Hooray for ET!

Etienne was recently named the NWC player of the week for the past two consecutive weeks. Great honour for a player to win the award twice in a season little alone twice in row.

ET certainly deserved the awards. During our 6 day spring break trip he went 8-4 in singles and doubles against the top teams in the nation. Beyond his great playing on court, ET is a amazing team leader. The "lion" has shown everyone on the team how to play with a passion and love of the game. His presence, passion and energy has been a driving force behind our successes this season.

Special thanks

We wrapped up our 2011 spring break trip this week and it wouldn't be as successful or enjoyable without the help of family and friends. I spent the morning organizing and updating my flickr page to be a bit more user friendly. All the photos are now in "sets" and all should be tagged with players names.

Here is the photo set from Spring Break.

This is the link to the 2011 season that shows all the photo sets by event.

If parents/friends want the original picture please let me know and I will send you a copy. And yes I'm enjoying my new camera very much!

• Papa Roston you were the MVP of the trip! Thanks for supplying us with water, ice, gatorade, and snacks for our matches. And it was a very special treat going to dinner Tuesday night. Not often we get the opportunity to eat an incredible steak house.
• Tesmond family it was great seeing you during our weekend matches. Thanks for taking the team out to dinner. It was our first team dinner that featured a belly dancer!
• Sadeghi's thanks for your support the entire week. Was a wonderful way to wrap up the trip by having dinner at your beautiful house. Good luck keeping most of the guys this week!
• Gary and Barb Tolman thanks for watching on matches on Saturday and providing lunch for the team. Your support is much appreciated.
• Solomon family -- was great seeing the entire clan again! After the weekend it made me realize how lucky I was to coach both Solomon boys.
• Nancy Holton, thanks for making the trip out to watch our weekend matches. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your notes about my blog and pictures.
• Borshansky's thanks for following us around So CA and taking pictures!
• Pat Burke thank you for the amazing opportunity to watch the Lakers. Certainly one of the special highlights of the trip.
• John Hein and Brett Axelrod for driving us to the Pasco airport.
• And lastly my incredibly wife for her unwaivering support. Being a coach's wife isn't very easy during the season especially during a seven day trip away from home!

Now it is time to get out the fly rod and enjoy a few days of clean air, traffic free roads, and snow capped mountains.

Wrapping up spring break

Sorry for the delay in posting but between practices, matches, driving and dinners we have had a couple long days.

Tuesday we dropped a competitive 3-6 match to #15 Bowdoin on the CMS courts. We got off to a bit of a rough start in doubles. Even though Jeff/ET won easily at #2 doubles we dropped #1 (Conor/Andrew) 8-5, and the #3 team of Quin/Matt let a 6-3 lead evaporate and lost 6-8.

Bowdoin is known as a good singles team and they lived up to their billing winning 4 of the 6 singles. Our only wins were Jeff at #4 and Adriel at #6. The entire team certainly gave a great effort but we really needed to have the lead after doubles to crack the tough Bowdoin singles line-up. After the match I felt we were in a pretty good place emotionally, but physically we looked tired. This was, after all, our 5th match in 5 days against nationally ranked opponents. The intense matches, heat, travel, and fierce competition was taking its toll. At this point I was already worried about our Wednesday regional match at Cal Lutheran.

For the Cal Lutheran match I pulled Chris (he had been struggling) and decided to switch ET and Andrew (ET has been playing incredibly well). Against Cal Lutheran (#12 in nation) we not only got off to a bad start in doubles but a very low energy start. Number three doubles played horrible losing 8-1 and #1 doubles didn't fair much better losing 8-2. This left the doubles in the hands of Jeff/ET at #2 doubles. Losing #2 doubles would of not only put us down 0-3 but would of sucked the energy out of the tired Whitties. At 7-8 Jeff hit one of the most amazing, clutch shots I have ever seen. Early in the game CLU hit a lob over Jeff's head. At this point Jeff didn't have many options as he scrambled to get the ball. With his back completely turned to the net he flicked a shot on the right side of body that skimmed over the net resulting in a CLU error. This one shot saved the doubles. After that shot Jeff and ET went on to dominate the match winning in a tiebreaker.

