Goodbye to blogspot

This will be the last post to whitmantennis.blogspot.com.

Never fear I'm going to continue to blog at my new site

www.whitmantennis.net

Why move? Nothing like a new project over the winter but honestly Wordpress has more features and allows for far greater control over content and layout. I've moved all the old content over to the new blog and am currently working through all the old posts tagging and adding categories.

Make sure to subscribe to the new blog so you are informed when new content is added.

Goodbye dear old blogspot!

Photos from 2009 spring break

Was going through my computer files and ran across these pictures from our 2009 trip to Hilton-Head. Certainly a blast from the past. Enjoy!

2009 Pictures

An evening with the sleep doctor

The team had a wonderful dinner with Dr. Richard Simon last night in the Reid Campus Center. Dr. Simon is a '72 graduate of Whitman (and varsity tennis player) who is now one of the leading sleeping researchers in the nation. Dr Simon made the point of telling the team that if you see someone who is truly great make sure to follow them. Sage words from the sleep doctor.

Was a great experience for the team to be able to sit down with Dr Simon and talk about sleep, sleep issues, and ask questions. Dr Simon had some really fascinating information on sleep. For instance about 8 years ago Whitman student Jenny Schwartz conducted a study with the Whitman women's tennis players that focused on their serve and sleep. Basically she tracked 2nd serve percentage to a specific target with the student's normal sleep patterns and repeated the experiment with 2 more hours. Not surprising there was a statistically significant improvement with the 2 hours extra sleep. That experiment has since been repeated with Stanford varsity basketball players with similar results (free throws). One interesting fact that Dr Simon presented to the team was varsity athletes typically get 1 more hour of sleep than students not involved in athletics -- 7 hours vs 6 hours. However the 7 hours is still well below the 9 hours most college age students need.

We also spent quite a bit of time talking about resetting one's "rhythm" to adjust to time zone changes. This year we will be spending time in Hawaii and Washington DC so the information presented is very pertinent to our situation. Dr Simon stressed it was the wake up time that adjusts one sleep clock. He suggested when traveling to an Eastern time zone to start getting up 1/2 hour earlier and immediately getting full spectrum light (sunlight) a few weeks before the date of travel.

Of particular interest was the topic of naps. Basically sleep is good and if done properly naps can make a person more alert and reduce "sleep debt". It was suggested that if one has an important task (like a test) in the afternoon or evening a good strategy would be to drink a cup of coffee and then take a 20 minute nap. However be careful not to nap too long and then potentially wake up from stage 3 sleep. Waking up from stage 3 sleep can cause "sleep drunkenness" and heavy lethargy.

Also for the parents out there -- it is completely natural for teenagers to have a sleep cycle of staying up late and sleeping-in the morning. It appears that humans are wired to have different sleep patterns at different ages.

Question for those that stayed away through this article -- how can you tell if you are getting enough sleep? Answer -- if you don't need an alarm clock to wake up.

Big thanks to Dr Simon for taking the time to have dinner with the tennis team.

Calling All Alumni

I can't tell you how excited I am that the Vegas reunion is less than a week away! I am looking forward to catching up with everyone during a fun weekend. Since we are all getting in at different times (even different days, for some people), let's plan on meeting at 9PM Friday evening in the lobby of the Mirage. If anyone gets in later, please call me on my cell phone and I will tell you where to meet us. If you don't have my cell number email me this week.

Going to be an amazing weekend and I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone!

Pumpkin Carving!

One of our annual team traditions is an evening of pumpkin carving. This tradition has become quite serious for the guys and they all strive to win the two prizes -- the Ben and Anna 1st place award. Several years ago I started asking my children which of the Jack-o-Lanterns they like most. This year the awards go to Matt's Harry Potter logo (Ben's pick) and Colton/James for their Kirby creation (Anna's Pick).



This year was a bit unique as the carving competition was during family weekend. Many of the parents came over for dinner (dutch oven chili and corn bread, smoked chicken and pork) and to watch the competition.

Here is a link to pictures from the evening.

Day 2 and 3 of the ITA's

Today is the end of day 3 of the ITA's. Yesterday Andrew had a struggle against the elements and #1 ranked Dillon Pottish of Emory. Andrew was disappointed that he lost to the #1 player in the nation 6-2, 6-2. It was a rough loss for Andrew as the high humidity and tough opponent were too much for him to handle. At the end of the match I was worried how Andrew was dealing with the heat and humidity and if he would be able to continue with the tournament. After a day in the hotel and lots and lots of water, Andrew was feeling like his normal self.

Today Andrew had a 8:30am match against #4 seed Amrik Donkena of Gustavus Adolphus College. Turned out to be a very streaky match. In the 1st set Andrew was up 5-4 serving only to lose 3 straight games and drop the 1st set 7-5. The second set was even up to about 3-3 when Andrew picked up his level of play reeling off 7 straight games to go up 5-7, 6-3, 4-0. Down 0-4 Donkena was ready to give up the match and made a major change in tactics (slicing most every ball) and clawed his way back into the set at 3-4 (Andrew up a break). Serving at 4-3 Andrew totally stepped up the plate to easily hold serve and break to win the match.

Tomorrow Andrew plays the #3 seed Joey Fritz of Amherst. Like Andrew, Fritz is a talented sophomore. I believe in his last year of junior tennis Fritz was ranked as high as #19 in the nation! He might be the highest ranked player ever to play DIII. Kind of interesting fact about the tournament -- because of the play-in match and the draw placement, Andrew will have played 4 of the top 5 players in the tournament. Talk about some tough matches!

As usual someone (thanks Conor) will be twittering the scores.

Day 1 at the USTA/ITA National Championships

Today was play-in day at the 2011 USTA/ITA National Championships in Mobile, AL. These championships have evolved to where the winners of the PNW and Texas regional tournaments arrive a day early for a one match play-in. Win that match and you are guaranteed three more matches. Lose and you are out of the tournament. Its not a perfect system but financially much better than the old format where the regional tournament alternated between Texas and PNW.

Since the separation of the PNW/Texas tournaments (6 years ago) it has been a Whitman vs Trinity affair in singles. I believe in doubles it has been Whitman and Trinity 4 of the past 6 years. Because of this history both teams/players are well acquainted with the play-in system.

In the singles play-in match sophomore Andrew La Cava had the tough task of playing the #4 player in the nation in Trinity senior Max Frey. At the end of last year he was one of the hottest players in the nation advancing to the semis in the NCAA individual tournament.

Today Andrew played a brilliant match to knock off the Trinity player 6-3, 6-1. Funny how tennis works. A few weeks ago Andrew wasn't sure if he was even going to play in the regional tournament because of shoulder tendinitis. Because of a sore shoulder he hasn't been able to serve big and play his typical attacking serve and volley game. The past few weeks he has adapted to playing much more patient from the baseline and picking his spots to be aggressive. Today he focused on getting a high percentage of 1st serves in play and rolling the ball deep to neutralize Frey's huge game (he has a monster serve and forehand). Andrew executed his game plan perfectly and played his way into the final grouping. An odd part about the tournament is the ITA committee had to produce 2 different draws because of the play-in match system. If Frey would have won he would have been the #2 seed in the main draw. Instead Andrew now goes into the draw and now plays the #1 seed Dillon Pottish of Emory. Basically Andrew has to play the #2 and #1 seeds in the tournament on back-to-back days!

Unfortunately doubles didn't go as well. Senior Conor Holton-Burke and junior Matt Tesmond took on Frey and his partner. The Trinity combo is very experienced having played together all last season and part of the 2009 season. The Trinity team played incredibly solid tennis making most every return, forcing Conor and Matt into difficult situations. In the 1st set the Trinity team broke the 1st game of the set and never looked back winning 6-2. Early in the 2nd set it looked like the Trinity team would run away with the match as they broke to open the set. At 0-2 down the Whitties started to find their grove winning 3 straight games to go up 3-2 (on serve). The experience of the Trinity team showed as they didn't get rattled by Conor/Matt's improved play and they reeled off 4 straight games to take the match 6-2, 6-3.

