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)

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.

Week 3: Amherst

Amherst finished last season at #13 in the country and I have them starting this season at #16. They return almost their whole team and 4-star recruit Sean Doerfler arrives on campus, and he was a great catch for the Amherst team. Amherst plays in the NESCAC, and this is unfortunate for them because they enter this year as the #4 team in conference. Last year Amherst made it's way to the Sweet 16 before falling to Middlebury. Although they did not have any key losses, they did not improve their team enough to improve upon their #13 ranking from last year. Amherst is very strong at the top of the lineup with Zack Lerner at #1 singles. He finished last year at #7, which was a great performance for him and I have him as preaseason #9 after he suffered a very close loss at ITA Regionals. Amherst is fairly strong at 2 and 3 but they are very vulnerable at the bottom of the lineup as well as doubles. They will have a tough team beating Williams and Bowdoin, especially with their lack of depth.

The Amherst team will need a great offseason to break into the top 15 in the spring and they will also need to pull an upset to break into the top 3 in the NESCAC. ITA's was a good approximation of where the Amherst team will stand going into the spring. Their players will need to train hard in the offseason and this is difficult for them at such a difficult academic institution. I would expect the Amherst team to finish somewhere between #14 and #17 in the country, just as I have them ranked and Zach Lerner should qualify and have a good showing at NCAAs. Amherst is a dangerous team but they don't have enough weapons to compete with the other Northeast powerhouses.

Projected Lineup
1. Lerner/Avrahmi
2. Doerfler/Mintz
3. Wan/Schwartz
1. Zach Lerner
2. Mike Mintz
3. Sean Doerfler
4. Jeff Wan
5. Geoff Schwartz
6. Tristan Biesecker

Next Week: Middlebury

Week 2: Williams

Williams enters the 2007-2008 season with a veteran team and a first year head coach. They are returning 5 of 6 starters from last year’s team who lost a heartbreaker in the NCAA Elite 8. Williams always has a lot of depth on their team and this year is no exception. I asked Coach Donn what he expects from his team this year and he said “as a coach, I will never put material goals onto our players. My goal each year is to prepare the team (both mentally and physically) as best I can for the spring season. We as a team cannot always control how well we play, but we can control how well we compete and that is the mentality I want to get out of them each year." Williams will have to be very prepared because they will face very tough opponents in their conference, the NESCAC, which is probably the toughest conference in the country and has 7 potential Top 25 teams. Williams will really need to train hard in the offseason to beat the likes of Amherst, Middlebury and Bowdoin. This will be quite a task for the Williams team who has to deal with a very rigorous academic workload. But Coach Donn said that he feels his players do a great job with their work ethic.

Williams has great depth as a team and should almost never lose at #5 and #6. As their senior captain and team leader, Dan Greenberg is looking to have a special season both for his team and as an individual. He will enter the spring season as a contender at NCAA’s and a strong #1 for Williams. The middle of Williams lineup is strong but they are vulnerable there as well as having fairly weak doubles compared to the other top teams in the country. Williams strong suit are their 4-6 players who will be very tough to beat. I expect Williams to return to the Elite 8, as I have them at #7 in the country heading into the spring. They will be tested in the NESCAC and this will prepare them well to face some of the best teams in the country. I wouldn’t expect Williams to make the Final 4, and it may take a big upset of Emory, CMS or Santa Cruz for them to do so. Williams is a solid team and they are always a threat to the big name teams, so definitely watch for this team to be a contender in the spring.

Projected Lineup
1. Greenberg/Thacher
2. Lebedoff/Simonette
3. Furmaga/Devlin
1. Dan Greenberg
2. Nick Lebedoff
3. Gary Simonette
4. Karol Furmaga
5. Rick Devlin
6. Jeremy Weinberger



Next Week: Amherst

Week 1: Gustavus Adolphus

Gustavus Adolphus has a streak of 8 straight appearances in the NCAA Elite 8 and 3 straight appearances in the Final Four. This team is a Division III powerhouse who has competed for a national championship every year for the last 15 years. This year’s team is no different. Coming off a 4th place finish last year in NCAA’s, Gustavus is looking to top that performance. They are known for their strong doubles, and this year it is doubtful that they will ever trail after doubles in a dual match. I had a chance to talk with Coach Wilkinson and he said that he feels “doubles strategy is one of the team’s strong suits.” GAC starts their real season by hosting the National Indoor Championships, where they are always the favorites, no matter who is there.

