Two wins at home

After playing our first five matches on the road it was nice to finally be playing at home. Saturday presented a challenging day as we played a back-to-back double header. In the first match of the day we played Lewis & Clark (0-2 in conference play). This was a great match for the team as we mixed up the line-up giving most everyone the opportunity to play.

Doubles started off strong, grabbing an early lead in all the matches. At #1 doubles Quin/Matt won 8-3, at #2 doubles Sam/Adriel won 8-0, and at #3 the freshman duo of Will/Sam won 8-1.

In singles Quin really thrived playing in the #1 slot. Quin was very excited for the opportunity to play #1 because LC has one of the better #1 players in the conference. Quin has been playing great tennis this season and dismantled a very good player 6-1, 6-1. The rest of the matches featured similar scores -- #2 Sam won 6-0, 6-1, #3 Adriel won 6-1, 6-0, #4 Matt won 6-2, 6-0, #5 Will won 6-0,6-0 and #6 Steven won 6-2, 6-1.

Immediately following the LC match we took to the courts against conference rival Linfield College. As a team we had been looking forward to this match for several weeks. Besides being a good and well-coached team, the Linfield match was our only home match against a regionally ranked opponent before our spring break trip. Linfield entered the weekend 2-0 and #9 in the region.

In doubles we got off to very quick starts at #2 and #3. Jeff and ET are really thriving together and feeding off of each other's energy. Both of them are absolutely crushing returns and playing aggressive doubles. After Jeff held to open the match they immediately broke to take a 2-0 lead. After that break they went on to win 8-4.

I really like how our #3 combo of Quin and Matt have been playing doubles. Matt is serving well, going after returns and closing hard at the net. Quin has always been an aggressive doubles player but this year is much more thoughtful about his play and has been focused on setting up the points. Even though Matt and Quin won 8-2, their match featured several long deuce games.

Number 1 doubles was one of the strangest matches I have seen in a long time. Linfield has a very good #1 doubles team that is capable of playing spooky good doubles. They also came out fired up to play Conor/Andrew. One thing about being nationally/regionally ranked is EVERYONE comes after you. So far Andrew and Conor have handled that pressure very well. However against Linfield they didn't play their best tennis early in the match and the Linfield guys executed their game plan flawlessly. In fact at one point I think the Linfield guys were up 7-4 serving. At 7-4 a funny thing happened -- Conor/Andrew started playing much stronger tennis (especially Andrew) and the Linfield team got a bit tight trying close out the match.

At 7-4 break point Andrew crushed a forehand return winner which ignited the team and the crowd. At 7-5 Andrew held at love making the score 7-6. The hold at love was incredibly important Andrew/Conor had now won 5 straight points, had the momentum in the match and had the large crowd squarely behind them. At 7-6 serving Andrew/Conor again found a way to break evening the match at 7-7. Both teams held to set up the deciding tiebreak. All the momentum we had carried over the tiebreak and we quickly went up 5-0. Oh how things can quickly change. At 5-0 Andrew was serving and only needed two points to win the match. At this point Andrew did what most people would do and went for the ace. Unfortunately he double faulted. At 5-1 Andrew hits a great serve where the Linfield player stabs at the return and sends up a weak lob. Conor gets tight, doesn't get properly set for the ball and misses while trying to crush the overhead. With the tiebreaker at 5-2, the Linfield team is starting to get some energy. We miss two straight returns and the Linfield team is right back in the match. In the past 4 points we have double faulted, missed an overhead, and missed 2 returns!

Now it's 5-4 Conor serving -- Conor hits a great 1st serve, Andrew crosses to the middle to intercept the return but the ball skips off the net tape making it unplayable for Andrew. At 5 all the two teams trade points. At 6-6 Conor rips a forehand return winner down the line giving us match point. At 7-6 Andrew was able to close out the match. Certainly was one of the more thrilling comebacks I have seen in a while.

In singles we started with #1 Conor, #2 Andrew, #3 ET and #4 Jeff. After the doubles we were all incredibly fired up after Conor and Andrew's amazing come back. I was hoping we would maintain that energy going into the singles. Often after a great match or high energy moment there is a corresponding low energy moment. On Saturday there was no such lull with Jeff and ET. They were like sharks in the water that sensed victory. Both of them won in under an hour -- Jeff first 6-1, 6-2 quickly followed by ET who clinched the win with a 6-1, 6-1 victory.

