaitre. Pacific most likely won’t break into the top 40 this year, but their fall season results show that they might be able to push George Fox for the #2 seed in the NWC.
Southwestern
Grade: A-
Tournaments Played: UT-Tyler Invitational, ITAs
Recap/Explanation: “NewRegional, how can Southwestern get an A-?! I didn’t think they looked that good!” I definitely see how it looks like #gradeinflation could be at play here. Dimanche didn’t make the singles final, and Southwestern didn’t come away with a title. But! Southwestern appears to have found a good doubles team that doesn’t include Dimanche!! Doubles was by far and away Southwestern’s Achilles heel last year. They got swept in 6-3 losses to Skidmore and Redlands, and swept in a 9-0 loss vs. Trinity (TX) where three singles matches went the distance. Sophomore Hunter Bajoit partnered with sophomore transfer Hemanshu Rambojun (from Mauritius!) to make a run to the finals. Interestingly, senior Dean Dulthummon is also from Mauritius – Coach Porter’s got the Indian Ocean island nation recruiting ON LOCK. Ramboujun/Bajoit beat the seeded team of Nguyen/Settles (Trinity) in the first round, beat an Ito Toast (Ozarks) led doubles team in the second round before scoring their signature win in the semifinals, beating #1 seeded Pitts/Krimbill (Trinity), before losing to McMurray in the finals. Coach Porter has to be thrilled with this performance. Dimanche/Tibbetts beat the seeded team of Bode/van Der Heidjen but lost to Pitts/Krimbill, and Joseph/Dulthummon rolled in their first two matches before losing to Steffs/Vaithinathan (UT-Dallas). In singles, Dimanche made the semis, where he lost to Krimbill and Joseph was battling with Pitts; splitting sets before retiring down 4-0 in the third. No, Southwestern didn’t win either the singles or doubles title, and yes, it would have been nice to see Ramboujun and Dulthummon win one more round in singles, but Southwestern found a doubles team, and that was at the top of Coach Porter’s wish list for 2020.
That’s all for today! If you want to support your team, yell at me or both; drop a comment below or on Twitter. Also be on the lookout for our ITA Cup predictions later today!
Damn. Tough grades! No curves here