Pumpkin Carving 2008

Yesterday was the annual Men's tennis pumpkin carving competition. The winners are picked by my 10 year old son and 6 year old daughter. Justin Hayashi used his 3 years of carving experience to good use and designed the pumpkin Pac-Man. Obviously this was hit with my son who immediately picked it as his favorite pumpkin.

My daughter, on the other hand, had a much more difficult time choosing which pumpkin was her favorite. After all there were so many quality pumpkins to choose from. In the end she picked Quin's "Turkey in Space" Pumpkin.

Congratulations to Justin, Matt and Quin for their victorious pumpkins.

Here is a link to pictures from the competition. 

Play in day at the ITAs

Today was the play-in day for the ITA Small College National Championships. The ITA Small College Championships is an 8 person/team draw. However because of geographic issues the winners of the Northwest and Southwest regions play-off a day early to determine the 8th tournament spot. These play off matches are pressure packed -- win and you are guaranteed 3 matches, lose and you out of the tournament.

Day started off well for Whitman as Matt Solomon played solid tennis defeating the #1 player from Trinity 6-4, 7-6. Matt showed great composure rallying from 1-5 down in the 2nd (including a match point) to win the match. Hats off to Matt for keeping his composure and battling back against tough odds to beat a talented opponent.

In the afternoon match Matt and Etienne Moshevich faced off against a fiesty #1 doubles team from Trinity. In the first set the Fighting Squirrels started off strong going up a quick break. However the Trinity team fought their way back into the match and served for the 1st set at 6-5. At this point Matt and ET played a brilliant return game sending the 1st set into a breaker. In the breaker it was all Whitman as Matt and ET cruised to a 7-3 victory. However the Trinity team stepped up their play winning the second set 6-4. At the ITA's doubles is determined by a match breaker in the third set. Matt and ET started off strong and took an early 5-2 lead. However the Trinity duo when on a streak bombing in 1st serves and crushing every return they laid a racket on. Their strong play lead to a 10-7 tie break victory.

Tomorrow at 8:30am Matt playes against the #1 from Gustavus Aldophus. I will try to send twitter updates to the blog after each set. 

ITA Tournament Results

Just wrapped up a wet weekend of play at the Northwest ITA Regional Tournament. Its been a long three day tournament (Saturday - Monday) and its too late to do a full tournament write-up. 

Basically the Whitties had an amazing tournament. Even with most of the top players in the conference competing, the Whitman men dominated the tournament. In fact the semi's of singles and doubles were comprised entirely of Whitman players!

In singles Matt Solomon successfully defended his title dropping only 1 set (to teammate Nadeem Kassam) enroute to his second consectutive title.  In the semi's Matt defeated teammate Quin Miller 6-1, 6-2. Quin had an outstanding tournament defeating the #3 seed (#1 player from Linfield) and the #1 player from Whitworth before losing to Matt in the Semis. In tonight's final, Matt defeated doubles partner Etienne Moshevich 6-4, 6-4. 

In doubles Matt and Etienne defeated Christoph Fuchs and Quin Miller 6-1, 6-2. Kudos to Christoph and Quin who knocked off the #2 seed, #7 seed, and the #3 seed before losing to Matt and ET in the finals.

Other Whitties who had a great tournament include semi-finalist Chris Bailey (who lost to ET in 3 tough sets), Christoph Fuchs who lost to Bailey in the Quarters, Dan Wilson who lost to the Whitworth #1 in the round of 16, and Nadeem Kassam who lost to Matt in the quarters. 

One of the big suprises of the tournament was play of freshman Adriel Borshansky who defeated the #2 seed (and #1 player from PLU) in the 2nd round of the tournament.  Adriel showed composure beyond his years winning 6-3, 4-6, 12-10 against a seasoned DI transfer.

Singles draws can be found here

Doubles draws can be found here

Next week Matt and ET represent the Northwest region in the ITA Small College National Championships in Mobile, AL.

Beep Test #3 Results

Results of beep test #3
Adriel 18.5 - 1
Christoph 17.5 - 1
Thomas 19.5 - 1
ET 17.5 - 1
Quin 19.5 -1
Dan 18 -3
Matt 17.5 - 3
Stefan 19 - 1
Reid 18 - 3
Conor 19.5 - 2

Boise State Results

OK I'm a bit behind with this post but two weekends ago 4 brave Whitties travel to Boise to participant in the Bronco Fall Tournament. This is mostly a DI tournament with some open players. In fact we were the only non-scholarship school at the tournament. I wasn't at the tournament but the guys all mentioned they loved playing the tournament and thought the played well.

Chris Bailey had a rough first match losing to Boise State sophomore Stefan Simikic 6-1, 6-1. Stefan was one of the top Southern CA junior players and was a HS All-American before arriving at Boise State.

Etienne Moshevich is still nursing a sore shoulder that kept him out last Spring. In his first match he defeated Brandon Nielsen of Utah State 6-4, 6-0. In the second round he lost a tough 6-3, 6-3 match to the #10 seed Jakub Asplund (#1 for Utah State). ET says he played a great match and had several break opportunities in each set. Jakub ended up making the semi's before losing to Idaho's #1 player in 3 long sets.

Nadeem Kassam won his first match 6-3, 6-2 against Paulo Miranda. Paulo was recently a standout tennis player at Idaho. Nadeem then lost a tight 6-3, 6-4 match to the #5 seed Hodel of Boise State.

Matt Solomon opened a few eyes with his strong play. In the first round he defeated Micheal Banks of Utah State 6-4, 6-3. In the round of 32 Matt pulled off one of the big upsets of the tournament knocking off the #8 seed Blaine Shields of BSU 7-5, 6-2. Blaine played 3 years of tennis at Santa Clara before transferring to BSU. This year he is expected to play in the Bronco top 6. In the round of 16 Matt continued his winning ways defeating the #13 seed P. Turzanski (#1 from Montana State). In the QTRS Matt's Cinderella story came to a close as he lost 6-3, 6-1 to the #2 seed (and eventual champion) Keen Feeder of Boise State.

Beep Test Round Two

I was asked by several people last week about the beep test. Basically it is a series of 20 meter runs done to a set of "beeps". Between each set of 20 meter runs there is a 5 sec recovery period. Participants go until they have 2 misses or quit. The higher the number the longer they lasted. It is the most demanding fitness test I have seen.

If you want more information on the test click here

To be honest the real reason I'm putting the results on my blog is so I can go back and find past scores.

Thomas 18.5-5
Christoph 16.5-1
Conor 19.5 - 3
Adriel 19.5 - 5
Etienne 18-5
Matt F 17.5 - 3
Matt S 18.5 - 3
Stefan 18 - 2
Reid 17.5 - 6
Dan 18.5 - 3
Nadeem 18 - 3
Chris 16.5 - 5
Quin 19 - 4

And we are off!

Today was one of the BEST days of the year -- start of the tennis season! As I told the team today "behind the opening of fishing season it is one of my favorite days of the year".

Team captains for the year (based on team voting):
Justin Hayashi
Matt Solomon
Christoph Fuchs

Alumni will be happy to know we ran the beep test. Here are the results:
Thomas 18 - 2
Christoph 18 - 2
Adriel 19 - 1
Etienne 17.5-2
Matt F 17-2
Matt S 17.5-5
Conor 17.5-3
Stefan 17-6
Reid 16.5-6
Dan 19-1
Nadeem 16.5 - 6
Chris 17.5-1

ITA All-AcademicTeam!