At #2 Andrew was able to break early in each set against a very big serving Linfield player winning 6-4, 6-3. Conor had his hands full against a player he had defeated in three sets at the Fall ITA tournament. Once again they split sets with Conor taking the match breaker 10-5 (6-3, 2-6, 10-5).

Because of major exams Chris Bailey couldn't play so Sam got the nod to play #5. Honestly Sam might have played the best tennis of anyone yesterday. He was absolutely crushing his serve and groundstrokes. He was in such control of his game that he began to serve and volley and even approach on the return. Great move from Sam, he hits the ball so well off the ground but often doesn't press advantage and finish points at the net. Once Sam becomes comfortable finishing points at the net he is going to be a completely different player. Sam ended up beating one of the best 5 players in the conference 6-1, 6-1.

Oh those whacking freshman. Will was like a big puppy in his excitement of getting the opportunity to play #6. Will took advantage of the opportunity and rushed out to a 6-1, 5-1 lead. And then Will started playing like a nervous boy at his first dance. Three times he served for the match and three times he couldn't put the match away. With the entire team at court side Will was finally able to win the match in a tiebreak (6-1, 7-6). Gotta love those freshman moments!

Its been a busy week playing five matches in six days. Next Friday we play another double header in Tacoma -- 3pm vs UPS followed by a 6pm match against rival PLU (at UPS).

We are now 1st place in the NWC conference with a 5-0 record.

Scores for the match:
Whitman 9 Lewis & Clark 0
Whitman 9 Linfield 0

Jeff Tolman -- Yellow Jersey Winner

Congratulations to Jeffrey Tolman who gathered almost every team vote to win the yellow jersey. Jeffrey showed great resilience over the weekend and played his best tennis at the end of long weekend trip.

Also big congratulations to the Men's Basketball team who defeated #3 seed Lewis & Clark to move onto the NWC Championship game Saturday night.

2 Posts in one!

First off Congratulations to Conor Holton-Burke for being named NWC Men's Tennis player of the week. Playing #1 singles and #1 doubles, Conor went 6-0 including knocking off two 2009 All-Conference players.

Secondly, I uploaded photos from our Portland trip to Flickr. Some very good action photos and sweet photos from our alumni dinner in Portland. For those not familiar with Flickr -- most of my photos are tagged. Clicking on a tag will only show photos that contain a certain person.

Parents if you want copies of the pictures send me an email.

Portland Trip

Portland part 2

On President's day we wrapped up our swing through the Portland area with a 1pm match against Willamette (indoors). After playing a double header on Sunday in extremely cold weather and spending many hours in a bus the team was a bit stiff. However after a good warm-up the Whitties were ready for battle.

In an earlier post I mentioned the effects of graduating 7 seniors. Graduating that many good players could decimate at team. We were lucky to mitigate that effect by having strong player development and a talented freshman class (Andrew La Cava, Steven Roston, Will Husky and Atanas Atanasov). Something positive, however, has happened with the player graduation -- the current team has found its own voice. It appears that this year's team is about energy and passion. Honestly this might be the most vocal and energetic team I have coached. From top to bottom, from those playing to those watching, this team is absolutely committed to each other. I think playing the energized and vocal George Fox team Sunday awoke that voice.

On Sunday we played with the kind of energy and passion that is truly to awesome to watch. From the first point of doubles to the last point in singles the Whitman team played with incredible energy and love for each other. I know some will scoff at the term 'love,' but the chemistry on this team is special and the team support is overwhelming.

Willamette is one of the better teams in our conference and this year we only have the opportunity to play them once. Last year they finished 3rd in the conference but had a nice conference tournament where we faced them in the finals. This year they are a much better team: they return their talented top 4 players from last year and added two good players at 5 and 6. With a year of experience under their belts and two new players this is certainly a team to watch. Coach Toby Kraul has done great things for this program and they are certainly a program on the rise.

In doubles all three Willamette teams served first and all three were immediately broken. From that point on the Whitties were off to the races -- at #1 Andrew/Conor won 8-2, at #2 Jeff/ET won 8-2 and at #3 Matt/Quin won 8-0. I'm really impressed with the doubles results -- to play that well and post those scores against a good team is simply amazing.

