As I mentioned above, Linfield plays good doubles so we had to start strong to take control of the team match. The Squirrels started off by quickly going up two breaks at #1 (Matt and ET) and #3 (Jeffrey and Nadeem). Jeffrey and Nadeem were the first ones off with a 8-5 victory. Matt and ET were up 5-2 when the Linfield team really hit their stride. Credit to the Linfield duo for battling hard and playing some good doubles at the end of the match. Turning point of the match -- ET serving at 6-4 and comes back from 0-40. Lose that game and Linfield has the momentum and is back on serve. The Lion (I call ET the lion because he has a huge heart) put in 3 straight 1st serves and was able to hold. Matt and ET end up winning 8-5 giving us a 2-0 lead. Quin and Christoph had a battle at #2 doubles. Late in the match they were down a break but managed to break back and force a tie breaker. In the breaker they had great intensity and crashed hard on the net. Christoph finished off the tie breaker with an ace to win 7-1. Sweep of the doubles and we are up 3-0 going into singles.
Anyone that follows DIII tennis knows that a sweep of doubles almost always means a team victory. Going up 3-0 means that the opposing team needs to win 5 of the singles matches and against an equally matched team this is all but impossible. As a side note hats off to PLU who last night accomplished that very feat against Willamette -- they were down 0-3 after doubles and ended up winning 5-4.
We certainly had momentum going into the singles. I'm sitting on the court looking across the 4 indoor courts at these scores: #1 Matt is up 6-1, #2 Jeffrey is up 5-0, #3 ET is up 6-1, and #4 Chris is up 4-1. Such a lead was simply too great. Matt is playing very well...each match he is getting stronger and playing better. Yesterday he beat the #8 ranked player in the region 6-1, 6-2. At #3 the Lion clinched the team match 6-1, 6-4. However #3 and #4 both split sets. At #3 Jeffrey had a very streaky match. To start the match he wins 5 straight games and wins the 1st set 6-2. In the 2nd set he goes down 0-4 but manages to bring the set to a breaker (losing 7-3). In the match breaker Jeffrey regains his focus winning 10-4. Unfortunately Chris wasn't so lucky at #4 singles losing 3-6, 6-3, 10-6.
With the match clinched, Christoph and Nadeem took the courts at #5 and #6. Christoph had a rematch against the opponent that beat him a month ago. Yesterday Christoph was victorious 6-2, 6-2. It is a pleasure to see Nadeem playing after nursing a sore arm all year. He is enjoying his time on court and playing with great enthusiasm. Nadeem gave us 8-1 victory with his 6-2, 6-3 win.
Today's win gave us at least a share of the conference 2010 conference title and we clinched the #1 seed at the NWC conference tournament. Next weekend we play Whitworth (doubleheader) and if we win one of those matches we are outright conference champions!
This was the last weekend of home matches for seven seniors. Over the course of the year these seniors have provided incredible leadership for the team. Our season started off very shaky after getting blown out at home by the #1 ranked UC Santa Cruz and the following weekend narrowly defeating PLU 5-4 (we were down 2-4 and had to win the final three matches in 3-sets). I remember getting back late from Tacoma and venting to the team about our recent performances. I believe that weekend was the defining moment for the team. Since then we have played with passion and purpose. I love how the team (and individuals) are playing better with each passing week.
Consider our scores with opponents this year:
1st match Whitman 5 PLU 4 -- 2nd match Whitman 9 PLU 0
1st match Whitman 1 UCSC 8 -- 2nd match Whitman 3 UCSC 6
1st match Whitman 7 Linfield 2 -- 2nd match Whitman 8 Linfield 1 (and Linfield had their standout senior back for this match)
1st match Whitman 7 Willamette 2 -- 2nd match Whitman 8 Willamette 1 (on their home courts)
I look forward to seeing how the rest of our season unfolds.
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