Enough though we went into the doubles down 1-2, Jeff/ET provided us a much needed lift. We were down but our fighting spirit was restored. What unfolded in singles was one of the most amazing team matches I have been a part of.

CLU has one of the best #1 players in the nation. Conor gave a valiant effort but lost 6-1, 6-2. Jeff also dropped his match at #4 6-3, 6-1 giving CLU a 4-1 lead. To make things even worse we lost the 1st sets at #2 ET and #3 Andrew.

Sam got us on the board with a 6-4, 6-1 win at #6 making the team match 2-4. Now things get whacky -- CLU is completely in charge of the match when both ET and Andrew win the second sets. At #5 Adriel had won the 1st set but dropped the 2nd. Team score was 2-4 for CLU with the 3 remaining matches in third sets. I don't know what more to say about ET. He is a hell of a ferocious competitor. I sat with ET through most of his 2nd and 3rd sets and he had a look in his eyes that said he wasn't going to lose. After dropping the 1st set 1-6 he rallied to win 6-4, 6-3. It wasn't long after his victory that Adriel won 6-0 in the 3rd. Match score was now tied 4-4 with Andrew in his third set!

Andrew was down a break at 3-4 when he got his 2nd wind to break serve. At 4-4 Andrew holds at love putting the pressure squarely on the CLU player. At 4-5 Andrew continues his strong play to go up 15-40 earning 2 match points. On both match points Andrew does exactly the right thing at the right moment and works his way to the net. At 15-40 he closes a bit too hard on a floating ball that drops below the net -- Andrew caresses the ball a bit wide. At 30-40 Andrew comes in on a big approach and has a high forehand volley that he sticks into the open court but pushed it ever so slightly long. The CLU player is off the hook and regains his composure. Both players end up holding to force a tiebreak. Was an absolutely wonderful match but unfortunately for us CLU prevailed 7-5 in the tiebreaker. I believe this is only the 2nd match in my coaching career where the team match was decided by a 7-6 in the 3rd set match (the other was a victory over Redlands). Freaky how an inch separated us from an improbable comeback and defeat.

Can't give my players enough credit for this match. This was our 6th match against national level teams in 6 days. We weren't used to playing outdoors, dealing with the heat, and all were dead tired. Yet through all this we never lost our composure or belief in each other. Obviously I would of been thrilled to beat #12 CLU on their home courts but honestly I don't think I could be more proud of the young men on my team.

In the past we have been criticized as a team that couldn't play against the top teams in the country. This trip should dispel those criticisms. Even though we went 2-4 on our trip we defeated the #9 team in the country and played close with every team we faced. We are a unquestionably now a better team and now have the belief we can hang with the top teams.

We are lucky to have a two-week spring break and have next week off before returning to campus for the last part of our conference schedule. I can't wait to see how the year unfolds....

Ah the ups and downs of tennis

Tennis certainly has its ups and downs. On Saturday we defeated the #9 team in the nation and today we lost to a lower ranked UT Tyler 3-6. As a team we knew the importance of the match today -- winning would lock us in as one of the top teams in the West. I don't feel like we had a let down but rather got out played by a feisty UT Tyler team.

In doubles two of the three team teams came out firing. I don't have the scores in front me but I think we won at #1 and #3 by identical 8-4 scores. Unfortunately #2 doubles had their worst match of the year losing 1-8. Still going up 2-1 after doubles certainly put us in the driver seat.

In singles Tyler was simply too tough for us. Not sure how else to say it but we didn't perform like we would like to in clutch situations. For the most part we didn't play poorly, but rather didn't play well at certain times of the matches. We lost three three-set matches and one match 7-6, 7-6. However this is exactly why we take a spring break trip: the opportunity to play good teams which not only makes us better players but a tighter team. Honestly in all of my years coaching this is one of my favorite teams (sorry alums). They have pushed each other all year to get better, incredibly supportive of each other, and a blast to be around. I'm sure today's experience will make us a better team down the road.

