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.