Tomorrow Andrew plays at 10:30am. I will try to keep a Twitter feed going with live scores.

Here is a link to some pictures (updating tonight)

Team Squirrel tries out for the team.

Some video footage of Team Squirrel trying to make the Whitman tennis team.

Stay tuned for more adventurers of Team Squirrel!

On the road

Talk about great timing -- Whitman's Oct break is the same week as the ITA Small College National Championships. This not only means the players traveling don't miss a week of school but also that we can leave a bit early to prepare for the upcoming tournament. Yesterday (Monday) we left Seattle in the afternoon and flew into New Orleans in the late evening. Even with a 90 minute flight delay we made into New Orleans before midnight. This morning we woke up to adjust to the time change and will be hitting the road for the drive to Mobile.

The ITA Tournament starts on Wednesday for the champions of the PNW and Texas regionals. Andrew has a play-in match against the #4 player in the nation Max Frey of Trinity. After that match Conor and Matt take on Frey and his partner. Going to be a tough set of matches as the Trinity players are very good. Its kind of strange but for each of the past 6 years it has been a Whitman/Trinity match at the ITA play in (5 of 6 years in doubles). After playing Trinity last spring and matching up at the ITA national tournament during the fall both teams are used to seeing each other across the net.

I will try to provide Twitter updates during the matches tomorrow.

Big thanks to the La Cava family for their hospitality during our hold over in Seattle.

A Camping We Shall Go..

It is that time of the year for one of the team's more valued traditions -- our annual camping trip. I started this event a few years ago to share my love of the outdoors with my team. In doing so, everyone on the team has  realized what a great opportunity the trip is get to know each other and hang out without the distractions of cell phones, computers, TV, etc.

In past years we have gone on a decent backpacking trip into a wilderness area for our overnight. This year everyone was so pressed for time we decided a car camping trip would be the way to go. I'm pretty familiar with the Blue Mountains outside of Walla Walla and thought Mottet campground would be an ideal spot. Its only about an hour drive (probably only 20 miles as the crow flies) from campus, pretty easy to get to, had running water, and would probably be empty.

We arrived at the campground about 2pm Saturday and sure enough the campground was basically empty and we our choice of places to throw our tents. Once the tents were set up the guys hiked down the rough fork trail to the head waters of the South Fork of the Walla Walla. It's about 4 miles hike (each way) into a pretty steep canyon. While the team was hiking my daughter Anna (8 years old) and myself set up our camp and started cooking dinner. For dinner I prepared a think, hearty, three bean chili in my large dutch oven. After 3 hours of simmering in the cast iron dinner I used a smaller dutch oven to make fresh corn bread. Honestly the chili and cornbread turned out better than I could have hoped -- actually I'm always a bit surprised when I cook something that turns out well!

The chili was a perfect choice for dinner as the temp. really dropped and it got a bit chilly once the sun went down. Certainly the coldest evening I have had in a while and I would venture it dropped into the high 30's that night.

Once the chili was all but destroyed (I'm always surprised by how much college guys can eat) it was time for S'mores! Nothing like a hot fire roasted marshmallow and chocolate to wrap up a dinner. My daughter was heaven - not only was she camping with dad, hanging with the tennis team (2 of her favorite things to do) but she got to stuff herself with S'mores! After chatting around the fire for a couple hours everyone turned in about 9pm. 

In the morning I fired up coals to make dutch oven for a breakfast that included 36 eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, potatoes, green onions, onions and mushrooms -- I actually used 2 ovens to make one breakfast without pork. Unfortunately we couldn't stay around the camp for too long since people had to return to campus and the reality of being a student.

Pictures of the trip can be found on my flickr page.

Team vs Food

Last week the team had the unique opportunity to try our version of man vs food. After the 2nd day of the USTA/ITA we headed out with several parents to the Oasis steakhouse for a late evening dinner. I must admit the staff at the Oasis treated us like kings -- amazing food, service and atmosphere.


The Oasis has an interesting challenge -- eat their 72 ounce steak, potato, and veggies and the meal is free. Plus you get your picture added to the Wall of Fame. We should of known the challenge was nearly impossible as only 1 person has EVER completed the challenge! Not to be deterred a few brave Whitties tried the 72 ounce challenge. No one really came close to finishing the steak but they gave it the old college try.

I have to say in all my years coaching college tennis this has to be the most unique and interesting team dinner I have EVER seen! Here is the link to the pictures.

Papa Roston thanks for the amazing dinner!

USTA/ITA Wrap up

*Disclaimer - the posts, stories, videos, pictures, themes, links, electronic media and other forms of communication contained within this blog do not represent the views of Whitman College or the Whitman College Administration. This blog is not hosted nor stored on any college server*


Amazing final day of the USTA/ITA tournament at Whitman. I hosted regional tournament as a Sat-Mon event so no players miss Friday classes and only a few miss class on Monday. It was pretty cool playing matches on Monday -- even though the tournament was all Whitman people would stop and watch between classes and as they walked to and from the library. It really is one of the special parts about Whitman tennis -- our courts are situated smack dab in the middle of campus.


The day started with #2 seed Andrew La Cava taking on Sam Sadeghi and #1 seed Conor Holton battling Jeff Tolman. Both were great matches and highly competitive. Andrew got by Sam with a break in each set 6-3, 6-4. Meanwhile Conor and Jeff had a wonderful match with each set decided by a late break. Conor squeaked by with a 7-5, 6-4 victory.


The finals between Andrew and Conor was an epic match. Perhaps one of the better singles matches I have seen on the Whitman courts. In fact long time Whitman tennis fan Martin McCaw wrote me an email saying the Andrew vs Conor match was the best match he had ever seen at the Whitman courts! When the dust settled Andrew defeated 7-6 in the 3rd 9-7 in the tiebreak.  Our amazing SID Dave Holden was a the courts and provide this write up.

 Two Whitman College tennis heavyweights, Andrew La Cava andConor Holton-Burke, went toe to toe for what seemed like 15 rounds in Monday's singles final of the USTA/ITA Pacific Northwest Fall Championships on Whitman's outdoor courts.

Andrew La Cava

Conor Holton-Burke

Both players were still standing at the end of three-hour title bout, even though both had landed and absorbed any number of feathery jabs and hard right hands.

Once the final bell sounded and the score cards were totaled, it was La Cava leaving the ring with an epic 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7) split-decision triumph.

Few points came easy in the slugfest, but La Cava needed one last remarkable flurry of punches to claim his crown.

After holding serve to even the third set at 6-6, La Cava quickly found himself on the wrong end of 5-1 and 6-2 counts in the tie-breaker.

But the crafty sophomore fought off four match points to the square the breaker at 6-6 and then added a fifth straight point to lead 7-6 and earn a match point of his own.

Holton-Burke, a rangy senior and the defending Northwest Conference (NWC) Player of the Year, picked off the next point to send the match back to deuce, only to see La Cava finish the marathon with the next two points.

In winning the regional singles title for a second straight year, La Cava used a service break to break free from a 5-5 deadlock in the first set. He then held serve to take the set at 7-5.

Holton-Burke bounced back to pocket a back-and-forth second set, breaking La Cava at 5-4 to win 6-4.

The deciding third set stayed on serve until La Cava broke Holton-Burke for a 5-4 lead. Holton-Burke broke right back, and both players held serve one more time to reach a 6-6 stalemate and set the stage for the climactic tie-breaker.

But the day was far from over for the two players. After a 90 min break both players returned with their partners for the doubles finals. If the singles final was epic I honestly don't know what to call the doubles final. This match also went the distance with Conor and Matt Tesmond winning 7-6 (12-10). Because of the length of the singles semi and finals this match started at 6pm and finished at 8pm under the lights. The match was so intense and the quality of play so high people started coming out of the library to watch the final set! 

