ITA wrap-up

Matt finished up at the ITA's 2-2 finishing 7th place. Yesterday Matt started the day with a very rough backdraw match versus Mike Greenberg of Kenyon. Normally one wouldn't expect to the 2008 NCAA III singles champion in the backdraw but that was Matt's opponent. As with his previous matches Matt started off smoking! He quickly went up 3-0 and had several break points to take a 4-0 lead. Unfortunately he wasn't able to convert any of the break points and Greenberg started clawing his way back into the match. Matt served for the 1st set at 5-3 but was broken after a long game. The rest of the 1st set was a battle with Greenberg prevailing 7-6. In the second set Greenberg broke early and held on winning a tight 7-6, 6-4 match.

Because of our flight schedule today we moved the 7th/8th place match to Saturday afternoon (originally was scheduled for Sunday morning). Matt finished the tournament with a very solid 6-3, 6-4 win over the #1 player from Vassar.

For Matt the tournament was bitter sweet. In all of his matches he was up a break in the 1st set and had break points to go up 4-0 (Trinity, Middlebury, and Kenyon). With the high heat and humidity winning the 1st set is a huge advantage. Honestly Matt played some of the best tennis in the DIII draw; unfortunately he was unable to maintain his high level of play through the middle parts of the first set. However the tournament was good for Matt in that he knows he can compete with the very best in DIII and he is excited for the spring.

Also Matt hasn't been at his best this fall. Earlier in the summer he torn a stomach muscle and has been playing in pain all fall. This is really evident on his overhead motions..he hasn't been able to serve close to 100% and his overhead is really tentative. We are hoping that an extended break from tennis will allow his stomach to naturally heal.

Tough day at the ITA's

This morning Matt squared off against Middlebury's Andy Peters in the 1st round of the ITA's. Matt started off the match where he left off yesterday...on fire! In fact I think the heat from Matt's smoking forehand raised the court temperature a good 15 degrees! The first part of the set was some of the best tennis I have seen Matt play. He was absolutely blistering the ball and went up 3-0 and had a break point to go up 4-0. However the Middlebury kept a level head and battled his way back into the match. Playing way behind the baseline the Middlebury player kept digging out one extra ball forcing Matt to continually come up with the goods. Unfortunately Matt couldn't keep up his blistering play and ended up losing 6-4, 6-2.

A bit of a disappointing loss for Matt. He played pretty well most of the match and was in control of the first set only to see it slip through his fingers. Doesn't get any easier for Matt tomorrow has he plays the #2 seed Michael Greenberg of Kenyon (he won the NCAA III singles title two years ago) who was upset in his first match of the tournament.

Play-in day at the ITA's

Today was play-in day at the ITA Small College Nationals. Basically each Small College "event" (NCAA III, NCAA II, NAIA, and JC) have a draw of 8 players. However the Pacific Northwest and Texas regions share a single tournament spot. The winners of these regions arrive a day early and play a winner-in match. Win the match and get into the final eight AND get to play three more matches. Lose and you are done.

Luckily, Matt has been in this situation before and was primed and ready for the pressure of the play-in match. Matt started the match in high gear. Early in the set he broke the Trinity player and raced out to a 3-0 lead. Matt was pounding deep, heavy balls from the backcourt dominating play and pushing his opponent around the court. Matt was able to stay up a break most of the way through the first set but the Trinity player was battling and playing better tennis. Midway through the 1st set he started serving and volleying which made it harder to Matt to get a groove on his returns. Matt served for the first set 5-3 but was broke. The Trinity player then had a pretty easy hold to even the match at 5-5. With Matt serving at 5-5 the Trinity player played three great points to go up 0-40. All the momentum was now on the Trinity side of the court. This is where Matt's experience really came through..he took his time between points and grinded out 6 straight points to hold serve. Really this was the turning point in the match. Matt seized the momentum and the Trinity player seemed to lose his focus. From 5-5 0-40 down Matt went on a tear to hold and break winning the first set 7-5. Second set was all Matt all the time. In fact Matt only lost 3 points in the 2nd set winning 6-0.

This puts Matt into the elite group of 8 and he is guaranteed three more matches. Tomorrow at 10:30am he plays Middlebury. As usual I'll post twitter updates on the blog...http://whitmantennis.blogspot.com

Also very hot and humid conditions today. Was over 80 degrees with 94% humidity. Weather forecast doesn't look good for tomorrow so everyone please do their best sun dance!

Boise State Wrap-up and Mobile, AL

Been a busy few days for Whitman tennis. Last weekend David Deming and Conor Holton-Burke traveled to Boise for the Boise State Invite (mainly a DI event). What a wonderful event: great facilities, fun people and incredible tennis!

Conor had a great weekend of play. In his first match he defeated a LCSC player 6-3, 6-1 but then lost by the same score to talented University of Portland freshman Jackson Martin. The following day Conor wrapped up his tournament with a straight set win over a sophomore from U of Montana. David went 0-2 but played some pretty good tennis considering he has been out most of the fall with a sore back. In his first match he lost 7-5, 6-4 to a very good freshman freshman from Montana State and then lost to a freshman from Idaho State 10-8 in a 3rd set match break.

Currently I'm in Mobile, AL with Matt Solomon for the ITA Small College National Championships. Tomorrow at 10am Matt squares off in a play-in match against the winner of the Texas region. Winner makes it into the final eight tournament grouping. One very exciting and interesting aspect to this tournament is the winners of DIII, DII, NAIA, and JC play-off in the "Small College Superbowl" Winner of this Superbowl gets to play in the NCAA DI National event.

I'll try to provide twitter updates during the match.

Looking ahead

Going to be a busy week for some Whitman players. This weekend David Deming and Conor Holton-Burke are traveling to Boise State to play in the BSU invite. Will be great experience for the two since the majority of teams are DI (we are the only DIII school playing). On Monday Matt Solomon leaves for the ITA Small College National Championships in Mobile, AL.

I'll try to update match scores via Twitter and provide recaps on the blog.

Wrapping up the ITA's

Sorry for the delay in this post. What a great weekend of play for the Whitties at the Northwest Regional ITA tournament (which we hosted). Not only was the tennis incredible but we able to play under picture perfect blue skies!

On Monday the tournament got underway with the men's semi-finals. As a team we were fortunate to get three of our players into the precious final four. One semi's featured senior Matt Solomon vs Linfield's talented #1 player Mark Magdaong. The other semi was an all-Whitman showdown between junior Chris Bailey and freshman Jeffrey Tolman. I should point out that both Chris and Jeffrey had incredible matches on Sunday. Chris battled past teammate Thomas Roston in a 3-hour 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 match. Not to be outdone Jeffrey pulled off the upset of the tournament when he defeated PLU's #1 player Joel Trudel 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. Great win for Jeffrey, Joel was NWC player of the year last year (going undefeated in singles) and is DI transfer from U of Idaho.

In the semi's Matt was locked in a tight 1st set battle with Magdoang. At 4-4 Matt kicked it up a notch winning 8 of the last 9 games posting a 6-4, 6-1 victory. Good win for Matt..Magdoang is one of the most talented players in our conference and was playing some sweet ball at the end of last year. On any given day he has the ability to knock off any DIII player. In the other semi's Jeffrey and Chris had a slug fest and traded leads several times each set. In the end Jeffrey was able to gut out a 7-6, 7-6 victory over his teammate.

The first set of the finals was incredible. Jeffrey put on a display of shotmaking that has rarely, if ever, been seen on the Whitman courts. He was literally hitting winners from every position on the court (needless to say I was one happy coach)! Jeffrey ended up winning the first set 6-3. However the long weekend of tennis finally took its toll on Jeffrey and he simply ran out of gas. At the end of the match I wondered if he was going to be able to finish. In the end Matt's won his third straight regional title by a score of 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.

Now the real excitement began. With only an hour break we had to get Jeffrey ready to play in the doubles finals with Matt against the #1 team from PLU. We had Jeffrey in the training room for most of the hour getting fluids in him, eating high energy foods (bagels and bananas) and in the cold hydrotherapy pool.

In the doubles final Matt and Jeffrey ran into a red hot PLU team. Gotta hand it to the PLU guys they really played well and served incredibly well. In fact I don't think they ever faced a break point. They ended up winning the match 6-3, 7-5.

Some highlights from the tournament:

• Whitman places 9 players into the round of 16
• Whitman has 3 of the 4 semi-finalist in singles and doubles
• Freshman Matt Tesmond knocks off the #6 seed (#1 from Whitworth)
• Freshman Sam Sadeghi knocks off the #5 seed (#2 from PLU)
• Tesmond/Sadeghi play great doubles reaching the QTRS before losing to teammates Quin Miller/Conor Holton-Burke
• Conor Holton-Burke upsets a seed in the 1st round 7-6 in the 3rd. He continues through the draw losing to Solomon in the QTRS (6-4, 6-2)
• Conor and Quin upset the #3 seeds in doubles and lose in the semi's to Matt/Jeffrey
• Senior Thomas Roston has his best regional showing knocking off the #11 seed and pushes #3 seed and teammate Bailey the distance losing 7-6 in the 3rd
• Jasper Follows and Chris Bailey make it to the semi's of doubles and lose to the eventual champions
• Jasper played true to his seeding (#13) winning two matches before losing to #4 seed Magdoang of Linfield
• Junior Quin Miller (#16 seed) wins two matches before losing to #2 seed Trudel 6-2, 6-3

What makes the above accomplishments even more amazing is we played without four of our key players: Nadeem Kassam and Etienne Moshevich are both studying in London, senior Jake Cappel was out with a wrist injury, and senior Christoph Fuchs is taking the semester off. Man we are on track to have a great year!