Opening weekend at Whitman so I figured it was time for a blog post.

With the opening of the academic year I would like to point out that the 2007-2008 Whitman Men's tennis team was named as an ITA All-Academic team. This is the 9th time in the past 10 years that the team has had over a 3.2 GPA. The following Whitman players were named as ITA Scholar-Athletes (varsity letter winner and GPA over 3.5)

Chris Bailey
Christoph Fuchs
Justin Hayashi
Robert Rye
Matt Solomon
Dan Wilson

Click here for the ITA Awards

At NCAA's!

We are currently at the NCAA III tournament in Claremont, CA. Our first match is at 10am vs host and #2 team in the nation CMS (nice draw). If you want to keep track of our match check out CMS's live scoring link at:
http://cms.prestosports.com/sports/spring/mten/index

Unfortunately I won't be able to provide twitter updates because I just switched to a new cell phone carrier and twitter isn't properly set up yet.

Send good thoughts our way!

Ojai

I'm off to the Ojai tournament this weekend with Matt and Dan Solomon, Jake Cappel and Robert Rye. This is a fantastic tournament that provides an incredible experience for the players.

I will try to provide updates during the weekend via Twitter. To see these updates check (refresh the browser often) on the right side of the Whitman tennis blog.

The Ojai draws can found here.

All Conference Awards

Below are the results of the All-Conference Awards as voted on by the conference tennis coaches.

NWC Player of the Year - Matt Solomon
NWC Coach of the Year - Jeff Northam

1st Team All-Conference - Matt Solomon, Dan Solomon
2nd Team All-Conference - Chris Bailey, Jake Cappel

NWC Champs!

Over the weekend the Fighting Squirrels of Whitman (our unofficial team mascot) earned a spot in the NCAA III tournament by winning the NWC tournament in Yakima, WA. The tournament featured a few upsets, close matches and some very brutal conditions.

By virtue of our 16-0 conference record we earned the #1 seed in the tournament and a first round bye. In the semi's we played a very inspired, fired up Willamette team (#5 seed). Earlier in the day Willamette upset #4 seed Whitworth. Even through we had beaten Willamette twice during the season 9-0 they have some talented players and play good doubles. This match almost turned into a disaster. We started off tight and the weather only added to our woes -- temperature was about 45 with 25 mph sustained winds. In doubles Justin and Jasper continued to play solid doubles (they haven't lost a conference match all year) and rolled to a quick 8-3 victory. At #2 Jake and Nadeem struggled losing 8-4. With the team score 1-1 all eyes turned to the brothers Solomon who were locked in a battle at #1 doubles. Things looked good as we were serving 5-4 in the tiebreaker. However 2 big returns and a service winner left the Whitties down 1-2 after doubles.

This is the first time all-year we have trailed in a conference match! With the wind howling and the Willamette team (and coach) whipped into a frenzy the battle was on. Both teams knew that #1 singles (Eric MacMillan) and #3 singles (Andrew Murakami) would be close: if Willamette could win those 2 match and take one more match they would earn one of the biggest upsets in NCAA III tennis.

One thing about our team is we are very young (mainly freshman and sophomores) and this was a new experience for us (weather conditions plus a feisty, fired up team seeking an upset). Unfortunately (or fortunately) for us we didn't handle the situation very well. Instead of playing aggressive tennis we played not to lose and ended up losing our focus in the windy conditions. In fact 4 of the 6 singles went 3 sets. We dropped the first sets at #1 singles (Matt Solomon), #3 singles (Chris Bailey) and surprisingly at #6 (Justin Hayashi). The Bearcats realizing they they were only a few sets away from a major upset continued to play inspired tennis. Things started to turn in our favor as Junior Dan Solomon dominated #2 singles against Micah Mack winning 6-0, 6-1 to tie the team score at 2-2. At #4 Jake Cappel shook off his poor doubles play and rolled to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Matt Houser. Even with the score 3-2 things didn't look great as the remaining 4 matches (#1, #3, #5, #6) all split sets. At #5 Dan Wilson gave us a 4-2 lead with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 victory over Fitz Paccione. Freshman Chris Bailey showed why is among the NWC elite players and fought his way to a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 clinching the team match. Justin Hayashi finally settled down at #6 posting a 6-7, 6-1, 10-3 win. The only singles match the Bearcats were able to win was at #1 where Matt Solomon dropped a close 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 match.

Kudos to the Willamette team -- they played well in tough conditions. In fact this year they played us closer than any team in the conference.

Whitman 6 Willamette 3

The win set up a Saturday showdown with #2 seed and defending champion PLU (who narrowly got by Linfield 5-4). Last year we came into the conference tournament as the #1 seed and PLU knocked us off 6-3 -- we were determined NOT to let this happen again. In our pre-match meeting I stressed that our match against Willamette was the best thing that could of happened. We had already played a tight match in the tournament and got through our nerves. I was convinced that we were going to play better tennis -- we just needed to start strong.

And start strong we did. This might be the first match all year were we started the doubles fired up and brimming with positive energy. In showed as we rolled to a 8-2 victories at #3 and #1 doubles. The victory at #1 was especially sweet since the PLU team was undefeated in conference play. At #2 doubles Jake and Nadeem finally found their mojo: unfortunately they were down 2-7 before they started playing well. From 2-7 they battled back to 6-7 and had 3 break chances to even the match before losing 8-6.

Even snow flurries after the doubles (it was actually snowing) couldn't cool off the Fighting Squirrels. We maintained our high energy level sweeping all 6 singles matches. As a coach it was gratifying to see every team member step up and play great tennis when it mattered the most. In the conference finals each player was the hero. However I want to send out big kudos to team captain Justin Hayashi for his willingness to listen and make a major adjustment in his game plan -- Justin was down 2-6, 4-2 before winning 6-4, 6-0. Also Matt Solomon over came a horrible day against Willamette and provided the passion and inspiration that fueled his team to victory. Matt won 6-4, 6-1 against an opponent that beat him in straight sets earlier in the year (Kevin Floyd).

After the match Daniel Solomon provided a quote to our Sports Information Director that brought tears to my wife's eyes and made me feel like a proud papa. "Winning this title as part of a team with my brother is one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in my life. I couldn't ask for anything more."

Conference Championship Match Whitman 8 PLU 1

Next Monday is selection day for NCAA III tennis. That afternoon we will know where and whom we play.

Also big thanks to David Deming for providing match updates via Twitter.

Spring Break Community Service Article

Article by Whitman SID Dave Holden

Whitman Men's Tennis Players Add Youth Clinic to Superlative Season

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- The Whitman College men's tennis team has had a spring to remember, stroking its way to a second consecutive undefeated Northwest Conference (NWC) regular season and a No. 19 national ranking in NCAA Division III.

With a deep and talented roster, the 20-man squad has collected good memories by the bushel, often splitting into two groups to play multiple matches on the same day. Victories have included 12 NWC shutouts, upsets of an NCAA Division I opponent and a perennial NAIA national powerhouse, and a split of four matches against other nationally ranked Division III teams during a Spring Break trip to southern California.

Justin Hayashi and friends

That track record has Whitman brimming with confidence as it takes a 20-9 season record and the No. 1 seed into the NWC championship tournament this Friday and Saturday at the Yakima (Wash.) Tennis Club.

