Getting ready for Tacoma

We open our conference play Saturday 10:30am against PLU and immediately follow with UPS. Both matches will be at the UPS indoor tennis courts.

Kind of interesting that we start off our conference schedule against the same team we played in last year's conference finals -- Pacific Lutheran University. In fact, the past six year's conference finals have been a Whitman vs PLU affair with each team winning three. The past three years we have had a bit of a hot streak against PLU going 8-1 overall and winning the conference title in 2008 and 2009.

Saturday's match should prove to be a great match. PLU is the most experienced team in the conference with four seniors starting in their top six. Two of those seniors (Joel Trudel and Michael Manser) played DI tennis before transferring to PLU. Trudel was undefeated in singles conference play last year and was named 2009 NWC player of the Year. In the fall Trudel teamed with fellow senior Justin Peterson to win the Northwest Regional tournament. They are a very formidable doubles tandem and are currently ranked #3 in the West Region. PLU's other senior, Kevin Floyd, has consistently been one of the best players in the conference. I would expect these four seniors (Trudel, Floyd, Manser, Peterson) to play in the PLU top four. Zach Ah Yat is an athletic, talented sophomore who had a good freshman year playing five for PLU. With a year of experience under his belt he could make a strong bid to play in the top four for PLU. At this point its hard to know since Saturday will be PLU's first match.

We are expecting a very good match from the Lutes. Last year in our three matches against PLU we were able to get the upper hand after the doubles. However, with Trudel/Peterson playing good doubles, racing to an early lead in doubles will be difficult.

Singles should have a number of very good match-ups. In our last match against PLU (conference finals) the Lutes scored their points at #1 singles and #6 singles. They have some quality players at the top of the line-up and certainly have the depth to go along with their experience. Obviously they are a very dangerous team and this match could go down to the wire.

In the afternoon match we are planning on using a second group of players against UPS. Having a roster that is 15 deep gives us plenty of second team options. On paper the Loggers look a bit weaker than last year. Last year they squeaked into the conference tournament and finished sixth. It appears that both George Fox and Pacific are stronger and might push UPS out of the conference tournament.

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