This weekend is one of my favorite times of the year -- the ITA Fall Regionals! This is my favorite college tennis event of the year. It is the only time all the singles players and doubles teams in the conference are put into one large draw. Doesn't matter if a player is #1 or #10 on a team -- everyone has a shot to win the event. I know the Whitman players really look forward to this opportunity. This is the only time that many of them get a shot at the top players from the other teams in the conference.
Another reason why this event is so much fun is because its the first tennis event of the year. This year will be especially entertaining as we get to go on the road (we have hosted the past two years). Nothing like a road trip to bring a sense of excitement to a tournament. I know everyone on the team is excited to travel and play.
This event is also the first time teams get to check out the rosters from the rest of the conference. Always interesting to see which teams added and lost players.
Speaking of losing players this year certainly marks a changing of the guard for the Whitman tennis team. We lost seven solid players to graduation. In the world of college tennis seven players is basically an entire roster! Luckily the past few years we have had a very deep team and we have seven returning players that have been in our system for a few years. Also I'm very excited about our four new freshman players. From Seattle to California to Bulgaria these boys can play some great tennis. I'm brimming excitement to see how the new players do against the rest of the conference.
This will be the first year in a while that Whitman hasn't had the #1 seed in singles or doubles. We are, however, fortunate to have 5 singles players seeded in the top 16 and two doubles teams in the top 5. Hopefully players can live up to and surpass the seedings.
Below a tournament preview written by Whitman's wonderful SID Dave Holden
WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- In addition to posting 16-0 Northwest Conference records for the past four spring seasons, the Whitman College men's tennis team has also largely dominated the annual fall tournament.
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Jeff Tolman
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Conor Holton-Burke
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While hard hit by graduation last spring, Whitman returns plenty of firepower and hopes to continue its fall mastery at this weekend's USTA/ITA Pacific Northwest Tournament, which takes place at Willamette University in Salem, Ore.
Whitman players have won the last four singles titles at the fall tournament and three of the last four crowns in doubles.
Sophomore Jeff Tolman, who lost in last year's singles final to teammate Matt Solomon (now graduated), is the highest Whitman seed in this weekend's singles bracket. Tolman is seeded No. 3 behind No. 1 Mark Magdaong, a Linfield senior, and No. 2 Jeffrey Wong, a Willamette junior.
Other Whitman players seeded in the 64-player singles bracket are sophomore Conor Holton-Burke (6), senior Etienne Moshevich (7), senior Chris Bailey (9), and freshman Andrew La Cava (16).
Moshevich and Bailey made the singles finals of the 2008 and 2007 fall tournaments, losing in both cases to Solomon.
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Etienne Moshevich
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Chris Bailey
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Other Whitman players entered in the singles bracket this weekend are senior Quin Miller, sophomores Matt Tesmond and Sam Sadeghi, and freshmen Will Huskey, Steven Roston and Anatas Anatasov.
In last year's doubles final, Tolman and Solomon were upset by Pacific Lutheran's Joel Trudel and Justin Peterson, who have both graduated.
Tolman is paired this weekend with Moshevich. They are the No. 2 seeds in the doubles bracket, trailing only Magdaong and his Linfield teammate, Brent Kingzett.
Moshevich teamed with Solomon to win the doubles titles at both the 2008 and 2007 tournaments.
Holton-Burke and La Cava, another of Whitman's tandems in this weekend's doubles bracket, are seeded No. 5.
Whitman has three more duos in the doubles bracket: Miller and Tesmond, Bailey and Sadeghi, and Huskey and Roston.
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