But when it comes to fond memories, Justin Hayashi and several of his teammates will also remember the second week of their Spring Break, when they traveled to Vancouver, B.C., to give a free tennis camp for children ages seven to 15.

The camp was held March 18-20 at the Strathcona Community Centre, which serves urban neighborhood families on the less privileged east side of Vancouver. It attracted about 40 youngsters, most of them between the ages of seven and nine.

"Most of the kids had never played tennis before, so our goal was to run a tennis camp where the kids could try something new, receive some tennis coaching, and most importantly, have fun," Hayashi says.

Hayashi, a junior team captain from Kirkland, Wash., was just a little surprised by the response. "We were concerned it would be a difficult task to keep them all attentive, but it was quite easy because they were all so intrigued and excited about playing," he says. "The kids all loved it and developed emotional attachments to many of our players in just the few days we were there."

One of Hayashi's favorites was Michael, a seven-year-old. "We struck up a friendship bond," he says. "A lot of the kids were outgoing, playful and endearing. It was easy to form attachments."

In addition to Hayashi, the Whitman contingent included the team's four Canadians - sophomores Jasper Follows, Thomas Roston and Nadeem Kassam, and freshman Etienne Moshevich. All four are from the Vancouver/Richmond area.

Other players making the community service trip were sophomores Jake Cappel (River Forest, Ill.) and David Deming (Brush Prairie, Wash.) and freshman Matt Goldfogel (Bellingham, Wash.). Assistant coach Steven Ly and Phalkun Mam, two former standout players who graduated last May, rounded out the group.

In organizing the trip and tennis camp, Hayashi found sponsors in Tennis BC, the governing body for tennis in British Columbia, and HEAD, a global manufacturer of tennis and other sporting equipment. "We also received very generous support from Jake Cappel's father (Jeff Cappel)," Hayashi says, and the Whitman athletics department paid for van transportation.

"When possible, we're happy to assist our student athletes as they give back to their home communities," Whitman athletics director Dean Snider says.

Prior to the trip, Hayashi and his teammates also did some on-campus fundraising, mostly through a "Tuck In for $5" promotion. "Students hired us to `tuck in' their friends at bedtime," he says. "We basically went to rooms to read them a Dr. Seuss book and sing them a lullaby."

Whitman's tennis clinic staff (l-r): Phalkun Mam, Matt Goldfogel, Jake Cappel, David Deming, Etienne Moshevich, Nadeem Kassam, Justin Hayashi, Thomas Roston and (right front) Jasper Follows.

Hayashi, a first-generation tennis player, received his own introduction to tennis at age 13, and it was those early experiences that motivated him to organize his Spring Break trip and tennis camp.

As a young player who showed promise but couldn't afford expensive lessons, Hayashi received a tennis scholarship from Seattle's Central Park Tennis Club. That scholarship paid for lessons until he graduated from Lakeside School. As part of that scholarship, as he grew more accomplished on the courts, he also gave lessons to younger players.

"Tennis has meant a lot to me and has brought me countless memories and wonderful opportunities," Hayashi says. "I wanted to give other children the same opportunity I had, even if it was just for a few days at our camp."

Hayashi, who is majoring in both Asian Studies and sociology (with a minor in Chinese and Japanese), hopes to spend this summer in New York City, interning in the financial sector or in the marketing/public relations field. His post-Whitman plans are focused on law school or work in international business.

---

CONTACT: Dave Holden
Sports Information Director
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash.
(509) 527-5902; holden@whitman.edu

Twitter, Jott and Match Updates!

This weekend I will be providing match updates on the whitmantennis blog using twitter and jott. If you are readying this post via email take a second and view the whitmantennis blog. On the right side of the page (under the pictures) is a section called "Whitman Tennis on Twitter". Using a cell phone I can immediately update this section of the blog -- if you manage contacts, send text messages and/or email often I highly recommend jott.

I'll try to update our match(es) every 30 minutes. Iif you are keeping track of the matches you might have to refresh your browser for the updates to post.

West Coast Rankings Released

New West Region rankings are out today and Whitman remained at #5. In singles Matt Solomon moved to #5 and Daniel Solomon jumped to #15. In doubles Matt and Daniel remained at #4 in the region and the team of Nadeem Kassam/Jake Cappel moved to #7.

No word on when the new National rankings will be posted.

DIII West Region Rankings

Whitties finish with 20 wins!

Saturday was a special day for the Whitties as we finished 16-0 in conference AND won 20 matches. Accomplishing these feats were not easy as part of the team traveled to Portland to play Lewis and Clark College while the other half stayed on campus to play NAIA power Lewis Clark State College (#19 in NAIA).

The team that traveled to Portland had a pretty easy time with the Pioneers winning 9-0 without dropping a set. Robert Rye continued his strong month winning 8-0 at #2 doubles and #1 singles 6-1, 6-1. David Deming overcame a sluggish start and fought off 4 set points before winning 7-5, 6-1. Christoph Fuchs had a bit of a lapse in his second set but posted a 6-1, 7-6 at #2 singles. These wins put Robert, David, and Christoph at the top of the NWC singles leaders.

The half of the team that stayed at home had its hands full with a very good Lewis Clark State team. Earlier in the year LCSC defeated us in 4-3 thriller. This time we were able to turn the tables with a 7-2 victory that featured Whitman winning 2 3-set matches. Since I have been coaching at Whitman this is only the 2nd time we have defeated the Warriors of LCSC. Obviously the undefeated conference season and our win over LCSC gives us tremendous momentum going into the conference tournament.

Whitman 9 Lewis and Clark College 0
Whitman 7 Lewis Clark State College 2

This weekend the NWC conference tournament will be held at the Yakima Tennis Club in Yakima, WA. Being the #1 seed we will play the winner of Whitworth (#4) and Willamette (#5) at 3:30pm on Friday.

During the tournament I will be trying to post match updates using Jott. One of the features of Jott is the ability to post to blogger via a phone. I apologize in advance if the blog (and update emails) gets messy.

If you see any of the Whitman Men's tennis players on campus this week make sure to congratulate them on a 20 win season!

Senior Day -- Robert Rye scores big wins!

Saturday was suppose to be our last our last home of the year (this morning we added an other home match against NAIA power LCSC). Being the last home match of the year we were able to tell stories about our lone senior Robert Rye. I also figured this was a good opportunity for Robert to play both #1 singles and #1 doubles. Robert has been playing very well this year: infact he has only lost 2 singles matches the entire year (both in the Fall) to Bryan Thorpe of University of Portland and our own Matt Solomon. A little known Whitman tennis statistic is that among players whom have played over 50 matches Robert possesses the highest winning percentage at over 75%.

In our match against University of Puget Sound, Robert delighted the crowd with his athletic serve-and-volley game and big forehand. Robert played strong throughout his match winning 6-2, 6-2. In doubles Robert teamed with fellow team captain Justin Hayashi for an 8-5 win against one of the better doubles teams in the conference.

Our record is now 18-9 and 15-0 in conference. Our last matches of the year are next Saturday when we play Lewis Clark College at 10am in Portland and Lewis Clark State College at 10am in Walla Walla (team will be split).

Whitman 9 UPS 0

Whitties go 5-1 in 48 hours!