We carried that momentum over to singles. At #1 Conor had a nice match winning 6-2, 6-1 over ITA finalist Cody Ferguson. Conor has to be pleased with this match since last year he narrowly defeated Ferguson in a match breaker. A few minutes later Jeff clinched the match at #4 with a 6-3, 6-0 victory. By the end of the Willamette match Jeff was flying around the court crushing every ball in site. At #6 Sam was down a break at 1-2 before winning 6-3, 6-0. At #5 I think Chris might of been down an early break but won 6-3, 6-1. Andrew was down 0-3 at #2 before getting a handle on nerves and posted a very good 6-4, 6-2 victory. Last match on was The Lion (ET) playing against a very talented Michael Baumgartner. Last year Baumgartner had an impressive freshman debut defeating three defeating NWC Players of the Year (including our own Matt Solomon). It was a very entertaining match to watch as both players were crushing the ball. In the end ET was a bit too much winning 6-4, 6-4. Great for the Whitman team to see ET start to regain his old form.

As a team we certainly rose to the occasion of an early season important conference match on the road. To sweep an improved Willamette team without losing a set (this might be the first time we have not lost a set to Willamette) certainly shows great team improvement and intensity.

We play our first home matches of the year this Saturday -- 1pm vs Lewis Clark and 5pm vs Linfield (#9 in the West Region).

Whitman 9 Willamette 0

Portland Trip Part 1

What a fun trip to Portland. Even though we didn't play until today we decided to travel to Forest Grove, OR on Friday night to watch our basketball teams play Pacific. I would like to think we gave our women's basketball team a bit of lift. I'm not sure if it was the very loud cheering or the shock of seeing the men's tennis team with "Missionaries!" painted across their chests but whatever it was the women's team a 22-0 run once we arrived at the gym! By virtual of the win the women clinched the #4 seed in the upcoming conference tournament. We stayed on to cheer on the men's team but unfortunately they dropped a heart breaker. Congratulations to Coach Ferenz and Coach Bridgeland -- both have done a tremendous with the Whitman basketball programs. The women finished the year as the #4 team in the conference and the men finished #2!

Today (Sunday) was a long, cold day of tennis. This morning we started off playing Pacific University at their covered courts. It was certainly chilly in the morning -- in fact, high during temp during the match was 42 with a wind chill of 39!!!! Fortunately going into the weekend we knew it was going to be cold so everyone brought heavy jackets, gloves and long underwear.

The cold weather wasn't our only problem today. We played a much improved Pacific team in their covered facility. The Pacific facility features three covered courts but the screens surrounding the courts are normal windscreens. With a covered roof and normal wind screens around the courts the lighting is very strange. The layout makes tracking the ball very difficult -- almost like watching a ball under a strobe light.

In doubles #2 (ET and Jeff) started off strong going up 6-0 in about 30 minutes. Jeff and ET's tremendous energy fired up the rest of the team and got us on the board with a quick 8-1 win. At #3 Quin and Matt won 8-3 and at #1 Andrew and Conor were deadlocked at 5-5 when they went on a roll winning 3 straight games.

In singles we maintained our strong play sweeping 5 of the matches in straight sets. Our only loss was at #3 singles where Jeff ran into a buzz-saw freshman Troy Zuroske. Troy played great tennis hammering huge serves all match. His serve coupled with the strange lighting made for a rough day for Jeff. I wouldn't be surprised to see Zuroske playing #1 for the Boxers in the next fews. After watching him play today I'm convinced he will be one of the top players in the NWC Conference.

Once the Pacific match finished we made sandwiches and headed to George Fox for our afternoon match. After a short warm-up we took to the courts to play an incredibly fired up Fox team. It was fun to see the Bruins completely fired up and ready to battle us for every point. I know their energy made us raise our level of play.

Once again Jeff and ET got us going with with a solid start (I think they again went up 6-0). Both #2 doubles and #3 doubles finished with 8-2 victories. At #1 doubles Andrew and Conor broke open a close match winning the final four games posting an 8-4 victory.