Again here is Dave Holden's words about the doubles:

It took two hours for the doubles dust to settle, but Holton-Burke and doubles partner Matt Tesmond finally donned the doubles crown with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (12-10) victory over La Cava and his partner, Jeff Tolman.

The third set in particular was a sight to behold as neither side was able to break serve on the other, although they certainly gave it the good ol' college try.

With the third set even at two games apiece, Holton-Burke held serve on a game that needed two dozen points to decide.

Later in the third, with Holton-Burke and Tesmond leading 6-5, La Cava found a way to hold serve as he and Tolman staved off a match point to get the game back to deuce.

A few points later, La Cava reached into his bag of tricks for a semi-miraculous return to even the set at 6-6 and send the match to a first-to-seven tie-breaker.

While La Cava's match-extending return was a thing of beauty, it seemed to set the standard for a tie-breaker that featured more than just a few eye-popping returns.

After Tolman and La Cava jumped in front 4-3 in the breaker, Tesmond and Holton-Burke responded with three straight points to earn another match point at 6-4.

But the pendulum continued to swing and Tolman's stellar return made it 6-all. From there, the two sides swapped four more match points as the score deadlocked on points seven, eight, nine and 10.

The tie at ten proved to be last, however, as Holton-Burke and Tesmond strung together the next two points to claim the trophy.

Absolutely an amazing day of tennis. Funny emotions with the matches. While the tennis was electrify I was a bit depressed/sad at the end of the day that someone had to lose. The matches were of such a high quality and the matches so physical that it was a shame all couldn't share the winner's spotlight.

Day 2 of the USTA/ITA's

*Disclaimer - the posts, stories, videos, pictures, themes, links, electronic media and other forms of communication contained within this blog do not represent the views of Whitman College or the Whitman College Administration. This blog is not hosted nor stored on any college server*

Tennis fans sorry about the disclaimer but I have been advised to put some sort of disclaimer at the start of posts. Perhaps more on this later but for the moment suffice it to say that I have been asked to censor all my publications (including electronic).

It is actually day 3 of the USTA/ITA but once again a late evening (more on this later) prevented me from doing a write up of yesterday's action. We entered day 2 of the tournament with 10 players into the round of 16. We had some tough match ups but managed to get 7 into the round of 8. Steven Roston had one of the best wins of the day defeating #4 seed and last year's single finalist Cody Ferguson. One of the more entertaining (and draining matches) was Adriel Borshansky vs James Rivers. These two had an amazing 2.5 hour match with James ended up getting the better of his teammate 7-5, 7-5. Other all Whitman match up's included Sam Sadeghi taking out Will Huskey and Steven Roston. Andrew La Cava took out freshman Colton Malesovas and Jeff Tolman took out James Rivers.

Match of the day was Conor vs George Fox transfer Shawn Aldrich. Its a blast playing the Fox guys they are always incredibly fired up. From our point of view its awesome to be playing such a team -- it makes us better team/players and prepares us when we play on the road. It took Conor 3 sets be he showed a lot of maturity winning 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.

We also had great luck in the doubles. We managed to get 5 of the final 8 spots. Unfortunately for Will/Adriel they had to play #1 seeds Jeff/Andrew in the round of 8. Will/Adriel lost 8-3 but played great and both had a wonderful tournament. Conor and Matt took down the #1 team from Linfield (and #7 seeds) 8-3. Meanwhile James/Sam and Colton/Steven took out the only remaining non-Whitman teams (both from George Fox). In the semi-finals Jeff/Andrew got the better of Sam/James and Matt/Conor defeated Colton/Steven.

Singles semifinals are just about to get underway -- Jeff vs Conor and Sam vs Andrew. I will try to provide a twitter stream.

Sorry for typos or grammar errors in this post -- with matches starting I don't have time to do a proof.

Day 1 of the USTA/ITA

Man what a great first day of the USTA/ITA Regional Tournament. Unfortunately its getting late and I had a very early day setting up for the tournament. It is certainly a blast for the guys to be playing at home (especially on a day when the temp hit 90) but it makes for a long day for the tournament director!

Let me say it today was a wonderful start to the season for the Whitties. We had 12 players in entered in the singles day and we managed to get 10 through to the round of 16. Nasko dropped a tough match to a seeded player in the first round but he had some moments of great tennis -- in fact he had several opportunities to take a 3-0 lead in the second and couldn't quite get it done. Transfer Dylan Bodet had a great day of tennis playing well and bombing some serves. He won his first match in straight sets before dropping a close three set match to a seeded player.

Some highlights from the day.

• Sophomores Will Huskey and Steve Roston showed great character and intensity taking down seeded players. Will knocked off the #7 seed 6-1, 4-6 10-7 and Steven knocked off the #13 seed and #2 player from Pacific 7-5, 6-4. Andrew La Cava (#2 seed) rolled through his first two matches 6-1, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0
• The Freshman came up big today! James Rivers took down the #3 seed 6-1, 6-0 and Colton Malesovas defeated the #8 seed 6-3, 6-2
• Not to be outdone the Juniors also posted a strong day. Jeff Tolman #6 seed advanced with a pair of straight set wins (6-2, 7-6 and 6-0, 6-3). Sam Sadeghi (#13 seed) rolled to a pair of straight set wins and Matt Tesmond knocked off the #5 seed 10-8 in a 3rd set match breaker.
• The two seniors also advanced to the second day -- #1 seed Conor Holton Burke won 6-0, 6-0 and 6-2, 6-1 and Adriel Borshansky won 6-1, 6-2, and 6-3, 6-1

In doubles everything went our way. We have the #1 seeds Jeff Tolman/Andrew La Cava who only dropped 2 games in 2 matches. And #2 seeds Conor Holton-Burke/Matt Tesmond won 8-5 and 8-1.

Colton and Steven continued their strong play winning 2 matches including defeating the #3 seeds 8-4. Adriel and Will took down the #5 seeds in the 1st round 8-4 and then won their second match 8-3. Sam and James completed a wonderful evening taking down the #4 seeds 8-2 and then coming back from 1-4 down to win their second match 8-4. Great doubles for the Whitties -- we took down the #3, #4 and #5 seeds and placed 5 teams into the round of 8. Our only loss was Nasko and Dylan and dropped a close 8-6 match to the #7 seeds.

Tomorrow matches start at 10am with the main draw on the outdoor courts and the backdraw on the indoor courts.

Remember my friends fun and go nuts!

Singles Draw

Doubles Draw

PS Sorry about not returning text messages and stopping the twitter feed..my phone battery died!

Team Squirrel gets ready for the ITA/USTA Tournament

Last night I had an interesting talk with "team squirrel" about playing on the team and the ITA Regional tournament. After our interview I'm really excited about the possibility of "team squirrel" joining the team. 

ITA/USTA Regional Tourmament Draws

Whitman is hosting the 2011 ITA/USTA regional championships this weekend. This is a such a wonderful event and opportunity for the players. Outside of the NCAA individual championships its the only event where everyone, regardless of team position, is put into one draw. Below are links are to the tournament draws.

More to come..

Singles

Doubles

Updated career matches

Hello Whitman tennis fans. I updated the Whitman career match statistics (since 1995) spreadsheet. Probably more interest for the alumni than parents or friends. Still kind of fun to look at. The link is posted on the right side of the blog.

Career matches

At the top of that sheet are links to different sorting options.

Interesting conditioning program for the team this afternoon -- 5 mile mountain hike (2.5 miles up and down) with 1500 elevation change. Will be interesting to see how quickly the guys can finish the "Blue Mountain Challenge"

Blackberry Picking Trip

Out looking for berries

In my last post I mentioned the importance of getting off the Whitman campus and exploring the surrounding area(s). Besides being historically important (at one time Walla Walla was the capital for the Northwest Territories) the Walla Walla area is full of incredible outdoor opportunities.

