First match of the year!

We are officially off and running! With only three days of practice we headed off to Cheney to face the multinational squad from DI Eastern Washington University. Those that have been following our schedule know this was a very late scheduled match -- like 9 days ago. Honestly I don't like playing matches so early in the season but when good friend Coach Haworth called saying they had a match slot available I couldn't resist the temptation to play.

We left after lunch on Friday figuring to get up to Cheney in time to check into the hotel, have a good dinner and hit in the fieldhouse/tennis courts at Eastern Washington. I have to say the first road trip of the year is always a special trip. Its fun to load into the van and listen to the guys banter back and forth about what they did over break, classes and of course the ever popular topic of girls.

We arrived into Cheney, checked into the Holiday Inn Express and then headed out to a very nice Italian restaurant for dinner. Being the first trip of the year and having the entire team together (all except Nasko) I thought we would we would start the year off with a dinner at one of the nicest eateries in Cheney. Unfortunately this turned into a bit of a mistake as it took over 90 minutes for us to get our food which many of us had to wolf down so we could get in some court time. Because of the late dinner we only ended up with 30 minutes of hitting time.

Those that have been to the EWU know its a challenging place to play. In fact some teams refuse to play the Eagles on their home courts (the previous weekend Oregon forced a match venue change to a tennis club in Spokane). The fieldhouse is a HUGE concrete box with 4 courts. However it is also a multi-purpose facility with a track (of a different surface) immediately behind the courts, basketball lines on the courts, no backdrop (just a concrete wall), lightning fast courts, and different lighting.

Even more difficult for our match was the EWU squad. Coach Haworth has done a nice job blending very strong foreign talent with some of the best PNW players. The DI Eagle squad was simply too strong for us on Saturday.

The match started off on a promising note. At both #1 and #2 doubles we went up early breaks. Unfortunately at #3 we were dominated from the start with Chris and Sam dropping a quick 8-1 match. The #2 duo of Jeff Tolman/Quin Miller were playing their first match together and performed quite well. Besides being up an early break at 2-1 they also had numerous other opportunities to break. Even though the match was 8-5 it was only one break and honestly the match was separated by a few points here and there. At #1 doubles Andrew and Conor continued their strong play going up 6-3 against a very good EWU team. In fact in the fall the EWU team of Mussolini/Sanchez defeated the #1 doubles team from U of Oregon. About the time Andrew/Conor went up 6-3 the other doubles had finished and all attention in the fieldhouse shifted to #1 doubles. At that point Conor and Andrew made an early season mistake and let the situation get the better of them. I felt that their energy leveled dropped a bit and they waited for the EWU to make mistakes instead of continuing to play strong, aggressive doubles. Also the EWU team really turned up the heat nailing clutch returns on big points. In the end the EWU team rattled off 5 straight games to take the match.

In singles we played most of the 1st sets pretty close. I was proud of the attitude and competitive spirit of the team. At #1 freshman All-American La Cava lost 6-3, 6-2 to a player who the previous weekend defeated the #2 singles player from U of Oregon. At #2 Conor had a slugfest succumbing to a transfer from Boise State (Stefan Simikic) 6-3, 6-4. Number 3 (Tolman) and 4 (Bailey) had identical 7-5, 6-1 scores. In both matches the Whitties played even to 5-5 only to get broke allowing the EWU player to serve out the set. Sam Sadeghi had one of the best matches of the day at #5 singles losing 6-4, 4-6, 10-4. Once Sam won the 2nd second I was convinced he was going to win the match. He was playing great and the EWU player (James Russell) was flustered and rattled. Hats off to Russell, he completely turned around his game -- firing huge serves, ripping monster forehands and snapping sharp volleys. Disappointing day for Matt Tesmond who stepped into the line-up at #6 but lost 6-1, 6-0.

Although exhibition matches don't show up on the official score we had some nice efforts in singles. At #7 Quin Miller won in 3 sets. Additionally freshman Steven Roston rallied back from 3-6, 2-5 down in the 2nd to even the set at 5-5 before the match was halted. In doubles Will Huskey played well at #4 doubles with Matt Tesmond dropping their match 8-5. Was fun to see them save off 3 match matches at 7-3 to stretch the match.

We are now off for three weeks until we travel to Lewiston, ID to take on NAIA power Lewis-Clark State College.