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.