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