Next weekend I'm traveling with a few Whitties to participate in the Boise State Invite. Will be great competition for the Whitman players as the tournament is primarily a DI event. In fact we will be the only non-scholarship school in the tournament.

Immediately following the Boise event, Matt and I will travel to Mobile, AL for the ITA Small College National Championship.

Getting ready for day 2 of the ITA's

Morning tennis fans we are getting ready for day two of the ITA Northwest regional tournament. Unfortunately I don't have much time for a full recap (matches start in an hour). Great results for the Whitties -- we placed 9 players into the final 16!

Couple interesting results. The three Whitman freshman (Jeff Tolman, Sam Sadeghi and Matt Tesmond) had HUGE days. Jeff who is the #9 seed won both of his matches without dropping a set. Sam Sadeghi won his first match then took out the #6 seed (Michael Manser #2 player from PLU) 6-4, 6-3. Matt Tesmond squeaked by his first match in a match breaker then defeated the #5 seed (#1 from Whitworth Michael Shelton) 6-3, 6-2).

Match of the day I didn't see (was played indoors). Senior Thomas Roston defeated the #11 seed (#3 from PLU) 7-6 (15-13), 6-4. Fellow Canadian Jasper Follows cruised into the round of 16 without dropping a set. #15 seed Quin Miller had a first round battle (winning in a match breaker) then won easily in the 2nd round. Conor Holton Burke made a splash in his first regional tournament defeating the #16 seed in three sets and then beat the #1 from UPS. Chris Bailey had a bye and the won 6-0, 6-3.

We had an awesome night of doubles. Matt and Jeff had a bye then won 8-0. Chris and Jasper had a bye then 6-0, 6-3. Quin and Conor won their first match against the #3 from PLU then upset the #3 seeds (#1 from Linfield) 8-3. The freshman Matt and Sam won their first match then beat a very good Willamette team 8-5. That Willamette team won the Linfield Wildcat Open last week.

Sorry for the brief post and/or grammar problems. Getting ready to hit the courts and don't have time to proof read!

Getting ready for the ITA Regional Tournament

Day one of the Northwest ITA tournaments starts in about an hour on the Whitman campus. Lots of great matches going and I'm looking forward to seeing all the Whitties battle against others from the conference. I'll provide twitter updates throughout the day.

A camping we will go!

This past weekend I took members of the tennis team on an overnight backpacking trip. I've always thought it would be fun to share my love of the outdoors with the team and this year I decided to make it happen!

We kicked things off Friday with a brief fly casting lesson. Since I teach a fly fishing class at Whitman I'm lucky enough to have access to a fair amount of equipment. Was pretty fun watching the guys try their hands at casting a fly. Those that have ever tried to fly fish know the difficulties of learning how to cast.

Saturday we were up "bright and early"..well I didn't think that leaving at 10am was all that bright and early but some of the team members had a difficult time getting up. In fact we had to get Adriel out of bed!

Since this would be the first time backpacking for some of the guys I decided it would be best to head to an area and trail I know well: the Wenaha Wilderness area. In terms of distance the Wenaha Wilderness area is pretty close to campus (about 50 miles). However it takes a couple hours of driving on gravel roads to make it to the southern part of the wilderness area. We hiked the 3.5 miles down the Hoodoo trail to the Wenaha river to set up camp. Let me say its a pretty steep hike down..certainly a MUCH easier hike in than out.

After getting the packs loaded up and hiking down the trail we were able to set up camp around 4pm. This left the guys a couple hours to try out their new fly fishing skills. Below the camp is a nice stretch of river where I've caught a number of Bull Trout. After getting everyone set up with rods, reels, leaders, flies, waders and boots they were able to start with the fishing. After making sure everyone was doing OK, I slipped across the river to fish the deeper section of the hole. First cast and BAM I caught a nice 20" Bull Trout..much to the surprise of the team. Someone asked if it were skill or luck that I caught a fish so fast..obviously it was skill!

After an evening of fishing we gathered around the camp fire for a dinner of steak fajitas (complements of coach). With full bellies we hung around the camp fire talking and sharing stories. It was wonderful to be away from cell phones, text messaging, emails, computers etc. and spend a relaxing evening together. Was an absolutely perfect team event!

Next morning we awoke, huddled around the campfire to have breakfast. After a bit of exploring our time was short so we packed up camp to make the hard hike out of the canyon.

All agreed it was a wonderful personal and team experience.

Here are some pictures of our night in the wilderness area.

Coach

PS- for those not familiar with a wilderness area, it is a designated area where nothing mechanical is allowed: no bikes, motorcycles, or engines. The only way into a Wilderness area is by hiking or horseback.

Updated Individual Records

Updated 2009 season and career records (since 1995). Check the link on right side of page to view a sortable spreadsheet of player records.

10 Whitman Men's Players Named to the ITA All-Academic Team!

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – The Whitman College men’s and women’s tennis teams have earned academic honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association for the 2008-09 school year.

Ten players on the Whitman men’s team, along with four members of the women’s squad, also received individual recognition.

The team award requires a cumulative team grade point average (gpa) of 3.2 on a 4.0 scale. For the NCAA Division III level, the ITA handed out team honors to 35 schools in the men’s division and 72 institutions in the women’s division.

To be named an ITA Scholar-Athlete, a player must be a varsity letter-winner and have a minimum gpa of 3.5 for the academic year.

Reid Bennett and Justin Hayashi, both of whom graduated in May, are among players on the Whitman men's team who earned individual honors.

Other ITA Scholar-Athletes for the Whitman men are juniors Christoph Fuchs, Nadeem Kassam, Thomas Roston and Dan Wilson, sophomores Chris Bailey, Quin Miller and Etienne Moshevich, and freshman Conor Holton-Burke.

Fuchs, Hayashi and Wilson netted individual recognition for a third straight season. Bailey is now a two-time winner.

Both Fuchs and Hayashi earned ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honors this past spring, and Fuchs was named to the Academic All-American Third Team.

On the women’s side, Katie Oost and Alex Robinson capped their Whitman careers by earning ITA Scholar-Athlete honors.

It was the second award in four seasons for Oost, who will stay with the tennis program as an assistant coach this academic year as she applies to graduate programs in the field of psychology.

Divneet Kaur, a Whitman junior this past season, and first-year player teammate Emily Rolston also earned ITA individual kudos.

Whitman's tennis coaches are Jeff Northam (men) and John Hein (women).

Semester GPA

Holy smokes not only did the team win 24 matches this season (most in the past 20 years), go undefeated in conference play, win the conference championship and make the NCAA tournament they also had a 3.55 team GPA! Wow!

All-American Honors!

Big congratulations to Matt Solomon and Etienne Moshevich for being named to the NCAA III All-American Team! Matt was named an All-American in singles and doubles and ET in doubles. For Matt this was his 5th All-American honor (3 x doubles and 2 x singles)! Here is a link to the NCAA III All-American team.

Also Christoph Fuchs was named as an ESPN Academic All-American! This is great recognition for Christoph because the award encompasses seven sports across DIII, DII and NAIA. Here is the article about the award.

End of the Year Awards

Two interesting notes from graduation: Christoph Fuchs was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa (only the third tennis player in the last 12 years to join Phi Beta Kappa) and Justin Hayashi gave a moving speech (performance) at baccalaureate. Congratulations to both!

2009 Team Awards (voted on by the team).

MVP - Dan Wilson

Most Inspirational - Etienne Moshevich

Most Improved - Quin Miller

Rookie of the Year - Adriel Borshansky

Conference awards

1st Team All-Conference - Etienne Moshevich, Chris Bailey, Dan Wilson

Coach of the Year - Jeff Northam

Whitman College Sports Awards

Dan Wilson Most Outstanding Junior Male Athlete

Christoph Fuchs one of the top five GPAs for ALL varsity athletes

Whitman Men's Tennis Players Ace Academic All-District Honors

Congratulations to Justin and Christoph for receiving Academic All-District honors! Below is the official press release from Whitman's SID Dave Holden

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Justin Hayashi and Christoph Fuchs, captains of the Whitman College men's tennis team, have earned spots on ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-District At-Large First Team.

Hayashi and Fuchs, who helped Whitman win its second straight Northwest Conference (NWC) title earlier this spring, are two of 11 athletes chosen for the men's at-large team in the College Division of District VIII. The district includes all NCAA Div. II/Div. III and NAIA schools in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona, as well as British Columbia.

The at-large teams represent student athletes in a variety of sports, including golf, skiing, gymnastics, ice hockey, swimming, lacrosse and tennis.

Players on all-district at-large teams from around the nation are now eligible for election to the Academic All-America team. The College Sports Information Directors of America (Co-SIDA) administers the nominating and voting process for the Academic All-America program, which is in its 58th year and has honored about 15,000 students at all levels for all recognized NCAA sports.

Hayashi and Fuchs were key contributors this spring as Whitman rolled through a third consecutive 16-0 NWC regular season. Whitman was 24-5 as part of a season that included a third straight appearance in the NCAA Division III national tournament.

Hayashi, an Asian Studies major from Kirkland, Wash., made his biggest contribution this past spring in doubles. He and doubles partner Dan Wilson swept through an undefeated regular season, winning their first 17 matches. After losing for the first time at the NWC championships, they stormed through the first three rounds of the prestigious Ojai Valley tournament, knocking off the top-seeded team in the process before finally falling in the semifinals.