Here are the singles scores (again I don't have my score book in front of me so its a bit of a guess).
1. Conor lost 7-5, 4-6, 6-2
2. Andrew lost 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 (Andrew was up a break 5-3 in the 3rd, but then down 0-4 in the 3rd).
3. ET won 6-4, 6-1
4. Jeff lost 6-1, 6-1
5. Chris lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
6. Adriel lost 7-6, 7-6

Tonight promises to be especially entertaining for the team as we came by 14 tickets to the Laker game!

Tomorrow we play Bowdoin 10am at the CMS courts.

Whitties knock of #9 Trinity!

What a special day for Whitman tennis! Today in the Stag-Hen we had the opportunity to play Trinity University (#9 in the nation) for 5th/6th place. Trinity is one of the great programs in DIII and they typically make a good run at the NCAA's.

Going into the match we knew doubles was critical. On any given day Trinity might have the top 1, 2, 3 doubles line-up in the nation. In fact their #1 team of Cocanoughar/Kowel were the runner-ups at the 2010 NCAA doubles championships. Honestly they don't drop much from one to three doubles. It is funny how scheduling goes -- in the fall Andrew/Conor had the opportunity to play the #1 Trinity Team at the ITA Small College Championships. The Trinity duo ended up winning that match 6-7, 7-6, 10-6. Going into today's match Andrew/Conor knew they had their hands full, but they also knew they could compete with and beat the TU team. Perhaps more importantly they were hungry for a rematch.

At #1 doubles Andrew/Conor played their best tennis of the year. The broke the first game and never looked back taking the match 8-2. They returned flawlessly (I think TU only held once) and played a very aggressive brand of doubles -- keeping the ball low and closing hard. At #2 doubles Jeff/ET also returned incredible well. This was a close match from start to finish. A couple times Jeff/ET were down break points but managed to stay together and string together important points when they most needed it. Major kudos to Jeff for a very strong hold at 7-5 to clinch the match 8-5. At #3 doubles Quin/Matt had a see-saw match. Was close all the way through until Trinity got the break at 6-5 to serve for the match. Senior Quin rose to the moment and absolutely bombed 3 returns on match points to bring the match back onto serve. Unfortunately Matt wasn't able to hold and Trinity got the point at #3 doubles 8-6.

Great singles competition. I felt the TU and Whitman guys pushed each other all day to player better and better tennis. Jeff continued his absolutely blistering play to defeat All-American Cory Kowal 6-2, 6-4. Wonderful tennis from Jeff to put Whitman up 3-1. Andrew had a tough match losing to Cocanaugher 6-0, 6-2. Score was now Whitman 3 Trinity 2. However the match was very tight as Conor and Chris both dropped the 1st set, and Adriel was down 1-4 (2 breaks) in the 1st. Fortunately ET was up a set. Basically we needed to win two of the remaining matches but were down in three of them.

At 1-4 Adriel starts executing his game plan and completely turns around his match to win the 1st set 7-5. Etienne is continuing to play with passion and purpose and is up 6-3, 5-0. Chris is down a break in the 2nd set and at #1 Conor is at 3-3. Chris ends up dropping his match 6-2, 7-6 making team score 3-3. Etienne is struggling to close out his match but is up 6-3, 5-3 serving, Conor is in a 2nd set tiebreaker, and Adriel had a couple breaks in hand going up 4-1. At that moment I then hear the sweetest sound -- the eruption of the crowd as ET wins his match 6-3, 6-3! Whitman 4 TU 3. A few minutes later TU takes #1 singles 6-4, 7-6 tying the team score 4-4 with #6 singles still on court. At this point in the match Adriel was playing great tennis and closes out the match 7-5, 6-1 giving us the sweet 5-4 victory.

Great effort from the team to defeat the #9 team in the nation. This is the highest ranked team we have beaten since I start coaching at Whitman 12 years ago. We have tomorrow off and then finish our spring break with three straight matches.

