Whitman Men's Tennis Players Ace Academic All-District Honors

Congratulations to Justin and Christoph for receiving Academic All-District honors! Below is the official press release from Whitman's SID Dave Holden

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Justin Hayashi and Christoph Fuchs, captains of the Whitman College men's tennis team, have earned spots on ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-District At-Large First Team.

Hayashi and Fuchs, who helped Whitman win its second straight Northwest Conference (NWC) title earlier this spring, are two of 11 athletes chosen for the men's at-large team in the College Division of District VIII. The district includes all NCAA Div. II/Div. III and NAIA schools in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona, as well as British Columbia.

The at-large teams represent student athletes in a variety of sports, including golf, skiing, gymnastics, ice hockey, swimming, lacrosse and tennis.

Players on all-district at-large teams from around the nation are now eligible for election to the Academic All-America team. The College Sports Information Directors of America (Co-SIDA) administers the nominating and voting process for the Academic All-America program, which is in its 58th year and has honored about 15,000 students at all levels for all recognized NCAA sports.

Hayashi and Fuchs were key contributors this spring as Whitman rolled through a third consecutive 16-0 NWC regular season. Whitman was 24-5 as part of a season that included a third straight appearance in the NCAA Division III national tournament.

Hayashi, an Asian Studies major from Kirkland, Wash., made his biggest contribution this past spring in doubles. He and doubles partner Dan Wilson swept through an undefeated regular season, winning their first 17 matches. After losing for the first time at the NWC championships, they stormed through the first three rounds of the prestigious Ojai Valley tournament, knocking off the top-seeded team in the process before finally falling in the semifinals.

Hayashi finished his senior season with a 21-3 record in doubles. He also won all six of his matches in singles. His play in singles was limited by Whitman's relatively deep roster.

A year ago, Hayashi organized a free tennis clinic for youngsters in Vancouver, B.C. He and several of his teammates gave the three-day clinic during their 2008 Spring Break.

Hayashi, who speaks fluent Japanese, worked the past two summers as a sales and/or marketing intern at Tokyo's Jinji Tennis Center and New York's Eastbrook Capital Group. He graduates from Whitman on Sunday and starts a one-year internship in July with the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

As a senior at Whitman, Hayashi served as a trustee with the Whitman Investment Club and as a senator in the student government. He also held a number positions the past four years as an intern in the Whitman Admission office.

Hayashi, the son of Hiroko Hayashi of Kirkland, Wash., is a graduate of Seattle's Lakeside School.

Fuchs, a biology major (chemistry minor), has maintained a 3.92 cumulative grade point average at Whitman, which ranks him in the top five of all varsity athletes on campus.

Playing his third season of college tennis this spring, Fuchs was a regular this spring in both singles and doubles. He was 9-3 in singles, which included a 7-1 record against NWC opponents, and 9-8 in doubles (6-1 NWC).

Fuchs, who has senior academic status at Whitman, will not complete his degree requirements until the 2010 spring semester, when he plans to play his fourth college season. He plans to pursue medical school studies after his Whitman graduation.

Fuchs worked last summer at the University of Louisville's Brown Cancer Center, assisting with breast cancer research aimed at developing predictive tests for cancer's responsiveness to treatment. He plans to write an honors thesis on his research, which was funded through the Whitman Internship Fund and the University of Louisville's Institute for Molecular Diversity and Drug Design.

In the summer of 2007, Fuchs was a volunteer nurse's aide at a hospital in Offenburg, Germany, as part of a program required of German students for medical school eligibility. Fuchs, who is fluent in German, handled duties ranging from feeding patients and taking vital signs to shadowing physicians on their rounds and assisting with surgeries.

This summer Fuchs plans to shadow physicians at a hospital near his home in La Center, Wash., and volunteer at a free medical clinic.

While at Whitman, Fuchs has mentored two at-risk boys as part of the Friends of Walla Walla program.

Fuchs, who was home schooled before coming to Whitman, is the son of Dr. Axel Fuchs and Valerie Fuchs of La Center

Slimed by the Slugs!

Our season ended yesterday with a 5-0 loss at the hands of UC Santa Cruz. Certainly a tough National tournament draw -- playing the #3 team in the nation, on their home courts, with their five seniors, and pretty large crowd. 

We were hoping for a good start in doubles and instead the Slugs came to play and totally dominated the doubles. We certainly played hard and competed well, but honestly the Slugs were just too strong for us. Bright spot of the day was Dan Wilson who was up a set at #3 singles.