Hayashi finished his senior season with a 21-3 record in doubles. He also won all six of his matches in singles. His play in singles was limited by Whitman's relatively deep roster.

A year ago, Hayashi organized a free tennis clinic for youngsters in Vancouver, B.C. He and several of his teammates gave the three-day clinic during their 2008 Spring Break.

Hayashi, who speaks fluent Japanese, worked the past two summers as a sales and/or marketing intern at Tokyo's Jinji Tennis Center and New York's Eastbrook Capital Group. He graduates from Whitman on Sunday and starts a one-year internship in July with the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

As a senior at Whitman, Hayashi served as a trustee with the Whitman Investment Club and as a senator in the student government. He also held a number positions the past four years as an intern in the Whitman Admission office.

Hayashi, the son of Hiroko Hayashi of Kirkland, Wash., is a graduate of Seattle's Lakeside School.

Fuchs, a biology major (chemistry minor), has maintained a 3.92 cumulative grade point average at Whitman, which ranks him in the top five of all varsity athletes on campus.

Playing his third season of college tennis this spring, Fuchs was a regular this spring in both singles and doubles. He was 9-3 in singles, which included a 7-1 record against NWC opponents, and 9-8 in doubles (6-1 NWC).

Fuchs, who has senior academic status at Whitman, will not complete his degree requirements until the 2010 spring semester, when he plans to play his fourth college season. He plans to pursue medical school studies after his Whitman graduation.

Fuchs worked last summer at the University of Louisville's Brown Cancer Center, assisting with breast cancer research aimed at developing predictive tests for cancer's responsiveness to treatment. He plans to write an honors thesis on his research, which was funded through the Whitman Internship Fund and the University of Louisville's Institute for Molecular Diversity and Drug Design.

In the summer of 2007, Fuchs was a volunteer nurse's aide at a hospital in Offenburg, Germany, as part of a program required of German students for medical school eligibility. Fuchs, who is fluent in German, handled duties ranging from feeding patients and taking vital signs to shadowing physicians on their rounds and assisting with surgeries.

This summer Fuchs plans to shadow physicians at a hospital near his home in La Center, Wash., and volunteer at a free medical clinic.

While at Whitman, Fuchs has mentored two at-risk boys as part of the Friends of Walla Walla program.

Fuchs, who was home schooled before coming to Whitman, is the son of Dr. Axel Fuchs and Valerie Fuchs of La Center

Slimed by the Slugs!

Our season ended yesterday with a 5-0 loss at the hands of UC Santa Cruz. Certainly a tough National tournament draw -- playing the #3 team in the nation, on their home courts, with their five seniors, and pretty large crowd. 

We were hoping for a good start in doubles and instead the Slugs came to play and totally dominated the doubles. We certainly played hard and competed well, but honestly the Slugs were just too strong for us. Bright spot of the day was Dan Wilson who was up a set at #3 singles.

Funny story of the day: team score is 0-4 and ET is serving at match point down when an umpire runs over and assesses him a point penalty. Quin had just lost at #6 singles and kicked a ball that went over the fence (in Quin's defense he was just trying to kick the ball to the back fence but it bounced over the fence). The point penalty not only causes ET to lose the match but puts us down 0-5 and the team match is over. Everyone shakes hands says good match, good luck etc and walk off the court. Well apparently carry over point penalties can not be assessed until the start of a new game. We have to round all the players up, get them dressed again and put them back on court to restart the match. ET ends up saving his match point and forcing a long deuce game. However during that time Nadeem ends up losing his match so the now the team match is finished. ET's match goes into the history books as DNF and Nadeem gets the loss.

Great season 24-5, conference tournament berth, conference champions and an undefeated conference season!

At the NCAA's

We are currently at the NCAA's Santa Cruz regional site. Later this afternoon we play host UC Santa Cruz (#3 in the nation). Currently its a beautiful day in Santa Cruz and we hoping for a large, loud crowd when we play the Slugs. As usual I will twitter match updates to the blog.

Think good thoughts and send positive energy our way!

Regional Rankings Out

Not much movement in the regional rankings -- we hold steady at #6 in the region. Here is the link to the rankings. They still haven't posted the doubles rankings.

Also still waiting on the call from the NCAA with our tournament draw. I'll post as soon as I hear.

Ojai Results

Sorry for the late post. Was a long couple days of matches and travel. Dan and Justin had an unbelievable run at the 109th Ojai tournament. In the quarters they faced off against the #1 team in the region (#1 from UC Santa Cruz). What a great test for the Dan and Justin -- they would get the chance to play against the very best in the West. Well they certainly rose to the challenge! Match started off well for the Whitman duo as they went up a break 2-1. However the Slug team immediately broke back leveling the match at 2-2. I can't exactly explain what happened next but Dan and Justin played great tennis winning the next 6 games! Great victory -- beating the #1 team in the region 8-2 wow!

Unfortunately the semi's were a complete role reversal. Tennis can be strange -- one minute play great and the next not able to find the court. I think Dan and Justin had a bit of a let down and ran into a very tough Washington University team. We really struggled with 1st serve percentage and returns (to be fair the WA U team served incredibly well). In the end the Wash U ran away with an 8-1 victory. Dan and Justin were pretty disappointed, they were one match away from the finals (and the opportunity to play at the famous Libby Park) but what a great tournament! They advanced further at the Ojai than any other Whitman player ever has!

We are now in a holding pattern waiting next Monday's announcement of the NCAA pairings.

At the Ojai!

Day one complete at The Ojai. Yesterday it felt more like Seattle than Southern California -- cloudy, chance of rain and temperatures in the low 60's. Unfortunately our Seattle boys (Dan and Justin) didn't feel at home in singles and dropped their opening singles matches. Dan lost to a very tough #2 player from Chapman 6-3, 6-4. Dan struggled a bit and didn't play his best tennis. In the first set he was broke early and could never get a look at breaking his opponent. In the second set Dan twice went up breaks but he struggled to hold serve. For the record the Chapman player is very good and went on to beat the #9 seed (#1 from Redlands) 7-6, 6-1. Justin played incredibly streaky in his opening match. He won the first set 6-0 and then lost 3-6, 7-5. Considering he hasn't played a singles match in over a month he played some very good tennis..at times. However at times he would also drop three to four points in a row which eventually doomed his chances of winning the match.

In doubles the Seattle boys fared better. In their first match they were down a break against the #2 Pomona team before winning 8-5. In the second match against Cal Lu's #3 team they played much better. Match started off pretty close with both teams holding serve. However at 4-4 Dan and Justin picked up their intensity and court movement (crossing more) and won the last 4 games. Very good effort for them to bounce back from disappointing singles losses and win two tough doubles matches.

At 3pm today they play the #1 team from UC Santa Cruz (and #1 seeds). As usual I will twitter updates to the blog.

Ojai Tournament

Currently at the Ojai tournament in Southern California with Dan Wilson and Justin Hayashi. Both are playing singles and doubles in this incredible event. I will twitter match updates during the day. For those that received blog postings via email, the twitter updates can be found on the main blog page Whitman Tennis Blog.

NWC Championships Recap

Sorry about not getting this out yesterday. Weather was too nice to be inside and replacing a spring shackle on my Jeep became a major project that included cutting the frame, modifying brackets, and the removal of auxiliary parts.

This year's NWC tournament certainly provided us some challenges both on and off the court. Even before our first match we had some funky issues to deal with. Since there are no warm-up courts at the Yakima Tennis Club we went off-site before our matches to get loosened up and hit a few balls. During this warm up Nadeem got hit in the head and broke his glasses. Luckily he was prepared and had an extra pair of glasses in the hotel. Unfortunately the van wouldn't start! Now we are stuck at a public park with a broken pair of glasses and no way to get back to the hotel or even to the tournament site. Fortunately Coach Ann was driving six guys from Walla Walla that morning so we waited for her to arrive. Once she arrived, Nadeem and I jumped into the van to go back the hotel. However, Jake left his rackets and shoes in the van and didn't have his equipment to warm-up with. What a crazy morning! In the end we were able to shuttle people to lunch and to the tournament site. Coach Ann had to do the dirty work and find a repair shop, tow-truck and shuttle all while being left with a broken van. For the record Brett Hall Chevelot is Yakima was AWESOME...they towed the van, provided a shuttle for Ann and provided a complimentary Enterprise van.

Because of morning rain the tournament was running a few hours behind schedule. The extra hours allowed us to get eye-glasses, everyone feed, equipment to the correct players and everyone shuttled to the Yakima Tennis Club. Without that delay it would have been an incredibly stressful morning.

The NWC conference is a six-team tournament with the #1 seeds (us) and the #2 seeds (PLU) getting byes. Our first match was against Willamette (#4 seed) who defeated #5 seed Whitworth. As great has the facility is at the Yakima Tennis Club it can be very windy. Friday was no exception -- as my sailing friends would say it was "blowing like stink".

Against Willamette we didn't play our best doubles and they really brought their top game. In fact at one time we were down breaks at all three doubles! Last time we played Willamette we won the doubles by the scores of 8-1, 8-1, 8-0. What a change to be looking down the barrel of being swept. To use another sailing term (approriate because of the wind) we were able to "right our ship" and take #2 and #3 doubles. At #1 Justin and Dan played pretty nervous with the dual-pressure of an undefeated season on the line and playing at the #1 doubles spot. Even though they broke back at the end of the match to serve at 7-8 they were broke at love losing the match 9-7.