*As a side note to learn more about the wilderness areas around SE Washington/NE Oregon visit Grant Ritchie's (a Whitman alum and dear friend) webpage hikeandfishing. *

Prof Hutch

Sunday provided a perfect opportunity for exploration and team bonding as we joined the women's team for some blackberry picking and a dutch oven dinner at Professor Hutchinson's spread on the South Fork of the Walla Walla. Besides being an incredibly popular Whitman professor, Hutch is also a huge fan of Whitman athletics. He routinely shows up at a number of athletic competitions. Funny story -- last year he was kicked out of a men's basketball game!

The new Texas boys!

Turned out to be a great time for blackberries. We have had an unusually cool summer so the blackberries are ripening a bit late. Luckily everyone was able to find plenty of berries to fill bellies (seems more berries go bramble-to-belly than bramble-to-bucket) and to provide fruit for dessert.

Dutch Oven Dinner

While the men and women were out collecting berries and exploring the river, I got the dutch ovens ready for the dinner. I'm the first to admit that I'm a dutch oven rookie but I enjoy the experience of cooking outdoors over a fire. Honestly I was nervous about cooking for both teams. Besides preparing a new recipe I was also cooking for the women's team. Over the years I've learned that guys get hungry in college and are grateful for any meal I cook. They, in turn, have learned to heap praise on my cooking so I keep cooking for the them. Not sure if this is an example of a symbiotic relationship or a positive feedback loop, but it seems to work well.  However I wasn't sure how the women would react to my cooking. I used this chicken paad thai recipe as a start for my dinner. By the way I don't know the author of the "Back Porch Gourmet" Blog but he has some great outdoor cooking recipes and ideas. For the dinner I used two ovens -- one for chicken and one for a veggie version. Dinner must of been good because everyone went back for seconds! In fact the huge dutch oven with the chicken paad thai was gobbled up pretty quickly.

Wow what a dessert!

As dinner was wrapping up Coach John prepared Hutch's dutch ovens for dessert -- fresh blackberry & apple cobbler. Check out the picture of his amazing dessert! Throw in some vanilla ice cream, friends and roaring fire for one heck of a memorable evening.

Here is a link to photos from the evening.

At The County Fair

At the county Fair

Sorry, this should have been posted sooner but its been a busy couple of days. Besides the normal meetings, classes and appointments that usher in the start of the school year, a dead battery in my 1985 Jeep turned into a long few days of testing the alternator, replacing electrical lines, and for the heck of it replacing the power steering pump. On top of all this Saturday afternoon was the 23rd annual draft for my fantasy football league. And yes - our league has been at is so long that when we started there was no internet and we all anxiously waited for the Monday morning newspaper for player stats!

Heading up the grandstands

As a coach one thing I try to do with my team is get off campus to see the surrounding area(s). It would be a shame to spend the first week of college only spending time in the library, dorm room and courts. Besides, Walla Walla is fun to explore and, in fact, was recently named the friendliest town in the United States! And at the beginning of September there is no more interesting place to explore than the oldest fair in the state of Washington -- the Walla Walla Fair & Frontier Days!

Plus I wanted to give the guys on the team a very special experience -- a huge demo derby! The Walla Walla fair demo derby is one serious event. Its 3+ hours of speed, smashing and collisions in front of 4K yelling fans. Throw in some delicious (and very unhealthy) fair food, a beautiful evening and good friends for a very fun and very interesting evening.

flipped car at the derby

The first part of the demo derby is a series of heat races around the dirt track. Even though these heats are lap races there is plenty of bumping, crashing and broken down cars. In fact, this unlucky driver got pushed on his side and the fire trucks had to come out to make sure all was ok. Sam Sadeghi wasn't that impressed with the heat races and said driving in rush hour LA was a "bit like the demo derby except you don't get to go that fast."

Crazy time at the Demo Derby

 The end of the derby is a the-last-car-moving- wins race. All the cars line up around the arena and at the starting signal drivers try to a) disable other cars and b) try not to get disabled. Its a lot of loud cars, parts/tires falling off, crashes, and screaming fans. In this photo you can see unlucky car #19 getting pushed over the concrete barrier! Probably not a redeeming social value in attending the demo derby but I have to say everyone had a smashing good time.

Click here for more photos of the fair/demo derby

Beginning of the school year

Whitman is official off and running! Classes started yesterday but many members of the team been on campus for several days getting moved into dorm rooms/apartments/fraternities. Since most everyone back on campus it was time for an opening week dinner at coaches house!

Let me say I got a HUGE beef brisket from the market for the dinner -- dang thing was so large I had to cut it in half to fit it into the smoker! To go along with dinner I went to farmers market for a couple ripe watermelons, fresh green beans (I figured the mom's would be happy to know their sons were eating a veggie). To finish off the night I made dutch oven blueberry cake! I'm certainly not a dutch oven pro but I must say the cake was unbelievably moist and yummy.

Unfortunately I was so busy cooking and serving that I didn't have time to snap many photos. What I did take can found here.

Looking forward to more opening week activities with the team.

Tennis Alumni Reunion

Calling all tennis alumni -- the 2011 Whitman Tennis Reunion is ago for Nov 4-6 in Las Vegas! I've had great verbal response to the event and a group of dedicated alumni are working on putting the event together. All tennis alumni will be receiving something via email and/or mail about the reunion.

It was pointed out to me that Southwest currently has great deals into Vegas from the Pacific Northwest airports ($80 each way). Might want to jump on this deal before it ends!

More on the event later....

Uncorking a Great Time in Walla Walla

Enough of the tennis camps for junior players -- here is a very special tennis camp for the parents! July 21-24 we are hosting a tennis/wine tasting/gourmet food event at Whitman. Camp consists of morning tennis instruction, afternoon private wine tastings, and evening dinners with with winemakers.

If you haven't been to Walla Walla recently (or at all) you are missing a real treat. Home to over 120 wineries Walla Walla has been called one of the wine capitals of the United States. Along with the wineries there are a plethora of great restaurants in the area. Walla Walla is now one of the top vacation destinations for wine enthusiasts. Talk about a perfect pairing -- tennis at Whitman and Wine Drinking in Walla Walla. Also the profits from this event go to the Whitman tennis programs.

Joining me running this camp is our women's coach John Hein. John is an incredible coach and brings a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm to the courts. And speaking of enthusiasm Coach Greg Patton of Boise State will be helping direct the camp. We are very lucky to have Greg joining us at event. He is one of the top coaches in the nation and brings unparalleled energy to the courts. He is the only person in college tennis to be named College Coach of the Year with two different teams (UC Irvine and Boise State) and he was the US Junior Davis Cup coach to Sampras, Courier, Chang, Wheaton (among others) when they were cutting their teeth on the professional ranks.

Here is a link to the camp flyer. If you know someone who loves tennis and wine make sure they get a copy of the flyer!

If you have any questions please email me at coach@whitman.edu

End of the year rafting/camping trip

Talk about a whirlwind week! After returning from St. Louis there was only a day left in the final exam period so many players were busy taking exams and wrapping up the school year. The period between the end of finals and graduation is nicknamed "Camp Whitman" because the campus is alive with activity but no classes/homework/tests. Just a few days of hanging out with good friends before the summer. I decided to take "Camp Whitman" a step further and took members of both tennis teams on an overnight rafting trip down the Wallowa and Grande Ronde Rivers.

Big thanks to Minam Raft Rentals for providing us the rafts. As usual their service was awesome -- we showed up at their shop Thursday afternoon and the rafts were waiting for us to load. Let me say the Grande Ronde river was running hard which created some issues (more on this later). A couple weeks ago the river was running was at 5.5k CFS (cubic feet per second) but during our trip the river was almost 13k! In fact the towns of Elgin and Troy were experiencing some minor flooding.

We had a great float Thursday. Weather was near 70 and the high water flow created some fun rapids. About 6pm it was time to get off the water and set up camp. With the high water flows it takes some planning and hard rowing to beach a raft. I along with two other rafts managed to pull out at one of the best camp spots in the canyon section. However one raft (ET, Steven, and Jake) wasn't paying attention and overshot the take out. Since there is no going upstream we reloaded and chased the wayward boaters down the river. Once we all grouped up I talked about the importance of proper planning and rowing to get the rafts ashore in the high water. Once again I took the lead to scout for good camp spots. At another wonderful looking spot I and two boats pulled off only to see the ET/Jake/Steven raft miss the take out! Let's just say it took a total of four take out attempts (and a new rower in the ET/Jake/Steven raft) before we managed to get everyone ashore.