Funny story of the day: team score is 0-4 and ET is serving at match point down when an umpire runs over and assesses him a point penalty. Quin had just lost at #6 singles and kicked a ball that went over the fence (in Quin's defense he was just trying to kick the ball to the back fence but it bounced over the fence). The point penalty not only causes ET to lose the match but puts us down 0-5 and the team match is over. Everyone shakes hands says good match, good luck etc and walk off the court. Well apparently carry over point penalties can not be assessed until the start of a new game. We have to round all the players up, get them dressed again and put them back on court to restart the match. ET ends up saving his match point and forcing a long deuce game. However during that time Nadeem ends up losing his match so the now the team match is finished. ET's match goes into the history books as DNF and Nadeem gets the loss.

Great season 24-5, conference tournament berth, conference champions and an undefeated conference season!

At the NCAA's

We are currently at the NCAA's Santa Cruz regional site. Later this afternoon we play host UC Santa Cruz (#3 in the nation). Currently its a beautiful day in Santa Cruz and we hoping for a large, loud crowd when we play the Slugs. As usual I will twitter match updates to the blog.

Think good thoughts and send positive energy our way!

Regional Rankings Out

Not much movement in the regional rankings -- we hold steady at #6 in the region. Here is the link to the rankings. They still haven't posted the doubles rankings.

Also still waiting on the call from the NCAA with our tournament draw. I'll post as soon as I hear.

Ojai Results

Sorry for the late post. Was a long couple days of matches and travel. Dan and Justin had an unbelievable run at the 109th Ojai tournament. In the quarters they faced off against the #1 team in the region (#1 from UC Santa Cruz). What a great test for the Dan and Justin -- they would get the chance to play against the very best in the West. Well they certainly rose to the challenge! Match started off well for the Whitman duo as they went up a break 2-1. However the Slug team immediately broke back leveling the match at 2-2. I can't exactly explain what happened next but Dan and Justin played great tennis winning the next 6 games! Great victory -- beating the #1 team in the region 8-2 wow!

Unfortunately the semi's were a complete role reversal. Tennis can be strange -- one minute play great and the next not able to find the court. I think Dan and Justin had a bit of a let down and ran into a very tough Washington University team. We really struggled with 1st serve percentage and returns (to be fair the WA U team served incredibly well). In the end the Wash U ran away with an 8-1 victory. Dan and Justin were pretty disappointed, they were one match away from the finals (and the opportunity to play at the famous Libby Park) but what a great tournament! They advanced further at the Ojai than any other Whitman player ever has!

We are now in a holding pattern waiting next Monday's announcement of the NCAA pairings.

At the Ojai!

Day one complete at The Ojai. Yesterday it felt more like Seattle than Southern California -- cloudy, chance of rain and temperatures in the low 60's. Unfortunately our Seattle boys (Dan and Justin) didn't feel at home in singles and dropped their opening singles matches. Dan lost to a very tough #2 player from Chapman 6-3, 6-4. Dan struggled a bit and didn't play his best tennis. In the first set he was broke early and could never get a look at breaking his opponent. In the second set Dan twice went up breaks but he struggled to hold serve. For the record the Chapman player is very good and went on to beat the #9 seed (#1 from Redlands) 7-6, 6-1. Justin played incredibly streaky in his opening match. He won the first set 6-0 and then lost 3-6, 7-5. Considering he hasn't played a singles match in over a month he played some very good tennis..at times. However at times he would also drop three to four points in a row which eventually doomed his chances of winning the match.

In doubles the Seattle boys fared better. In their first match they were down a break against the #2 Pomona team before winning 8-5. In the second match against Cal Lu's #3 team they played much better. Match started off pretty close with both teams holding serve. However at 4-4 Dan and Justin picked up their intensity and court movement (crossing more) and won the last 4 games. Very good effort for them to bounce back from disappointing singles losses and win two tough doubles matches.

At 3pm today they play the #1 team from UC Santa Cruz (and #1 seeds). As usual I will twitter updates to the blog.

Ojai Tournament

Currently at the Ojai tournament in Southern California with Dan Wilson and Justin Hayashi. Both are playing singles and doubles in this incredible event. I will twitter match updates during the day. For those that received blog postings via email, the twitter updates can be found on the main blog page Whitman Tennis Blog.