Wrapping up ITA's

After rain moved the tournament indoors on Saturday it was a treat to be able to play the semi-finals outdoors. The only bad thing about having the last day of the tournament on Monday is there weren't many tennis spectators around to watch! Since I had sent several players home Sunday with Coach Matt Solomon there were only a handful of Willamette and Whitman players around to watch the matches.

We were fortunate to have three of the four semi-finalist in the singles. Teammates, and doubles partners, Andrew La Cava (#16 seed) and Conor Holton-Burke (#6 seed) duked it while Chris Bailey (#9 seed) faced off against Willamette's Cody Ferguson (#8 seed).

I was worried how Chris was going to respond to his 8+ hours of tennis the previous day. As I mentioned in an earlier post Chris had to cut his morning warm-up short due to soreness. After the first 2 games the first set belonged to Ferguson -- after he lost 8 of the first 9 points he settled down to win 6 straight games. I was really impressed with Chris's competitive attitude. Even though he was tired and sore he bounced back to win the 2nd set 6-2. Unfortunately the first three games of the 3rd set sealed Chris's fate. In his first two service games Chris was serving 40-15 only to lose both games. Once Ferguson earned those two breaks he was off to the races winning the 3rd 6-1. Hats off to Ferguson. I was really impressed with the improvement in his game. I remember writing a post two years ago how impressed I was with Ferguson when he entered the conference. He certainly has proved to be one of the best players in the conference.

The Whitman semi-final was a tipsy-tossy affair. Each set featured numerous service breaks and lead changes. In the end Andrew was able to squeak out each set 7-5, 7-5.

Even though Andrew is a freshman I felt he had the edge going into the finals. As a newcomer to the league his game is a bit new to opponents. Also after watching Ferguson go through three straight Whitman players we had a good idea of how to play him. Lastly Andrew has played numerous national events and is used to playing "big" matches. In the finals Andrew was a cool customer winning 6-1, 6-1. He was able to go up early breaks in each set and never looked back. In fact I think he only faced one break point all match. Unbelievable tournament for Andrew -- he comes into the tournament as the #16 seed and doesn't lose a set the entire tournament!

After a short break Andrew took the courts with Conor for the doubles final against Whitman's Sam Sadeghi and Chris Bailey. Andrew and Conor were too much for their teammates winning 6-1, 6-1. I must point out that Chris and Sam had a great tournament and both have made huge strides in their double games. They came into the tournament as our #4 team and knocked off the #6 seeds before defeating our #3 and #2 teams.

In a few weeks I will travel to Mobile, AL with Andrew and Conor for the ITA Small-College National Championships. They will face off against the winners of the TX region (played this weekend) for the right to make the final 8.

Congratulations to Alyssa and Elise of the women's team for winning the women's double title. They will represent the PNW at the ITA National event!