We played perhaps our best match of the year defeating Albion 8-1 in the 2nd round of the NCAA III championships. Honestly we felt lucky just make the tournament -- after losing in the conference championships our season appeared to be over. However the NCAA III committee gave us a second chance and gave us an at-large birth into the national tournament. We view this as our shot at redemption and are playing like we have something to prove.
Although we didn't know much about Albion we did have a common opponent in Kalamazoo College. During our spring break trip we narrowly defeated Kalamazoo 5-4. Albion split their two matches with K-college during the year. Based on these results we knew it would be a good match.
We have been a bit flat in doubles so we decided to try some new doubles combinations. Matt and Phalkun played well at Ojai last weekend so we kept them together at #1 doubles. Robbie and Christoph haven't lost a doubles match since early March so they stayed at #2 doubles. To round out the line-up we put Steven and Jake together at #3 doubles.
The new doubles combinations certainly payed off today. We cruised to very quick wins at #2 and #3. At #2 Robbie and Christoph continued their strong play winning 8-1 (they have won 10 in a row). At #3 Jake and Steven got broke the first game and then won 8 of the last 9 games to win 8-2. We did drop #1 doubles 8-4 but Matt and Phalkun played pretty well.
The momentum from doubles spilled over to the singles were we won the first set in all the matches. Dan was the first off with a 6-1, 6-2 victory at #6. Steven quickly followed with a 6-4 6-1 win at #2. Phalkun sealed the match victory with a convincing 6-2, 6-2 win at #1 singles. At #4 Matt was on fire going up 6-1, 4-1 but then stumbled a bit dropping the second set in a tie-break. Since the team match was decided he played a match breaker for the 3rd winning 10-3. Jake made the singles sweep complete with a solid 7-6, 6-2 victory.
Tomorrow we play host #8 Depauw. I like how we played and competed today -- the match tomorrow should be a good battle!
Match Scores
Doubles
No. 1 -- Phalkun Mam (Whitman) def. Neil Forster: 6-2, 6-2
No. 2 -- Steven Ly (Whitman) def. Jon Vandenberg: 6-4, 6-1
No. 3 -- Robbie Munday (Whitman) def. Brandon Still: 6-3, 6-4
No. 4 -- Matt Solomon (Whitman) def. Nate Marshall: 6-1, 6-7 (7-4), 1-0 (10-3)
No. 5 -- Jake Cappel (Whitman) def. Ben Miller: 7-6 (7-4), 6-2
No. 6 -- Dan Wilson (Whitman) def. Andrew Lulek: 6-1, 6-2
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