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