Please forgive me for the late post but it has been a busy week. Actually the busy week started over the weekend when the Mighty Whitties played 6 matches in 48 hours! Why play 6 matches in 2 days? Well the NCAA has some crazy restrictions. In NCAA III tennis a team is allowed to play a total of 20 dates of competition. An individual tournament counts as 1 date of competition and each day a team competes counts as one date of competition -- playing multiple matches in one day only counts as 1 date. To make matters worse the NWC conference is the only DIII conference that requires tennis teams to play home-and-away with every team in the conference. This means we are forced to play 16 dual matches within the conference. This is a great system for some of the weaker teams in the conference since they can fill their entire season with conference matches. However the format is a killer for the better teams in the conference: it virtually eliminates the ability to play DI teams or a competitive DIII spring schedule (unless a coach can be creative with the scheduling.) One thing our program prides itself on is playing the best possible schedule. In fact this season we have played 3 of the top 10 NCAA III schools (UCSC, Kenyon and Redlands), we have played five different DI programs (Portland, Portland State, Idaho, Gonzaga and Eastern Washington) and multiple matches against a top NAIA schools (Lewis-Clark State College). The only way we can fit all this in is to have a very deep roster and play multiple matches in the same day (hence the 6 matches in 2 days.)

Ok on to the matches. We started our marathon weekend with a 9-0 win over Willamette. Because of the long weekend I juggled the line-up giving different people a chance to play while resting arms. In doubles the Brothers Solomon showed why they are one of the top teams in the West Region defeating a good Willamette #1 team 8-4. I moved Justin and Jasper up to #2 doubles where they overcame a 4-6 deficit to win 8-6. At #3 Christoph and Quin never faced a break point winning 8-5.

In singles Chris Bailey played #1 for the first time all year and won a hard fought 3-6, 6-2, 11-9 match over senior Eric MacMillan. Jake Cappel overcame a bit of shakey start to defeat his opponent 7-5, 6-2. At #3 Dan Wilson played his best match defeating Andrew Murakami 6-2, 6-0. As an FYI our team is that Murakimi is one of Willamette's most dangerous players. At #4 Nadeem played flawless tennis defeating Matt Houser 6-0, 6-1. As of a week ago Houser was playing #2 for the Bearcats. At #5 and #6 Jasper Follows and David Deming both has solid performances winning 6-2, 6-2 and 6-2, 7-5.

Whitman 9 Willamette 0

Later in the day was the match I had been dreading all season -- an away match with Linfield. As a coach I always respect the Linfield team. They are well coached and compete hard. However the match can be completely different depending on the weather. If Mother Nature cooperates and its dry the match is played outside on normal courts. However if it is wet the match is moved into the Linfield Fieldhouse "Mars Courts" or as I put it the "House of Doom". The "Mars courts" are a fast rubberized multi-purpose surface with loose removable nets. If Stephen King were to write a horror story about tennis he could certainly use the Linfield Fieldhouse as a setting. On these courts topspin doesn't jump, kick serves don't bite and heavy slice doesn't come up off the ground. These courts are probably the biggest home court advantage in all of college tennis.

In doubles we were outplayed for over an hour. Going in the latter stages of the doubles I was convince we were going to go down 0-3. Somehow the Fighting Squirrels (our team nickname) kept clawing, fighting and working their way into the match. The Solomons won 9-8 (7-4) after being down 2 match points. Jake and Nadeem were buried 7-1 in doubles before making a match of it losing 8-4. And at #3 Justin and Jasper were down a break before winning 9-7.

As expect all the singles were close. Unfortunately for Matt he lost 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to a player he beat early in the year. I must say that Matt has been playing better each week and is a completely different (and better) player than earlier in the year. He has posted some good wins over many of the regions top players. It is my sincerest hope that this match on the "Mars Courts" doesn't affect his chance for post season play. Hats of to Nick Ruess of Linfield who played a great match.

The only other set we lost was at #4 where Chris Bailey squandered a 5-2 lead in the first set only to lose 6-7. Chris showed great composure and bounced back to win 6-7, 7-2, 10-2. Other victories of the day included:
#2 Dan Solomon 6-3, 7-5
#3 Jake Cappel 7-5, 6-4
#5 Dan Wilson 6-2, 7-6
#6 Christoph Fuchs 7-6, 6-4

Whitman 7 Linfield 2

After not enough sleep (we got back to the hotel at 11pm) we had to get up early for a round of matches against DI opponents U of Portland and Portland State. Because of match conflicts at UP we played both matches on the covered courts at PSU. The courts sit on top of a building and have a roof but no walls. Only windscreens keep the balls from bouncing off the roof. It is certainly an interesting place to play, but after the Linfield match these courts seemed like paradise.

Against UP we started with 3-6 singles (they have 4 courts). If the match wasn't decided after the first round of singles we would play #1 and #2. If the match was tied after singles we would play doubles (DI plays the doubles as 1 point). In singles we had great performances from Chris and Jake. Chris Bailey(#3) defeated high touted freshman Bryan Thorp 6-4, 6-4 and at #4 Jake Cappel played some of his best tennis winning 6-3, 6-3. At #5 and #6 we dropped 6-3, 6-3 and 6-1, 6-1 decisions. With the Solomon's on court at #1 and #2 singles things were looking great. In fact at one point we were up 4-1 in both of the first sets! However Portland showed why they are typically a top 100 DI team and took both matches in straight sets.

Whitman 2 Portland 4

After a quick sandwich we took the courts against home team Portland State. In a replay of the prior evening we were a bit lucky to win the doubles. In fact once again the Solomons fought off match points to win 9-7 giving us the doubles point.

In singles we got quick wins at #1 (6-4, 6-2) and #2 (6-0, 6-1) to give us a 3-0 lead. The match got close when we dropped a 6-1, 6-2 decision at #3 and a 6-4, 6-4 match at #5. With the match on the line at 3-2 Jake (who was named NWC player of the Week) battled to a hard fought 6-7, 6-1, 7-6 victory sealing the team win. Christoph quickly followed with his own three-set victory at #6 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 to give us a solid 5-2 win over DI Portland State.

Whitman 5 PSU 2

While we were battling the DI teams Coach Steven Ly had a second group of Whitties playing against Pacific and George Fox. Our incredible team depth was in evidence as we blanked both Fox and Pacific.

Whitman 9 Pacific 0

Whitman 9 George Fox 0

We are now 17-9 on the year and 14-0 in conference. Our last home match of the year is Saturday at 1pm vs University of Puget Sound.

Whitties go 2-1 at Stag-Hen Classic

This picture doesn't have anything to do with the Stag-Hen classic but it is a very unique picture that I simply had to put on my blog.

The Stag-Hen, hosted by Claremont and Pomona, is one of the few DIII team tournaments (outside the NCAA tournament and National Indoors) and features top teams from across the country. This year's field included #5 CMS, #7 Trinity, #11 Bowdoin, #12 Kenyon, #16 Whitman, #25 The College of New Jersey, #30 Pomona Pitzer, and UT Tyler.

Unfortunately for us we drew the very hot Kenyon team in the first round. Coming into the tournament "The Lords" were undefeated this season and might have the best player in the nation in transfer Michael Greenberg. I don't know how else to put it but in doubles we got rolled. At #1 and #2 doubles we lost by identical 8-2 scores. Our only doubles bright spot was #3 Justin and Jasper who had numerous match points. Unfortunately we couldn't convert any of those key points and dropped the match 9-8.