Even though our take out was later than originally planned we managed to have a wonderful meal of steak and chicken fajitas, dutch oven rice and a special pot of dutch oven beans. Was quite the evening of cooking -- I had two two-burner stoves and two dutch ovens cooking at the same time!

With the sound of rushing water outside the tents most everyone had a great night sleep (Jake and ET didn't bring sleeping bags so their sleep wasn't so great). Friday was pretty uneventful: two dutch oven breakfast meals, pack up camp, load up rafts and float the final stretch to our final take out.

Certainly a fun way to wrap up the year. Here is a link to pictures from the trip.

Season Ends in ST Louis

All good things must come to end and unfortunately for us it ended a bit too early. On Saturday we were defeated by a very competitive UW - Whitewater team 5-2. We knew going into the match we were going to have a tough match. Unfortunately the match was a bit too competitive and the Whitewater team took an early lead and never looked back.

Over the weekend the weather in St Louis was cold and rainy forcing indoor play. Even though we have plenty of experience playing indoors, I think the move was more a benefit to the big serving Whitewater team. In doubles they were able to control the momentum of the matches with big serves and returns. At #1 doubles Andrew/Conor lost to one of the top teams in the central region 8-5. As a side note the Whitewater duo will be playing in the NCAA doubles championship next week. At #2 doubles ET/Jeff played their usual solid doubles to tie the match at 1-1. At #3 doubles we were broke in the 3rd game of the match and the Whitewater team served their way to an 8-6 win (they were never broken).

Going into singles we were down 1-2 but still full of confidence. The previous weekend we were down 1-2 against LCSC and managed to come back and win 5 of the singles.

In singles we had a great team battle. Early on each team raced out to a lead in 3 of the singles. Whitewater won the 1st sets at #1, #4, and #5 while we won the 1st set at #2, #3, and #6. Unfortunately this really backed us into a corner knowing we needed to take 4 of the singles to win the match. Whitewater got on the singles board first winning at #1 and #4 putting them up 4-1. At #6 Adriel got us back into the match with a 6-0, 6-4 win. While ET was close to a victory (6-3, 5-4), Whitewater took #5 singles off a ball that hit the net cord and dribbled over for a winner. Tough way to lose an individual and team match -- dribbling ball off the net cord.

Such a tough ending for our season. We went into the match prepared but didn't play our best tennis. One thing I really appreciated during the match was how hard everyone competed. Everyone put forth an amazing effort. The Whitewater team simply played better tennis and had just enough to gain the victory.

Even in defeat the weekend was a great finish to our season. We earned a trip to ST Louis as the #2 seed in the Midwest bracket (Whitewater was the #3 seed). We had a great time being together and had time to reflect on the amazing journey we had all been apart of. The negative part of the trip (besides the loss) was it took place right in the middle of finals week. Everyone was busy studying and taking tests.

The trip was a great learning experience for the team. Even though we lose three important members of the team to graduation (Chris, Etienne and Quin) we are already thinking about what we need to do to get ready for next season. Even after a long season our eyes are now turned to training over the summer and getting ready for the fall season.

At the NCAA's

We have arrived at ST Louis and are getting ready for our round of 32 match against UW Whitewater. We had the opportunity to watch Whitewater play today (they won 5-1) and we are in for a battle! Looks like UW-W plays good doubles and is solid through their line-up.

Our match tomorrow is scheduled for 2pm. However there is a good chance for rain and if we get rained out the match will be at 5pm at a nearby club.

I won't be provided twitter feeds during the match but WU-STL has a tournament page that provides live scores.

http://bearsports.wustl.edu/Sports/Content/Pages/2011NCAAMensTennis.aspx

Wish us good luck!

Whitties headed to St Louis!

Just got word we are being sent to St Louis for the first round of the NCAA's. We will be the #2 seeds in that bracket and play the winner of Wisc Whitewater and Westminster. Needless to say we are very thrilled to be out of the CA region.

More later...

Great come behind victory on Mother's Day

This year I tweaked our schedule a bit and scheduled the always tough LCSC Warriors the weekend before the NCAA's. The NWC conference tournament is one of the earliest in DIII and the past few years I felt the 4-week break hurt us in the NCAA's.

After the conference tournament this year we upped our playing intensity and training. Its been a grueling three-week stretch but the extra playing and training should get us ready for the NCAA's. Unfortunately finals start this week so the guys have been doing double duty -- training hard and studying hard.

Our hard work paid off in a big way today as we knocked off LCSC (#19 in NAIA) 6-3. One of our first matches this year was in Lewiston against the Warriors and they thumped us 6-3. In that match they swept the doubles and grabbed 4, 5, and 6 singles in straight sets. Our only victories in that meeting were hard fought three-set victories at #1, #2, and #3.

Today we started off a bit better in doubles with Matt and Quin posting a 8-5 victory at #3. I'm really impressed with how Matt and Quin have shook off a rough spring break trip and are now playing their best doubles. Unfortunately we dropped #1 (Andrew and Conor ) 8-6 and #2 (Jeff and ET) 8-5. In both of those matches we were up breaks but LCSC upped their games to come behind to claim both matches.

After the doubles I was a bit worried about our energy level. Everyone looked tired -- not physically tired but mentally drained. Even though we faired better in doubles that our first meeting we were still down 1-2 and facing a very talented group of singles players. LCSC top six are all international players who grew up playing on slower clay courts. Typically when we have beaten LCSC we have been up after the doubles.

Mother's day was especially kind to us as we took 5 of the 6 singles. Even more impressive is we managed to take the 5 singles without our standout #4 player Jeff Tolman (Jeff has been battling a sore hand since conference and we hope to have him back for nationals). This is really one of our best matches of the year -- in fact I feel we are playing better than when we took down #9 Trinity 5-4. Great effort, and emotional lift, for us to come back from 1-2 after doubles to take 5 of the singles. Even more gratifying since earlier in the year we lost to LCSC 3-6.

Again great effort from the entire team. And not just for this match but a great effort the past three weeks. We are all excited and ready for the NCAA's this weekend. The NCAA committee will announce the draw and locations tomorrow afternoon.

Whitman 6 LCSC 3

Doubles

1. Andrew/Conor lost Ivan Krijanto/Benjamin Robert

2. ET/Jeff lost Oliver Sindayigaya/Viktor Svoboda

3. Quin/Matt won Cesar Uauy/Lincoln Gay

Singles

1. Conor lost Krijanto 6-4, 6-4

2. Andrew def Anders Tischer 6-3, 6-2

3. ET def Uauy 6-3, 6-4

4. Sam def Sindayigaya 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5)

5. Quin def Svoboda 6-4, 6-4

6. Adriel def Robert 4-6, 6-1, 6-3

order of finish 2, 1, 5, 3, 6, 4

Happy Mother's Day to all Whitman moms!

White Water Rafting!

A weekend after winning the NWC conference tournament I thought it might be fun to have a quality "outdoor" day. So on Sunday Coach John and I took members of the men's and women's team on a white water adventure down the Grande Ronde River.

Grant Ritchie (Whitman class of 2003) owner of Minam Raft Rentals generously provided rafts for the float. Those interested in a day or weekend of floating should check out Minam raft rentals -- they are located right at the confluence of the Minam and Wallowa rivers. Just show up to their shop, jump in the rafts and you off on your adventure. Plus they are only located 90 minutes from Walla Walla.

Since we were limited on time we did the entire 40 mile section of water from the confluence of the Minam/Wallowa Rivers to Troy, OR (Grande Ronde River) in a single day. Most people take two - three days to do this float.