Gustavus has matches during the spring against all of the top teams in the nation at neutral sites, and this is where they will really be tested. Gustavus has the firepower and personnel to stay with anyone in the country. It is absolutely crucial for Gustavus to win at least 2 doubles matches against any top 10 team because they will struggle in singles against top teams. Coach Wilkinson said that he believes “there are more good teams out there this year and they will need to get better as a team to maintain a 4th place finish in NCAAs.” Coach Wilkinson also expects Andy Bryan to improve as a singles player and I expect him to be one of the contenders in NCAAs after his second place finish at the Fall Nationals in Mobile. He should make at least the quarterfinals of Singles and I am sure GAC will return to the Elite 8 for the 9th straight year as a team. Whether they can make the Final Four is still up in the air. Going in to the spring, I have them ranked as the 6th best team in the country, but a victory against Wash U, Emory or Middlebury is very do-able for this team. Expect Gustavus to be a threat to top teams all season long and expect Coach Wilkinson to have his team ready for a run at a National Championship in 2008.

Projected Lineup
1. Bryan/Paukert
2. Kauss/Burdakin
3. Hansen/Tomasek
1. Andy Bryan
2. John Kauss
3. Mike Burdakin
4. Charlie Paukert
5. Ben Tomasek
6. Aaron Zenner


Next Week: Williams

Plan for Offseason

Since there won't be much action between Mid-October to Mid-Febuary, I will have a Team spotlight each week, where I thoroughly analyze each team's strengths and weaknesses. There are 18 weeks, starting October 22nd and ending Febuary 18th.

October 22nd- Gustavus Adolphus
October 29th- Williams
November 5th- Amherst
November 12th- Middlebury
November 19th- Chicago
November 26th- Emory
December 3rd- CMS
December 10th- Kenyon
December 17th- Carnegie Mellon
December 24th- Wash U
December 31st- UC Santa Cruz
January 7th- Trinity (TX)
January 14th- Bowdoin
January 21st- Depauw
January 28th- Redlands
February 4th- Mary Washington
February 11th- Johns Hopkins
February 18th- Kalamazoo
February 22nd- ITA NATIONAL INDOORS (Gustavus, Depauw, Hopkins, Wash U, Emory, Santa Cruz, Mary Washington, Trinity)

ITA Nationals

Predictions for Fall Nationals:

Doubles:
Cutler/Hoeland over Wang/Hough
Marinkovic/Thomson over Cocanougher/Kowal
Bryan/Paukert over Buxbaum/Kinrade
Goodwin/Lopp over Wilner/Katz

Wang/Hough over Cocanougher/Kowal
Buxbaum/Kinrade over Wilner/Katz

Cocanougher/Kowal over Wilner/Katz
Wang/Hough over Buxbaum/Kinrade

Marinkovic/Thomson over Cutler/Hoeland
Bryan/Paukert over Goodwin/Lopp

Cutler/Hoeland over Goodwin/Lopp
Bryan/Paukert over Marinkovic/Thomson

1. Bryan/Paukert
2. Marinkovic/Thomson
3. Cutler/Hoeland
4. Goodwin/Lopp
5. Wang/Hough
6. Buxbaum/Kinrade
7. Cocanougher/Kowal
8. Wilner/Katz


Singles:

Watts over Klimchak
Lim over Loden
Greenberg over Boren
Bryan over Gaines

Loden over Klimchak
Gaines over Boren

Boren over Klimchak
Loden over Gaines

Watts over Lim
Bryan over Greenberg

Greenberg over Lim
Watts over Bryan

1. John Watts
2. Andy Bryan
3. Dan Greenberg
4. Mikey Lim
5. Randy Loden
6. Oliver Gaines
7. Mark Boren
8. Michael Klimchak