Thursday, February 28, 2008

Match Preview: #12 DePauw vs. #19 Kalamazoo (March 2)

Kalamazoo has had a mixed start to a rebuilding season and DePauw is recently recovering from a 7th place showing at the national indoors. DePauw finished last year as the 6th ranked team in the country, but they will need to step it up if they want to get back into the top 8. This match could be a turning point for both teams' season. If Kalamazoo can pull this upset, they could gain confidence and continue their winning ways. If DePauw can win convincingly, they also can gain confidence going into some more difficult matches. Kalamazoo's strength is their doubles where they could have the edge, but DePauw is more solid throughout singles. Expect a fairly east win for DePauw.

Probable Starters:
1. #12 Keith/Swanson (D) vs. Brown/Jadun (K)
2. Heck/Sandager (D) vs. Wise/Boyd (K)
3. Schouweiler/Nash (D) vs. Unger/Hubbard (K)

1. #17 Kortney Keith (D) vs. Jason Brown (K)
2. Scott Swanson (D) vs. Cyrus Jadun (K)
3. #23 Bryan Heck (D) vs. Matt Wise (K)
4. Hunter Schouweiler (D) vs. Tim Hubbard (K)
5. Scott Sauer (D) vs. Patrick Boyd (K)
6. Will Gates (D) vs. Josh Rinaldi (K)

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Match Preview: #4 Washington Univ. vs. #17 Univ. of Chicago (March 1)

This UAA battle should be an interesting match, particularly in the top and middle of the lineup as well as at 2 and 3 doubles. Wash U should prove to have too much firepower, but there is no reason Chicago can't squeak out 3 points. Watts and Cutler should win with a struggle at the top for the Bears, but Chicago should be very competitive at 3, 4, 5. Saltarelli had a win over Hoeland last season and that should be the matchup at 5. Wash U will be too much at 1 doubles, but 2 and 3 doubles could go Chicago's way if they are playing well. Wash U should win this fairly comfortably, but look for some competitive matches.

Probable Starters:
1. #3 Cutler/Hoeland (WU) vs. Brinker/Saltarelli (UC)
2. Watts/Stein (WU) vs. Zhang/Bakhutashvili (UC)
3. Woods/Choradia (WU) vs. Bonner/Sithian (UC)

1. #1 John Watts (WU) vs. #34 William Zhang (UC)
2. #22 Charlie Cutler (WU) vs. #45 Lado Bakhutashvili (UC)
3. Danny Levy (WU) vs. Tim Walsh (UC)
4. Max Woods (WU) vs. Garrett Brinker (UC)
5. Chris Hoeland (WU) vs. Steve Saltarelli (UC)
6. Isaac Stein (WU) vs. Mark Bonner (UC)

Match Previews

Match previews will be posted 2-3 days before the match. Here is a list of some upcoming previews that you can expect to see

March 1 - #4 Washington vs. #17 Chicago
March 2 - #12 DePauw vs. #19 Kalamazoo
March 5 - #3 CMS vs. #9 Mary Washington
March 8 - #9 Mary Washington vs. #14 Redlands
March 11 - #10 Bowdoin vs. #15 Carnegie Mellon
March 14 - StagHen Invitational
March 14 - #21 Washington & Lee vs. #23 Denison

More to come...keep checking

As well as match previews, I will also try to stay updated on all results that happen from key matchups and post them for your convenience.