In singles we faired a bit better. At #2 singles Dan played well (and smart) winning 6-2, 6-4. Our only other victory was at #3 singles with Chris taking the honors 6-3, 6-4. However all but one of the singles were very competitive. In fact we lost at #1 (Matt), #4 (Jake), and #5 (Dan) in three sets. Unfortunately for Jasper his very bad week continued and he lost in straight sets at #6.

In retrospect the 7-2 loss at the hands of Kenyon wasn't such a bad loss (although after the match I was pretty upset about losing 3 3-set matches). Honestly we should of won at #3 doubles and could of picked up one of the singles we lost in three. Under that scenario the match would be tied at 4-4 and anything can happen. In the next round Kenyon defeated host CMS (#5 in nation) on the Stags home court. Another highlight of the match was Matt proving to be on tough competitor taking Greenberg three sets. As an FYI Greenberg won his next matches against the #1's from CMS and Trinity without losing more than two games a match!

Whitman 2 Kenyon 7

The following day we squared at 8:30am off against a very tough UT Tyler team. One of the things I dread as a coach is playing an earlier morning match against a team from a mid to eastern time zone. Lets face it 99% of college students HATE getting up early and typically don't perform well in the morning. The 8:30am match for us is like a 10:30am match for the Tyler team.

In doubles we again got off to a slow start at #1 and #2. At #1 doubles Matt and Dan were down two breaks before coming back to win 8-6. At #2 Jake and Nadeem played a poor match losing 8-2. Jasper and Justin were up an early break but couldn't maintain their momentum losing 8-5.
Going down 2-1 put us in the difficult position of having to win 4 of the 6 singles to take the match. This is always a tough proposition and even more difficult because the UT Tyler team was fired up sensing a potential upset.

Coaching is a such a wonderful calling (as my good friend Greg Patton says) -- it is a thrill to be on the court hours each day with so many outstanding young men. It is a great feeling to watch your team, the men you coach, compete hard and battle tooth-and-nail for each and every point. However there is absolutely not better feeling in coaching that watching your players grow before your eyes. I felt like a proud father watching our three sophomores Matt, Dan and Jake (each of whom lost in three sets the prior day) play their hearts to lead us to a 5-4 victory. One thing I should mention about this tournament is all the dual-matches are played on 4 courts. Because of the court situation we rotated which two players would go on in the 2nd rotation of matches (so #5 and #6 weren't the players always the last on). In singles first off for Whitman was Jake (#4) with a solid 6-2, 6-3 win. Dan (#5) quickly followed Jake blasting his opponent off the court winning 6-3, 6-4. As Dan was finishing Jasper (#6) lost 6-3, 6-2 tying the team score 3-3. At #3 singles Chris Bailey was locked in a tough three set battle as both Matt (#1) and Dan (#2) took the courts. Chris played his heart out in the 3rd set but his 1st serve let him down and he ended up dropping the match to a very talented UTT player 1-6, 6-2, 7-6. Down 3-4 we needed to pick up both #1 and #2 to win the match.

At #2 Daniel overcame an early break and was able to stick with his "Natalie" and post a big 6-4, 6-2 win. I have to add that Daniel has been such a great addition to the team. Besides being a big boost in our line-up he is a great influence on the members of the team. His maturity and quick wit are an absolute pleasure to be around. Additionally it is a thrill to watch the brothers Solomon play doubles. They compliment each other well and are incredibly supportive of each other (both on and off the court.)

With the match tied at 4-4 our fate would be decided by #1 singles. Going into this match we knew this was going to be a battle because the UTT player had defeated the #17 player in the nation (Larry Wang of CMS) the previous day. The first set was a see-saw battle with Matt going up early but then had to face down a set point before taking the opening set 7-6. The second set was close all the way through until Matt dropped serve late in the set and the UTT player served out the set 6-4. With all eyes on the match and both teams trying to will their player to victory Matt proved victorious 6-3 giving us a thrilling 5-4 victory. As I told Matt after the match -- last year he was like a moody Momma Bear (we call Matt the Bear) but this year he is more like a Papa Bear who aggressively defenses his family and turf.

Whitman 5 UT Tyler 4

Big kudos to Coach Chris Bizot and the UT Tyler team, they are damn good and compete hard. If they don't crack the top 25 in the next ranking period something is wrong. Later in the day UT Tyler beat host and #30 ranked Pomona 5-0.

Following the UT Tyler match we faced off against #25 The College of New Jersey. Since this was the last match of the tournament and rain was impending it was decided to play the match to decision (i.e., stop all the matches when a team reached 5 points). The only match we lost was #2 doubles were the new combo of Jake Cappel and Robert Rye lost 8-6. We were actually a bit lucky (Matt was unlucky) to finish the match as it started to sprinkle about an hour into the singles. We were able to post quick victories at #2 (Dan), #4 (Jake), and #6 (Justin) to seal the 5-1 win. At #3 Chris was serving for the match at 5-3 and at #1 Matt was up a set against the #7 player in the nation (he really wanted to finish this match).

Whitman 5 TCNJ 1

We finished our spring break trip with a 2-2 record. Interestingly enough the two teams we lost two have a combined 24-1 record!

Whitman falls to Redlands 5-2

Since I have a coaches meeting in 15 minutes this will be a short post (please forgive any typos and/or bad grammar.) Yesterday we ran into a fired up and hungry Redlands team (#15 in nation). One thing I knew going into the match was the Bulldogs were going to fired up to play us. Last year we were able to sneak out a 5-4 over Redlands on their home courts and I'm sure they have been looking forward to a rematch for the better part of a year. Also Redlands does much of its recruiting in our backyard (the Pacific Northwest) and a victory over #16 Whitman would be a feather in their hat.

Even though Redlands was our first match of Spring Break I already feel like our team is the walking wounded. Its a good thing we have such a deep roster with players that are willing and able to fill at a moments notice. Yesterday doubles standout Nadeem Kassam couldn't go because of a sore achilles. Instead of juggle doubles teams I moved Chris Bailey and Robert Rye into the #3 slot and bumped Jasper Follows and Justin Hayashi up to #2. As an FYI all 4 of my Canadians are now hurt: ET with his lingering shoulder problems, Nadeem with an achilles, Thomas (heck I think Thomas has 3 different injuries, and Jasper's bad week continues has he is now sick.

In doubles brothers Solomon posted a great win at #1 doubles with an 8-4 victory. We spend a fair bit of time talking about momentum in practice and how quickly doubles matches can change. Yesterdays #1 doubles match was a classic example of switch momentum. The brothers were broke at 4-3 giving the big serving Redlands team the early lead. However, for whatever reason, Matt and Dan rallied to win the next 5 games.

At #2 doubles Justin and Jasper were getting their feet wet in their new position. The J's didn't play as they are capable of losing 8-4. With the match tied at 1-1 our new #3 doubles team of Robert Rye and Chris Bailey were unable to capitalize on their many opportunities and dropped the match 8-6.

In singles the match of the day goes to Matt who posted a 7-6, 7-5 victory over Redlands #1 player. Earlier in the week the Redlands player had defeated the #7 player in the nation in straight sets. Kudos to Matt for playing a very mature match in a difficult situation.

We were close in most of the other matches but couldn't win the critical points that often determine a set (or a match). After the match the team all agreed we would like to play them again. Who knows if we can win the NWC perhaps we will get another chance at them.

We are off to play #12 Kenyon at the Stag-Hen tournament.

PS Big shout out to Kelsey from Colorado College who keeps up with friend Daniel Solomon via my blog!