Singles wasn't great but we started better in the wind and hitting our stride. Chris was down early in his match to the talented #1 from Willamette 2-6, but was able to win the second 6-3 and was up a break in the 3rd when the team match was finished. The junior trio of Dan Wilson, Nadeem Kassam and Jake Cappel all won in straight sets to clinch the match for us. Because of the tournament delay the match was stopped (normally we play out the matches).

Whitman 5 PLU 1

The victory over Willamette set up a show down against #2 seeds PLU. PLU played a great semi-final match against Linfield (#3 seed). I knew the PLU vs Linfield was going to be tight and I figured whomever had the lead after doubles would win the match. As usual Linfield played great doubles and took two of the doubles. However PLU swept all six singles match giving them the victory. What a great effort by PLU. Also gives a strong indication of how much better PLU is playing (we beat Linfield 5-4 and 7-2).

Weather wasn't an issue in the finals...it was a beautiful day. It was also a beautiful day to have our full line-up playing for the first time all year. Because of injuries and illness we have never had our top singles and doubles line-up play a match. Nothing like the conference finals to finally have a full line-up!

In doubles we were able to quickly go up breaks at #2 and #3 doubles. At #1 Dan and Justin had their hands full against a very hot PLU team (on Friday they had beaten the #10 team in the region 8-0) and were down 1-4. At #3 Nadeem and ET fired up the entire team with a pretty quick 8-3 victory. #2 doubles Christoph and Quin won six of the final eight games posting a 8-4 victory. With everyone watching, Dan and Justin picked up their game playing aggressive doubles and bombing overheads. After being down 1-4 Justin had serve and broke at love putting the match back on serve. At 5-6 Justin had a quick hold and they broke the NWC Conference player of the Year (Joel Trudel) giving Dan the opportunity to serve for the match. Playing on the stadium court infront huge a crowd with the match on the line, I was so proud of how Dan and Justin embraced the moment and served out the match. One of the best proud coaching moments!

The sweep in doubles turned out to be huge. PLU continued their great singles play and put up an incredible match. I was really impressed with the PLU team. This is a team we had beaten 8-1 and 7-2 this season, we were up 3-0 after doubles and they didn't bow their heads or have any negative energy on the court. They came after us...hard!

The key to the match came down to the experience of juniors Jake Cappel and Nadeem Kassam. Both of these young men have played in the conference finals and NCAA National tournament. They were also matched up against two players who had never played in a conference final. Both had solid first sets with Jake winning 6-1 and Nadeem coming back from 0-3 before reeling off 6 straight games. Those were the only 1st sets we won: #1 (ET), #2 (Chris), #3 (Dan) and #6 (Adriel) all dropped their 1st sets! The final match score doesn't indicate the competitive nature of this match.

About 45 minutes into the singles we started to hit our stride. Jake finished out his match 6-1, 6-3 giving us a 4-0 lead. His quick victory really put the pressue squarely on every PLU player: they all had to win or the match was over. At #3 singles Dan had a great rally -- after being down 0-4 in the first he came back to even the match 4-6, 6-2. At #2 Chris overcame a horrible start and gutted his way into a 3rd set 2-6, 7-6 (10-8). At #6 Adriel ran into a red hot Justin Peterson but was able to even the match 2-6, 6-2. For the record Justin is a great player who is capable of producing unbelievable tennis. In fact last year he played #3 for PLU. As all these matches were splitting sets ET was locked in a battle with PLU #1 player. ET ended up dropping the 1st set 7-5 but had a ton of break points that he couldn't convert. Hats off to Joel Trudel. I've been around some high level tennis and I've never seen anyone serve themselves out of trouble the way Joel did on Saturday. Every break point he was able to bomb in a 1st serve. He certainly deserved to be named NWC Player of the Year.

As we were splitting sets at #2, #3 and #6, Nadeem clinched the match with a 6-3 6-3 victory. What a great win for Deem. In the past he has struggled closing out matches. Today Deem showed his maturity, composure and improved play. Once he got up in each set he was able to play his best tennis closing out each set! Very gratifying to see Deem clinch the match.

With the match over Dan and Chris won match breakers giving us a 7-0 lead. At #1 ET lost 6-4, 7-5 and at #6 Adriel lost 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Even though ET lost it was unbelievable to have him back in the line-up. His fire, passion and love of the game (and competing) inspires the entire team.

We finished the year with undefeated conference season and repeat conference championships!

We now wait a couple weeks to see where we were be shipping off for the NCAA team tournament.

Whitman 7 PLU 2

2009 NWC Champs!

Defeated PLU 7-2 earlier today to win our 2nd consecutive NWC championships. I'll try to do a tournament recap tomorrow.

Whitties finish NWC 16-0!

Yesterday was a great day for the Whitties. In beating rival PLU 7-2 we finished the conference season with an unblemished 16-0 record! This is the third constitutive year we have finished 16-0 in the conference and our 50th consecutive regular season conference victory!

Ending our season against PLU was especially gratifying since they have been one of the best teams in the conference and will go into the conference tournament as the #2 seed. Certainly nice going into the conference tournament as the #1 seed and just beaten the #2 seed 7-2.

We went into the match a bit off-balanced with our doubles. Doubles standout Christoph Fuchs has been sick the past two weeks and he stayed at home to rest and recover. I was also hoping to insert Etienne Moshevich into the doubles line-up but at the last minute decided to scratch him from the line-up. As a coach it can be a bit unsettling having new doubles combos and teams playing in different positions going into a big match. However one of beautiful aspects of our team is our tremendous depth and team spirit. We put about 14 players into the doubles line-up and not miss a beat. This was evident against PLU as Dan Wilson and Justin Hayashi moved up to #1 doubles, Nadeem Kassam and Chris Bailey played #2 and the relatively new team of Jasper Follows and Quin Miller filled in at #3.

Justin and Dan continued their unbelievable season gaining an early break and never looked back winning 8-5 against a very good PLU team. Justin and Dan have been incredible this season. They started the year at #3 doubles and the past few matches have been playing #1 -- simply amazing that they haven't lost a match all spring! Nadeem and Chris were in early control of their match going up 5-2. However the resilient PLU team won three straight games to even the match at 5-5. At this point Chris played some great doubles: getting in a high percentage of 1st serves, closing at the net and putting Nadeem in good position to finish off points. They won three games of the final four games taking the match 8-5. Number three doubles was a treat to watch as both Quin and Jasper played smart, aggressive doubles. They both were animals at the net crossing at the appropriate times against a team that tried to dictate play from the baseline.

Honestly I was hoping for a 2-1 lead going into doubles. Being up 3-0 was early Easter gift!

In singles Dan gave us a 4-1 lead with a 6-0, 6-4 victory at #2 singles. PLU's #1 standout Joel Trudel, a DI transfer from University of Idaho, put PLU on the board with a 6-2, 6-4 over Chris Bailey. So far this year Trudel hasn't lost a singles match in conference play. I know ET was disappointed not to get a shot at him on Saturday (ET is also undefeated). However if the conference seeding holds true the two might square off on Saturday in the conference finals. Junior Jake Cappel clinched the match with a 7-5, 6-2 victory at #5 singles. Nice to see Jake play solid tennis, he has been sick the past couple weeks and he is just starting to get his legs back (also happy birthday Jake). Quin Miller had a good 6-4, 6-3 victory at #6 over PLU's Justin Peterson. Peterson played #3 on last year's PLU team and is a very talented, dangerous player. Each week it is a amazing to watch the progress that Quin makes in his game -- at the moment he is playing very solid ball. At #4 Adriel suffered his first defeat of the year 3-6, 6-3, 10-3. I felt that Adriel was in control of the match but at 3-3 in the 2nd the wheels fell off and he dropped three quick games and could never recover. In my eyes match of the day was #3 singles where Nadeem Kassam defeated Kevin Floyd 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. This was a great win for Nadeem -- last year Floyd played #1 for PLU and for the past three years has been one of the best players in the conference. Great confidence booster for Nadeem heading into conference.

Whitman 7 PLU 2

Next weekend is the NWC conference tournament in Yakima WA. As the #1 seed we get a bye and play the winner of #4/#5 (Whitworth and Willamette). If we make it through that match the finals will be at the Yakima Tennis Club around noon on Saturday.

Saturday match moved to 8am at UPS

Our Saturday match against PLU has been moved to 8am at UPS.

Potential match change vs PLU

FYI, weather does not look good Saturday in Tacoma. Since PLU does not have easy access to indoor courts we MIGHT move our match to Saturday at 8am at UPS. If weather cooperates we will play at 11am on the PLU campus.

Squirrels Sweep final home matches

Great weather and some great tennis for our final home matches of the year. Only bummer for the day was illness took three Whitties out of the line-up (Jake Cappel, Christoph Fuchs and Reid Bennett). This was especially disappointing for senior Reid Bennett who was scheduled to play in his last EVER home match.

Our matches yesterday were against conference opponent Whitworth University. Whitworth is a solid team that will be the #4 or #5 seed in the upcoming NWC conference tournament. They have had some impressive doubles results this year including sweeping all three doubles against a very good PLU team. Also,  the previous day Whitworth played very close against Linfield -- a team that always plays great doubles. Even though Whitworth was swept in doubles against Linfield they lost 9-8 at #1 and #2. Obviously getting off to a good start in doubles was going to be key to the match. After our long spring break trip we are in the process of reevaluating our doubles. One doubles team that doesn't need any reevaluation is Justin and Dan. Yesterday they kept their undefeated streak alive with a convincing 8-3 win at #1. At #2 Jasper and Quin played very well together posting a solid 8-4 victory. For their first match together I was really impressed with how well they moved and communicated. At #3 Thomas and Conor struggled a early in their match but after being knotted at 5-5 they won the last 3 games for earning an 8-5 victory.