The trip was absolutely incredible. The Grande Ronde is a wild and scenic river and on the trip we saw eagles (Golden and Bald), a young bear, mountain sheep, deer, ducks and geese. Everyone took turns rowing and by the end of the trip all became competent at steering the rafts. Also as if getting wet from the rapids wasn't enough some of the guys decided it might be fun to go swimming in the frigid waters. Well, truthfully they didn't really decide to go swimming but were "helped" out of the boats.

Here are some photos from the trip Flick stream of rafting trip

Again big thanks to Grant and Lottie Ritchie of Minam Raft Rentals for making Sunday such a special day!

What a day!

I have to admit the NWC championship match Sunday was something special. Really a special ending (well almost ending) to a special season. What made the day so memorably was the crowd and unbelievable support from the Whitman community. Let me start by saying I (and the team) feels incredibly fortunate to have our outdoor courts. Yes there are much bigger and fancier courts across the nation. But I have never seen courts with a better location that the Whitman courts. Our courts are right in the center of campus -- next to the library, administration building, and the big campus quad called Ankey field. We are very lucky to practice and play in the middle of campus.

This weekend marked the first time in many years the NWC conference tournament was held on a college campus. The previous 10 years (or so) the men's and women's tournament were jointly held at the Yakima Tennis Club. This year the coaches decided to trim the tournament down to four teams and host each event at the campus of the regular season champion.

Congratulations to the Willamette team and coach Toby Krauel. For the second year in a row they made the NWC tournament finals and forced us to play our best tennis. They are certainly a well coached team that is improving each year. Great effort by coach Krauel to lead the Bearcats to their best conference finish in decades.

One of the special qualities of Whitman is most of the students know and support each other. Whenever we have big matches on campus we typically draw a great crowd. For instance in past year's we have had hundreds show up to watch us play UC Santa Cruz. However nothing compares to what happened at yesterday's conference finals. Not only did we have a huge crowd (overflowing the bleachers) but they were LOUD. They supported the team from start to finish. Special thanks to the both basketball teams who helped created such a special atmosphere. This is the ONLY time I have seen a group of women paint their stomachs to cheer on a tennis team! Really an incredible moment for the team to play in front of such a large and supportive crowd -- these are memories that the team will cherish for many years to come.

Going into the finals we knew the importance of starting with energy and being sharp in doubles. We have played a competitive national schedule for many years now and competed against the best teams in the nation. From hosting the ITA National Indoors, playing in the NCAA's, to hosting the number one team in the nation we have seen the importance of positive energy and strong doubles. We had played Willamette earlier in the year at their home courts and defeated them without dropping a set. However going into the NWC finals we knew Willamette presented some challenges. They certainly present challenges at the top part of the line-up (they have potent top half of the line-up) and they were on a bit of a roll coming into the NWC tournament. Additionally I watched them play very good tennis in their semi-final match (beating the #4 seed Whitworth 5-1).

In my opinion, and I will probably upset some people, but I felt the match was decided within the first 15-20 minutes. At all three doubles we jumped on Willamette quickly going up 4-1 (two breaks). With the strong start all the doubles wrapped up in 45 minutes with us sweeping 8-3, 8-2, 8-1. I've mentioned it several times over the years but I'm not a fan of 3 points for doubles. Simply not fair to value a pro-set the same as a two-out-of-three set match.

In singles our nerves showed a bit playing in front of a large crowd. Thankfully the only match we were ever behind in was #2 singles. Andrew fell behind 1-4 before finding his form to win 7-5, 6-2. Most interesting match of the day was Jeff Tolman at #4. Not sure if it was nerves or an injured hand but Jeff was up 5-2 in both sets before clinching the team match with a 7-5, 6-4 victory. I have to give major kudos to Jeff this weekend. He played in a lot of pain but never complained and took care of business. At #3 Etienne grabbed the first set 6-2 and was up a break in the 2nd set. And at #1 Conor had won first set winning 6-3 and was on serve when the team match was decided. Conor's opponent is one of my favorite players Josh Wong. Wong is a great competitor who makes you earn every point. I think the best description of Josh can be found on Scott Barnett's George Fox blog.

Hats off to the 2011 Whitman team -- this is a group that lost seven players to graduation and goes onto win the NWC tournament without dropping a set! We now have to wait several weeks to determine which regional tournament we will be playing.

Whitman 5 Willamette 0

NWC Tournament Finals!

The NWC conference tournament started yesterday on the Whitman campus. Unlike past years, this year's tournament is limited to the top four teams. The winner of the tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA III team tournament in May.

Yesterday we defeated Pacific 5-0 setting up today's 11am final against #2 seed Willamette. Against Pacific we got off to a quick start in doubles sweeping all three matches 8-4, 8-2, 8-2. In singles we were up in all four matches when ET (6-1, 6-1) and Andrew (6-3, 6-0) closed out their matches giving us 5 points.

Weather looks great for todays finals. Should be a great final match. The Bearcats look to be playing solid tennis and will be out for revenge after we defeated 9-0 on their home courts earlier in the year.

We had a GREAT crowd in yesterday's semi finals and hope everyone will be out in force for today's final. As thanks to the fans we will be providing Hepler's Big Cheese Pizza at the start of today's match.

Hope to see everyone at the courts!

Whitties clinch NWC title!

Last home weekends of the year are always emotional. It is the last time the seniors get the opportunity to play a home match. This year was a bit different since we only needed a single win to host the conference tournament. Still its an emotional weekend knowing that the tennis careers of three special young men are coming to a close. These three seniors are amazing men and have been instrumental in the success of the Whitman tennis program.

Etienne Moshevich career records:

singles 31-15, 43-16 doubles, 74-31 overall. NWC All Conference, All-American Doubles (2009, 2007), NCAA III team tournament participant. In his career ET has only lost 3 NWC matches (1 singles and 2 doubles).

Chris Bailey career records:

56-36 singles, 23-10 doubles, 79-46 overall. NWC All Conference 2nd team, NCAA III Team tournament participant. Chris has only lost 5 NWC matches in his Whitman career.

Quin Miller career records:

38-8 singles, 53-16 doubles, 91-24 overall. NCAA III team tournament participant. Quin also has only lost 5 conference matches in his Whitman career.

Luckily these three seniors have the opportunity to play at home next weekend when we host the NWC conference tournament! On Saturday we blanked UPS 9-0 and on Sunday we defeated PLU 8-1.

Whitman 9 UPS 0

Whitman 8 PLU 1

What an amazing season. In year after we graduated seven players, the 2011 team went undefeated in conference play (12-0), won the NWC title, and goes into next weekend's conference tournament as the #1 seed. Not only was the team undefeated in conference play but they went into each match with dedication and passion I have never seen from a team. This is a pretty amazing stat -- we played 12 conference matches this year and only dropped 6 matches all year!

This weekend we had several milestones:

• Our 5th straight regular season conference undefeated season
• Our 4th consecutive NWC title
• Earned the right to host the NWC tournament. Winner of the 4-team tournament earns an automatic birth in the NCAA tournament

Next weekend the schedule for the NWC tournament is:

Saturday 10am #1 Whitman vs #4 Pacific

Saturday 10am #2 Willamette vs #3 Whitworth

Sunday 11am finals

Admission is free and we hope to see you at the courts! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Holton-Burke gains 2nd NWC Player of the Week award!

Double congratulations to junior Conor Holton-Burke who nabbed his second NWC Player of the Week award. And also by vote his teammates he earned the team's "yellow jersey" for the week.

Over the weekend Conor went 2-0 at #1 singles and 2-0 in doubles (playing #1 with Andrew La Cava and #2 with Quin Miller). Conor has had an unbelievable season going undefeated in NWC conference play in both singles and doubles. Even more impressive is the fact that all his singles matches have been at the #1 slot and all but one of the doubles have been at #1 (he played #2 doubles once).

This weekend Conor will try to lead the Whitties to their 4th straight conference title when the team takes on UPS (Saturday at noon) and PLU (Sunday at 10am). These are the last regular season conference matches of the year.

Team takes big strides to clinching 4th straight NWC title.