Match score Whitman 5 Trinity 4
Doubles
1. Conor/Andrew def Cocanougher/Kowal 8-2
2. ET/Jeff def DelaFuente/Frey 8-6
3. Quin/Matt lost Murray/Carroll 8-6
Singles
1. Conor lost Frey 7-5, 7-6
2. Andrew lost Cocanaugher 6-0, 6-2
3. ET def DelaFuente 6-3, 6-3
4. Jeff def Kowal 6-2, 6-4
5. Chris lost Haugen 6-2, 7-6
6. Adriel def Murray 7-5, 6-1

Spring Break Day One

First off I apologize for shortness of this post. It has been a long couple days and we have an early match tomorrow morning.

Thursday we left campus at 9am for the trek to Southern CA. Academically it is tough to miss the last day before spring break -- lots of tests and papers are typically due before break. In fact I know last night several of the guys were up to the wee hours of the morning working on papers.

Today was the first day of the Stag-Hen tournament hosted at the campuses of Claremont and Pomona. This is one of the top DIII tournaments of the year. This year the 8 team tournament is loaded with four top 10 teams. This morning we started off the tournament against the #7 team in the nation Kenyon. We had been looking forward to this match for weeks: it isn't often we get the opportunity to play a top 10 team on a neutral surface.

Doubles was rough on us today. At #1 doubles Conor/Andrew went down 0-4. However as our #1 team was down our #2 and #3 teams were both up breaks at 3-1. At that point it was all Kenyon. Hard to swallow watching Kenyon reel off 7 of 8 games at #2 and #3. We dropped all 3 matches 8-4.

Here is where things get interesting. This Whitman team has a ton of heart and unbelievable support. The guys pull for each other up and down the line-up and from behind the fences. I'm proud to say there is no quit in this team. Kenyon won the team match 8-1 but that score doesn't tell the entire story. In the singles we lost 5 tiebreaks and 2 matches in three sets. Hell of an effort and I'll let the scores tell the story.

Singles
#1 Conor lost Polster 6-4, 7-6
#2 Andrew lost Burgin 6-3, 7-6 (Andrew was up a break 5-3)
#3 ET lost Williams 6-1, 6-7, 10-6
#4 Jeff def ye 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
#5 Chris lost Matthews 6-1, 6-0
#6 Adriel lost Griffin 7-6, 2-6, 10-7

After a lunch break we took the court to face a very talented Swarthmore team. I must admit I was nervous about this match. We were tired, not used to playing outdoors in the sun and had to play a dangerous team. And yes Swarthmore is a dangerous team the past two years they have pulled in seven three-star recruits. On paper they look the stronger team.

This time in doubles we took off a bit quicker and went up breaks in all three matches. However #2 doubles turned into a bit of breakfest as the two teams took turns breaking each other. At #3 doubles Quin/Matt again went up 3-1 but managed to drop five straight games to go down 3-6. Thankfully Andrew/Conor gave us a needed boost and rolled to a 8-2 victory. However Quin/Matt dropped #3 doubles 8-6 to even the match at 1-1. The finals doubles point came down to Jeff/ET who took #2 doubles in a tiebreak.

Singles only had one three set match but the match was a heck of a battle. Conor played strong ball rolling to a 6-2, 6-2 victory. At #2 Andrew won 6-3, 6-2 but it was a very close match. At #4 Jeff ran out of gas and lost to a talented freshman 6-2, 6-2. At #5 Chris continued to struggle losing 6-1, 6-0. With the match at 4-3 all eyes turned to ET (at #3) and Adriel (at #6).

At #3 ET won the opening set 6-2 but dropped the 2nd set 1-6. At the end of the 2nd set ET is cramping and he is emotionally out of the match (this was his 2nd three setter of the day). Doesn't matter how big one's heart is if the body is falling apart. In my mind this put the match squarely on Adriel's shoulders. Thankfully Adriel was up to the challenge and won the 1st set 6-3. Adriel's 1st set was incredibly long so ET was starting the 3rd when Adriel was beginning the 2nd set.

I couldn't believe my eyes when ET raced out to a 4-1 lead in the 3rd! Here he was cramping, no energy and absolutely lighting up his forehand! In an effort to keep the points short ET was going for broke most every shot. Truly one of the more amazing displays of courage I have seen. In the end Adriel clinched the match with a gritty 6-3, 6-3 victory. With all eyes focused on ET and he didn't disappoint winning 6-2, 1-7, 7-6 win. I was quite relived to come away with a 6-3 win.