Jasper's Terrible horrible no good very bad day!

It has been a busy week for the team. After our 9-0 victory over Lewis Clark College we drove to Spokane for a double header against Whitworth. It is a bit unusual to play double headers in College tennis but it allows us to save a date of competition and knock out two conference matches. Because of the double header I varied the line-up(s) to give the guys different matches.

In match #1 we defeated the pesky Pirates 7-2. In both the matches we lost, #1 doubles and #6 singles, we had match points. While it is disappointing to lose those close matches I was proud that we won 2 of the 3 singles matches that went three sets. Match #2 went a bit smoother as we were able to blank Whitworth 9-0.

The sweep of Whitworth improved our conference record to 10-0. In those 10 conference matches we have won an amazing 83 matches against only 7 losses.

Match #1 Whitman 7 Whitworth 2
Match #2 Whitman 9 Whitworth 0


As the title suggests Jasper is having a legendary spring break trip. His bad day (actually bad week) started Saturday night. As we are getting ready to leave Walla Walla Jasper realized he is missing his passport -- which he will need to get back into Canada. Before we can hit the road we have to phone security so Jasper can get back into the French house to find his passport (all the residence halls at Whitman are closed for spring break).

The troubles of Jasper continue on Sunday when he (along with Christoph, Jake and ET) were left at the hotel prior to our Whitworth match. Early that morning we had a team breakfast and the team was informed that we were leaving at 10:30 for the Whitworth campus. At 10:45 I was tired of waiting for the trio so they had the honor of waiting an extra 45 minutes as I drove the rest of the team to our match. Unfortunately for Jasper and company they only had 10 minutes to warm-up before the match. Hopefully I made a point about being punctual.

On Monday Jasper's interesting week continued as he left his plane ticket on the airplane during a layover in Sacramento. Luckily for Jasper he was able to run back onto the plane and find his ticket.

Tuesday we had a wonderful day at the Pacific Life Open. It was one of the last days of qualifying and we were lucky enough to see some great matches and many of the top professionals practicing. It is inspiring and motivating to see so many great players applying their trade.

Unfortunately for Jasper he was left at the A & W in Indian Wells! We made a quick stop for snacks and drinks before heading back to L.A. and were almost back on the the freeway when Jasper called saying we had left him at the A & W. Honestly if Jasper hadn't called we would left him. To solve and future missteps I've now assigned the three freshman to keep of Jasper. They are tasked with keeping track of Jasper for the remainder of the trip -- hopefully he won't get lost, dropped off or forgotten for the rest of the trip!

We have had a wonder couple days in California but are looking forward to some competition. Tomorrow we take on #15 Redlands (we dropped to #16) and Friday we take on the very hot #12 Kenyon team.

Whitties continue to roll in the NWC

This afternoon we continued our run through the Northwest Conference with a 9-0 victory over Lewis Clark College. This was our sixth consecutive 7-0 victory and we are currently standing in first place in the conference (8-0).

Today's match marks a special time of the year -- the start of Spring Break! We continue our spring break tour tomorrow at noon (time change from 2pm) against Whitworth in Spokane. One Monday we fly out to Los Angeles for a Thursday match against Redlands and a weekend tournament at Claremont Mudd Scripts. Below is the press release from our match today.

The Whitman men's tennis team, ranked No. 16 nationally, continued its dominating march through the Northwest Conference ranks with a 9-0 shutout of Lewis & Clark Saturday afternoon in Walla Walla.

Blanking its sixth consecutive opponent, Whitman ran its NWC record to 8-0 and has now won 26 consecutive regular season matches against conference foes. Saturday's loss dropped Lewis & Clark to 2-7 in the NWC standings.

With 11 players seeing court time, Whitman first swept the doubles and then won each of the six singles matches in straight sets. The afternoon's most competitive battle came at No. 1 singles, where Whitman sophomore Matt Solomon notched a 6-4, 6-4 victory. His opponent, Lewis & Clark sophomore George Allen, jumped in front 4-1 in the second set before Solomon stormed back to win five straight games and close out the match.

Freshman Chris Bailey and sophomore Dan Wilson were easy winners at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively. Both players are now 6-0 in NWC singles action.

Sophomores Jasper Follows at No. 4 and David Deming at No. 6 also chalked up victories to stay undefeated in singles against conference opponents. Deming is 4-0 and Follows 3-0.

Robert Rye, the lone senior on Whitman's roster, posted a 6-2, 6-2 victory at No. 5 singles.

Follows and junior Justin Hayashi won 8-2 at No. 2 doubles, improving their NWC doubles record to 4-0. Sophomores Nadeem Kassam and Jake Cappel, after cruising to an 8-0 victory at No. 1 doubles, are also 4-0 in conference doubles play. Junior Christoph Fuchs and freshman Quin Miller completed the Whitman sweep in doubles with an 8-3 win in the No. 3 match.

Most of Saturday's match was played on the Whitman outdoor courts. The No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches were played in the nearby Bratton Tennis Center.

Whitman hits the road on Sunday, playing two NWC matches at Whitworth in Spokane, Wash. Lewis & Clark travels to Tacoma, Wash., next Friday and Saturday for matches at Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran.

Match scores

Whitties Sweep PLU and UPS

What a great weekend of play for the Whitties. Not only did we defeat both UPS and PLU we did so in convincing fashing sweeping both matches 9-0! Whitman has a strong tennis tradition. This team added to that strong tradition by doing something no team in recent history as done -- sweep PLU! In talking with the PLU coaches they don't remember the last time the Lutes were swept by any conference school! Although we still haven't played up to our full potential, the PLU match was our most complete match of the season.

In doubles we started quick at #1 and #3 going up quick breaks. At #2 doubles we struggled to hold serve early in the match: fortunately for us PLU was also struggling to hold serve. At one point in #2 doubles the teams traded 4 straight breaks! The #3 team of Justin Hayashi and Jasper Follows continued their impressive play winning 8-1. Justin and Jasper have had a great year only losing one match so far this year (to UC Santa Cruz) and have defeated teams from Gonzaga and EWU. The Brothers Solomon quickly followed with a 8-4 win at #1 doubles. This was an especially gratifying win for the brothers since the PLU defeated them 9-8 a few weeks ago. At #3 Nadeem and Jake were able to get through their shaky match 8-6 giving us a 3-0 lead going into singles.

As a side note we played 3 exhibition doubles matches and swept all three.

In singles we got strong performances up and down the line-up. First off the court was Daniel "I have no nickname" Solomon with a 6-4, 6-0 at #2 singles. Daniel continues to impress and has yet to drop a set in conference play. In fact his only loss in DIII was a close #3 setter to #1 ranked UC Santa Cruz. The other Dan "I have many nicknames" Wilson sealed our match with a 6-3, 6-1 win at #5. This was a nice win for Dan since his opponent had been undefeated in conference play. We also got solid wins from Chris Bailey 6-1, 6-4 (#4 singles) and Jasper at #6 (6-2, 7-5).

The two competitive matches of the day were three set battles at #1 and #3. At #1 singles Matt Solomon saw his match go the distance as he gutted out a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 win. Besides being a gritty road win, Matt was able to defeat an opponent that beat him in straight sets a few weeks earlier.

At #3 Jake showed a lot of maturity overcoming a slow start to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. While Jake didn't play his best tennis at the beginning of the match he was tenacious and worked his way back into the match.

