Welcome back, readers, to another year of season previews! Northeast started us off with some MIDNIGHT MADNESS yesterday, previewing Tufts, and I’ll be kicking off my sophomore blogging campaign with a little Taco Tuuuuuuuuuuesdayyyyyyyy action from Southern California! You know SoCal’s taco game is on point, and though we stan Torchy’s, you’re not beating California fish tacos, Mango Whiteclaw and a 70 and sunny day in mid-December. That’s right, we’re starting things off with the Caltech Beavers. I know you’ve been patiently waiting for your regional D3 tennis fix since the fall season, so bookmark www.division3tennis.com and for the next few months make sure you start your mornings by waking up, brushing your teeth, and reading a season preview.
Caltech has slowly been inching their way up the rankings, and last year solidified themselves as a top 25 team that can compete with just about anyone in the country. While wins over Tufts and Pomona showed Caltech’s potential, losses to Skidmore, Redlands, and Cal Lu tempered that excitement a bit and reminded us that this is still a young team finding its way. This year presents another opportunity for Caltech, and given the schedule that they have, it looks like the Beavers will either sink or swim in 2020.
Location: Pasadena, CA
Coach: Jason Cohen (2nd year)
Assistant Coach: None
Twitter: @CaltechMTEN; #gobeavers. Good for score updates, also live stream home matches which is a plus.
ITA National Ranking: 24
Blog Power Ranking: Finished last year at 22, I had them at 16.
Power 6 UTR: 68
2018 – 2019 Story of the Year: Lily of Caltech was DISQUALIFIED from the Dogs of D3 challenge as a result of suspected unfair play (writing a script to vote for Lily). No word yet on NCAA sanctions.
Key Additions: John Kim (3-Star, UTR: 8.89(P), Cupertino, CA), Nathan Zou (3-Star, UTR: 10.16), Rishi Gundakaram (NR, UTR: 9.35)
Key Losses: Derik Nguyen (#5 singles, #2 doubles)
Lineup Analysis
1) Varun Shanker, junior, UTR=12.14, range: #1-1. Not only is Shanker the #1 player for Caltech, he just might be the best player in the West Region. Yes, I know who Nikolai Parodi and Jack Katzman are, but Shanker has proved he has the game to play with those guys. Last year Varun had wins over Leduff (Cruz), Aizenberg (Brandeis), Dubrovsky (Hobart), Kam (Williams), Altmeyer (Colby), Kronenberg (Pomona), and Dimanche (Southwestern). His only losses were to Wynne (Skidmore), Sorkin (Tufts), Katzman, and Parodi. That’s an impressive resume with such a tough schedule. He then won Caltech’s first NCAA singles match in history, beating Vishnu Joshi (Hopkins) in the first round of NCAAs to claim All-American status before losing to the eventual champ Jemison. Caltech was not very active this fall, and Shanker lost his only singles match at ITAs to Morris (CMS), though rumor has it he was dealing with a hand issue. Shanker partnered with Wei to make the finals of the doubles draw and qualified for the ITA Cup, where they came in 5th. More about last year’s doubles results below.
2) James Wei, junior, UTR=11.59, range: #2-2. First off, Wei rocks a headband, and I think rocking a headband is dope. Secondly, he plays some damn good tennis. Wei was rock solid last year at #2, and his best wins were over Coramutla (Brandeis), Foster (Whitman), Pathi (Colby), Josh Gearou (Pomona), and Dulthhummon (Southwestern). James also took close 3 set losses to Raghavan (Williams), Lemaitre (George Fox), and Kronenberg (Pomona). This fall, James had probably the only favorable draw for the Beavers at ITAs, and he held serve; beating Bernstein (CMS) and Wilkins (Chapman), before losing in 3 sets to Katzman. Not a bad result, but really doesn’t tell us much. I’ll talk about team doubles briefly below, and though Caltech’s #2 and #3 teams are TBD, we know that Wei and Shanker will definitely be at the top spot. While they’re clearly a very solid team, I think this pairing is a little bit overrated, and I may have gassed them a little more than they deserved in the past. Last year the duo beat Pomona, Whitman, George Fox, Swarthmore, Cruz and Hobart, but lost to Colby, Skidmore, Williams, Redlands, Brandeis, and CMSx2. Certainly nothing to sneeze at, but definitely room to improve.
3) Matthew Gonzalgo, sophomore, UTR=11.53, range #3-4. It starts to get a little questionable here, but I think Gonzalgo is likely the best of the rest and will play #3 this year. Matthew was up and down last year, playing primarily #3, but showed potential with wins over Pentousis (Tufts) and Cummins (Redlands). He was very active this summer, playing a bunch of ITA Summer Circuit events, and though I’m not sure of the exact numbers, his UTR definitely jumped as a result. This fall, Gonzalgo lost in 3 to Jacobs (CMS), but rebounded in consolation, bookending two defaults with wins over Zhang (Occidental) and Habberstad (CMS) to win the consolation.
