Women’s 2019 ITA Cup Recap

Hello readers! After a busy weekend of tennis, (most of) your women’s blogging team got together to bring you the 2019 ITA Cup recap. Though the ITA still isn’t technically over, with the singles final still to be played in Claremont, we wanted to strike while the iron is hot and bring you our reactions before we all forget about tennis for the winter and focus on apple cider donuts instead.

Find the almost complete draws here. And read our thoughts below.

 

What surprised you the most about this weekend?

West: ASW edit– West had not answered this question at the time of posting so I will answer for her: I am a stone cold killer. I do not feel surprise.

NEW: The sheer dominance by CMS and Wes. 3 of the 4 semis players in singles came from this school, and we had an all-CMS finals. Then, on the dubs side of things all four pairings in the semis hailed from these two schools. Seriously, can anyone touch these two?

ASW: The sheer number of matches played with the compass draw. Glad everyone got a lot of playing time in Rome instead of sitting around waiting for a flight home. I hope the hotel had a good breakfast buffet.

CENTRAL: I agree with NEW. CMS and WES were clearly dominant. Also I was surprised at how few teams were tweeting out results for their fans. We really love those that did, and encourage the others to assign the task to a player.

 

What surprised you the least about this weekend? 

West: See above

NEW: Tbh, also not that surprised by the Wes/CMS dominance. It’s a double edged sword.

ASW: Cat Allen and Justine Leong storming through the doubles draw.

CENTRAL: Haha, NEW is right again.

 

Who in your region had the best tourney?

West: I don’t know because they haven’t played the singles championship yet! It’s gonna be one of Catherine Allen or Justine Leong, and they both impressed me in different ways. This is Allen’s senior year, and it’s clear by the way she’s playing that she wants to make it count. It’s not easy to rebound from the dejection of losing a national championship and her competitiveness continues to serve her well. Leong has a KILLER ground game and excellent awareness. If she’s as strong mentally in the spring as she’s been in the fall, good luck to the rest of the West.

NEW: I’m going to go with Miriam Gandham from Vassar. While she did lose in the first round to Whitman’s Fukushige in a tight match, she shook it off and went on to march her way through two great matches to reach the “finals” of the back draw (tbh still confused on this play-in, circular back draw, so if someone could fill me it, it’d be much appreciated), even pulling out a thrilling three-setter against Chicago’s Semenov. The freshman really impressed me and will definitely be a key play for Vassar come spring time.

ASW: Not going to lie, none of my people had the best tourney. If I had to pick someone I would still say Danna Taylor from CMU because even though she lost in the first round of the singles and doubles tournament, she won all of her subsequent matches, taking solid wins against Cartledge (Emory) and Goetz/Watson (Emory) in the backdraw.

 CENTRAL: Lauren Park (CHI) had a fabulous tournament. She was 12-6 last year in the 3rd position for UChicago, and she made it to the semi’s in the ITA Cup. She won a tough tie-break against Katie (WES), and had a tight score (4,4) with Leong (CMS). Congrats to her!

 

What was your match of the weekend? Can be either singles or doubles. 

West: Fleishman (Wes) over Taylor (CMU). This one was a three-set brawl, and the Cards first-year showed a lot of toughness after dropping the second to come back and win. Fleishman followed it up with another 3-setter, a loss to Chicago’s Lauren Park. Between those and cheering on four teammates in doubles, she probably slept the whole flight (flights?) back to Hartford.

NEW: Goetz (Emory) over Semenov (Chicago). Primarily because this match was such a mystery for us bloggers and we didn’t know who won even after Allen won the second round matchup. Either way, this match went the full three set distance, and while Goetz dominated the latter two sets, I’m guessing this was a pretty phenomenal match to watch. My runner up pick is Park (Chicago) over Fleischman (Wes), guess the Chicago girls really made an impression on me this weekend.

ASW: Fleishman (West) over Taylor (CMU). I had to put my phone away for a few hours right as they were finishing their second set and I really thought Taylor was going to take that third set after she won the last 3 games of the second set and was the more experienced of the two players. Very gritty performance from the Wes freshman.

CENTRAL: Goetz (EMORY) vs Semenov (CHI). As there was a strong history and backstory between these 2, it must have been an emotionally charged match. Fans struggled for hours trying to figure out who won, as nobody seemed to have a clue, and there were no postings online. I doubt the complete score (the 2nd and 3rd set) reflected the fight and fiest that both players must have demonstrated.

Justine Leong (left) and Cat Allen (right) are your D3 ITA Cup Champions

CMS and Wesleyan were both super strong. What is setting those programs apart right now? Who’s going to be their biggest challenger come spring?

NEW: We talked about this in our blogger group chat a bit over the weekend, and I think we all agreed, a lot of it comes down to team culture. While these two teams are undoubtedly talented, there are plenty of other teams out there with a lot of talent, too. We’ve seen this in the past (i.e., Williams under Alison Swain), and now it’s just that Coach Fried and Coach Schwartz have found that secret sauce that makes their teams gel so well. In terms of who their biggest challenger will be come spring, I’m never one to count Emory out. Goetz may not have had the best ITA Cup, but she’s def one to watch, and with the return of YGR, I’d say that’s a pretty big one-two punch to pack.

