First matches of spring Break -- Whitties go 1-1

And the Spring Break '07 trip is underway! Truthfully, we have been on spring break for a few days, but today was our first set of matches.

This year we are traveling with 14 players and are splitting into two teams playing two matches each day (team A and team B). This morning the first team lost a 7-2 battle to #8 Washington University St Louis. The final score doesn't do justice to the competitive nature of this match. As we found out the WA U team is a very talented, deep team. In fact their #2 player is ranked #3 in NCAA III tennis! The match started off with 3 amazing doubles matches. I don't think I've ever seen a dual match with three closer doubles matches. At one point I thought we were going to win all three matches and a few moments later thought we were going to lose all three matches. At #1 doubles the Wash U team came back from a break down to defeat Steven and Phalkun 9-7. Robbie and Christoph played some of their best doubles of the year to post a 9-7 victory at #3. At #2 doubles Matt and Nadeem got off to a horrible start quickly going down 1-4 (two breaks). To their credit they battled hard, picked up their game and brought the match back even at 8-8. Unfortunately for us the Wash U team played great tennis taking the breaker 7-5.

Even though all the singles matches were close the only match we won was at #3 where Robbie cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 victory. It was nice to see Robbie find his groove and play his best tennis of the year.

Though we lost 5 of the 6 singles matches we had chances in most of the matches. Both Steven (#2) and Matt (#4) lost in the third sets. Christoph (#4) lost the first set in a breaker and Dan (#6) was serving for the first set at 5-4.

Team B had a solid win against Whittier. Coach Changstrom will be providing an update on that match later tonight.

Tomorrow is a day off for the Whitties and we are going to the Pacific Life Open!

We resume play Friday 2pm at #9 Redlands (both teams).

Check out pictures of the spring break trip. Some pretty funny pictures of the freshman dressing up to go see the movie 300.

Doubles
#1 Steven/Phalkun lost Charlie Cutler/Chris Hoeland 9-7
#2 Matt/Nadeem lost Trevis Bowman/Eric Pollak 9-8
#3 Christoph/Robbie def John Watts/Charlie Howard 9-7
Singles
#1 Phalkun lost Charlie Cutler 6-4, 6-2
#2 Steven Lost John Watts (#3 in nation) 6-2, 5-7, 6-3
#3 Robbie def Chris Hoeland 6-3, 6-2
#4 Matt lost Danny Levy 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-4
#5 Christoph lost Charlie Howard 7-6, 6-2
#6 Dan lost Trevis Bowman 7-5, 6-0

Whitties win a thriller

Wow, wow, wow -- I'm still in shock after yesterdays match against PLU. So far this season we have been on a roll: going into the weekend we were 10-0 in conference and 11-2 overall (our only losses being to DI power U of Portland and the top team DIII team in the nation,UC Santa Cruz). Additionally, in all but one of those matches (Portland) we had won at least 2 of the 3 doubles matches. I've mentioned it before, but I feel the 9 point scoring system places too much emphasis on doubles. In my mind scoring a doubles set the same as a full 2 out of 3 set match isn't correct.

Against PLU we got off to a horrible start. In all three doubles matches we quickly went down breaks. Unfortunately for the Whitties, it only got worse from that point. At #1 doubles Steven and Phalkun went down two breaks to 1-4 and at #3 doubles Christoph and Robbie went down 0-5. At this point the PLU team sensed blood in the water and went on a feeding frenzy. The Lutes played inspired doubles, sweeping all three doubles matches.

While being down 0-3 isn't a death sentence we were more than a few feet in the grave and PLU was starting to pile on the dirt! For some perspective to our plight, consider that a noted DIII coach recently looked at 160 NCAA II and NAIA men's matches where a team was swept in doubles. Only once in those 160 matches did a team come back from 0-3 down to win the match. Not only were the odds against us but we were playing a red hot, fired-up PLU team. To make our situation even more tenuous we were missing the services of sophomore sensation Justin Hayashi. This forced Christoph Fuchs to move up to the #5 spot and Dan Wilson was inserted into #6 spot. With Matt Solomon playing #4 we were relying on the services of three first-year players to anchor our line-up. Since the match was played on four courts the order of singles play goes 1 through 4 followed by 5 and 6. If we had any chance at victory it would be in the hands of our first-year players.

