NCAA Singles Preview

I did a regional breakdown and came up with an approximate bracket of what the tournament could look like. Let me know what you think and also if there are any glaring omissions.

John Watts vs. Ben Stein
Matt Solomon vs. John James
Spencer Feldman vs. Max Ortiz
John Kauss vs. David Maldow

Jared Kamel vs. Miguel Yunes
Chris Fletcher vs. Andrew Lee
Garrett Gates vs. James Furr
Randy Loden vs. Kortney Keith

Mark Boren vs. Dan Greenberg
Filip Marinkovic vs. Brian Pybas
Lawrence Wang vs. David Sutton
Dustin Phillips vs. Andy Bryan

John Pelton vs. Zack Lerner
Charlie Cutler vs. Michael Goodwin
Mike Klimchak vs. Oliver Gaines
Mike Greenberg vs. William Moss

Bracketology (Issue #2) April 8, 2008

We made a few errors on the first article. There are 26 automatic bids and only 8 Independents. Since the At-Large situation is still very up in the air, we gave the two remaining bids to Carnegie and Trinity(CT). Obviously, it is clear that the situation is unclear and you can make arguments for almost any of the teams making it. We should know more a week from now and we will be able to more accurately assess the At-Large situation. We also have to do more research on the #7 and #8 Independent schools, because they are weaker teams and hard to follow and evaluate. Look for a couple of the lower seeded teams to change in the coming weeks which could effect a few regions. As much as everyone dislikes it, Gustavus still really doesn't have to play anyone. We highly doubt that the committee would make them travel anywhere, so they basically have a free ride to Bates. Feel free to discuss the brackets and ask any questions you may have. And once again, we should know a lot more by Issue #3.

Region 1: Santa Cruz*, CMS, Redlands, Whitman, UT-Tyler
Region 2: Williams*, Trinity(CT), TCNJ, Vassar, MIT, SUNY Purchase
Region 3: Trinity(TX), W&L*, Carnegie Mellon, Stevens, Drew
Region 4: Washington*, DePauw, Carthage, Transylvania, Westminster
Region 5: Kenyon*, Johns Hopkins, Kalamazoo, Baldwin-Wallace, Messiah
Region 6: Emory, Mary Washington*, Christopher Newport, Alvernia, Baruch
Region 7: Gustavus*, UW-Whitewater, Grinnell, Wheaton, Luther
Region 8: Middlebury*, Amherst, Skidmore, Salve Regina, Southern Maine

D3tennis.com Team Rankings April 6,2008

1. UC Santa Cruz
2. Williams
3. Trinity (TX)
4. Washington
5. Kenyon
6. Emory
7. Gustavus Adolphus
8. CMS
9. Middlebury
10. Mary Washington
11. Redlands
12. Amherst
13. DePauw
14. Trinity (CT)
15. Washington and Lee
16. Johns Hopkins
17. Carnegie Mellon
18. Chicago
19. Whitman
20. TCNJ
21. Salisbury
22. UT-Tyler
23. Bowdoin
24. Christopher Newport
25. Kalamazoo

Match Updates

#12 Mary Washington vs. #24 Christopher Newport, Mary Washington 6-3
#12 Mary Washington vs. #14 Carnegie Mellon, Mary Washington 6-3
#3 Williams vs. #11 Amherst, Williams 6-3
#16 Salisbury vs. #21 TCNJ, TCNJ 7-2
#9 Middlebury vs. #15 Trinity(CT), Middlebury 5-4
#5 Trinity (TX) vs. #23 UT-Tyler, Trinity (TX) 6-3
#14 Carnegie Mellon vs.#18 Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins 6-3
#3 Williams vs. #9 Middlebury (April 9)
#12 Amherst vs. #14 Trinity(CT) (April 10)
GLCA Tournament (April 11-April 12)
#1 Santa Cruz vs. #11 Redlands (April 11)
#4 Washington vs. Coe (April 12)
#8 CMS vs. #11 Redlands (April 12)
#9 Middlebury vs. #23 Bowdoin (April 12)
#16 Johns Hopkins vs. #21 Salisbury (April 13)
#10 Mary Washington vs. #20 TCNJ (April 13)
#12 Amherst vs. #23 Bowdoin (April 13)
#1 Santa Cruz vs. #8 CMS(April 13)