4) Kevin Yu, junior, UTR=10.96, range: #3-7. Yu played between 3-5 last year, and similar to Gonzalgo, had some nice wins and tough losses. Kevin beat Biswas (Tufts), Hwang (Whitman), Schuermann (Colby), Baker (George Fox), and lost to Chen (Brandeis), Mahtani (Skidmore), Taylor (Williams), Braaten (Cal Lu), Reznik (Redlands), and Gearou (Pomona). The junior also had a tough fall, losing quickly to Hao (CMS) in the main draw, and Bellet in consolation. I could see Kevin starting the year at #4 and struggling, before dropping down in the lineup and finding some success at #5 or #6
5) Patryk Kozlowski, sophomore, UTR=11.23, range #3-7.
Kozlowski didn’t play a ton last year, but he did beat Bartok (Tufts), and his UTR is pretty high. He had a nice win over Williams (CMS) at ITAs before losing to Freer (also CMS. 11 dudes in the A-flight is absurd, talk about dominating a region). We could easily see a few other faces in the 5 hole for Caltech this year, but my guess is that Kozlowski gets the first crack at it.
6) Miha Valencic, senior, UTR=10.78, range: #3-7. My guess is that Coach Cohen will want his senior captain at the #6 spot. Miha is hella steady, and I think he’ll fare better at #6 than he did last year at #4-5. That’s not to say he didn’t have some nice wins last year: Tzeng (Brandeis), Niemiec (Tufts), Josh Gearou (Pomona), but he won’t overpower a lot of players. At #6, I think he could be a real strength for Caltech. Miha was the #2 seed in the B flight at ITAs, but lost to Schwarz (Occidental) in the first round. The senior has shown he has what it takes to be a lineup contributor in the past, and I think he’s pretty much a lock to be in the lineup.
In the Hunt / Doubles: Nathan Zou, Jonathan Kim, Connor Soohoo, Jake Will. I think Zou is the closest out of the bubble players. He beat Avery Bicks at ITAs, and hopefully has had a dedicated offseason after his getting his first taste of college tennis. Soohoo is also a senior captain, and seniors are cool. I think it’s more likely that we see him in the doubles lineup. Will played a few doubles matches last year, but I’d be surprised to see him crack the singles lineup. Kim was Caltech’s highest rated recruit and was seeded in the B-flight at ITAs, but dropped two quick matches to Santa Cruz and Cal Lu. When I gave Caltech’s lineup a cursory glance this fall before ITAs, Kim was the guy I was most interested to see, and while I’m definitely not going to be hard on someone that has only played 2 college matches, it adds to the narrative that junior results and junior rankings should always be taken with a grain of salt. Doubles will be interesting. After Wei and Shanker, I’m guessing we see some sort of Gonzalgo, Kozlowski, Soohoo and maybe Will combo. I bet we see a lot of pairings early on as Coach Cohen looks for some chemistry.
Schedule Analysis
Caltech has a really nice schedule this year, playing 14 teams that finished last year in the top 40. Man I would’ve loved to have played this schedule in college. Caltech starts the year in January with a casual trip to Hawaii.
While I’m sure the players are already looking forward to kicking it on Waikiki Beach, this is a business trip for the Beavers and there’s a promotion on the line. Caltech’s first match of the year is a big opportunity against 13th ranked Trinity TX. Not a whole lot to lose for the Beavers in this one, but they have a chance to secure an early season win that could set the tone for the season. Caltech also plays Pacific and Hawaii Pacific while in the Aloha State, and they shouldn’t struggle with Pacific.
In February, Caltech plays Cruz and Southwestern. Caltech is definitely the favorite over Southwestern, but just as the Beavers have nothing to lose against Trinity, Southwestern has nothing to lose against Caltech. If Caltech wants to end the year in the top 20, they need this match.
The bulk of Caltech’s schedule comes in March when teams across the country make their annual spring break pilgrimages to Southern California. From March 5 to March 26, Caltech plays Christopher Newport, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Haverford, RPI, Tufts, Whitman, Chicago and George Fox. The matches to circle here are Swarthmore, RPI, Tufts and Whitman. I’m not really sure what to expect out of Swarthmore this year, and while I think Caltech handles this one, Swarthmore is too talented to take lightly. Caltech beat Tufts and Whitman last year, and we know that revenge is a powerful motivator. It will depend on what Tufts team comes to play this year, but I’d be a little surprised if Caltech goes 2-0 here. My guess is they go 3-1 against Swarthmore, RPI, Tufts and Whitman and don’t get closer than 7-2 against Bowdoin and Chicago.
The Beavers finish up the year with SCIAC play. They split 5-4 matches with Pomona and Redlands last year, but I’m feeling confident in the Beavers this year, and predict Caltech will beat both Pomona and Redlands, make the finals of the SCIAC tournament, and finish the year #18 in the country.
Think I’m an idiot? Glad we’re back? LOUD NOISES! Comment below, on Twitter or via email. Until next time!
Thanks as always. Looking forward to Whitman review. Added a nice Midwest player in Aidan Schutter this year.