At #2 singles Steven Ly played his typically efficient game winning 7-5, 6-2 making the team score 1-3. However at #3 Robbie Munday lost a tough 6-4, 7-5 to a much improved Jeff Loranger. With the team score 1-4 our backs were fully against the wall. One more singles loss and the match was done.

Freshman sensation Matt "Bear" Solomon overcame a slow 0-3 start and posted a 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) victory at #4 singles. The team score was now 2-4, with #1 singles Phalkun Mam locked in a three set battle against PLU's David Miller (Phalkun lost to David in 3 sets a few weeks ago). As first-year players Christoph Fuchs and Dan Wilson started their matches. Phalkun showed why he was named NWC Player of the Week, grinding out a hard fought 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 victory. Score was now 3-4 with Christoph and Dan left on court.

Going into the match I was most worried about was Dan's match at #6 singles. I have been around coaching long enough to have seen any number of freshman struggle in their first "big" match. Plus playing at home in front of fans and friends can add a load of extra pressure. Dan showed no signs of nerves and played incredible tennis. Dan "the milkman" Wilson certainly delivered the goods as he played brilliant tennis. He showed absolutely no fear bombing big serves, ripping forehands winners and nailing overheads in clutch situations. Dan's 6-2, 6-3 victory tied the match 4-4 and sent fans scrambling over to Christoph's court to watch the dramatic match conclusion.

There is no greater thrill in college tennis than winning the deciding match when the team score is tied. It was awesome to see Christoph handle the pressure of being the last match on, being the deciding match AND having everyone in the building focused on his match. Christoph pulled out a sweet 7-6, 6-2 win giving us an improbable come from behind win.

Day wasn't over yet as we still had to play UPS. After a very quick 30 minute lunch break we took the courts to battle the Loggers. Our only set back in the UPS match was at #2 singles where Matt lost a hard fought 7-6, 0-6, 11-9. This was a tough match for Matt to keep his energy up -- we had been involved in matches for 11 straight hours, he was the last match to go on, and he was emotionally burned after he helped key our victory over PLU.

We are now 13-2 on the year and 12-0 in conference play. We get a much needed week break before heading off to Southern CA for Spring Break.

Match Scores

Pacific Lutheran University

Doubles

No. 1 -- Miller/Larimore (PLU) def. Mam/Ly: 8-6
No. 2 -- Loranger/Peterson (PLU) def. Nadeem Kassam/Solomon: 8-6
No. 3 -- Floyd/Vidano (PLU) def. Fuchs/Munday: 8-3

Singles

No. 1 -- Phalkun Mam (Whitman) def. David Miller: 6-1, 5-7, 6-2
No. 2 -- Steven Ly (Whitman) def. Kevin Floyd: 7-5, 6-2
No. 3 -- Jeff Loranger (PLU) def. Robbie Munday: 6-4, 7-5
No. 4 -- Matt Solomon (Whitman) def. Justin Larimore: 7-5, 7-6 (9-7)
No. 5 -- Christoph Fuchs (Whitman) def. Justin Peterson: 7-6 (7-5), 6-2
No. 6 -- Dan Wilson (Whitman) def. Jared Vidano: 6-2, 6-3

University of Puget Sound

Doubles

No. 1 -- Mam/Steven Ly (Whitman) def. McCullugh/Hosmer: 8-2
No. 2 -- Kassam/Solomon (Whitman) def. Amland/Andrew Oates: 8-2
No. 3 -- Fuchs/Munday (Whitman) def. Neal/Sato: 8-5

Singles

No. 1 -- Phalkun Mam (Whitman) def. Andrew Neal: 6-1, 6-1
No. 2 -- Nick Amland (UPS) def. Matt Solomon: 7-6 (7-5), 0-6, 1-0 (10-8)
No. 3 -- Robbie Munday (Whitman) def. Jamie Hosmer: 6-3, 7-6 (7-1)
No. 4 -- Dan Wilson (Whitman) def. Sam McCullugh: 6-3, 6-2
No. 5 -- Nadeem Kassam (Whitman) def. Kai Sato: 6-3, 7-6 (8-6)
No. 6 -- David Deming (Whitman) def. Zac Peeler: 6-1, 6-2

March Birthdays

March is a busy birthday month for the Whitman Tennis Family

Sam Spiegel March 1
Phalkun Mam March 2
David Deming March 4
Evan Chiang March 16
Brandon Davis March 24
Brian Oliver March 26
Tim Mullin March 26
Christoph Fuchs March 27
Tim Thomas March 30

The Horde goes 5-1 in Portland

Thats right 5-1 in two days! This is the first time in my coaching career we have played 6 matches in two days. So far it has been a wonderful experience breaking into groups for dual matches. It gives the guys much needed match play experience and the opportunity to play in a team environment.