In singles our line-up was #1 Dan, #2 Quin, #3 Jasper, #4 Justin, #5 Thomas and #6 Conor. Dan was positively chomping at the bit to play #1 and get a chance to avenge a preseason loss to the Whitworth #1. In our Fall ITA tournament Dan lost to Whitworth's #1 player in three hard sets. In that match Dan cramped horribly in the 3rd set. One thing about Dan he absolutely loves a challenge and always wants to play someone that beat him earlier in the year. In his rematch Dan played fired-up tennis and was the first one off the court with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. For the record Whitworth's #1 player is a very good player (and maybe the quickest player in the conference) and this was solid win for Dan.

Quin got the call to play #2 singles and certainly rose to the occasion. I feel that Quin has the ability and talent to play with anyone in DIII. At times he can positively play spooky tennis and flat out beat people. If Quin continues his rapid improvement and learns to balance out his game he will become a major force in our conference and nationally. Playing #2, Quin was solid throughout the match winning 6-3, 6-2

At #3 Jasper had the closest match of the day winning 2-6, 7-5, 10-5. Just a bad first set for Jasper. His backhand slice didn't have any effect and was floating on him and he had a horrible time finding his form. Once he started focusing on keeping balls more towards the middle of the court and sustaining rallies he was able to pull out the match.

Justin played a great first at #4 quickly winning 6-1. Second set was much tighter but Justin was able to take the match 6-1, 6-4. At #5 Thomas played through a bad back winning 6-1, 6-3. I must point out that it has been a pleasure watching Thomas's game mature over the course of the year. He, more than anyone, is doing a beautiful job setting up points and having a plan of attack when he plays. At #6 Conor (Co-Co or Con-Con, depending on the mood) struggled a bit in the 1st set. But once he remembered he doesn't have to win every point (i.e., it's OK to let the other person make a mistake) and was able to win 7-5, 6-1.

Whitman 9 Whitworth 0

The day was only half over for us. Both teams took a quick Subway break (thanks again for the wonderful $5 subs!) and then hit the courts for match #2. Since the women were playing in the afternoon we started our second match against Whitworth with singles. Going into the weekend I had every intention of using two-different sets of players against Whitworth. However because of illness Quin and Conor again played singles.

Singles line-up for the second match #1 Chris Bailey, #2 Nadeem Kassam, #3 Adriel Borshanky, #4 Quin Miller, #5 Conor Holton-Burke and #6 David Deming. Both Chris and Nadeem played some of their best tennis of the year winning 6-1, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-2. Was especially nice to see Chris bounce back after a rough spring break trip and play good tennis. In fact yesterday was probably the best he has played all spring. As a coach it is great to know your top players are playing better towards the end of the year. Adriel continued his solid play winning 6-2, 6-1 against the player that went three sets with Jasper earlier in the day. Unfortunately since we were using two sets of courts I didn't get to see Conor or David play. I do know, however, that David once again clinched the match for us!

Highlight in doubles was the return to the doubles line-up of All-American Etienne Moshevich. Having ET back will be a big booster to our line-up. At #1 doubles ET and Nadeem posted a 8-4 victory. At #2 Adriel and Jasper struggled closing out the match but won 8-6 and at #3 Chris continued his strong play partnering up with Quin for a 8-0 at #3.

Whitman 9 Whitworth 0

Couple of milestones for the team. We are now 15-0 in conference and clinched the #1 seed going into the conference tournament. Additionally, we posted our 3rd consecutive 20-win season. In NCAA III tennis this is not easy to accomplish since teams are limited to 20 dates of competition. Perhaps most importantly we getting close to having a healthy team. Interestingly enough we have not played a single match all-year where we able to use our "full" line-up. The injury bug has hit us pretty hard and our success has been due to the great depth of our team. Really it is pretty amazing to be 21-4 this year without being able to use a full line-up and at semester losing our #1 stand-out Matt Solomon to Boise State. Really a great team effort.

Next Saturday we travel to Tacoma to make up a rained out match against PLU (11am). Earlier in the year we beat PLU 8-1 and I'm sure they will be fired up to play us on their home courts (provided it doesn't rain). Even though seeding in the conference tournament is now complete (we will be #1 seeds and PLU #2) we always look forward to playing to the Lutes. Over the past couple decades this rivalry has produced some of the best tennis in the NWC conference.

Thanks!

I had a lot of help pulling off a two-week spring break trip. Thanks so much for all those helped out, chipped in and provided support during our lengthy trip.

Two special people helped out with driving and making sure the team(s) safely made it around the nation: coach Ann Beery and my lovely wife Jennifer. Besides coaching one of the teams Ann drove to the team from Walla Walla to Portland to Seattle and brought the van back to Walla Walla. Jennifer drove our mini van from Walla Walla to Seattle. She then drove a 15-passenger van from Charlotte to Hilton Head (where she drove the team around) back to Charlotte and then Seattle to Walla Walla. Whew, lots of driving!

Special thanks to the Fuchs and Deming families who housed and fed the team(s) while in the Portland area. The accommodations were better than an hotel! It was like Disney land for young adults -- Rock Band on the Xbox, late night ping pong and pool, stringing at the houses, hot tub and unbelievable food. Thanks so much for making the first week of the trip special.

Thanks to the Bennett family for following us around the first week of matches. We appreciate the match support and great snacks!

Steve and Marylou Sumioka thanks letting us park two vans at your house during our trip to Hilton Head. Grahama Sumioka thanks for getting up early Sunday morning to drive us to the vans.

The Feezell family who had the team stay at their house not once but twice! You would think some people would learn their lesson the first time:) We appreciated the great food and the flatscreen TV made for excellent basketball viewing. Whitman misses both of you!

Jeff Cappel -- what a great meal on Hilton Head island! You certainly spoiled the team with such a lavish meal. I hope you have a great trip to Arizona this week.

Borshansky family thanks for the support while at Hilton Head. Unfortunately you missed the match of the trip when Adriel saved off several match points in his victory against Depauw.

Subway thank you for having $5 footlong subs!

Enterprise in Walla Walla and Belmont, NC made renting vans convenient and easy. I know Kevin at Belmont will probably never see this -- you deserve a raise!

Anyone looking for a great Spring vacation spot should check out Hilton Head Beach and Tennis. Condos right on the beach or tennis courts at an unbelievable price (cheaper than a hotel).

Although he is a player thanks to Dr. Thomas who used his training skills and knowledge to keep the team healthy.

Another very special thanks to Jennifer for keeping me grounded and sane during two-weeks on the road. You are the best!

Terribly sorry if I missed anyone.

Whitties finish spring break

Whitman 9 Oberlin 0

DePauw 7 Whitman 2

Long last day of matches on Hilton Head. Started off by picking up group B at 7:30am (4:30 pacific time) for our morning match against Oberlin. Against the OC I decided to move Thomas and Conor up to one doubles and put a new pairing of Jasper and Quin at #2 doubles. The blustery winds didn't allow for either team to play their best tennis. Despite the wind we were able to post an 8-6 win at #1 doubles, 8-0 win at #2 doubles and David/Reid won 8-1 at #3 doubles.

In singles Jasper continued his torrential play posting a quick 6-0, 6-0 win at #2 singles. In his last 3 matches his scores has been 6-2 6-0, 8-0 and 6-0 6-0. This break has been very good for his game. Quin had a very competitive first set against the OC's #1 player. After breaking to go up 6-5 Quin only dropped 1 game for a 7-5, 6-1 victory. Thomas looked a bit bewildered in the wind but still managed to win 6-3, 6-2 at #3. Conor and David both posted routine wins at #4 and #5. Reid was especially impressive in his 6-2, 6-0 victory in the last spring break match of his career.

As we were finishing up with Oberlin, Coach Jennifer took the rest of the team to warm-up for our show down with #18 DePauw. Myself and group B was able to catch-up with the rest of the team with about half an hour left in the warm-up.

I was really looking forward to our match with DePauw. Not only is DePauw traditionally one of the best programs in DIII but they are a good group of guys and they have a very classy coach. It is nice going into a match without umpires knowing that the opposing team will be competitive, respectful and their coach will keep players in line (not that this is a problem for DePauw). This is a major contrast to a team we played earlier week.

We just can't find our groove in doubles! It's frustrating to know we are close to some of the better teams in the nation but just can't grab the lead after doubles. Obviously it is nice having the lead after the doubles, but even more important it sets the tone going into singles. Typically the team that grabs the lead is loose and plays aggressive going into singles. Its crazy but these pro-sets in doubles really have a huge influence (probably too big an influence) on the outcome of the match.

Against DePauw we got rocked at #3 doubles. Jake and Nadeem had game points in almost all the games but ended up on the short end of a 8-0 match. Somehow Dan and Justin managed to find a way to win 8-6 after being down 4-6 (DePauw serving). I didn't realize it until someone told me, but Dan and Justin haven't lost a match all year. What an effort by these two! With the doubles knotted at 1-1 the lead came down to #1 doubles. Christoph and Quin were up a break at 6-5 playing very good tennis. Unfortunately a sloppy service game let the DePauw team right back in the match. At 7-8 DePauw was able to break serve to take the match. Christoph and Quin have proved they have ability to play with the best #1 teams in the nation. Now they just need to get over the hump of learning how to close out matches.

Singles didn't get much better. The bright spot of the day was the continued strong play of Adriel. Even though the team match was decided (7-1) Adriel showed a great attitude and competitive spirit at #6. In fact, Adriel was down 3 match points in the 3rd set super breaker (6-9) before winning 5 points in a row for a 4-6, 7-6, 11-9 victory! Wow!

