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.
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