On Sunday I split the teams into the more experienced team and the rookie team. The rookie team consisted of Matt, Nadeem, David, Jake, Jasper, Thomas and Robert (not a rookie). They were shipped out to Salem with rookie coach Brad to play Willamette. Willamette is a much improved team and have a nice freshman addition in Donovan LeDoux. Last weekend Donovan dropped a close three set match to Phalkun so I knew Matt would have his hands full at #1. The rookies certainly rose to the the challenge sweeping the match 9-0! Both David (playing #2) and Thomas (playing #6) showed their mental toughness grinding out matches in 3 sets.

While the rookie team was battling in Willamette in Salem I took the more experienced crew to play Linfield. Of all the matches over the weekend this was the match I was most concerned about. Linfield is a very well coached and their guys always compete hard. Plus because of the weather we were forced to play indoors on their fieldhouse (multi-purpose) courts. These are very fast, slick courts that are hard to play on. It is a huge advantage for the Wildcats when they play dual matches on these courts. I was also nervous about the match since I sent the rookie dynamic duo of Matt and Nadeem to play Willamette. Going into the match we were down our #4 singles player and our #2 doubles team!

As expected the match was tight from the start. Phalkun and Steven continued their strong run in doubles quickly downing the Linfield #1 team. However the doubles got real interesting as both #2 and #3 doubles went down to the wire. At #3 doubles freshman Dan "milkman" Wilson served for the match at 8-7 only to feel the pressure and dropped his service game at love. The Linfield team took advantage of the break to win the tie-breaker 8-6. With the doubles tied at 1-1 the doubles points came down to a serving slug fest at #2 doubles. With 4 guys serving huge on the quick courts there were no breaks of serve and the match went to a tie break. In that match Linfield senior Ian McGrath showed the depth of his character when he overruled his partner on a close call awarding the point to the Whitties. Its rare to see athletes make such a gesture little alone when it was in the tie-break of a tight match! Robbie and Christoph ended up winning that match to give us a 2-1 lead.

We had a bit more drama in the singles as Justin Hayashi needed to be pulled from the line-up because of a sore shoulder. This forced Dan to move into the #5 slot and sophomore Reid Bennett moved to #6.

In singles we were able to find our groove and win #1, #2, #3, #5 in straight sets. At #4 Christoph played a great match but ended up losing to a big serving John Roberts 11-9 in the match breaker. Christoph played a great match only getting broke once the entire match. The Linfield player simply served too well and possessed too much experience on the slick courts. Similarly Reid played a solid match but lost in straight sets to a two year Linfield letterman.

Leaving Linfield with any victory feels good. Beating them without our #2 doubles team and two singles players on those fast courts was a great effort.

The day wasn't over for the rookie team as they had to eat on the run and high tail it back to Portland to take Pacific. The rookies once again showed their promise defeating the Pacific team 9-0.

We are currently 11-2 overall and 10-0 in conference play. Our only two losses so far have been to the #75 team in DI and a tough UC Santa Cruz team (#7 NCAA III). Interesting to note that over the weekend UCSC defeated Emory (#1 team in the nation) 6-3 and Claremont (#3 in the nation) 9-0.

This Saturday we play at home against PLU at 9am, UPS at 2pm and will be sending a team to Spokane to play Whitworth at 10am.

Whitties go 2-1 Saturday

First day of the long weekend is over with the "Horde" going 2-1. We started off the day losing 5-2 to a very good U Portland team (#75 NCAA I). In doubles we played well at #1 and #3 -- in fact we were up breaks early in both those matches. In the end the Pilots were too tough for us sweeping all three doubles. In singles we were able to book end the Pilots winning at #1 (Phalkun) and #6 (Christoph).

After the UP we broke into two teams to play conference rivals Lewis and Clark College and George Fox. The "all freshman" team defeated much improved LC team 8-1 while the "experienced" team defeated George Fox 9-0.

