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