Season Preview: #2 CMS STAGS

Hot off the press! Roger Federer… most stylish man of the decade deemed by GQ magazine!! Gotta love the dude and congratulations to the second place finisher who fell just short, @D3AtlanticSouth. 

Another year in the books and with the new season fast approaching, the Bloggers are here to give you the good ol’ season previews you have all come to expect this time of year. No better starting point than to focus on the CMS Stags, a perennial DIII squad that finished oh just short of a national title. They ran through most of their matches last year compiling an outstanding 33-2 record, but their final loss to Emory was a tough pill to swallow. They come back this season just as strong if not stronger with a stacked freshman class and their studs having more hunger to win it all than ever before. Fortunately, the Stags return their top two players (considered to be the best 1/2 duo in the country) with solid players throughout the rest of the singles and doubles lineups. With many other teams losing their top players and losing serious depth as a result (Emory, Williams, Chicago, Midd, Bowdoin), CMS has to be favorites to take the national title this coming spring in St. Louis. However, never count the chickens before they hatch, there is still a whole season ahead of us that will surely bring drama, upsets, and everything in between.  

Location: Claremont, CA

Coach: Paul Settles (17th year)

ITA National Ranking: #2 

UTR Power 6 Ranking: 73

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cmstennis?lang=en

2018/2019 Finish: Another superb season going 33-2, but one step short of a national title once again. 

Key Additions: Ian Freer (4 star), Michael Hao (4 star), and Ian Habbestad (4 star)

Key Departures: Julian Gordy (#1 doubles, 3/4 singles), Avi Vemuri, and Alfred Simental

LINEUP ANALYSIS: 

1. Niko Parodi, Senior, UTR 12.54 — The undisputed #1 player and maybe one of the most talented and successful Stags of all time (definitely should table this debate for a rainy day), Niko will look to cap off his college career by dominating at the top position once again, but with his main focus of going all the way at team Nationals. He’s had all the success one can imagine on the singles and doubles court – Niko’s main focus this year as senior captain and top dog is to lead his team to a national championship. It’s hard to compare Niko to the likes of Wood, Butts, etc. if there is no championship on his resume. I have no doubt Niko will have yet another stellar record on the singles court, but rest assured, he will leave college broken hearted and unfulfilled if they don’t raise the trophy in May. We all saw his reaction after his finals loss to JJ last spring and he most definitely does not want to experience that feeling again this year. Niko won’t have Gordy as a doubles partner anymore, looks like he might play with the freshman Freer? Regardless, Parodi should stay at the top of the doubles lineup and whoever he plays alongside with makes them a formidable duo day in and day out.   
2. Jack Katzman, Junior, UTR 12.38 — Someone should keep me honest, but pretty sure Katzman might have the best win-loss percentage after 2 years in recent history? And to win match after match at the #2 position… that makes his run the last couple years all the more impressive. Katzman can play #1 at 99.8% of DIII teams, but will tip his cap once again to Parodi and play behind the senior for a third year running. Again, this duo should come in as the best #1/#2 in the country. Katzman went 29-3, the most wins on the team behind Parodi at 24. He matches wins at 29 in doubles as well, going 29-7 with partners Liu, Burney, and Gordy throughout the spring. Again, Katzman should have another record-breaking year on both the singles and doubles court and will come out with a lotttt of W’s this spring. He played the bulk of his doubles last season with Liu and with both returning this spring, look for these two to join forces yet again and be a lock at #2 doubles.   
3. Daniel Park, Senior, UTR 11.95 — Park had a good start to his senior year as he lost to teammate Parodi in two tight sets in the semifinals of the Fall ITA. Call me a Park fan, he is one of the most talented players out there and is capable of beating anyone on any given day. His results backed this up last year as he had a very solid 11-2 record playing in the 3-5 part of the singles lineup. His biggest contribution to the team last year was his doubles performances, going a whopping 23-4 on the doubles court with partner Burney (mostly) and Morris. Park is a very solid player to have in the middle of the lineup and in my opinion, might be the best player at their position on this team. Daniel playing well at #3 is all but unbeatable and someone to cherish at such a position when Nationals roll around. 
4. Ian Freer, Freshman, UTR 11.99 — Not much to go off of here, but Freer had himself a solid Fall ITA making his way to the finals of the Pool A conso bracket. He could very well be placed at #6, but might make more sense to give the freshman tougher matches at #4 and put Meister and Liu at 5 and 6 respectively where they’ll surely take care of business. Freer, with his big serve and overpowering groundstrokes, will look to start his freshman year campaign on the right track on both the singles and doubles court (with Parodi?). 
5. Nic Meister, Sophomore, UTR 12.43 — Meister was a huge part of this team’s success last year – he was the only player last year to have played at least one match at all six positions. Kinda cool. Most of his matches came at 5 and 6 going a combined 13-2. A large chunk of his big wins came at the end of the year with dominant wins at Nationals against Chicago and Emory. He has one of the highest UTR’s and will look to dominate once again! 
6. Robert Liu, Junior, UTR 11.93 — Robert Liu had some major wins last year including victories over Bowdoin (2x), Amherst, Williams, and Middlebury. Similar to Park, much of Liu’s success last season fell on the doubles court, amassing an impressive 26-6 record with Katzman at #2. Similar to last year, Liu is expected to have another impressive season at this portion of the lineup and will most likely team up with Katzman yet again for doubles. 