This past weekend was a special and unique coaching weekend. Yes the team went 3-0 and moved one step closer to one of our goals of winning the NWC title. But more interesting was that my 8 year old daughter made the road trip with the team to Portland. I honestly can't remember seeing her so excited (with the exception of Christmas). All week all she could talk about was going on a trip with the team. When I woke her up Friday morning she jumped out of bed and rushed upstairs to start her morning because it was the big day. Was a lot of fun watching the team interact with her -- she had 12 big brothers who were willing to playing catch, run around after her, and/or carrying her around. It was a weekend she will remember for a long time!

Crazy bit of conference scheduling. Saturday we played Pacific in Forest Grove, OR and then had to return home to play Whitworth on Sunday. Actually we played Whitworth twice on Sunday as we made up an earlier match that was canceled due to poor roads. Thanks to coach Shanks for agreeing to play a double-header in Walla Walla to make up that postponed match.

Saturday we played the much improved Boxer team. Over the past few years Coach Jackson has done an amazing job turning around the Boxers. I remember a few years ago they were the worst team in the conference: now they are among of the best. In fact on Friday they dropped a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Willamette (#2 team in the conference).

Against Pacific I felt the need to mix up our doubles line-up. We have been rock solid at #1 and #2 but haven't been as sharp at #3. To give both Matt and Quin a boost I paired Quin with Conor at #2 doubles and Matt with Andrew at #3 doubles. This allowed Jeff and ET the opportunity to play #1 doubles. Even though we won 8-3, 8-4, 8-3 all the matches were much closer than the score. Lots of long games and competitive points. Honestly looking back at the match I'm surprised the doubles scores weren't closer. I guess that is the funny thing about tennis..a few keys points here and there can determine the outcome.

The momentum from doubles carried over into the singles and we rolled through without dropping a set. The most competitive match of the day was #1 where Conor defeated Pacific's #1 player Troy Zuroske 6-4, 6-3. After our first conference match of the year I wrote this about Zuroske:

"Our only loss was at #3 singles where Jeff ran into a buzz-saw freshman Troy Zuroske. Troy played great tennis hammering huge serves all match. His serve coupled with the strange lighting made for a rough day for Jeff. I wouldn't be surprised to see Zuroske playing #1 for the Boxers in the next fews. After watching him play today I'm convinced he will be one of the top players in the NWC Conference"

And, yes, Zuroske has turned into one of the top players in the conference. In fact his only conference losses this year have been at #1 against Willamette and Whitman. He will certainly be a force in the conference for the next few years.

Whitman 9 Pacific 1

On Sunday we played a pretty unique format against Whitworth. The past couple years we have traditionally played an A team and B team against each other. Since the weather was beautiful we played the A team match outdoors and the B team match indoors. Its not often that all 12 players get the opportunity to play at the same time.

Between the two matches we only dropped 1 match. Match of the day goes to Jeff Tolman who was down 2-6, 1-3 before rallying to win 2-6, 6-4, 10-7.

After the weekend we are now 10-0 in conference and play our last two matches against two teams we beat earlier in the year (PLU 7-2, UPS 8-1). If we win both matches we will be 2011 NWC Champions, earn the #1 seed at the NWC conference tournament (only the top 4 teams make the tournament), and most importantly get to host the conference tournament.

Here is a link to photos from the weekend. Unfortunately half of the matches over the weekend were played indoors (Pacific's covered courts or our indoor courts) and I only took pictures of the outdoor matches. There are some pretty sweet pictures of the team at Multnomah Falls.

Hooray for ET!

Etienne was recently named the NWC player of the week for the past two consecutive weeks. Great honour for a player to win the award twice in a season little alone twice in row.

ET certainly deserved the awards. During our 6 day spring break trip he went 8-4 in singles and doubles against the top teams in the nation. Beyond his great playing on court, ET is a amazing team leader. The "lion" has shown everyone on the team how to play with a passion and love of the game. His presence, passion and energy has been a driving force behind our successes this season.

Special thanks

We wrapped up our 2011 spring break trip this week and it wouldn't be as successful or enjoyable without the help of family and friends. I spent the morning organizing and updating my flickr page to be a bit more user friendly. All the photos are now in "sets" and all should be tagged with players names.

Here is the photo set from Spring Break.

This is the link to the 2011 season that shows all the photo sets by event.

If parents/friends want the original picture please let me know and I will send you a copy. And yes I'm enjoying my new camera very much!

• Papa Roston you were the MVP of the trip! Thanks for supplying us with water, ice, gatorade, and snacks for our matches. And it was a very special treat going to dinner Tuesday night. Not often we get the opportunity to eat an incredible steak house.
• Tesmond family it was great seeing you during our weekend matches. Thanks for taking the team out to dinner. It was our first team dinner that featured a belly dancer!
• Sadeghi's thanks for your support the entire week. Was a wonderful way to wrap up the trip by having dinner at your beautiful house. Good luck keeping most of the guys this week!
• Gary and Barb Tolman thanks for watching on matches on Saturday and providing lunch for the team. Your support is much appreciated.
• Solomon family -- was great seeing the entire clan again! After the weekend it made me realize how lucky I was to coach both Solomon boys.
• Nancy Holton, thanks for making the trip out to watch our weekend matches. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your notes about my blog and pictures.
• Borshansky's thanks for following us around So CA and taking pictures!
• Pat Burke thank you for the amazing opportunity to watch the Lakers. Certainly one of the special highlights of the trip.
• John Hein and Brett Axelrod for driving us to the Pasco airport.
• And lastly my incredibly wife for her unwaivering support. Being a coach's wife isn't very easy during the season especially during a seven day trip away from home!

Now it is time to get out the fly rod and enjoy a few days of clean air, traffic free roads, and snow capped mountains.

Wrapping up spring break

Sorry for the delay in posting but between practices, matches, driving and dinners we have had a couple long days.

Tuesday we dropped a competitive 3-6 match to #15 Bowdoin on the CMS courts. We got off to a bit of a rough start in doubles. Even though Jeff/ET won easily at #2 doubles we dropped #1 (Conor/Andrew) 8-5, and the #3 team of Quin/Matt let a 6-3 lead evaporate and lost 6-8.

Bowdoin is known as a good singles team and they lived up to their billing winning 4 of the 6 singles. Our only wins were Jeff at #4 and Adriel at #6. The entire team certainly gave a great effort but we really needed to have the lead after doubles to crack the tough Bowdoin singles line-up. After the match I felt we were in a pretty good place emotionally, but physically we looked tired. This was, after all, our 5th match in 5 days against nationally ranked opponents. The intense matches, heat, travel, and fierce competition was taking its toll. At this point I was already worried about our Wednesday regional match at Cal Lutheran.

For the Cal Lutheran match I pulled Chris (he had been struggling) and decided to switch ET and Andrew (ET has been playing incredibly well). Against Cal Lutheran (#12 in nation) we not only got off to a bad start in doubles but a very low energy start. Number three doubles played horrible losing 8-1 and #1 doubles didn't fair much better losing 8-2. This left the doubles in the hands of Jeff/ET at #2 doubles. Losing #2 doubles would of not only put us down 0-3 but would of sucked the energy out of the tired Whitties. At 7-8 Jeff hit one of the most amazing, clutch shots I have ever seen. Early in the game CLU hit a lob over Jeff's head. At this point Jeff didn't have many options as he scrambled to get the ball. With his back completely turned to the net he flicked a shot on the right side of body that skimmed over the net resulting in a CLU error. This one shot saved the doubles. After that shot Jeff and ET went on to dominate the match winning in a tiebreaker.

Enough though we went into the doubles down 1-2, Jeff/ET provided us a much needed lift. We were down but our fighting spirit was restored. What unfolded in singles was one of the most amazing team matches I have been a part of.

CLU has one of the best #1 players in the nation. Conor gave a valiant effort but lost 6-1, 6-2. Jeff also dropped his match at #4 6-3, 6-1 giving CLU a 4-1 lead. To make things even worse we lost the 1st sets at #2 ET and #3 Andrew.

