White Water Rafting!

A weekend after winning the NWC conference tournament I thought it might be fun to have a quality "outdoor" day. So on Sunday Coach John and I took members of the men's and women's team on a white water adventure down the Grande Ronde River.

Grant Ritchie (Whitman class of 2003) owner of Minam Raft Rentals generously provided rafts for the float. Those interested in a day or weekend of floating should check out Minam raft rentals -- they are located right at the confluence of the Minam and Wallowa rivers. Just show up to their shop, jump in the rafts and you off on your adventure. Plus they are only located 90 minutes from Walla Walla.

Since we were limited on time we did the entire 40 mile section of water from the confluence of the Minam/Wallowa Rivers to Troy, OR (Grande Ronde River) in a single day. Most people take two - three days to do this float.

The trip was absolutely incredible. The Grande Ronde is a wild and scenic river and on the trip we saw eagles (Golden and Bald), a young bear, mountain sheep, deer, ducks and geese. Everyone took turns rowing and by the end of the trip all became competent at steering the rafts. Also as if getting wet from the rapids wasn't enough some of the guys decided it might be fun to go swimming in the frigid waters. Well, truthfully they didn't really decide to go swimming but were "helped" out of the boats.

Here are some photos from the trip Flick stream of rafting trip

Again big thanks to Grant and Lottie Ritchie of Minam Raft Rentals for making Sunday such a special day!

What a day!

I have to admit the NWC championship match Sunday was something special. Really a special ending (well almost ending) to a special season. What made the day so memorably was the crowd and unbelievable support from the Whitman community. Let me start by saying I (and the team) feels incredibly fortunate to have our outdoor courts. Yes there are much bigger and fancier courts across the nation. But I have never seen courts with a better location that the Whitman courts. Our courts are right in the center of campus -- next to the library, administration building, and the big campus quad called Ankey field. We are very lucky to practice and play in the middle of campus.

This weekend marked the first time in many years the NWC conference tournament was held on a college campus. The previous 10 years (or so) the men's and women's tournament were jointly held at the Yakima Tennis Club. This year the coaches decided to trim the tournament down to four teams and host each event at the campus of the regular season champion.

Congratulations to the Willamette team and coach Toby Krauel. For the second year in a row they made the NWC tournament finals and forced us to play our best tennis. They are certainly a well coached team that is improving each year. Great effort by coach Krauel to lead the Bearcats to their best conference finish in decades.

One of the special qualities of Whitman is most of the students know and support each other. Whenever we have big matches on campus we typically draw a great crowd. For instance in past year's we have had hundreds show up to watch us play UC Santa Cruz. However nothing compares to what happened at yesterday's conference finals. Not only did we have a huge crowd (overflowing the bleachers) but they were LOUD. They supported the team from start to finish. Special thanks to the both basketball teams who helped created such a special atmosphere. This is the ONLY time I have seen a group of women paint their stomachs to cheer on a tennis team! Really an incredible moment for the team to play in front of such a large and supportive crowd -- these are memories that the team will cherish for many years to come.

Going into the finals we knew the importance of starting with energy and being sharp in doubles. We have played a competitive national schedule for many years now and competed against the best teams in the nation. From hosting the ITA National Indoors, playing in the NCAA's, to hosting the number one team in the nation we have seen the importance of positive energy and strong doubles. We had played Willamette earlier in the year at their home courts and defeated them without dropping a set. However going into the NWC finals we knew Willamette presented some challenges. They certainly present challenges at the top part of the line-up (they have potent top half of the line-up) and they were on a bit of a roll coming into the NWC tournament. Additionally I watched them play very good tennis in their semi-final match (beating the #4 seed Whitworth 5-1).

In my opinion, and I will probably upset some people, but I felt the match was decided within the first 15-20 minutes. At all three doubles we jumped on Willamette quickly going up 4-1 (two breaks). With the strong start all the doubles wrapped up in 45 minutes with us sweeping 8-3, 8-2, 8-1. I've mentioned it several times over the years but I'm not a fan of 3 points for doubles. Simply not fair to value a pro-set the same as a two-out-of-three set match.