Overall was a good day of tennis. We had the opportunity to play against one of the best DI teams in the nation and proved we could compete with them. The afternoon was a special treat breaking into different teams giving most everyone a chance to play.

The schedule for tomorrow (Sunday) is Willamette 10am (team freshman), Linfield 11am (team experience) and Pacific 3pm.

We great seeing Whitman Alumn's Kurt Casad, Dr Clifford Mah and Eric "Almost finished with PhD" Bartee.

U Portland
Doubles
#1 Steven Ly/Phalkun Mam lost to Sivkovic/Kennel 9-8
#2 Matt Solomon/Nadeem Kassam lost to Schleining/Jager 8-2
#3 Christoph Fuchs/Robbie Munday lost to Machado/Strom 8-6
Singles
#1 Phalkun def Strom 2-6, 6-3, 6-3
#2 Steven lost Jaeger 6-2, 6-3
#3 Robbie lost Kincaid 6-4, 6-3
#4 Matt lost Yemm 6-2, 6-2
#5 Justin Hayashi lost Schleining 6-3, 6-3
#6 Christoph def Kennell 4-2 ret

Lewis Clark College
Doubles
#1 Nadeem Kassam/Matt Solomon def Lindsay/Wheeler 8-1
#2 Jake Cappel/Jasper Follows lost to Allen/Rayn 9-8
#3 Thomas Roston/Robert Rye def Moller Davy 8-4
Singles
#1 Solomon def Allen 6-3, 6-2
#2 David Deming def Lindsay 6-2, 6-2
#3 Cappel def Wheeler 6-2, 6-3
#4 Follows def Ray 6-2, 6-2
#5 Kassam def Moller 6-0, 6-0
#6 Roston def Youmans 6-0, 6-0

George Fox
Doubles
#1 Steven Ly/Phalkun Mam def PEarson/Overnell 8-2
#2 Robbie Munday/Christoph Fuchs def Jenness/Vargas 8-1
#3 Dan Wilson/Justin Hayashi def McKenzie/Overnall 8-1
Singles
#1 Mam def Pearson 6-1, 6-1
#2 Ly def Schultz 6-1, 6-0
#3 Munday def Vargas 6-0, 6-1
#4 Hayashi def Overnall 6-0, 6-1
#5 Fuchs def Jenness 6-0, 6-2
#6 Wilson def Leon R 6-0, 6-0

Tennis Horde Set to Invade Portland

I'm not exactly sure how to describe our team anymore. In terms of tennis we are far too large to be a team: after all most tennis teams are made up of 6-8 players. Personally I don't like using military jargon such as troops or armies. So this week we are the Tennis Horde and we en route to Portland! This weekend the Horde will feature 14 players, 2 coaches playing 6 matches in two days. My plan for weekend is to split the team up into 2 groups to give players the players an opportunity to play in counting dual matches.

Because of project poor weather some of our match times and locations and have changed. The new schedule is:

Saturday
9am vs U of Portland
3pm vs Lewis Clark College (at LC bubble)
4pm vs George Fox (at Tualatin Parks and Rec)

Sunday
10am vs Willamette (at Courthouse)
11am vs Linfield (in Linfield fieldhouse)
3pm vs Pacific (at Tualatin Parks and Rec)

I'm not 100% positive on how I will break out the teams. But this is what I'm tentatively planning.
Saturday matches
UP - Phalkun, Steven, Matt, Justin, Robbie, Christoph, Nadeem
LC - Dan, Jake, David, Jasper, Thomas, Robert, Reid
George Fox - same group that played UP
Sundays matches (this is very tentative)
Willamette - Matt, Nadeem, Dan, Jake, Thomas, David, Reid
Linfield - Steven, Phalkun, Christoph, Robbie, Dan, Justin, Robert

If you are a fan or parent wondering where a particular player will be playing please give me an email in the evenings and I will try to respond.

Hope to see some Whitman shirts in the crowd this weekend!

Interesting Article in NY Times about DIII

The New York Times has a very interesting article about a growing rift at NCAA III institutions. I know at the annual NCAA conference there as been some talk about creating a NCAA IV or a new subset of NCAA III.

While I believe a majority of NCAA III schools are private Liberal Arts Colleges there is a growing swell of State schools joining the DIII ranks.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/sports/othersports/13ncaa.html?ex=1172120400&en=85994514d2cf7ec6&ei=5070&emc=eta1