Great come behind victory on Mother's Day

This year I tweaked our schedule a bit and scheduled the always tough LCSC Warriors the weekend before the NCAA's. The NWC conference tournament is one of the earliest in DIII and the past few years I felt the 4-week break hurt us in the NCAA's.

After the conference tournament this year we upped our playing intensity and training. Its been a grueling three-week stretch but the extra playing and training should get us ready for the NCAA's. Unfortunately finals start this week so the guys have been doing double duty -- training hard and studying hard.

Our hard work paid off in a big way today as we knocked off LCSC (#19 in NAIA) 6-3. One of our first matches this year was in Lewiston against the Warriors and they thumped us 6-3. In that match they swept the doubles and grabbed 4, 5, and 6 singles in straight sets. Our only victories in that meeting were hard fought three-set victories at #1, #2, and #3.

Today we started off a bit better in doubles with Matt and Quin posting a 8-5 victory at #3. I'm really impressed with how Matt and Quin have shook off a rough spring break trip and are now playing their best doubles. Unfortunately we dropped #1 (Andrew and Conor ) 8-6 and #2 (Jeff and ET) 8-5. In both of those matches we were up breaks but LCSC upped their games to come behind to claim both matches.

After the doubles I was a bit worried about our energy level. Everyone looked tired -- not physically tired but mentally drained. Even though we faired better in doubles that our first meeting we were still down 1-2 and facing a very talented group of singles players. LCSC top six are all international players who grew up playing on slower clay courts. Typically when we have beaten LCSC we have been up after the doubles.

Mother's day was especially kind to us as we took 5 of the 6 singles. Even more impressive is we managed to take the 5 singles without our standout #4 player Jeff Tolman (Jeff has been battling a sore hand since conference and we hope to have him back for nationals). This is really one of our best matches of the year -- in fact I feel we are playing better than when we took down #9 Trinity 5-4. Great effort, and emotional lift, for us to come back from 1-2 after doubles to take 5 of the singles. Even more gratifying since earlier in the year we lost to LCSC 3-6.

Again great effort from the entire team. And not just for this match but a great effort the past three weeks. We are all excited and ready for the NCAA's this weekend. The NCAA committee will announce the draw and locations tomorrow afternoon.

Whitman 6 LCSC 3

Doubles

1. Andrew/Conor lost Ivan Krijanto/Benjamin Robert

2. ET/Jeff lost Oliver Sindayigaya/Viktor Svoboda

3. Quin/Matt won Cesar Uauy/Lincoln Gay

Singles

1. Conor lost Krijanto 6-4, 6-4

2. Andrew def Anders Tischer 6-3, 6-2

3. ET def Uauy 6-3, 6-4

4. Sam def Sindayigaya 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5)

5. Quin def Svoboda 6-4, 6-4

6. Adriel def Robert 4-6, 6-1, 6-3

order of finish 2, 1, 5, 3, 6, 4

Happy Mother's Day to all Whitman moms!