Tomorrow we play for 5th/6th place against Trinity University who is #9 team in the nation. You know its a tough draw when you are playing for 5th place against the #9 team in the nation! Even though the team is sore and tired we are looking forward to the opportunity to play one of the top teams in the nation. Match starts at 10am.

Whitman 6 Swarthmore 3
Doubles
1. Conor/Andrew def Youngblood/Kelm 8-2
2. Jeff/ET def Kaye/Bressman 9-8
3. Quin/Matt lost Carciore/Udelson

Singles
1. Conor def Youngblood 6-2, 6-2
2. Andrew def Kelm 6-3, 6-2
3. ET def Bressman 6-2, 1-6, 7-6
4. Jeff lost Kaye 6-2, 6-2
5. Chris lost Collard 6-1, 6-0
6. Adriel def Park 6-3, 6-3

Matt Tesmond -- Yellow Jersey Winner

By vote of his teammates, Matt Tesmond will be wearing the yellow jersey this week. Congratulations to Matt!

Weekend Recap

Over the weekend we were able to win two matches in Tacoma (8-1 vs UPS and 7-2 vs PLU) but mother nature got the better of our Whitworth match forcing us to reschedule after spring break.

I must say logistically last weekend presented some challenges. All week I had been keeping an eye on the condition of Snoqualmie Pass (the I90 pass through the Cascade Mountain Range into Seattle). During the early part of the week the pass was closed but as the week progressed the road conditions improved. Additionally since Spring Break is around the corner (starts this Friday) some of the guys had a lot of academic pressures and couldn't make the trip. Because of this we ended up taking nine players to the Tacoma matches and Coach Jake was going to bring the remaining three players to Whitworth for our Saturday match. Since we were playing three matches in 24 hours this would allow us to rotate players helping ensure everyone would remain fresh during the long weekend.

Before the match summaries let me state how much I'm enjoying our conference this year. Most every team in the NWC is fired-up and ready to play. We have a couple programs that are rising and some new coaches that have really brought incredible passion and energy to their teams. For us this has been an unbelievably great thing. Everyone weekend we now playing teams that bring energy to the courts which in turns adds fuel to our own fire. In past years we have played some of the best teams in the nation during our spring break and we were not ready, or able, to match their intensity. This year our competition in the NWC has not only made us better players, a better team, but prepares us for the energy some of the top teams bring to the court. Coach Eric Drew is one of the new coaches in the conference that has their teams fired-up and ready to play.

In the UPS match Matt and Quin started off poorly at #3 doubles and things didn't get better. Just let me state (and I'm sure Quin would agree) it was perhaps one of, if not the worst, match Quin has played in four years of college tennis. He was off kilter, not hitting the ball well and couldn't keep two balls in the court. It was a bit strange since the weekend before Quin had played beautiful tennis.

Thankfully we were able to take #1 and #2 doubles -- at #1 Conor/Andrew won 8-4, at #2 Jeff/ET won 8-3 but we at #3 we lost 2-8. This gave us a 2-1 lead heading into singles.

One thing that makes tennis a great game is it full of second chances. After the doubles I briefly contemplated sitting Quin out of singles. However one look in his eyes told me how desperately he wanted a chance at redemption. In singles we rested Conor and Andrew shifting our line-up a few spots. This meant some of the guys that normally don't get to play were in singles line-up to play the high-energy Loggers. In singles we didn't drop a set. At #1 ET won 6-2, 6-1, at #2 Jeff won 6-2, 6-2, at #3 Chris won 6-2, 6-1, at #4 Steven won 6-2, 6-3, at #5 Quin started to play a bit better winning 6-3, 6-2 and at #6 Matt rolled to a 6-2, 6-0 victory.

Box Scores Whitman 8 UPS 1

Immediately following the UPS match we took to the courts against PLU. PLU is always tricky to play and since I have been coaching at Whitman we have always had great matches against the Lutes. Last year they graduated 5 seniors and are down, but this is a proud program that would would nothing more than break our 70+ match conference winning streak.