This weekend is a busy weekend for us as we host Lewis Clark College Saturday 1:30pm and then travel to Spokane for two matches against Whitworth (first match at 2pm).

Box Scores
Whitman 9 PLU 0
Whitman 9 UPS 0

Bailey helps power Whitties past Willamette

Yesterday we played conference up and comer Willamette on our home courts. The match was originally schedule for the morning, but to accommodate WU's travel plans we moved the match back to 1pm. One unexpected benefit of the time change was we were able to play the match outdoors. With the temperature around 55 and crystal blue skies we were able to play our first outdoor match of the year. As I explained the the team before the match the transition from inside tennis to outdoor tennis is never easy nor does it typically produce great tennis. However it is a process we must go through and the earlier and more often we get outside the more we will benefit.

In doubles we started pretty quickly going up breaks in all three doubles matches. Justin and Jasper continued their strong play at #3 doubles with a convincing 8-2 win. At #2 doubles Jake and Nadeem worked their way to a 8-3 victory. This left brothers Solomon battling one of the top doubles team in the league. The WU #1 team was undefeated going into the match including a 8-3 victory over the #1 team from PLU (the same PLU team that defeated Matt and Daniel a few weeks earlier.) In the end the brothers were able capitalize on a break of serve to post a 8-6 victory.

In singles we posted straight set wins at every position except #1 where Matt rallied to a 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 win. Freshman Chris Bailey also had a great match defeating a very talented Willamette player 6-3, 6-4. Box score Whitman 9 Willamette 0

After a couple weeks of conference play the NWC conference appears to be a wide open affair. Last week the Willamette team knocked off regionally ranked Linfield. On Friday night the much improved Whitworth team staked a claim as one of top teams in the conference by defeating Willamette and remaining unbeaten in conference play. However on Saturday Linfield bounced back from their disappointing loss to Willamette to defeated Whitworth 6-3. By virtue of the Whitworth loss and our undefeated conference record we moved into sole position of 1st place in the conference. To see complete conference standings click here.

Next weekend is an important weekend of play as we take on #19 PLU on their home courts.

Saturday's Match vs Willamette changed to 1pm

Just a heads-up tomorrows match against Willamette has been moved to 1pm. We are also experimenting with live scoring and match updates will be available at this site.

Hope to see local people at the courts at 1pm!

Whitties go 2-0

"Coach I didn't mean to sleep through my alarm! (yes this sweet face was one who missed his alarm)" Saturday was an exceptionally long day for the Whitman Men's team as we left campus at 7am for matches against conference opponents George Fox and Pacific. The day got off to a rocky start as Freshman Matt Goldfogel showed up 15 minutes late for his first tennis road trip. Honestly I think "Fogel" was so excited about the prospect of playing that he couldn't sleep! The day almost got worse as we were leaving town and realized we were missing Dan Wilson! So we had to turn around, drive to Dan's house, rouse him out of bed and throw him into the van! This is one of the problems of large team -- sometimes it is impossible to keep track of people! Kudos to Christoph for realizing that Dan a) wasn't on the phone to his girlfriend and b) wasn't in one of the vans!

Both the George Fox and Pacific matches went well with us sweeping both matches without losing a set. Was fun to see both Jon Tat and Matt Goldfogel play and win their first college matches.

We are currently 4-0 in in the conference and tied for first place with Whitworth. Our next match is at home 10am Saturday against Willamette.

Whitman 9 Pacific 0

Whitman 9 George Fox 0

Netters defeat #19 PLU, Fall to #1 Santa Cruz

After a couple weeks on the road it was nice being home in the comfy confines of the Bratton Tennis Center. On Friday we played back-to-back matches against conference opponents PLU (#19 in nation) and Linfield.

Because we had back-to-back matches I juggled the line-up a bit to keep everyone fresh. One of the many nice things about a deep roster (we are legit through 14 spots) is we always have fresh arms and a multitude of players chomping at the bit the play.

With a new combination at #1 doubles (Matt Solomon and Justin Hayashi) we managed to take a 2-1 lead after doubles. Matt and Justin were first off the courts with a 8-4 victory. David Deming and Dan Wilson managed to squeak out a 9-7 win at #3 doubles. Unfortunately the #2 team of Robert Rye and Chris Bailey were unable to capitalize on a early break and ended up falling 9-8.

One thing I've learned about the Linfield teams is that compete hard so I knew the singles were going to be competitive. In fact at one point we were down in three of the four singles matches that were on court. Freshman Quin Miller had a see-saw battle at #6 singles winning 6-4, 0-6, 10-8. Meanwhile Sophomore Jake Cappel ran into a hot opponent dropping a close 6-4, 6-4 decision at #2 singles. Dan "I love match breakers" Wilson played his 4th match breaker in two weekends and posted a 5-7, 6-4, 10-6 victory at #4 singles. Other singles winners against Linfield included Matt Solomon at #1 6-3, 6-1, Chris Bailey at #3 6-2, 6-2 and David Deming at #5 6-3, 6-4.

Whitman 7 Linfield 2

Against PLU we played some solid doubles and were poised to take a quick 3-0 lead. Jake and Nadeem started us off with a 8-5 win at #2 doubles. Christoph and Etienne quickly followed with a 8-2 victory at #3. Brothers Matt and Daniel were on the short end of a momentum shift and lost 9-8 after being up 7-4.

In singles senior Robert Rye got us on the board first with a solid 6-3, 6-2 win at #6 singles. Daniel Solomon played a very solid match coming from a break down in the first set to win 6-4, 6-1 against PLU's senior All-American Justin Larimore. Jake Cappel got a bit of vengeance after his morning loss and sealed the Whitman victory with a 6-2, 6-3 win at #4 singles. Chris Bailey also posted a 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 win at #3 singles. PLU picked up wins at #1 singles (Matt Solomon) 6-4, 6-3 and #5 (Christoph Fuchs) 1-6, 6-3, 10-8.

Obviously beating PLU is always a big victory. This one was pretty special as we defeated the nationally ranked lutes without 2 of our singles players and our #3 doubles team.

Whitman 6 PLU 3

The highlight of the weekend was our 8pm match against the #1 ranked UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs. I can't even begin to express how incredible it was to play at home in front of a HUGE boisterous crowd. This match felt more like a play-off basketball game than a tennis match. Thanks to everyone that showed up for this late night thriller!

The doubles matches were intense and fun to watch. Each team pushed each other to greater heights of play and pumped the crowd into a frenzy. Doubles pro-sets in college tennis can be crazy. All it takes is one shot or strong game to turn a match around. At one point we were up a break at #1 doubles, down a break at #2 numbers and in command of #3 doubles (up 6-2). Funny thing the only doubles match we won was the match we were losing (#2). At the end of the night (we finished at 12:30am) I was left wondering what would of happened if we could of taking a 3-0 lead after doubles. Hats off to the Slugs, we were only a couple points from taking #1 and #3 doubles but when pressured the Santa Cruz team played some of their best tennis.

Even though we didn't win any singles matches we played the #1 team in the nation close. Daniel Solomon continued his strong play losing at #2 to the defending doubles National Champion 6-3, 6-7, 10-3. Freshman Chris Bailey continued his strong play losing at #5 singles 4-6, 6-4, 10-3.