In singles we sat our normal #3 (ET) and #4 (Jeff). This gave Adriel Borshanksy (#5) and Steve Roston (#6) the opportunity to get in some valuable match play experience. Both rose to the occassion winning 6-1, 6-1, and 6-2, 6-1. The most competitive match of the day was at #1 where Conor Holton-Burke got a measure of revenge (Barnett handed Conor his only conference loss last year) defeating Scott Barnett 6-4, 5-7, 10-6. A bit of an interesting match. In the 2nd set Conor got up an early break and served for the 2nd set at 5-4 only to get broke and then drop the set. However in the tie-break he played inspired tennis racing out to a 6-0 lead before winning 10-5.

Big kudos to Coach Ninteman, he has turned around the George Fox tennis program and I'm sure they will be a force within the conference for a long time.

We finish our road trip tomorrow at 1pm match in Salem against Willamette. Even with warm weather in the forecast (high of 52), Willamette has decided to play the match off campus at an indoor tennis club (Courthouse)a few miles from campus.

Links to the matches

Whitman 8 Pacific 1
Whitman 9 George Fox 0

Special thanks to the Mah and La Cava families for the incredible hospitality this weekend.

Small matches changes for Sunday

Great weather in the Portland area this weekend so it now looks like our Sunday start time against Pacific is 10am and our George Fox match will be taking place on the George Fox campus (not Tualatin Hills).

Hope to see ya on the courts!

Incredible News!

Let me start off this post by stating what Whitman has meant to me. I came to Whitman in the fall of 1984 not knowing what to expect in college. As a first generation college student (my parents were the first in their family to finish high school) the concept of college was very foreign. For me Whitman College was an unbelievably powerful experience -- I am who I am today because of my Whitman experience. Plus I met my lovely wife at Whitman!

I was absolutely thrilled to return to Whitman as men's tennis coach (I was working as a DI coach). Those that have played for me the past 12 years know my passion for Whitman and the tennis team. One of my life/career goals has been to establish a endowment for the men's tennis team.

Today I'm so incredibly proud and humble to announce a gift was made to the College by my teammate Benson Porter ('86) to establish the Jeff Northam Men's Tennis Endowment. Without a doubt the establishment of this endowment is the most powerful experience in my professional life. When I first heard of the creation of the endowment I was absolutely floored and spent a good 30 minutes crying.

The establishment of this endowment will help ensure future generations of Whitman tennis players will receive a top notch experience. Expect an official announcement from the college in the coming weeks.

Portland Alumni Dinner Saturday Evening

We are having a team + Whitman Alumni dinner this Saturday 7pm at Nicholas Restaurant, 3223 NE Broadway, Portland, OR 97232

Please email me if you are planning on attending the dinner so we know how many to plan for.

Match time changes this weekend.

Weather might be an issue this weekend in the Portland area.

Our Sunday match against Pacific is now changed to 9am.

If we encounter wet weather the George Fox match will take place 2pm at Tualatin Hills otherwise it will be at 3pm in Newberg.

On Monday our match against Willamette will be at 1pm if indoors (Courthouse) or 2pm if dry (at Willamette).

Hope to see you at the courts!

Yellow Jerseys

First off I have to apologize for not posting the winner of the yellow jersey last week. We voted on the yellow jersey at our late Tuesday practice and I left Wednesday morning on a recruiting trip.

Last week the winners were:
Conor Holton-Burke
Quin Miller

This week the winner of the yellow jerseys:
Andrew La Cava
Etienne Moshevich

If you see any of these four players wish them well and congratulations on winning the jersey!

Whitties drop hard fought match to LCSC

Its funny how 10 minutes can turn a match. Sunday we traveled to Lewiston to play Lewis-Clark State College. LCSC is consistently one of the top NAIA programs in the nation (currently #16 in NAIA) and we typically have some real battles with the Warriors. Making matters worse, we have always struggled against LCSC in their indoor courts -- in fact in all my years of coaching at Whitman we have only won once at LCSC. Coupled with the fact we narrowly defeated LCSC last year on our home courts (4-3) we knew were going to be in for one heck of a battle.