Match Preview: #3 Williams vs. #11 Amherst (April 5)

Maybe the biggest rivalry in Division 3 sports will be on display in this matchup of top 12 teams. Amherst started slow with a bad loss to Emory but recovered with a good win against DePauw. They haven't really been tested in D3 since then. Williams looks very good with first-year coach David Donn really emphasizing hard work. Williams destroyed a very good Wash U team in singles, which was a surprise to everyone. If Williams can dominate this match against a tough Amherst team, we can call them a legitimate national title contender. In singles, I think that Williams has the edge at all of the top 3 postions, but I like 4, 5 and 6 to potentially go to Amherst. In doubles, it's really a tossup, but I'll give it to Williams because they have been more match tested this year than the Jeffs. I would expect to see a 6-3 or potentially 5-4 win for Williams.

Probable Starters:
1. Greenberg/Thacher (W) vs. #23 Lerner/Doerfler (A)
2. #21 Lebedoff/Simonette (W) vs. Wan/Schwartz (A)
3. Furmaga/Devlin (W) vs. Mintz/Avrahmi (A)

1. #10 Dan Greenberg (W) vs. #8 Zack Lerner (A)
2. #48 Nick Lebedoff (W) vs. Sean Doerfler (A)
3. #39 Gary Simonette (W) vs. #44 Mike Mintz (A)
4. Jeremy Weinberger (W) vs. Jeff Wan (A)
5. Karol Furmaga (W) vs. Moritz Koenig (A)
5. Rick Devlin (W) vs. Daniel Kim (A)

Match Updates

#12 Mary Washington vs. #24 Christopher Newport, Mary Washington 6-3
#12 Mary Washington vs. #14 Carnegie Mellon (April 4)
#3 Williams vs. #11 Amherst (April 5)
#16 Salisbury vs. #21 TCNJ (April 5)
#9 Middlebury vs. #15 Trinity(CT) (April 6)
#5 Trinity (TX) vs. #23 UT-Tyler (April 6)
#14 Carnegie Mellon vs.#18 Johns Hopkins (April 6)
#3 Williams vs. #9 Middlebury (April 9)
#11 Amherst vs. #15 Trinity(CT) (April 10)
GLCA Tournament (April 10-April 12)
#1 Santa Cruz vs.#10 Redlands (April 11)
#4 Washington vs. #25 Coe (April 12)
#8 CMS vs. #10 Redlands (April 12)
#9 Middlebury vs. #22 Bowdoin (April 12)
#16 Salisbury vs. #18 Johns Hopkins (April 13)
#12 Mary Washington vs. #21 TCNJ (April 13)
#11 Amherst vs. #22 Bowdoin (April 13)
#1 Santa Cruz vs. #8 CMS(April 13)

Match Preview: #12 Mary Washington vs. #14 Carnegie Mellon (April 4)

Two very evenly matched teams with a lot on the line in this Atlantic South clash. Carnegie Mellon just found out that they are sitting at the #8 At-Large spot, so they need to do some work to get back into the tournament. Mary Washington just lost its first conference match in 8 years to a lesser Salisbury team. You can bet that both teams really want this one. I like Mary Washington to start out strong in doubles with the home court advantage. Look for wins at 1 and 2 doubles for the Eagles. Singles will make things interesting. James should take care of business at #1, but Loden has been very streaky of late. If he can win as well, that could give the Eagles a 4-1 lead and put them in the driver's seat. But Carnegie Mellon has the upper hand at 3, 4 and 5 singles with their outstanding depth. The Mary Wash guys in those spots really need to play at a high level to compete. I think #6 singles could decide the outcome of this match, but I would expect Mary Wash to pull out the win.