Whitman 1 UCSC 8

Next match for the Whitties is Saturday when we travel to Portland to take on Pacific (2 pm) and George Fox (3pm). We will be splitting the team into two squads for the Saturday matches.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to watch us play this weekend!

Whitties Fall to DI programs

The weekend proved to be tough for Whitties as we lost to DI programs Eastern Washington University (0-7) and Gonzaga (1-6). Even though the dual match scores were pretty lopsided we competed hard and played pretty well. I think it is a tribute to our program that both EWU and GU played their full squads against us.

One of the highlights for the weekend was the strong doubles play of Jasper Follows and Justin Hayashi. In both matches they prevailed by identical 9-8 scores. It was also nice to see freshman Chris Bailey win his first college match against Cooper Fratt of Gonzaga. In three years of matches against Gonzaga we have never been able to notch a win against Cooper.

EWU
Doubles
1. Matt and Dan Solomon lost Panharra Mam/Kyle Schraeder 8-2
2. Jake Cappel/Nadeem Kassam lost Jon Davis/Patrick Milligan 8-5
3. Justin Hayashi/Jasper Follows def Art Karas/Nico Riego de Dios 9-8
Singles
1. Matt Solomon lost Panharra Mam 6-2, 6-2
2. Dan Solomon lost Kyle Schraeder 6-2, 6-4
3. Jake Cappel lost Nico Reigo de Dios 6-1, 6-3
4. Chris Bailey lost Art Karas 6-0, 6-2
5. Dan Wilson lost Dan Pez 6-1, 6-3
6. Jasper Follows lost Jon Davis 7-6, 6-0

Gonzaga
1. Matt and Dan Solomon lost Roman Dojack/Stefan Feddersen 9-8
2. Jake Cappel/Nadeem Kassam lost Charles Adams/Zack Radetzky 8-5
3. Jasper Follows/Justin Hayashi def Cooper Fratt/Conor Feeney 9-8
Singles
1. Matt Solomon lost Roman Dojcak 6-2, 6-4
2. Dan Solomon lost Stefan Feddersen 6-3, 6-1
3. Jake Cappel lost Zack Radetzky 6-3, 6-2
4. Chris Bailey def Cooper Fratt 2-6, 6-3 10-4
5. Dan Wilson lost Conor Feeney 7-5, 3-6, 10-3
6. Justin Hayashi lost Charles Adams 7-6, 6-1

Team Fall GPA

The Men's Tennis Team ended the Fall semester with a whopping 3.404 team GPA! This means that once again I'll be stringing everyone rackets this semester. As an FYI I have a standing arrangement with the team that if they maintain a team 3.2 average I'll be the team stringer. Two weeks into the season and already burned through 2 reels of string!

If you see anyone members of the team make sure to congratulation them on their great effort in the classroom.

First Matches!

Whitman tennis is off and running! Over the weekend the LCSC team was gracious enough to play twice: once against our A team and again against the B team. We followed those two matches with a match against DI Idaho. Needless to say it was a busy Saturday of play!

LCSC has always presented challenges for our team. In fact in 10+ years of coaching at Whitman we have only beaten LCSC once. I stopped keeping track but I'm pretty sure we are 1 and 15 vs the Warriors. Hats off to Coach Fong who has built one of the top NAIA programs in the nation. Not only are his players true Warriors on the court they are gentleman both on and off the court.

For tennis fans, the Whitman A team vs LCSC was the best show in town. In fact this was probably the most exciting match I have been a part of. We started off strong winning the doubles point (we played DI rules) as the Brothers Solomon defeated the LCSC team 8-5 and Nadeem/Jake rallied from a 4-1 deficit to post a 8-5 win. At #3 doubles LCSC defeated Christoph/Etienne 8-2.

In singles Matt continue his strong play winning at #1 6-4, 6-4. Matt showed great maturity winning the first set on his fourth set point. I worried he was going to lose his focus after failing to convert on a couple of set points when serving at 5-4. To Matt's credit he was able to shrug off his disappointment and close out the set. In the second set Matt was down 1-4 before rallying to win 5 straight games.

At #2 singles, new Whittie Daniel Solomon had a great match against a tough LCSC opponent. Daniel proved to be a tough competitor battling back from breaks in each set (2 breaks in the second set). However, in the end his opponents penetrating groundstrokes and big serve were a bit much and Daniel went down 7-5, 7-5.

At #3 singles Etienne got his first exposure to intercollegiate matches losing to the versatile LCSC player 6-2, 6-4. Too ET's credit he never hung his head even while being outplayed and was able to come back from a break down to even the second set. In the end his LCSC opponent had a bit too much experience and variety.

LCSC has four indoor courts and since the Warrior #4 player was in class we put on #5 singles in the first rotation of singles matches. Jake showed some rust in the first set of his match but rallied to win 2-6, 7-5, 10-6. Certainly nice to see Jake bounce back from a nasty stomach virus that him in the hospital for part of the semester break.

After the first round of singles we had a narrow 3-2 lead needing only 1 more win to clinch the match. At #4 Chris "Chras" Bailey had a thrilling match but lost to LCSC's lone senior player 7-6, 6-4. With the match tied at 3-3 it came down to #6 singles where Dan was locked in a 3rd set match breaker. In the breaker the momentum swung both ways. Early in the breaker Dan was up a mini-break but couldn't convert. Later in the breaker Dan saved several match points. In the end the LCSC player was able to fight his way to a 6-3, 4-6, 14-12 victory to clinch the match.

It was too bad any player or team had to lose in this epic battle.

Sorry but time is running is short and I need to get vans back this morning. Below are the results of the Idaho match and Team B vs LCSC

Whitman (A) vs LCSC
Doubles
1. Solomon's def Cedric Dufour/Kevin Lee 8-5
2. Nadeem/Jake def Seabstian Kuhn/Jonathan Berhane 8-5
3. ET/Christoph lost Arslan Mermut/Oliver Stone 8-2
Singles
1. Matt def Stone 6-4, 6-4
2. Daniel lost Dufour 7-5, 7-5
3. ET lost Lee 6-2, 6-4
4. Chris lost Ali Faris 7-6 (5), 6-4
5. Jake def Kuhn 2-6, 7-5, 10-6
6. Dan lost Mermut 6-3, 4-6, 14-12

Whitman (B) vs LCSC
Doubles
1. Chris Bailey/Robert Rye lost Dufour/Lee 8-3
2. Jasper Follows/Justin Hayashi def Mermut/Stone 8-3
3. David Deming/Dan Wilson def Kuhn/Faris 8-3
Singles
1. Christoph lost Dufour 6-3, 6-0
2. Jasper lost Stone 6-2, 6-1
3. David lost Faris 6-4, 6-1
4. Justin def Lee 6-2, 6-3
5. Nadeem lost Kuhn 6-3, 4-6, 10-6
6. Quin Miller lost Mermut 7-6, 6-4

Whitman vs Idaho
Doubles
1. Solomon's def Andrew Dobbs/Potapken 8-3
2. Nadeem/Jake lost Rob Chalkley/Stanislav Glukhov 8-4
3. ET/Christoph lost Tim Huynh/McDonald 8-4
Singles
1. Matt lost Potapken 6-1, 6-2
2. Daniel Lost Glukhov 6-1, 6-0
3. ET lost Chalkley 6-2, 6-2
4. Chris lost Huynh 6-4, 6-3
5. Dan lost Dobbs 7-6, 6-7, 10-2
6. Justin lost McDonald 6-3, 6-4