Doubles...love or hate the 9 point system it can determine the outcome of the match. Valuing a pro-set of doubles the same as a full 2 out of 3 set singles match doesn't make a lot of sense. With a pro-set there is no chance to reset the match by starting a new set. No chance to recoup and/or regroup if things go poorly. Also all the doubles matches tend to crescendo at the same time. Yesterday our match completed turned within a few minutes. At one point I felt we might go up 3-0 after the doubles. At #2 doubles Jeff/ET were serving for their match at 7-6. At #1 doubles Andrew/Conor had broken the LCSC team to even the match at 5-5. And at #3 doubles we were up two breaks. And right when things are looking at their best everything collapses.

From the far bank of courts (the LCSC tennis center has 2 banks of 2 courts arranged in square) there is a loud eruption and it is clear something bad for us happened at #3 doubles. At 3-2 serving LCSC breaks after a long 10 duece game to even their match and completely steals the match's momentum. At #1 doubles Andrew/Conor play a sloppy serving game after breaking to even out their match at 5-5. And at #2 doubles we are serving 7-6 30-15 and we play an out ball that would of given us 2 match points. The LCSC team starts to play inspired tennis and doesn't drop another game.

The match proved to be a good lesson about the fragile nature of doubles. The momentum in pro-sets can quickly change. After being even or up in the doubles we end losing all three -- #1 doubles lost 6-8, #2 doubles lost 7-9 and #3 doubles lost 4-8.

I have enough seniors on the team that they realize the situation. Getting swept in doubles means a huge hurdle to overcome. While winning 5 out of 6 singles matches between two equal teams can happen it takes a monster effort and a bit of luck.

I have to say that I'm proud of the effort the team. It would of been easy for everyone to hang their heads and simply go through the motion of playing out the match. Instead the Missionaries battled tooth and nail for every match. We ended up taking the top 3 singles matches in dramatic fashion. At #1 singles Conor is in a slugfest playing a talented freshman from Germany. Conor takes the 1st set 7-6 and has a couple match points at 5-4 in the 2nd against the Germans serve. Saving the match points on his serve inspires the young German who takes the 2nd set 7-5. However the 3rd set was all Conor as he pushed through to a 7-6, 5-7, 6-0 victory. At #2 singles Andrew had one heck of a battle. He dropped the 1st set in a tight tiebreaker and quickly went down 0-4. After he holds at 1-4 we have a talk about keeping his energy up and staying positive for himself and to help get Conor through his difficult match. In a team match their are few things tougher than being on the court next to a teammate who is getting rolled. Andrew totally rises to the occasion winning six games in a row to take the 2nd set 6-4. In the 3rd set Andrew again goes down a break but rallies to win 6-7, 6-4, 7-5. What a gutsy performance from the freshman. At #3 singles ET is locked in an incredibly long battle. In fact, on the court next to him Jeff had lost at #4 singles 6-4, 7-5 AND Chris had lost 6-2, 6-4 at #5 when ET was only part way through his third set! ET's match featured long, punishing points on the slow courts gritty courts. ET was pounding his forehand for all his worth and the LCSC player was playing like the match was on the slow red clay of the French Open -- retrieving every ball forcing ET to hit a bigger and better shot. At 4-4 ET earns the break giving him the opportunity to serve for the match. However at this point he is now cramping in his hand, right arm, both legs, and stomach. It was hard to watch him try to finish his match while in pain. It took him 4 match points but in the end ET was able to gut out the match. If one ever need proof of why I call ET "The Lion" this was it -- I swear, sometimes I think his heart is too big for his body. Last match on was Sam who didn't play his best tennis in a losing 6-2, 6-4 effort at #6.

Even though we lost 3-6 this was a great match for us. We had great intensity, effort and competitive fire throughout the match. It was also good to play a very competitive match in front of a large partisan crowd. Lastly I must say we had our hands full with a very talented LCSC squad. They really have 6 players who can play #1 on any given day. In fact their #6 player during our match played #1 for the Warriors three years ago.

We start conference play this weekend with 3 tough matches in 2 days -- Sunday we have a double header with the improved squads of Pacific and George Fox and on Monday we play Willamette.

I recently purchased a nice camera and am in the process of learning how to take good sports pictures. Below are a few pictures of Etienne's of the closing minutes of ET's singles match. If they don't come through the email check out my Flickr stream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/77626588@N00/?saved=1

Also I have been putting many pictures up on Facebook.

