Wednesday, February 18, 2009

National Indoors Preview: #4 UC Santa Cruz vs. #7 Kenyon

1. Gendelman/Liberty-Point vs. Greenberg/Vandenberg
2. Kamel/Vartabedian vs. Becker/Brody
3. Mark-Griffin/Ortiz vs. Pisakacek/Polster

1. Max Liberty-Point vs. Mike Greenberg
2. Jared Kamel vs. Tomas Piskacek
3. Ilya Gendelman vs. Jeremy Polster
4. Max Ortiz vs. Charlie Brody
5. Colin Mark-Griffin vs. Will Vandenberg
6. Marc Vartabedian vs. Daniel Becker

Definitely the most intriguing first round match and also the most evenly matched. The doubles is very tough to call and I think that the best two #2 doubles teams in the country are on display here. I won't get into specifics, but I think Santa Cruz will be able to win 2 of the doubles because of their experience at this tournament and on a big stage. A sweep by either team in doubles would be a shock for me. Moving to singles, you have to like Kenyon at the top 2 spots and I also like them at 6. Santa Cruz has the edge at 5, Mark-Griffin is one of the most consistent winners in the country in dual matches This leaves the matches at 3 and 4 to determine the outcome of the match. These are very tough to call. As of now, I have to give both to UCSC. I'm going to give Santa Cruz a 5-4 win here, but that score could easily be flipped. Really looking forward to this match.