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.