ASW: NEW is right, we did talk about this over the weekend and we think that team culture has a lot to do with it. I also think that these are the schools that are consistently able to get the best recruits right now. Players that come in good are more likely to stay good and whatnot. I think that is especially relevant considering how early this tournament is in the year and how a lot of the new standouts are freshmen. I agree that Emory shouldn’t be counted out just yet. They weren’t that impressive this past weekend but Goetz is still young (but did get that win over Semenov) and we need to remember that Cartledge is likely going to be playing 3 or 4 so she really didn’t do so poorly for herself.

West: I think ASW and NEW hit two really good points, so let me introduce a third. I think it’s the combination of team culture with strong recruiting classes and the quality of coaching that’s setting these programs apart right now. Having one of those characteristics is fairly common — Southwestern has a great culture, and Chicago almost always has a top 3 recruiting class. CMS and Wes have done a great job creating an environment where every student-athlete can flourish. When you take talented, self-motivated juniors they become extra receptive to coaching in that environment, and these are the kind of results a program can achieve. I’m so jealous!

CENTRAL: Team culture and leadership (both from the coaches and the players). You see from their posts, that WES does things together constantly—hiking, eating meals, laughing—and that has to foster an environment of fun, confidence and teamwork. Also many of the dominant teams have players that stay on their teams for all 4 years, and that senior leadership is important to the team. UChicago may have a stronger recruiting class than most teams, but this is the first year, in many years, that they have a senior (Antonhi) on their team. This lack of senior leadership definitely makes an impact on performance and team culture.

 

Now that one ITA Cup is (almost) in the books, what are your thoughts on the expanded draw? 

West: I still like it because I have a soft spot in my heart for the Blues and Tigers that make the ITA trip, and I like that they now have more than one meaningful match to play.

NEW: I like the expanded draw (despite how much the whole compass thing still confuses me), but at the end of the day, fall tournament results should be taken with a grain of salt. I think it’s cool that people got to play a whole bunch of matches, no matter where in the tournament they lost, and at the end of the day, that’s the whole spirit of our sport and D3 in general.

ASW: If it weren’t for the expanded draw then 2 out of 4 doubles semifinalists and one of the singles finalists would not have even made the tournament. Would it have affected the eventual champion? Probably not. I feel like this is similar to the Pool C thing where changing the number of highly ranked teams/players gives more deserving people the opportunity to have this experience but it doesn’t really affect the outcome of who becomes the national champion. I’m still overall for the expanded draw because why not. College tennis is only four years, might as well let the players play.

CENTRAL: Maybe I’m less of a fan of the expanded draw than I was going in. It’s great that more players get to play on the national stage, but we probably won’t be seeing many of those players at NCAA’s, and we get to see how the freshman do, but it is expensive, and it really doesn’t count for anything. A handful of really strong players are away on study abroad, so it isn’t necessarily a reflection of what the spring will hold. I’m overall indifferent to the expanded draw.

 

Summarize your thoughts going into the spring season in 5 words or less

West: CMS has seven doubles All-Americans?!

NEW: Who will break the dominance?

ASW: Is it February yet?

CENTRAL: Exciting matches, and many surprises! (Hopefully)!

 

Share a Halloween memory! What was your costume?

West: College Halloween parties were the best because there are no parents to end your night early (sorry Mom!). One year the squad dressed up as characters from Mean Girls. I won’t tell you which one I was but I’ll guarantee it wasn’t Gretchen Wieners. My dad did not invent toaster strudel and fetch was not going to happen.

NEW: Not to copy West, but my friends and I also dressed up as Mean Girls…dare I say we might’ve dressed up as the same person?? That aside, my favorite part of Halloween has always been the candy. Twix, Reece’s, Snickers, heck, I’ll even take Raisins – I’m not picky!

ASW: One year not too long ago, I went trick-or-treating with my younger cousins and we were the teletubbies. I was the red one, Po. I can still pass off as a kid so instead of standing in the back like a real adult I carried a pillow case around and made a sweet candy haul that night. Thanks to my college tennis training I was faster and had more endurance than the other trick-or-treaters.

CENTRAL: This is so politically incorrect but my friends and I went one year as the seasons: Fall, Spring, Summer, Winter, and SAD (seasonal depression). As college students in a cold place, everyone could relate. Also, when I was little I remember sporting Princess Leia’s side buns and a white sheet robe and feeling like the boss.

 

Word on the street is that D3AS will be throwing a Blog Halloween party and The Guru will be on DJ duty. And by Blog Halloween party I mean they will all get together and make a podcast and then text each other in the group chat while sitting in the same room.

On an completely unrelated note, this is the 2,000th article to be posted on the blog! Do I win a prize? I obviously have only been around for a few years so can’t take any credit but I find it pretty incredible that the original bloggers built this platform that has become THE place for D3 tennis. It’s changed hands but The Blog survives. It truly is a pleasure for me to be able to write for you all so thanks for reading! Especially those of you who have kept reading until the end of the article. You’re the best!

-ASW

 

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