In singles our nerves showed a bit playing in front of a large crowd. Thankfully the only match we were ever behind in was #2 singles. Andrew fell behind 1-4 before finding his form to win 7-5, 6-2. Most interesting match of the day was Jeff Tolman at #4. Not sure if it was nerves or an injured hand but Jeff was up 5-2 in both sets before clinching the team match with a 7-5, 6-4 victory. I have to give major kudos to Jeff this weekend. He played in a lot of pain but never complained and took care of business. At #3 Etienne grabbed the first set 6-2 and was up a break in the 2nd set. And at #1 Conor had won first set winning 6-3 and was on serve when the team match was decided. Conor's opponent is one of my favorite players Josh Wong. Wong is a great competitor who makes you earn every point. I think the best description of Josh can be found on Scott Barnett's George Fox blog.

Hats off to the 2011 Whitman team -- this is a group that lost seven players to graduation and goes onto win the NWC tournament without dropping a set! We now have to wait several weeks to determine which regional tournament we will be playing.

Whitman 5 Willamette 0

NWC Tournament Finals!

The NWC conference tournament started yesterday on the Whitman campus. Unlike past years, this year's tournament is limited to the top four teams. The winner of the tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA III team tournament in May.

Yesterday we defeated Pacific 5-0 setting up today's 11am final against #2 seed Willamette. Against Pacific we got off to a quick start in doubles sweeping all three matches 8-4, 8-2, 8-2. In singles we were up in all four matches when ET (6-1, 6-1) and Andrew (6-3, 6-0) closed out their matches giving us 5 points.

Weather looks great for todays finals. Should be a great final match. The Bearcats look to be playing solid tennis and will be out for revenge after we defeated 9-0 on their home courts earlier in the year.

We had a GREAT crowd in yesterday's semi finals and hope everyone will be out in force for today's final. As thanks to the fans we will be providing Hepler's Big Cheese Pizza at the start of today's match.

Hope to see everyone at the courts!

Whitties clinch NWC title!

Last home weekends of the year are always emotional. It is the last time the seniors get the opportunity to play a home match. This year was a bit different since we only needed a single win to host the conference tournament. Still its an emotional weekend knowing that the tennis careers of three special young men are coming to a close. These three seniors are amazing men and have been instrumental in the success of the Whitman tennis program.

Etienne Moshevich career records:

singles 31-15, 43-16 doubles, 74-31 overall. NWC All Conference, All-American Doubles (2009, 2007), NCAA III team tournament participant. In his career ET has only lost 3 NWC matches (1 singles and 2 doubles).

Chris Bailey career records:

56-36 singles, 23-10 doubles, 79-46 overall. NWC All Conference 2nd team, NCAA III Team tournament participant. Chris has only lost 5 NWC matches in his Whitman career.

Quin Miller career records:

38-8 singles, 53-16 doubles, 91-24 overall. NCAA III team tournament participant. Quin also has only lost 5 conference matches in his Whitman career.

Luckily these three seniors have the opportunity to play at home next weekend when we host the NWC conference tournament! On Saturday we blanked UPS 9-0 and on Sunday we defeated PLU 8-1.

Whitman 9 UPS 0

Whitman 8 PLU 1

What an amazing season. In year after we graduated seven players, the 2011 team went undefeated in conference play (12-0), won the NWC title, and goes into next weekend's conference tournament as the #1 seed. Not only was the team undefeated in conference play but they went into each match with dedication and passion I have never seen from a team. This is a pretty amazing stat -- we played 12 conference matches this year and only dropped 6 matches all year!

This weekend we had several milestones:

• Our 5th straight regular season conference undefeated season
• Our 4th consecutive NWC title
• Earned the right to host the NWC tournament. Winner of the 4-team tournament earns an automatic birth in the NCAA tournament

Next weekend the schedule for the NWC tournament is:

Saturday 10am #1 Whitman vs #4 Pacific

Saturday 10am #2 Willamette vs #3 Whitworth

Sunday 11am finals

Admission is free and we hope to see you at the courts! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Holton-Burke gains 2nd NWC Player of the Week award!

