Women’s Players of the Week: Indoors Edition

Howdy, y’all! Season is back in full swing and we on the women’s side are back to your regular programming, which means Player of the Week Wednesdays! This weekend really kicked off the meat of the spring season for us with Indoors, so this week, we’ve primarily focused on performances there. We are looking to branch out further this season though and build our coverage of D3 women’s tennis. So, with that being said – we are calling all writers interested in writing for the women’s blog! Whether you are a D3 junkie like us, have a fried, daughter or random acquaintance you follow in the D3 tennis world, or want to see more regional coverage than what we currently do, please reach out and join the blog! I joined on a whim around NCAAs almost three years ago, and I’m so happy for my blog fam. Plus our group chat is really fun 🙂 ANYWHO, check out our picks for this week’s POTW and look forward to some great content coming to you soon!

ASW

Player: Bin Zheng
Team: CMU
Results: 2-1 at #3 singles and 2-1 at #3 doubles with Janabelle Wu at indoors, including clinching match against Pomona-Pitzer and a three set slugfest against Semenov of Chicago
Recap: CMU has to be pleased with their weekend as they were the only school at Indoors to outperform their seed. There were some question marks going into the weekend and there was upset buzz surrounding the CMU/Chicago match but Zheng earned two points for her team in both that match and CMU’s upset of Pomona-Pitzer.
What’s next: Spring break in Orlando, FL, featuring matches against D3 opponents Kenyon, Emory, and Wesleyan, plus a bunch of other non-D3 opponents
Honorable mention: Not in my region but Summer Quinn from Brandeis because only a true legend would be thinking about pizza in the third set of a tight match while the team score is tied 4-4. Summer are you sure we weren’t twins separated at birth? In players outside of Indoors, W&L players Taylor Garcia  and Lily Horsely have been absolutely crushing it for her team – taking home big wins in singles and doubles over Wash U and Centre.
What are you most excited for this season: I’m ready for NCAAs already! Give me the big stages. I also just want it to be May already for personal reasons, don’t @me.
Indoors recap in 5 words: Last day was so exciting.
Fav D3 mascot:  Ephs. Is there a story behind this? Why purple cow? 

NEW

Player: Pamela Duke
Team: MIT
Results: 2-1 at #4 singles and 1-2 at #2 dubs with partner Megan Guenther
Recap: It was a rough weekend for the Engineers and certainly showed us all that they have some work to do if they’re going to be a top team again this year. A bright spot, though was Pam Duke’s picking up the lone win against Chicago’s Semenov – a huge win for the freshman. It was incredible to see her fight and composure in a match where the rest of her team was struggling.
What’s next: The Engineers are back in action in two weeks against the former top team in the country – Wesleyan. They’re going to need a lot more gas in their tanks if they’re going to challenge the Cards, and Rickeman is going to have to polish her game up to its former glory and help boost her team. MIT then heads into a slew of matches against NE opponents, where their freshmen will hopefully get good chances to build their confidence.
Honorable mentions: Sarah Pertsemidis (MIT), Dana Feng (Wellesley), Anna Maria Buraya (NYU)
What are you most excited for this season: I’m excited for spring break and watching the top teams battle it out with one another again!
Indoors recap in 5 words: Cat Allen is a legend.
Fav D3 mascot: I used to really want a fierce mascot like the Panthers, but ya gotta respect something as absurd ~original~ as the UCSB Banana Slugs

Central Women’s

Player: Annika Pandey (from Central); Catherine Allen (tournament)
Team: Chicago; CMS
Results: Having not played in the lineup all year, Annika stepped into 6th position unexpectedly and was a boss winning all of her singles matches (or leading an incomplete one)!!! As for Catherine…..wow talk about grace-under-pressure and a GREAT racquet throw!
Recap: Chicago’s loss to CMU was a close one. The difference was in the doubles and several tiebreak matches that could have gone either way. On the positive the doubles team of Wang/Ng killed it, going undefeated in this tournament. Also #8 Chicago made a strong statement to #9 MIT that they are fighters and do not buy into the hype that MIT is better than their rank.
What’s next: I think with Antohi rejoining Chicago in CA for Spring Break, this will be the missing senior leadership that this team needs. During this tournament you could see the nervous energy of this team on live-stream, and having a calm leader like Antohi will make a big difference and will help them close out those extremely close matches. The line-up still isn’t set and I think Coach Tee is still figuring out the most effective configuration. He has a lot of talent on his team.
Honorable mention: Centre College nearly knocking-off 10th ranked Brandeis. In Central the Honorable Mention goes to Claudia Ng (Chicago). She played in the #2 position singles for the first time and easily (0,1) defeated Rickeman from MIT. She went 2-1 singles and 3-0 for doubles. She was solid the entire tournament.
What are you most excited for this season: I am excited for Antonio to rejoin the team and see what lineup Coach Tee settles on.
Indoors recap in 5 words: Best D3 racquet-throw celebration!
Fav D3 mascot: It’s got to be Gustavus’ Gus the Lion. They even had 150 Flat Gus’ who traveled the world and would be photographed doing amazing things in amazing places. This was a viral spirit campaign to celebrate 150 years and remind alumni from around the world they will always be a part of the Gustavus Family. 

West Women’s

Player: Catherine Allen
Team: CMS
Results: 3-0 in singles, 3-0 in doubles at Indoors
Recap: There are lots of deserving West region players this week, but can this award really go to anyone else? Allen was a rock for the Athenas all weekend, and doubly so in the Indoors championship match. She partnered with Caroline Cox for a crucial win at #1 doubles, and then won a clutch 3-setter at #2 singles, breaking to stay in the match and then clinching 7-5 to give CMS the crown.
What’s next: Spring Break! Actually that’s a few weeks away. CMS will stay in Claremont the whole rest of the month, hosting Cal Lu, Army, and Swarthmore this weekend.
Honorable mention: Michelle Uyeda
What are you most excited for this season: As RegionalNec mentioned, we have so many teams installing Playsight! This means I can ignore even more of my “responsibilities” to watch D3 tennis, and yes mom I’ll finish the dishes just let me finish this tiebreak, gosh!
Indoors recap in 5 words: Same hotel tournaments are awkward
Fav D3 mascot: I know I should choose a mascot from the West region, but that Amherst Mammoth is too darn cute. If I get past that, I’d have to say the Whittier Poets. Though shoutout to the Whitman men’s team back in the day changing their mascot to the Flying Squirrels

Analyst

Player: Justine Leong
Team: CMS
Results: 2-0 at #1 singles, 3-0 at #2 doubles
Recap: Justine Leong is the real deal. The freshman went undefeated at Indoors this week. That included a dominant victory over CMU’s Danna Taylor and another convincing straight-set win over Ysabel Gonzalez-Rico, Emory’s star who won the NCAA singles title last year. In fact, Leong’s only loss this whole year has been to UCLA’s #3 singles player.
What’s next: CMS plays a whole bunch of matches at home in March while teams are visiting Southern California for spring break trips.
Honorable mention: Georgia Ryan of Pomona-Pitzer went 3-0 at #2 singles during Indoors
What are you most excited for this season: Can we see a Wesleyan-CMS matchup please? It’s not on the schedule but I am hopeful because NCAAs.
Indoors recap in 5 words: The finals was really great.
Fav D3 mascot: The Bowdoin polar bear is pretty cute.

And that’s a wrap on this week! Check the blog next Wednesday for the next POTW, and, again, if you’re interested in joining the women’s blog, shoot me an email (d3newomens@gmail.com), tweet at me, or slide in to my DMs (@D3NEWomens)