Probable Starters:
1. #18 Loden/Murata (UMW) vs. Muliawan/Mactaggart (CM)
2. Goff/Parrish (UMW) vs. Raghavan/Clearfield (CM)
3. James/Dunn (UMW) vs. Nemerov/Spero (CM)

1. #18 John James (UMW) vs. Andrew Clearfield (CM)
2. #27 Randy Loden (UMW) vs. #36 Alex Nemerov (CM)
3. Jason Dunn (UMW) vs. #28 James Muliawan (CM)
4. Eddie Carver (UMW) vs. Jon Spero (CM)
5. Evan Goff (UMW) vs. Ravi Raghavan (CM)
6. Bryce Parrish (UMW) vs. Bobby Mactaggart (CM)

D3tennis.com Doubles Rankings April 1, 2008

1. Kamel/Vartabedian, Santa Cruz
2. Goodwin/Lopp, Emory
3. Pybas/Ortiz, Santa Cruz
4. Schils/Wang, CMS
5. Marinkovic/Thomson, Middlebury
6. Gaines/Desantis, Trinity (TX)
7. Bryan/Paukert, Gustavus
8. Cutler/Hoeland, Wash U
9. Greenberg/Polster, Kenyon
10. Solomon/Solomon, Whitman
11. Gates/Sullivan, Bowdoin
12. Weterholm/Hunt, Cal Lutheran
13. Keith/Swanson, DePauw
14. Blythe/Vasoontaara, Johns Hopkins
15. Kincaid/Burtzlaff, Salisbury
16. Furr/Tran, Trinity (TX)
17. Burdakin/Kauss, Gustavus
18. Loden/Murata, Mary Washington
19. Wagar/Cook, Redlands
20. Floyd/Larimore, Pacific Lutheran
21. Lebedoff/Simonette, Williams
22. Becker/Brody, Kenyon
23. Lerner/Doerfler, Amherst
24. Glidewell/Mook, Christopher Newport
25. Yunes/Lopez, Carthage

Interview with Roger Follmer, Coach of Wash U

I gave Coach Follmer a set of questions and he was nice enough to provide me with responses which are given below. His team is now ranked #2 in the country by the ITA and is definitely a frontrunner for the national title this year.


I was pleased with how the guys adjusted quickly to playing outdoors on our Texas excursion to Austin & San Antonio over the weekend. We hadn't played a match since March 2nd versus conference rival, University of Chicago and that match was indoors. Each day in Texas, we seemed to get a little more grooved and comfortable extending rallies and playing on our terms.

Barely and thankfully we qualified for the Elite 8 last spring. We alsohosted the venue and it was such a great experience for our program at Washington University. We hadn't hosted a NCAA Championship on campus since WU volleyball did in 1991 and went on a streak of 6 NCAA titles in a row.

National Indoors was another new and great experience for our program (this group of players had never been). Seeing a lot of top competition early-on in the year and playing on super fast courts was a good way for the guys to learn how to be play 'uncomfortable' tennis. That is, if you don't dictate from the first opportunity off the ground (baseline) and/or attack the net, you likely were going to come up short.

The UAA Conference we play in is very tough. Emory over the years has set the standard high and all the programs (men & women) are all improving in the "process" of trying to get better. Our goals this year are pretty simple: 1) Improve our fitness level 2) Improve our practice & match focus and 3) Enjoy the Battle (like the Slugs of UCSC).

Finally, Mr. Watts is special because he plays within himself. I have had a player or two since I have been at WASH U that I thought were more gifted than John. However, both tried to do things that they saw on TV (ATP tour) and/or what they thought would be crowd pleasing tennis on those days we have fans at our matches. John simply plays solid tennis and breaks his opponents down and forces them to hit shots they have no business trying (ala ATP tennis on the Tennis Channel).

New ITA Rankings Released

1. UC Santa Cruz
2. Washington (MO)
3.Trinity (TX)
4. Williams
5. Gustavus Adolphus
6. Emory
7. Kenyon
8. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
9. Middlebury
10. Redlands
11. Mary Washington College
12. Salisbury
13. Amherst
14. DePauw
15. Trinity (CT)
16. Washington and Lee
17. Carnegie Mellon
18. Chicago
19. Whitman
20. The College of New Jersey
21. Bowdoin
22. Johns Hopkins
23. UT-Tyler
24. Christopher Newport
25. Coe
26. Kalamazoo
27. Bates
28. Carleton
29. Hardin-Simmons
30. Wisconsin-Whitewater