Fighting Squirrels fly over George Fox

The past week we spend a lot of time in practice talking about energy. We worked on exuding positive energy after points. In our match with the improved George Fox the guys were a bundle of positive energy. It was a treat to watch them start strong in doubles and let that energy spill over into singles. Etienne felt he was ready for doubles play so he and Matt got the opportunity to play #1 doubles. After the match Matt pointed out that this is the first dual match they have played together even though they are both two-time All-Americans with each other! Matt and ET got the ball rolling with an efficient 8-0 victory. #3 doubles wasn't very far behind with Jeffrey and Jasper finishing with a 8-1 victory. Quin and Christoph had a good battle at #2 winning 8-4 against a hard serving George Fox team.

In singles Etienne is starting to get into match form (because of injury he hasn't been able to play in 9 months). In only his second weekend of match play, ET made a huge improvement in his game. I absolutely love ET's coachability (not sure if that is a word but if not it should be). He has been working on adding some new patterns to his game and I'm convinced it will pay off as the season progresses. At #2 singles ET rolled to a 6-1, 6-0 victory.

The most interesting match of the day was at #1 singles where Matt took on George Fox's only all-conference performer from last year. At the beginning of the match Matt continued his struggles from the past week. He was down a break at 1-3 and playing very defensively..not hitting through the ball very well and being content to counterpunch. Even though Matt wasn't playing very confident tennis it was great to see him commit to playing a bigger game and dictate play. Its one thing to try to dictate play when playing well but completely different to do so when not hitting ball very clean. Not sure if I've ever seen such a rapid transformation in a player's game: from down 1-3 Matt wins 6-3, 6-1 against a very good opponent. After the match we both agreed it was the perfect match for Matt at the perfect time.

At #3 singles Jeffrey got his first singles victory of the year with a 6-1, 7-5 win. I was very proud of how Jeffrey overcame an incredibility tough week to come out and play solid tennis. I believe this young man is going to have a great year and by the end of the year will be competing with anyone in the nation.

Our yellow jersey wearer, Chris Bailey, had a solid 6-2, 6-1 victory at #4. I didn't get a chance to see Christoph Fuchs (#5) or Jasper Follows (#6) play as they were both outdoors. Christoph overcame a windy day to win 6-2, 6-2 and Jasper won 6-0, 6-0.

It was a treat to have another great turn out for our match. At the start of the match we had roughly 75 in attendance and I'm sure over a 100 people dropped by during the course of the match. It is wonderful to have so many members of the Whitman community come out to watch and support the team.

Match Scores