Amazing final day of the USTA/ITA tournament at Whitman. I hosted regional tournament as a Sat-Mon event so no players miss Friday classes and only a few miss class on Monday. It was pretty cool playing matches on Monday -- even though the tournament was all Whitman people would stop and watch between classes and as they walked to and from the library. It really is one of the special parts about Whitman tennis -- our courts are situated smack dab in the middle of campus.
The day started with #2 seed Andrew La Cava taking on Sam Sadeghi and #1 seed Conor Holton battling Jeff Tolman. Both were great matches and highly competitive. Andrew got by Sam with a break in each set 6-3, 6-4. Meanwhile Conor and Jeff had a wonderful match with each set decided by a late break. Conor squeaked by with a 7-5, 6-4 victory.
The finals between Andrew and Conor was an epic match. Perhaps one of the better singles matches I have seen on the Whitman courts. In fact long time Whitman tennis fan Martin McCaw wrote me an email saying the Andrew vs Conor match was the best match he had ever seen at the Whitman courts! When the dust settled Andrew defeated 7-6 in the 3rd 9-7 in the tiebreak. Our amazing SID Dave Holden was a the courts and provide this write up.
Two Whitman College tennis heavyweights, Andrew La Cava andConor Holton-Burke, went toe to toe for what seemed like 15 rounds in Monday's singles final of the USTA/ITA Pacific Northwest Fall Championships on Whitman's outdoor courts.
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| Andrew La Cava |
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| Conor Holton-Burke |
Both players were still standing at the end of three-hour title bout, even though both had landed and absorbed any number of feathery jabs and hard right hands.
Once the final bell sounded and the score cards were totaled, it was La Cava leaving the ring with an epic 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7) split-decision triumph.
Few points came easy in the slugfest, but La Cava needed one last remarkable flurry of punches to claim his crown.
After holding serve to even the third set at 6-6, La Cava quickly found himself on the wrong end of 5-1 and 6-2 counts in the tie-breaker.
But the crafty sophomore fought off four match points to the square the breaker at 6-6 and then added a fifth straight point to lead 7-6 and earn a match point of his own.
Holton-Burke, a rangy senior and the defending Northwest Conference (NWC) Player of the Year, picked off the next point to send the match back to deuce, only to see La Cava finish the marathon with the next two points.
In winning the regional singles title for a second straight year, La Cava used a service break to break free from a 5-5 deadlock in the first set. He then held serve to take the set at 7-5. |
Holton-Burke bounced back to pocket a back-and-forth second set, breaking La Cava at 5-4 to win 6-4.
The deciding third set stayed on serve until La Cava broke Holton-Burke for a 5-4 lead. Holton-Burke broke right back, and both players held serve one more time to reach a 6-6 stalemate and set the stage for the climactic tie-breaker.
But the day was far from over for the two players. After a 90 min break both players returned with their partners for the doubles finals. If the singles final was epic I honestly don't know what to call the doubles final. This match also went the distance with Conor and Matt Tesmond winning 7-6 (12-10). Because of the length of the singles semi and finals this match started at 6pm and finished at 8pm under the lights. The match was so intense and the quality of play so high people started coming out of the library to watch the final set!
Again here is Dave Holden's words about the doubles:
It took two hours for the doubles dust to settle, but Holton-Burke and doubles partner Matt Tesmond finally donned the doubles crown with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (12-10) victory over La Cava and his partner, Jeff Tolman.
The third set in particular was a sight to behold as neither side was able to break serve on the other, although they certainly gave it the good ol' college try.
With the third set even at two games apiece, Holton-Burke held serve on a game that needed two dozen points to decide.
Later in the third, with Holton-Burke and Tesmond leading 6-5, La Cava found a way to hold serve as he and Tolman staved off a match point to get the game back to deuce.
A few points later, La Cava reached into his bag of tricks for a semi-miraculous return to even the set at 6-6 and send the match to a first-to-seven tie-breaker.
While La Cava's match-extending return was a thing of beauty, it seemed to set the standard for a tie-breaker that featured more than just a few eye-popping returns.
After Tolman and La Cava jumped in front 4-3 in the breaker, Tesmond and Holton-Burke responded with three straight points to earn another match point at 6-4.
But the pendulum continued to swing and Tolman's stellar return made it 6-all. From there, the two sides swapped four more match points as the score deadlocked on points seven, eight, nine and 10.
The tie at ten proved to be last, however, as Holton-Burke and Tesmond strung together the next two points to claim the trophy.
Absolutely an amazing day of tennis. Funny emotions with the matches. While the tennis was electrify I was a bit depressed/sad at the end of the day that someone had to lose. The matches were of such a high quality and the matches so physical that it was a shame all couldn't share the winner's spotlight.
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