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.
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.
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