Great spring break trip for us. Combining our conference matches last week we went 11-2 over the past two weeks (in college tennis that is a crazy amount of matches). Plus our only losses were to two top 25 schools. Puts us 19-4 on the year and only 1 match away from another 20 win season.

Whitties defeat Carleton

Whitman 6 Carleton 3

I love the resilience of our team. Two days ago we suffered our first NCAA III loss at the hands of Chicago. I was a bit worried going into days match that we would be tentative and on our heels. Confidence can be a strange friend -- here today and maybe gone tomorrow...

Lucky for us we had a day off (without traveling) after our matches against Chicago and St Thomas. We have played about 11 matches in the last 11 days and everyone's body needed the rest.

Before the match we talked about the importance of seizing the lead in doubles. All week we have been behind in all the doubles. Even the doubles matches we have won we have been down early breaks. Today was a much better effort in doubles. We are getting close but still have room for improvement. The new (at least new for this trip) #3 team of Nadeem Kassam and Jake Cappel started us off with a two-break 3-0 lead. Dan and Justin broke early and raced to an 8-2 win. At #1 Quin and Christoph were up a break 6-4. Great start for us! However the #3 Carleton team picked up play and leveled the match at 6-6. Nadeem and Jake showed their experience breaking and then serving out the match for an 8-6 victory. Quin and Christoph are having their streaks of brilliance, but they just can't seem to keep their focus. After being up 4-6 (one break) they let some opportunities slip away and the Carleton team won 4 straight games winning 8-6. Obviously it was disappointing to let #1 doubles slip through our hands, but a 2-1 lead is better than being down 1-2 (like against Chicago and Colby).

In singles Adriel continued his strong play. Against Chicago Adriel dropped the first set 0-6 before winning 6-1, 6-3. Today he continued where he left off winning 6-0, 6-1. That is four great sets in a row. His quick victory gave us a 3-1 lead. Nadeem struggled early in his match but figured out a good game plan (with a little help) and after being down 2-3 ran away with a 6-3, 6-2 victory. Unfortunately for Chris he ran into a buzzsaw, dropping his singles matches. Team score is now 4-2. Last post I wrote about Dan's great competitive spirit. Today he didn't disappoint. After winning the first set 6-2 he had two changes to serve out the match in the 2nd. His opponent great some great tennis, dipping balls whenever Dan came to the net and hitting outright winners from behind the baseline. Even though Dan lost the 2nd set in a tiebreak he roared back in the 3rd set super tie-breaker winning 10-7. His gutsy performance sealed the team match 5-2. Jake added some dessert to our victory with a solid 6-3, 6-1 victory at #4. At #1 ET was outplayed by Carleton's Ben Guzick. Keep your eyes on this young man. He is a tremendous competitor and player. I fully expect him to make some waves on the national level in the near future (if not this year).

Tomorrow we play Oberlin at 8:30am and #18 Depauw at 12:30pm. The afternoon match should be a good match. Yesterday Depauw defeated Carleton 5-4. I'll try to update the match via twitter.

Squirrels split matches

Chicago 7 Whitman 2

Whitman 9 University of ST Thomas 0

Tough morning match yesterday. As I mentioned in an earlier post we ran into a fired up and talented Chicago team. Even though Chicago defeated us 7-2 the match was much closer than the score indicated. 

Started off slow a bit slow in doubles. At #1 Christoph and Quin fell behind a break early in the match. To their credit they break back evening the match at 3-3. However one sloppy game sealed their fate. Couple easy put-a-ways that the Chicago team managed to dig out turned the tide as the Maroons were able to break back. After the break the Chicago team was able to finish out the match 8-4. At #3 doubles the heart was willing but the rackets couldn't get it done. We had a hard time holding serve and Chicago was able to score a quick 8-3 victory. At #2 Justin and Dan continued their strong play coming back from a break to keep us in the match with a 9-7 win. Funny thing about Dan and Justin is they almost always go down a break and then reel off a couple straight games.

In singles we didn't get many breaks against the loaded Chicago team. The Chicago roster is absolutely loaded with talent. They have 3 4-star recruits and several 3-star junior recruits in their line-up. Really on paper this team is one of the best in the nation. Really a shame to see this team outside of the top 10. They certain have the talent just missing something...

Really some close matches in singles. Etienne made his return to the singles line-up after a 3-week break. He layoff was evident as he quickly dropped the first set 6-1. However once he started to get his timing back he played some great tennis. He faced off 2 match points in the second set with huge forehands and was getting stronger as the match progressed. He able to come back from a break to take the 2nd set in a tiebreaker. ET was like "Rocky" against the Chicago opponent -- he moved his opponent around the court breaking down his movement and legs. It is unfortunate for ET that the team match was decided before he split sets. His opponent started cramping so badly he couldn't serve or move around the court. In a full match ET would have easily won. ET was a warrior in the match tiebreak. He worked hard, battled with pride and earned 3 match points. However his lack of recent match-play hampered his ability to close out his wounded opponent. I've really got to say that ET has become the soul of our team -- he has the unique ability to put the team on his shoulders and provide inspiration to all. If we were in Oz the Cowardly Lion would only have to search out ET for bravey and heart. Consider that eight months ago ET wasn't sure if he would ever play again. Now he treats every opportunity to be on court as a treasure. We are certainly a much better team with ET playing.

The Chicago match also marked the debut of freshman Adriel Borshansky into the top line-up. Yoga is one calm and collected competitor. I absolutely love his court ethic and love of the game. How is this for a come back. In a heated match he was down 0-6 before winning 6-1, 6-3! Now I just need to find a way to get him into the doubles line-up.

Really all the matches were close. In fact the most lopsided match was Chris's 6-4, 6-2 loss at #2. However he was up a break at 4-3 before the Chicago player notched up his game. Nadeem also had an intense battle at #5. One of those matches where one point can make all the different. The first set was a major war with the Chicago squeaking out a 7-6 (11-9) victory. Nadeem wins one of his set points I'm sure he wins the match. Dan also had a tough one losing 7-5 in the 3rd. I say this every post but Dan is one of the most amazing competitors I have ever coached. Doesn't matter the situation: he can be up big, down big or locked in a tight match and you can't tell if he is winning or losing. He is positive on court and works for every point. This is a guy you absolutely love to have on your team.

Tough 7-2 loss to a talented team.

Later that night we played ST Thomas under the lights at the Hilton Head Beach and Tennis Resort. I was proud of the effort and intensity that we displayed. After being out in the sun all day and being in a battle against Chicago I was afraid that we would be a bit flat. We started off with some great doubles going up early in all three matches. Thomas and Conor played incredibly well dominated a pretty good team 8-1. David and Reid got their measure of reedemption winning at #3 8-5. Earlier in the year they didn't play their best tennis and lost at #3 doubles to UPS. I know this victory was important for the them and they looked forward to playing. Number one doubles was interesting. Jasper and Justin raced out to a 4-1 lead before the ST Thomas team found their stride and strung together 3 straight games. This was a great doubles match with both teams playing solid tennis. In the end Jasper and Justin had a bit more experience winning in a breaker.

In singles it was especially gratifying to watch Quin and Christoph play. In his previous match Quin suffered a near melt down. Against a much better St Thomas opponent he was aggressive, played big and was relentless with his forehand. I really felt like his game matured before my eyes. Christoph played his best match of the year. He has been working on using his forehand to set up points and to dicate play. In the past he felt like he needed to consistently attack the net to be successfully. Now he is much more comfortable at the baseline his game has started to blossom. Playing a bunch of extra matches (in singles and doubles) has been wonderful for Christoph. If he keeps up this progression he is going to be a major force in our line-up.

Jasper played brilliant tennis. After being a bit moody in doubles he really found his stride and played unbelievably in singles. Jasper is a very deliberate player and takes his time between points and games. It really says something when he wins in a match in 40 minutes. Great stuff!

Thomas continues his torrential play. In a era when players bludgeon the ball with extreme topspin it is refreshing and enjoyable to watch the play of Thomas. He is no longer trying to outhit people (like the past two years) but is out-thinking people on the court. He is using a wonderful mixture of slice and topspin to keep opponents off balance. He has also learned the lesson that he doesn't need to win every point outright. He is now putting his opponent in tough situations, playing balls low at the feet, topspin lobs and crisp volleys to win matches. Honestly at this point he is probably playing as well as anyone on the team.

David was again "the clincher" with his solid 6-1, 6-2 victory. This trip has also been very good for his game and confidence. Conor had the roughest match of the night winning 7-5, 6-2. Tough match for Conor on his dimly light court (lighting was pretty bad on his court). Hard for him to play his attacking game when he can't cleanly see the ball. Have to give big props to Conor for his #7 match against Chicago. We decided to put on a #7 exhibition and I asked if anyone wanted to play. Well Conor jumped (begged) at the opportunity and was able to defeat his opponent 6-4. For the record his opponent was one of the better players out of the PNW. Love Conor's desire to always want to play!

Day off and tomorrow we face a tough Carleton team. To the beach!

Lost to Chicago 7-2

Ran into a fired up and talented Chicago team today. I need to cool off a bit before I write a match recap.  I don't have my match book so Im not exactly sure of the scores.