SCHEDULE ANALYSIS:

Is there a better way to start a season than to spend a few days in Hawaii?! They’ll face Pacific (Ore.), Hawaii Pacific, and Trinity (TX) on the island of Oahu… hey coach, where’s my invite? The Stags will arrive home and head out to St. Peter, Minnesota for Indoors. Just a littttle different scenery than Hawaii. The last time they played the Indoor tournament was in 2018 where they lost to Emory in the finals 5-4, a match that came down to a third set TB at #5 – definitely seen as one of the best matches in the last few years. Gustavus will host as the eighth seed with the top four seeds being Emory, CMS, Chicago, and Brandeis in respective order. A final showdown with Emory in the finals will be a massive matchup from the National finals of 2019 and the Indoor finals of 2018. They will then head down south to San Diego for their annual La Jolla trip where they’ll play against Wash U. After La Jolla, they’ll welcome three tough teams in two days as they’ll face Bowdoin, Skidmore and Sewanee. This will back into Stag Hen which they’ll look to win for the 3,425 consecutive time. A couple of big matchups against Chicago, Middlebury, and Wiliams in 4 days will lead the Stags into conference play. Once again, they should really have no problem in SCIAC this year – we’ll go into a little bit more depth on their SCIAC foes in later previews, but the Stags are head and shoulders better and deeper than any team in their conference. Ojai, SCIACS, and of course, Nationals round out their 2020 season. #2020vision. 

Right off the bat, the Stags are looking at a tough schedule. They’ll tentatively play Emory in the finals of Indoors, with scheduled matchups against Chicago, Bowdoin, Williams, Midd, and Wash U. Similar to previous seasons, a bulk of these major matches occur on their home courts which we all know how big of an advantage that is for this team. Lots of travel and really cool trips are in store for this team this coming year as they rack up the W’s along the way.   

CAN THE STAGS GO ALL THE WAY THIS YEAR?

Yes. And frankly, the Stags have to be the ultimate favorites to win it all this year. Not only are they a tad stronger than last year, but many of the top teams lost a bulk of their depth and top-heavy strength. This will be the strongest team the Stags will have had since 2015 and they will look to repeat a national championship performance from that very year. I haven’t really discussed their doubles performance over the last couple years, but the Stags will come into their 2020 season with three very solid teams, two of which saw success last year. A huge advantage to have two doubles teams that know how to win come back for another year. Considering it was their doubles just a couple years ago that got this team in trouble, on many occasions they were able to fight and claw back by winning 5 of 6 singles. With strong doubles now, going up 2-1, 3-0 after doubles puts this team in absolute control and all but cements a victory. There won’t be many instances this season where they’ll need to win 5 out of 6 singles let alone even go into singles with a 1-2 deficit.

The Stags are a fantastic program and are led by an experienced and very well respected coaching staff. They’ve been on the bad end of losses late in the season over the last few years and it all comes down to this season for Parodi and company to finish it off. This has to be their strongest team since 2015 and with weaker competition nationwide (in my opinion), the Stags have to be the 3 to 1 favorites to take the ship this spring.