Alumni Showdown

What a weekend! The Superbowl was a bit anticlimactic after Saturday's campus/alumni showdown. Such a blast to have a number of alumni back on campus for a day of playing and weekend of memories.


Coming into the match the alumni were serious about the competition. Once most of the alumni e made it campus Friday night (David Deming didn't arrive until midnight) we grabbed some pizza and headed over to Bratton for a late evening hit. To assure their solid play, the alumni stayed up late Friday night making sure they were well hydrated going into Saturday's matches.

On Saturday the alumni and current players battled it out for six straight hours! Great tennis all day long. After such a wonderful event I think we were all winners!

Photos of the weekend.

USTA Campus Showdown = Alumni Showdown

Recently the USTA/ITA started a new program called the Campus Showdown. These events are one-day, open tennis events held on college campuses. I figured hosting a campus showdown would be a great way for some of the guys to play extra matches. I didn't figure on the alumni getting wind of the event and coming out to play! Saturday's Whitman Campus Showdown will feature 8 Whitman alumni, 6 current team members and 2 PNW junior players. So really this is a Whitman tennis alumni showdown!

I can't even begin to explain how excited I am for this event. Besides the tennis I'm excited to see Whitman alumni Justin Hayashi ('09), Thomas Roston ('10), Nadeem Kassam ('10), David Deming ('10), Steven Ly ('07), Robbie Munday ('07), and Brad Changstrom ('05). Rounding out the alumni group is assistant coach Jake Cappel ('10).

Great alumni-player match ups on Saturday:

Conor Holton-Burke vs Robbie Monday

Adriel Borskansky vs Justin Hayashi

Matt Tesmond vs Nadeem Kassam

Quin Miller vs David Deming

Will Huskey vs Jake Cappel

Steven Roston vs Steven Ly

Singles matches start at 9am and doubles should start around 2pm. Below is a video preview for the showdown.

Update from Ben Marcus

Another one for the alumni. I just got a rather nice update from Ben Marcus '92 (I think) that I thought I would repost.

_____________________

I would love nothing more than to be able to come to one of these alumni functions! I should have said this a long time ago, but I am so impressed and proud of the program you are running. Having coached (at a much lesser level) for close to twenty years now, I can fully appreciate the strength of what you now have going both academically and athletically. And, I love reading the detailed reports from the season. Our team was so much less competitive than what you have going now, but we still managed to win a conference doubles title my senior year--and considering our lack of training and facilities in comparison, we did alright. I know you were part of a very, very good team right before my class came in, so had a very different experience.

After teaching tennis, then teaching high school and coaching teams in Arizona since college, I've now been living in Switzerland for the last two and half years, teaching middle school social studies at Zurich International School and coaching the middle school tennis team (boys and girls). My wife, Vanessa, and I now have a 16 month old son, Jack, who was born in 2009 on my birthday Sept. 27--pretty cool.

We are really enjoying life over here, and my tennis team road trips even take us to other countries, which is kind of cool to think about. Always happy to put up any Whitman guests if they can make it over here! Also cool to be on a continent that really appreciates its tennis, and in a country whose most well known person (by leaps and bounds) is a tennis player.

I hope all is well, and would love for you guys to make a European road trip. How about a meet up at Wimbledon or the French Open? How about a reunion over here. If not, I would really love a way to make it over for my 20th reunion in 2012, although I have a feeling the timing during the year won't be so great for me. Hope the season brings you much joy! Take care,

Ben Marcus

Yellow Jersey

Well it isn't quite a 4-way but this week we had a 2-way tie for the yellow jersey. And yes I agree with you Winklboy we shouldn't allow ties. Looks like I need to work on a tiebreak process.

Seven players were nominated this week. Winners for the week.

Adriel Borshansky

Chris Bailey

Congratulations to both Adriel and Chris!

Alumni dinner in Portland Feb 19th

Saturday Feb 19th the team will traveling to the Portland area for matches on Sunday (George Fox, Pacific) and Monday (Willamette). Dr Clifford Mah has graciously agreed to host a team/alumni dinner Saturday evening in Portland. If you are a Whittie tennis player of old the team would love to see you at dinner.

Please email me if you are interesting in attending the dinner. We need to have a head count for the banquet hall.

Also there might be tennis with the team that Saturday. I'm working on getting courts at the MAC club but won't know until later next week.