Rankings, Wednesday Feb 27th, Team/Singles/Doubles

National Team Rankings
1. Gustavus Adolphus - A very impressive showing at the national indoors. Their doubles looks almost untouchable at the moment.
2. UC Santa Cruz - Granted they were missing Pybas, but still a good performance at the indoors, beating a tough Wash U team.
3. CMS - They decided to avoid the indoors, and they will have several big tests in the upcoming weeks. Starr is back again which good news for the Stags.
4. Wash U - A great win over Emory, but I'm sure it was a dissapointment to not win the Indoors. They won't really be tested for a while.
5. Emory - Their first loss to Wash U in a long time, but they were missing Lopp. They need to improve in doubles to win against top 5 teams.
6. Middlebury - They haven't started their season.
7. Williams - They haven't started their season.
8. Trinity (TX) - A solid 5th place showing at Indoors. They have some great doubles teams but need to step it up in singles against good teams.
9. Mary Washington - A good 1-2 punch and a good win over DePauw at Indoors. They are a very dangerous team if the bottom of their singles lineup is playing well.
10 Bowdoin - Haven't started their season yet.
11. Kenyon - Maybe the most impressive results of any team in the country so far. They will be tested in Cali. An 8-1 win over a very deep Carnegie team is remarkable.
12. DePauw - A dissapointing 7th place with their #4 seed. They need to step it up in singles and doubles to win the conference and get back in the top 8 in the country.
13. Johns Hopkins - An 8th place finish for an overmatched team. They are not deep enough to compete with the best in the country.
14. Redlands - A good win over Washington & Lee. They will be tested in the upcoming weeks. Very good doubles.
15. Carnegie Mellon - A good team who just needs to get it together. They can compete with the best, but they haven't shown it yet.
16. Amherst - Haven't started their season yet.
17. Chicago - A solid showing against Kenyon, but they don't have the players to compete with a top 10 team.
18. Christopher Newport - A very underrated team. They are deep and have solid players at the top, they could be dangerous for some Mid-Atlantic teams.
19. Kalamazoo - Maybe Coach Riley can recruit some superstars, but for right now they just aren't what they used to be.
20. Whitman - Took a big hit this year with loss of seniors. They are very good, but not when they leave the Pacific Northwest.
21. Washington & Lee - A dissapointing start to the season for the Generals. They need to rebound quickly if they want to contend, especially in doubles.
22. UW-Whitewater - A very good team that is underrated. They could make some noise and people may notice them if they give Gustavus a hard time.
23. Denison - A good Midwest team, but this year they are overmatched against their rivals Kenyon.
24. TCNJ - Haven't been tested yet, but they are not bad.
25. Trinity (CT) - Haven't started their season yet

National Singles Rankings
1. Watts, Wash U
2. Bryan, Gustavus
3. Greenberg, Kenyon
4. Kamel, UCSC
5. Wang, CMS
6. Greenberg, Williams
7. Lim, CMS
8. Maldow, Hopkins
9. James, UMW
10. Starr, CMS
11. Pybas, UCSC
12. Lerner, Amherst
13. Loden, UMW
14. Pelton, Hope
15. Kauss, Gustavus
16. Olson, Middlebury
17. Keith, DePauw
18. Boren, Emory
19. Gaines, Trinity (TX)
20. Ortiz, UCSC
21. Furr, Trinity (TX)
22. Cutler, Wash U
23. Heck, DePauw
24. Goodwin, Emory
25. Gates, Bowdoin
26. Feldman, Trinity (CT)
27. Klimchak, TCNJ
28. Bielawski, Wabash
29. Fletcher, Methodist
30. Mark-Griffin, UCSC
31. Nemerov, CMU
32. Marinkovic, Middlebury
33. Yook, Chapman
34. Zhang, Chicago
35. Wagar, Redlands
36. Polster, Kenyon
37. Borg, UW-Whitewater
38. Phillips, UT-Tyler
39. Lopp, Emory
40. Burdakin, Gustavus
41. Vayghan, St. Thomas
42. Stein, Bates
43. Sutton, Greensboro
44. Ross, Washington & Lee
45. Bakhutashvili, Chicago
46. Muliawan, CMU
47. Dunn, Mississippi
48. Liebman, Redlands
49. Tilton, Calvin
50. Solomon, Whitman


National Doubles
1. Marinkovic/Thomson, Middlebury
2. Kamel/Vartabedian, UCSC
3. Cutler/Hoeland, Wash U
4. Bryan/Paukert, Gustavus
5. Goodwin/Lopp, Emory
6. Cocanougher/Kowal, Trinity (TX)
7. Greenberg/Polster, Kenyon
8. Wang/Schils, CMS
9. Burdakin/Kauss, Gustavus
10. Pybas/Ortiz. UCSC
11. Buxbaum/Kinrade, Haverford
12. Keith/Swanson, DePauw
13. Lebedoff/Simonette, Williams
14. Gaines/Desantis, Trinity (TX)
15. Loden/Murata, UMW
16. Glidewell/Mook, CNU
17. Stein/Rupasinghe, Bates
18. Wagar/Cook, Redlands
19. Gates/Sullivan/ Bowdoin
20. Goff/Parrish, UMW
21. Borg/Lowe, UW-Whitewater
22. Furr/Tran, Trinity (TX)
23. Hansen/Tomasek, Gustavus
24. Ehlers/Caplan, Emory
25. Olian/Taylor, Pomona


Next Anticipated Ranking Date: March 14

WELCOME BACK!!

I apologize for this absence over the fall. I was very busy with job and traveling and I decided it was not worth it to try to keep up the previews. I'm sorry to those of you who did not get previews done.

Now that the season is in full swing, I will put the site back up and keep blogging several times per week. I'll start with some rankings for T/S/D as well as some upcoming match previews. There are a lot of big matchups that are coming up, so keep checking the site often. Also, I will try to do a big article on each school's recruiting class in the upcoming weeks.

Once again sorry for the absence and let's try to get some interaction on the message boards.