Sam got us on the board with a 6-4, 6-1 win at #6 making the team match 2-4. Now things get whacky -- CLU is completely in charge of the match when both ET and Andrew win the second sets. At #5 Adriel had won the 1st set but dropped the 2nd. Team score was 2-4 for CLU with the 3 remaining matches in third sets. I don't know what more to say about ET. He is a hell of a ferocious competitor. I sat with ET through most of his 2nd and 3rd sets and he had a look in his eyes that said he wasn't going to lose. After dropping the 1st set 1-6 he rallied to win 6-4, 6-3. It wasn't long after his victory that Adriel won 6-0 in the 3rd. Match score was now tied 4-4 with Andrew in his third set!

Andrew was down a break at 3-4 when he got his 2nd wind to break serve. At 4-4 Andrew holds at love putting the pressure squarely on the CLU player. At 4-5 Andrew continues his strong play to go up 15-40 earning 2 match points. On both match points Andrew does exactly the right thing at the right moment and works his way to the net. At 15-40 he closes a bit too hard on a floating ball that drops below the net -- Andrew caresses the ball a bit wide. At 30-40 Andrew comes in on a big approach and has a high forehand volley that he sticks into the open court but pushed it ever so slightly long. The CLU player is off the hook and regains his composure. Both players end up holding to force a tiebreak. Was an absolutely wonderful match but unfortunately for us CLU prevailed 7-5 in the tiebreaker. I believe this is only the 2nd match in my coaching career where the team match was decided by a 7-6 in the 3rd set match (the other was a victory over Redlands). Freaky how an inch separated us from an improbable comeback and defeat.

Can't give my players enough credit for this match. This was our 6th match against national level teams in 6 days. We weren't used to playing outdoors, dealing with the heat, and all were dead tired. Yet through all this we never lost our composure or belief in each other. Obviously I would of been thrilled to beat #12 CLU on their home courts but honestly I don't think I could be more proud of the young men on my team.

In the past we have been criticized as a team that couldn't play against the top teams in the country. This trip should dispel those criticisms. Even though we went 2-4 on our trip we defeated the #9 team in the country and played close with every team we faced. We are a unquestionably now a better team and now have the belief we can hang with the top teams.

We are lucky to have a two-week spring break and have next week off before returning to campus for the last part of our conference schedule. I can't wait to see how the year unfolds....

Ah the ups and downs of tennis

Tennis certainly has its ups and downs. On Saturday we defeated the #9 team in the nation and today we lost to a lower ranked UT Tyler 3-6. As a team we knew the importance of the match today -- winning would lock us in as one of the top teams in the West. I don't feel like we had a let down but rather got out played by a feisty UT Tyler team.

In doubles two of the three team teams came out firing. I don't have the scores in front me but I think we won at #1 and #3 by identical 8-4 scores. Unfortunately #2 doubles had their worst match of the year losing 1-8. Still going up 2-1 after doubles certainly put us in the driver seat.

In singles Tyler was simply too tough for us. Not sure how else to say it but we didn't perform like we would like to in clutch situations. For the most part we didn't play poorly, but rather didn't play well at certain times of the matches. We lost three three-set matches and one match 7-6, 7-6. However this is exactly why we take a spring break trip: the opportunity to play good teams which not only makes us better players but a tighter team. Honestly in all of my years coaching this is one of my favorite teams (sorry alums). They have pushed each other all year to get better, incredibly supportive of each other, and a blast to be around. I'm sure today's experience will make us a better team down the road.

Here are the singles scores (again I don't have my score book in front of me so its a bit of a guess).
1. Conor lost 7-5, 4-6, 6-2
2. Andrew lost 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 (Andrew was up a break 5-3 in the 3rd, but then down 0-4 in the 3rd).
3. ET won 6-4, 6-1
4. Jeff lost 6-1, 6-1
5. Chris lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
6. Adriel lost 7-6, 7-6

Tonight promises to be especially entertaining for the team as we came by 14 tickets to the Laker game!

Tomorrow we play Bowdoin 10am at the CMS courts.

Whitties knock of #9 Trinity!

What a special day for Whitman tennis! Today in the Stag-Hen we had the opportunity to play Trinity University (#9 in the nation) for 5th/6th place. Trinity is one of the great programs in DIII and they typically make a good run at the NCAA's.

Going into the match we knew doubles was critical. On any given day Trinity might have the top 1, 2, 3 doubles line-up in the nation. In fact their #1 team of Cocanoughar/Kowel were the runner-ups at the 2010 NCAA doubles championships. Honestly they don't drop much from one to three doubles. It is funny how scheduling goes -- in the fall Andrew/Conor had the opportunity to play the #1 Trinity Team at the ITA Small College Championships. The Trinity duo ended up winning that match 6-7, 7-6, 10-6. Going into today's match Andrew/Conor knew they had their hands full, but they also knew they could compete with and beat the TU team. Perhaps more importantly they were hungry for a rematch.

At #1 doubles Andrew/Conor played their best tennis of the year. The broke the first game and never looked back taking the match 8-2. They returned flawlessly (I think TU only held once) and played a very aggressive brand of doubles -- keeping the ball low and closing hard. At #2 doubles Jeff/ET also returned incredible well. This was a close match from start to finish. A couple times Jeff/ET were down break points but managed to stay together and string together important points when they most needed it. Major kudos to Jeff for a very strong hold at 7-5 to clinch the match 8-5. At #3 doubles Quin/Matt had a see-saw match. Was close all the way through until Trinity got the break at 6-5 to serve for the match. Senior Quin rose to the moment and absolutely bombed 3 returns on match points to bring the match back onto serve. Unfortunately Matt wasn't able to hold and Trinity got the point at #3 doubles 8-6.

Great singles competition. I felt the TU and Whitman guys pushed each other all day to player better and better tennis. Jeff continued his absolutely blistering play to defeat All-American Cory Kowal 6-2, 6-4. Wonderful tennis from Jeff to put Whitman up 3-1. Andrew had a tough match losing to Cocanaugher 6-0, 6-2. Score was now Whitman 3 Trinity 2. However the match was very tight as Conor and Chris both dropped the 1st set, and Adriel was down 1-4 (2 breaks) in the 1st. Fortunately ET was up a set. Basically we needed to win two of the remaining matches but were down in three of them.

At 1-4 Adriel starts executing his game plan and completely turns around his match to win the 1st set 7-5. Etienne is continuing to play with passion and purpose and is up 6-3, 5-0. Chris is down a break in the 2nd set and at #1 Conor is at 3-3. Chris ends up dropping his match 6-2, 7-6 making team score 3-3. Etienne is struggling to close out his match but is up 6-3, 5-3 serving, Conor is in a 2nd set tiebreaker, and Adriel had a couple breaks in hand going up 4-1. At that moment I then hear the sweetest sound -- the eruption of the crowd as ET wins his match 6-3, 6-3! Whitman 4 TU 3. A few minutes later TU takes #1 singles 6-4, 7-6 tying the team score 4-4 with #6 singles still on court. At this point in the match Adriel was playing great tennis and closes out the match 7-5, 6-1 giving us the sweet 5-4 victory.

Great effort from the team to defeat the #9 team in the nation. This is the highest ranked team we have beaten since I start coaching at Whitman 12 years ago. We have tomorrow off and then finish our spring break with three straight matches.

Match score Whitman 5 Trinity 4
Doubles
1. Conor/Andrew def Cocanougher/Kowal 8-2
2. ET/Jeff def DelaFuente/Frey 8-6
3. Quin/Matt lost Murray/Carroll 8-6
Singles
1. Conor lost Frey 7-5, 7-6
2. Andrew lost Cocanaugher 6-0, 6-2
3. ET def DelaFuente 6-3, 6-3
4. Jeff def Kowal 6-2, 6-4
5. Chris lost Haugen 6-2, 7-6
6. Adriel def Murray 7-5, 6-1