Because of the heavy rains a PLU women's match was moved to the UPS indoor courts. To help speed up the evening we agreed to start out match with singles. Once we finished the singles we would take three courts to finish our doubles and the women could start their match on the other three courts.

Against PLU we rested Jeff, ET and Quin in singles. Hats off to the Lutes they played hard and competed well. At #1 singles Conor had a tough match winning 6-3, 6-1. However in this match Conor was up 4-1 in the 1st when the PLU player broke back and held making the score 4-3. Conor did a great job of upping his level of play to only lose one more game. At #2 Andrew had a major battle agaist PLU's lone senior Scott Sheldon. Andrew won a tight 6-4, 6-3 match. At #3 and #4 singles Chris and Steven had the tough task of playing back-to-back singles matches. Too keep one's focus for 4+ hours of play is incredibly difficult and it showed as both of them dropped long three-set matches -- Chris lost 7-6, 1-6, 6-3 and Steven lost 7-6, 4-6, 6-2. Both of them put up a great fight but the PLU players were just a bit too much for them. At #5 Matt played his 3rd straight match (singles and doubles against UPS) winning 6-3, 6-2 and at #6 the silky smooth Atanas "Nasko" Atanasov got his first opportunity to play this season winning 6-1, 6-2.

Against PLU it was my hope to clinch the match after the singles and then substitute players into doubles line-up to make sure we were rested for our Saturday match against Whitworth. The only exception was Conor and Andrew who were going to play the #1 PLU doubles team. The #1 PLU doubles team has been been playing great this season and not dropped a match. All week Conor/Andrew had been looking forward to playing them.

However with the match still not determined we went with our normal doubles line-up. Before the start of the doubles it was incredibly gratifying to have Quin pull me aside and let me know how badly he wanted to play doubles. Instead of moping around dwelling on his earlier poor performance earlier he proved to be a real warrior.

Honestly I was a bit worried going into the doubles. It was approaching 9pm and we had been in the UPS building without a break since 1:30pm. We were all tired and facing an inspired PLU team. My fear was the three doubles teams would take the court with a defensive attitude, get tight, and potentially allow the PLU teams to get on a roll. I proud of how we took the courts in doubles. All three teams started out with high energy and played aggressive doubles. The dual match was decided about 30 minutes after the start of doubles as Conor/Andrew raced out to 7-0 lead at #1 doubles (they ended up winning 8-1). Quin got his "second chance" in doubles and played unreal hitting a string of winners that was awesome to behold (winning 8-2). And at #2 ET/Jeff continued to absolutely crush the ball winning 8-3.

Box Score Whitman 7 PLU 2

Unfortunately for us Mother Nature got the final say in our weekend. We had a 5 hour drive to Spokane for a Saturday afternoon match against Whitworth. Originally we planned on driving over Snoqualmie Pass, spending the night in Ellensburg before continuing onto Spokane. However because of heavy snow the pass was closed for the night forcing us to spend another night in Seattle. Whitworth graciously agreed to reschedule and play us in a double header when they come to Whitman in April.

Special thanks to the La Cava family for hosting us over the weekend. We had a blast!

On Thursday we fly to California for our annual spring break trip. On Friday we get the opportunity to play the Kenyon (#7 in the nation) in the 1st round of the Stag-Hen.

Tacoma here we come!

Busy weekend for the men's tennis team. Friday we play at UPS -- 3pm vs UPS and 6pm vs PLU. We are going back-to-back so it will be a full day of Whitman tennis. On Saturday we travel to Spokane to take on Whitworth at 3pm. Yes 3 matches in 24 hours!

Whitman enters the weekend 5-0 in the conference, UPS is 1-2, the Lutes are 0-3 and Whitworth is 2-2. We are looking at maintaining our momentum heading into spring break next week.

If you can't be at the matches I will try to give match updates via the twitter feed.

Yellow Jersey - Will Huskey

Yellow Jersey for the week goes to Will Huskey! Will picked up his first dual match win with a 6-1, 7-6 victory at #6 against Linfield. Hearty congratulations!