Double congratulations to junior Conor Holton-Burke who nabbed his second NWC Player of the Week award. And also by vote his teammates he earned the team's "yellow jersey" for the week.

Over the weekend Conor went 2-0 at #1 singles and 2-0 in doubles (playing #1 with Andrew La Cava and #2 with Quin Miller). Conor has had an unbelievable season going undefeated in NWC conference play in both singles and doubles. Even more impressive is the fact that all his singles matches have been at the #1 slot and all but one of the doubles have been at #1 (he played #2 doubles once).

This weekend Conor will try to lead the Whitties to their 4th straight conference title when the team takes on UPS (Saturday at noon) and PLU (Sunday at 10am). These are the last regular season conference matches of the year.

Team takes big strides to clinching 4th straight NWC title.

This past weekend was a special and unique coaching weekend. Yes the team went 3-0 and moved one step closer to one of our goals of winning the NWC title. But more interesting was that my 8 year old daughter made the road trip with the team to Portland. I honestly can't remember seeing her so excited (with the exception of Christmas). All week all she could talk about was going on a trip with the team. When I woke her up Friday morning she jumped out of bed and rushed upstairs to start her morning because it was the big day. Was a lot of fun watching the team interact with her -- she had 12 big brothers who were willing to playing catch, run around after her, and/or carrying her around. It was a weekend she will remember for a long time!

Crazy bit of conference scheduling. Saturday we played Pacific in Forest Grove, OR and then had to return home to play Whitworth on Sunday. Actually we played Whitworth twice on Sunday as we made up an earlier match that was canceled due to poor roads. Thanks to coach Shanks for agreeing to play a double-header in Walla Walla to make up that postponed match.

Saturday we played the much improved Boxer team. Over the past few years Coach Jackson has done an amazing job turning around the Boxers. I remember a few years ago they were the worst team in the conference: now they are among of the best. In fact on Friday they dropped a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Willamette (#2 team in the conference).

Against Pacific I felt the need to mix up our doubles line-up. We have been rock solid at #1 and #2 but haven't been as sharp at #3. To give both Matt and Quin a boost I paired Quin with Conor at #2 doubles and Matt with Andrew at #3 doubles. This allowed Jeff and ET the opportunity to play #1 doubles. Even though we won 8-3, 8-4, 8-3 all the matches were much closer than the score. Lots of long games and competitive points. Honestly looking back at the match I'm surprised the doubles scores weren't closer. I guess that is the funny thing about tennis..a few keys points here and there can determine the outcome.

The momentum from doubles carried over into the singles and we rolled through without dropping a set. The most competitive match of the day was #1 where Conor defeated Pacific's #1 player Troy Zuroske 6-4, 6-3. After our first conference match of the year I wrote this about Zuroske:

"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"

And, yes, Zuroske has turned into one of the top players in the conference. In fact his only conference losses this year have been at #1 against Willamette and Whitman. He will certainly be a force in the conference for the next few years.

Whitman 9 Pacific 1

On Sunday we played a pretty unique format against Whitworth. The past couple years we have traditionally played an A team and B team against each other. Since the weather was beautiful we played the A team match outdoors and the B team match indoors. Its not often that all 12 players get the opportunity to play at the same time.

Between the two matches we only dropped 1 match. Match of the day goes to Jeff Tolman who was down 2-6, 1-3 before rallying to win 2-6, 6-4, 10-7.

After the weekend we are now 10-0 in conference and play our last two matches against two teams we beat earlier in the year (PLU 7-2, UPS 8-1). If we win both matches we will be 2011 NWC Champions, earn the #1 seed at the NWC conference tournament (only the top 4 teams make the tournament), and most importantly get to host the conference tournament.

Here is a link to photos from the weekend. Unfortunately half of the matches over the weekend were played indoors (Pacific's covered courts or our indoor courts) and I only took pictures of the outdoor matches. There are some pretty sweet pictures of the team at Multnomah Falls.