Doubles

#1 Christoph and Quin lost 8-4

#2 Justin and Dan won 8-6

#3 Nadeem and Chris lost 8-2

Singles

#1 ET lost to William Zhang (one of the top players in the nation) 6-1, 6-7, 13-11

#2 Chris lost 6-4, 6-3

#3 Dan lost 4-6, 6-1, 7-5

#4 Jake lost 6-3, 6-3

#5 Nadeem lost 7-6 (11-9), 6-3

#6 Adriel won 0-6, 6-1, 6-2

We take the court in 90 minutes against ST Thomas of Minnesota

Recap!

Long post incoming. Sorry for the length of the post but it has been a few days since I've been able to provide match recaps.

First off scores from yesterday:

Whitman 9 Westminster 0

Whitman 5 Colby 4

What an unbelievable spring break trip! Two weeks on the road with an amazing group of guys (we are starting our second week). Many people have asked why we are taking a two-week trip. Whitman has a two-week break and traditionally we have taken the 1st week to travel and play matches. This year I decided to schedule most of our away conference matches the first week of break and use the second week to travel to Hilton Head Island.

So far the trip has been a blast. Our team is more a family than a team and we are the best vacation ever! Well its not exactly a vacation since we are playing something like 14 matches during our trip.

Last time I really updated the blog was on Monday after the Pacific and George Fox matches. On Tuesday I took part of the guys to Salem for a conference match against Willamette. Since we had a two hour drive to Salem we left about 10am to ensure we had plenty of warm-up time. Weather was actually perfect in Salem and we got to play the match outdoors. This is quite a rarity in Salem: they have only played two home matches at their outdoor courts in the last two years!

We played Willamette 5 days earlier in Walla Walla so we knew what to expect coming into the match. In our earlier meeting we had close matches at both #1 and #2 doubles (both were 8-6). In this match we came out firing and took control of the match from the start. In fact we only lost a combined 2 games in the matches! In singles the matches were much more competitive. Chris really struggled at the start of his match before settling down for 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory. Dan also had a close three set match 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. We were able to win the rest of the matches in straight sets. One of the highlights was Reid Bennett's 6-0, 6-3 victory at #6. Reid was scheduled as the alternate but Justin's shoulder didn't feel right so I pulled Justin out of the singles and moved Reid to the #6 slot.

After a snack in Salem we drove to Lewis-Clark to watch Team B take on the Pioneers. Even though the two teams had only been apart for a day it seemed like forever since we had seen each other. We actually arrived after David "the clincher" Deming won the match with his 6-4, 6-2 victory at #6. However we able to watch Jake post a solid win over Vincent Groot (Vincent is top 30 in the region). When we arrived Jake was down 1-4 in the third. With the strong encouragement of his teammates, Jake was able to reel off 5 straight games for a 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 win. By the time we got to the Fuch's house for dinner it was already around 10pm...talk about a long day!

Thursday was another early day as our Linfield match was moved indoors in Salem. So up at 6am and out the door at 7am for another two hour drive to Salem. We had played Linfield about three weeks ago in the comfort of our indoor tennis courts. Even though we escaped with a 5-4 match we felt terrible about the way ended (we were up 5-2 in team scoring and let #5 and #6 slip away). The kicker for this match with Linfield was we were playing without our #1 standout Etienne Moshevich (injury).

I was so proud of the way we stepped up and started the match. At #1 doubles Christoph and Quin broke the first game and never looked back winning 8-5 (they lost to this team 8-6 in our first meeting). At #2 doubles Dan and Justin where down a break at 2-4 and motored to a 8-5 win (they played #3 doubles the first time we played). At #3 doubles Nadeem and Chris were down from the first game and battled back for an 8-7 lead. Unfortunately they couldn't convert a few match points and Linfield was able to send the match to a tiebreak. At this point Nadeem really showed his doubles skills and made it a personal point to take over the breaker...which he did. After the doubles we are up 3-0. In NCAA DIII tennis coming back from 0-3 in doubles is incredibly tough.

We only had four courts to play on so #5 (Quin) and #6 (Christoph) had to wait. We were able to take the 1st sets at #1 (Chris), #3 (Jake) and #4 (Nadeem). Unfortunately Dan ran into a red hot player and dropped his match 6-0, 7-5. Chris was able to close out the #1 match 6-4, 6-4 giving us a 4-1 lead. At this point Jake and Nadeem both drop the second set. I must say that this trip has been great for Jake. He has really stepped up his game and is becoming "clutch" in tight matches. He was up a break in the 2nd and let the set slip through his fingers. In the 3rd he was able to break at 4-4 and serve out the match 6-4. For the record at this point Jake has played 4 consecutive three-set matches and won them all! With the match over Nadeem played a 10 point breaker for the 3rd and ended up losing 6-7, 7-5, 10-5. Although Deem felt like he didn't play his best tennis he competed hard and pushed a very good player to the limits.

For Christoph (#6) and Quin (#5) this match was about redemption. One great thing about tennis is you always get second chances. In our first meeting Christoph and Quin were both up 6-1 and a break in the 2nd set when the wheels fell off and they both ended up losing in a match breaker. I know this didn't sit well with either of them and they were chomping for a rematch. To make a long story short (and this has been a long story) both were able to use the opportunity and reverse the outcome of the previous meeting -- Quin won 6-4, 6-4 and Christoph won 6-2, 4-6, 10-8.

It was great defeating 7-2 minus our #1 player! Certainly a good sign when we go into the conference tournament.

After the match we grabbed a quick lunch, raced back to our housing to pack-up, string a few rackets and hit the road for the Seattle airport. Ended up checking into the hotel at 10pm. After a quick dinner we hit the sack to grab a couple hours of sleep before our 6am flight (at the airport at 4am) to Charlotte NC.

On a personal note Charlotte was one of the highlights of the trip. Note only did my lovely wife join us for this stage of the trip but we stayed at the home of ex-Whitman professor, baseball coach and Athletic Director Travis Feezell and his family. For Jennifer and I it was wonderful catching up with our friends.

On Saturday we had a nice hit at a local high school, packed up the vans and hit the road. Its about a 4-hour drive from Charlotte to Hilton Head Island, SC. Reason we flew into Charlotte instead of closer airports was ticket price. Our tickets into Charlotte were less than half some teams paid to fly into Savannah, GA. I figured the $300 savings per ticket (16 tickets) was worth the the 4-hour drive.

Hilton Head is a wonderful place for matches. We are staying at the Hilton Head Island Beach and Tennis Resort and staying in condos. The condos are great since they have full kitchens, living rooms and separate bedrooms. Plus three of our matches this week are right outside of of the condos!

Yesterday we played a double header/split squad match against Colby and Westminster. In the morning the top players took on a tough Colby squad. It was really hard to gauge the Colby team. They are ranked #8 in the tough NE region but haven't played any matches (we were their first match). As I mentioned in an earlier post this marked the return of our best player Etienne Moshevich -- we decided to have him only play doubles to see how he responded to competitive play.

For the past two-weeks I've been preaching to the team that we need to be in close matches and look forward to the battle and intensity in close matches. Winning matches 9-0 with half a squad doesn't prepare us for tough national level competition. Well Colby provided our first test. We didn't play well in doubles and found ourselves in a 1-2 hole. Plus after watching the doubles it was clear that Colby had two very good players at #1 and #2. Everyone knew they needed to step up play in singles. And step up play did they ever. We won 6-0 first sets at #3, #4, #6 and 6-2 at #5. Talk about a momentum swing! The entire team was supporting everyone and playing with positive enthusiasm. We ended up rolling to 6-0, 6-1 victories #6, #4, and #3. With the match score 4-3 (Dan lost at #2) we only needed one more win to clinch the match. Chris lost an incredibly long set at #1 so the "clincher" appeared to come down to Quin's match. Quin was absolutely rolling in his match he won the first set 6-2 (didn't lose a point on serve) and was up 5-2 serving with a match point. At this point Quin thinks the team match is over and is wondering why his teammates are hanging on the fence screaming and yelling for each point he won. At 5-2 match point Quin hits a wall losing about 8 straight points -- he can't find the court with anything! From that match point Quin doesn't win another point until 4-5. It is one of the most incredible turn arounds I have seen in a match. At 5-4 Quin starts to get his focus back and earns a couple match points only to get broke. At 5-5 things are really tight and the entire team is squirming on the sideline. Of course Quin is blissfully ignorant to the match situation. Quin finally breaks after a long duece game. Serving 5-4, Quin loses 3 more match points (6 match points lost); lucky for us Quin finally wins the match on his 7th match point...whew!

We immediately started our second match against Westminster. Kind of funny since Chris was still playing his singles match when we started singles against Westminster (because of courts we started with singles). Team "B" looked incredibly sharp mowing through a team that has been to the NCAA team tournament the past 2 years. Adriel looked incredibly sharp in his 6-1, 6-2 victory at #1 (over a very solid player). Based on his strong play he is going to play #6 against Chicago later today. Thomas also played very thoughtful tennis and posted another routine win. So far this trip he has yet to drop more than 2 games in a match!

Later today (noon) we play a very loaded Chicago team. We are both ranked in the 20's but Chicago is one of the most talented teams in the nation. Their roster is loaded with 4 and 3 star recruits. On paper they are the better team. However, matches aren't played on paper and it is impossible to measure a team's work ethic and competitive spirit. We are certainly looking forward to today's challenge. We are also looking forward to having ET back in the line-up. At 6pm Team "B" takes on St Thomas.

Big shout out to former Whittie Dan Solomon who is finishing his college career at Colorado College. Over the weekend he defeated PLU #1 Joel Trudel in straight sets. He told me it was a very sweet victory:)

Pictures of our trip

Day one in Hilton Head

Once again I don't have time to provide a full match update. Between getting ready for the matches, playing 2 matches, and taking people to get food I'm left with only a few minutes before we leave for dinner.

