Well our fast start came to an end as we ran into the talented Slugs of Santa Cruz (#7 in nation). As with our previous four matches we got off to a quick start taking 2 of the 3 doubles giving us a 2-1 lead. The doubles teams of Steven/Phalkun and Nadeem/Matt remained undefeated on the year winning at #1 and #2 doubles respectively. We couldn't complete the sweep as a very tough #3 UCSC doubles team downed Robbie/Christoph 8-3. Still we were excited to go into the singles with the lead. However we got off to very slow starts in all the singles matches. In fact we quickly went down 1-4 in the first set in almost every match. The Santa Cruz fast start translated into 5 of the 6 singles victories for the Slugs giving them the match 6-3. Even though we got off to a slow start the Whitman guys rallied and made every match competitive. As a coach it made my heart warm to see the guys battling and supporting each other on the court. This team has a special team dynamic/bond that will only help us down the stretch. Kudos to Phalkun who bounced back from his tough defeat the earlier day to win in the #1 spot.
The matches over the weekend showed the strength and depth of the Whitman program. Last year we lost to UCSC without winning a set whereas this year we played them closer losing 6-3. Over the weekend we also beat defending the defending Northwest Conference (NWC) Champions PLU 7-2 (they defeated us twice last year), the NWC 3rd place team Linfield 8-1, the NWC 4th place team Whitworth 9-0, and the NWC 5th place team UPS 9-0. Our results from the weekend put us firmly on top of the Northwest Conference standings.
Overall it was a great weekend of play and quality team time. I actually can't remember having so much fun on a tennis road trip. I am incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to work/coach so many fantastic young men.
Oh, besides playing tennis I felt it was important for the rookie players to have some Vocational Education to go along with their Liberal Arts education. Here you can see Nadeem, Christoph and Matt getting the van ready for our drive home.
Overall the rookies did a pretty good job with their duties. Hopefully their speed and efficiency will improve with more practice. It is after all a long season:)You can view all the photos from our trip this weekend at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77626588@N00/tags/tacoma2007/
Team Scores vs UCSC (#7 in Nation)
Doubles
#1 Ly/Mam def Ortiz/Pybas 8-6
#2 Kassam/Solomon def Villalobos/Liberty-Point 8-5
#3 Fuchs/Munday lost Kamel/Vartabedian 8-3
Singles
#1 Phalkun Mam def Jeff Fong 6-4, 5-7, 10-2
#2 Steven Ly lost to Jared Kamel 6-3, 6-2
#3 Robbie Munday lost to Max Ortiz 6-1, 6-4
#4 Matt Solomon lost to Brian Pybas 6-1, 6-4
#5 Justin Hayashi lost to Colin Mark-Griffin 6-1, 6-4
#6 Christoph Fuchs lost to Alex Villalobos 6-3, 6-4
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