Whitties defeat #12 Redlands in a thriller!

This afternoon the #15 ranked Whitties defeated #12 Redlands 5-4 at the UR courts. The match was a thriller from the start to finish. In doubles we were rocking and rolling quickly going up breaks at #2 and #3 doubles. With #1 doubles playing even things looked good for the Missionaries. However our doubles party was crashed by UR as the #2 Bulldog team came back from 1-4 (15-40) to win 8-6. At #1 doubles Steven and Phalkun played even the whole match only to get broke at 6-7 to drop the set. Fortunately for the Whitties, Robbie and Christoph continue their strong play winning at #3 doubles 9-8 (6). Besides putting us on the board, the victory at #3 doubles gave us a small amount of momentum going into singles.

In singles we quickly dropped the #6 match (Dan) 6-3, 6-0 giving UR a 3-1 lead. Even though we down 3-1 things were looking good as we won the first sets at #1 (Phalkun), #2 (Steven), #3 (Robbie), and #4 (Matt) -- Christoph, however, lost the first set in a highly competitive #5 match. At one point I thought we had a lock on the match: Matt posted a 6-4, 6-4 win at #4, Steven won 6-2, 6-4 at #2, Phalkun took the #1 match 7-6, 6-3, and Robbie was serving for his match at 5-2 in the 2nd. However UR refused to go down easy on their home courts. Robbie's opponent battled back from a 2-5 deficit to take the 2nd set 7-6. Fortunately for us right as Robbie split sets, Christoph pushed his match into the 3rd set. At this point we were up 4-3 with both #3 and #5 singles going into the 3rd set. At this point in the match everything got topsy-turvy! Christoph went up a break and Robbie went down a break. A bit later Robbie broke back to even his match at 4-4 and Christoph got broke to even #5 at 4-4. As both the singles matches went into their 3rd hour (in sweltering heat) both teams and fans were absolutely going crazy.

At 4-4 Christoph played some lose put-away volleys giving the UR player all the momentum he needed to take the match 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. All the pressure was now squarely on Robbie's shoulders. In the 3rd set, Robbie continued to serve well holding fairly easy. With UR serving 4-5, Robbie had a match point only to push an approach shot wide. At 5-5 Robbie held in a close game putting the pressure on UR. At 5-6 Robbie again had a match point only to miss a big forehand long. The UR player was able to hold his serve to set up a 3rd set tiebreak to determine the outcome of the match. In that deciding breaker, Robbie stepped up to play big tennis, dictating play from start to end posting a 7-2 victory.

I can't begin to express how proud I am of Robbie. Even though he had lost all the momentum in the match he kept his cool, competed hard and earned us a rare team victory in the Southern CA desert. I think the last time we beat UR was in 1987.

Tomorrow we play at 10am against Cal Lutheran and our JV takes on the Claremont JV at 1:30pm

Doubles
#1 Steven/Phalkun lost Wager/Reading 8-6
#2 Matt/Nadeem lost Zach Hasenyager/Cook 8-6
#3 Robbie/Christoph def Bradburn/Trippel 9-8 (6)
Singles
#1 Phalkun def Eric Wager 7-6(4), 6-3
#2 Steven def Aron Ouye 6-2, 6-4
#3 Robbie def Ian Bradburn 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6(2)
#4 Matt def Mike Reading 6-4, 6-4
#5 Christoph lost Chris Trippel 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
#6 Dan lost Ransom Cook 6-3, 6-0

We also had a couple nice victories on some of the extra matches:
#7 David def Billy Kingsborough 6-2, 6-4
#8 Jake Cappel def Andrew Murakima 6-3, 6-3