This morning we had a real nail biter with Colby College. Very windy conditions made doubles tough. Going into the match I felt great about doubles because Etienne was back in the doubles line-up. I figured he and Jake would be a lock at #2. Unfortunately they got steamrolled 8-3. At #3 Dan and Justin went down a break and then went on a streak winning the last 4 games for a 8-6 win. At #1 Quin and Christoph were cruising up 4-1 (two breaks). However the Colby team caught fire and were able to win 7 of the last 8 games to win 8-5.

Tough spot being down 1-2 in doubles. Especially when you think you should have won at least 2 of the matches! In singles we showed a great amount of maturity and rolled matches #3, #4, #5, and #6. I'm not sure of the exact scores but I think the matches came off in the following order.

#6 Christoph won 6-0, 6-1

#4 Nadeem won 6-0, 6-1

#3 Jake won 6-0, 6-1

#5 Quin won 6-2, 7-5. Note: Quin decided to keep the match interesting by being up 5-2 match point (serving) and then dropping most of the next points to even the match at 5-5! He finally buckled down to break serve and serve out the match at 6-5.

Colby is very good up top. Dan lost at #2 7-5, 6-0 and Chris lost at #1 6-4, 7-6. 

Immediately after the Colby match Team B took stage against Westminster College. This is an experienced team that has been the NCAA III Team Tournament the past two years. We simply had too much firepower sweeping the match 9-0. 

Sorry for the short post. I'll try to update scores later tonight. 

Whitties defeat Linfield 7-2

I'll try to post more later tonight but we are in a rush packing so we can head out to the Seattle airport. Earlier today we defeated Linfield 7-2 at the Courthouse in Salem, OR.

Doubles
#1 Christoph/Quin def Kingzett/James 8-5
#2 Dan/Justin def Ruess/Van Mens 8-5
#3 Nadeem/Chris def Dewitt/Anderson 9-8
Singles
#1 Chris def Van Mens 6-4, 6-4
#2 Dan lost Ruess 6-0. 7-5
#3 Jake def Ander 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 (I think those were the scores)
#4 Nadeem lost James 6-7, 6-4, 10-5 (not sure of tiebreak)
#5 Quin def Magdaong 6-4, 6-4
#6 Christoph def Dewitt 6-2, 4-6, 10-8

9-0 vs Willamette and Lewis and Clark

Sorry in advance but this is going to be a short post. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more time to write about the matches.

Today we again split into 2 teams to take on Willamette and Lewis Clark College. Against Willamette my group came out smoking hot in doubles. In fact we only lost 2 games in the 3 matches -- #1 doubles (Christoph/Quin) won 8-1, #2 doubles (Dan/Justin) won 8-0, and #3 doubles (Nadeem/Chris) won 8-0.

In singles we struggled a bit at the top spots with Chris and Dan both winning in 3 sets. The rest of the team won in straight sets:
#1 Chris Bailey won 1-6, 6-1, 6-1
#2 Dan Wilson won 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
#3 Nadeem Kassam won 6-3, 6-1
#4 Quin Miller won 6-4, 6-0
#5 Christoph Fuchs won 6-3, 6-2
#6 Reid Bennett won 6-0, 6-3

The second group swept Lewis Clark 9-0. Highlight of the match was Jake Cappel's 6-4 in the 3rd victory over regionally ranked Vincent Groot. Very good win for Jake. Also the 3rd straight match he has won in 3 sets!

As a team we are playing very well and peaking at a good time. In fact our last 6 matches have all been 9-0 victories.

Tomorrow we play Linfield in Salem at the Courthouse Club at 10am. A few weeks ago we narrowly defeated Linfield 5-4 so tomorrow should be a great match!

Two more wins during Spring Break!

Earlier today we split the Whitman horde into two teams to take on Pacific and George Fox. Both matches took place at 9am -- I had the Pacific group and Coach Ann had the George Fox group.

Against Pacific we came out with good energy and were able to quickly capture all three doubles matches. The #1 combo of Christoph and Quin struggled a bit in the early going of their match. I felt like they were playing well and getting the opportunity to finish points but just couldn't win the big points. After going down 1-3 they won 7 straight games for an 8-3 victory.

In singles play the closest match of the day was at #5 where Justin Hayashi defeated Nhat Nguyen 6-4, 6-3. Christoph and Quin continued their strong play in singles with Quin winning 6-0, 6-1 and Christoph winning 8-1 (shortened match due to time).

Whitman 9 Pacific 0

Against George Fox the highlight of the day was Thomas Roston's thrilling victory at #4 singles. Normally a 6-0, 6-0 isn't thrilling but Thomas was up 6-0, 3-0 before he lost a point! Wow what a great effort (for the record he lost 2 points the entire match).

Also of note Jake and Adriel both won their matches in 3rd set super-breakers! Outside of #1 and #2 singles all the matches had at least one 6-0 set! Perhaps it is the coaching! Kudo's to Coach Ann:)

Whitman 9 George Fox 0

We are currently 10-0 in conference play and 11-2 overall. In the latest rankings that were released earlier today we slipped two spots to #21 (even though we have yet to lose a DIII match) and are #5 in the West region.


Match changes!
Wednesday's match against Willamette has been moved to 11am at the Courthouse Tennis Center

Thursday's match against Linfield moved to 10am at the Courthouse Tennis Center in Salem!

Match changes

Because of weather and lack of available indoor courts several upcoming matches have been rescheduled.

Monday vs PLU reschedule to April 11 11am in Tacoma
Tuesdays matches vs George Fox and Pacific changed to:
9am vs Pacific* at Tualatin Hills
9am vs George Fox* at Lewis Clark College Tennis Bubble
*We will be breaking into two teams to take on G Fox and Pacific.

Hope to see you at the courts!

Spring is the air!

It is spring break for the Fighting Squirrels! Classes are done for two weeks and the players get to take a break from the books and focus on tennis. This year we are doing something a bit unique and playing our away conference matches during the first week of break and the second week we are heading to Hilton Head, SC to play some of the top NCAA III teams in the nation.

Yesterday we had a home match against short-handed Lewis and Clark College. Unfortunately for the Pioneers they were missing a player and had to default #6 singles and #3 doubles. Highlight of the day was the return of junior Nadeem Kassam to the line-up. Nadeem has been out for a month with a shoulder injury and Friday the 13th marked his return to competition. I know for most people Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck. However for us it marked the glorious return of Nadeem to our line-up. Against LC, Nadeem had the opportunity to play one of the top players in the conference (Vincent Groot). In fact Groot only has one NCAA III loss all year -- that being a three set loss to PLU's outstanding #1 player. Nadeem not only played beautiful tennis but he played with an incredible sense of passion. Being out the past month has made Nadeem hungry to play again. Against LC, Nadeem was unstoppable winning 6-2, 6-3.

Kudos to the rest of the team who shook off a hard week of school and were able to close out the LC 9-0 without dropping a set.

Whitman 9 LC 0

Earlier today we took on a determined Willamette squad. Willamette is a talented squad and has players in various positions that can play with any team in the conference. They have also been rock solid in doubles.

Even though I knew this would be a close match I decided to mix and match the line-up. I know I have mentioned this before but we are fortunate to have an incredibly deep and talented line-up. This is great not only in practices (which are a joy to watch and run) but in matches we have a horde of hungry guys chomping at the bit to play.

We started off with high energy doubles. At #3 Nadeem and Chris picked up where they left off on Friday winning 8-0. In the last two matches Nadeem and Chris have won two matches 8-0! In the world of men's doubles that is no easy feat! At #2 Justin and Dan were down an early break 2-4 but rallied to win 8-6. At #1 doubles Christoph and Quin played their best (and smartest) doubles of the year winning 8-5.

At #1 singles Chris Bailey played aggressive, strong tennis defeating Willamette's Cody Ferguson 6-1, 6-2. Even though Chris had a convincing win it was a pleasure to watch Ferguson play. Cody is a new transfer to the Willamette program and he showed why he is one of the top players in the conference.

One of the more entertaining sets of the day was at #2 where Dan Wilson won a very competitive 1st set 7-6 (8-6). I have to hand it to Dan, he has an amazing court presence. No matter the situation he works incredibly hard and always has a positive aura. About the only way I can tell that Dan is in a tight match is how hard he hits the ball. The closer the situation the bigger he hits. Dan ended up winning 7-6, 6-2.

The most competitive match of the day was Jake at #3. Last week Jake didn't have the greatest court composure and it cost him against Linfield. One of Jake's goals for this match (and our trip) is to improve upon his attitude on court. Today Jake was a brilliant leader for our team. After losing the 1st set 3-6 he continued to work hard but more importantly his aura was positive. Not only did he shake off the great play of his opponent but he showed great leadership supporting all his teammates. In the end Jake posted a solid 3-6, 6-3 6-1 victory. This is one of those matches that made me proud to be a coach. It is so gratifying to see the maturity and growth of players. Today Jake was a true team leader.

At #4 Adriel felt he didn't play his best. However its hard to find fault in a 6-0, 6-0 victory! At #5 Jasper played a very talented and experienced Willamette player. In fact last year this player played #2 -- infront of Willamette's current #1, #2 and #3 players! Jasper was able to cruise to a 7-6, 6-2 victory. At #6 Christoph won 6-3, 6-4. I've been working with Christoph the past week on some changes to his game and it was nice to see him utilize some new tools.

Great start to our break the past couple days. Two matches and two 9-0 victories. More importantly we are playing with a renewed sense of purpose!

Whitman 9 Willamette 0