Looking ahead

Going to be a busy week for some Whitman players. This weekend David Deming and Conor Holton-Burke are traveling to Boise State to play in the BSU invite. Will be great experience for the two since the majority of teams are DI (we are the only DIII school playing). On Monday Matt Solomon leaves for the ITA Small College National Championships in Mobile, AL.

I'll try to update match scores via Twitter and provide recaps on the blog.

Wrapping up the ITA's

Sorry for the delay in this post. What a great weekend of play for the Whitties at the Northwest Regional ITA tournament (which we hosted). Not only was the tennis incredible but we able to play under picture perfect blue skies!

On Monday the tournament got underway with the men's semi-finals. As a team we were fortunate to get three of our players into the precious final four. One semi's featured senior Matt Solomon vs Linfield's talented #1 player Mark Magdaong. The other semi was an all-Whitman showdown between junior Chris Bailey and freshman Jeffrey Tolman. I should point out that both Chris and Jeffrey had incredible matches on Sunday. Chris battled past teammate Thomas Roston in a 3-hour 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 match. Not to be outdone Jeffrey pulled off the upset of the tournament when he defeated PLU's #1 player Joel Trudel 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. Great win for Jeffrey, Joel was NWC player of the year last year (going undefeated in singles) and is DI transfer from U of Idaho.

In the semi's Matt was locked in a tight 1st set battle with Magdoang. At 4-4 Matt kicked it up a notch winning 8 of the last 9 games posting a 6-4, 6-1 victory. Good win for Matt..Magdoang is one of the most talented players in our conference and was playing some sweet ball at the end of last year. On any given day he has the ability to knock off any DIII player. In the other semi's Jeffrey and Chris had a slug fest and traded leads several times each set. In the end Jeffrey was able to gut out a 7-6, 7-6 victory over his teammate.

The first set of the finals was incredible. Jeffrey put on a display of shotmaking that has rarely, if ever, been seen on the Whitman courts. He was literally hitting winners from every position on the court (needless to say I was one happy coach)! Jeffrey ended up winning the first set 6-3. However the long weekend of tennis finally took its toll on Jeffrey and he simply ran out of gas. At the end of the match I wondered if he was going to be able to finish. In the end Matt's won his third straight regional title by a score of 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.

Now the real excitement began. With only an hour break we had to get Jeffrey ready to play in the doubles finals with Matt against the #1 team from PLU. We had Jeffrey in the training room for most of the hour getting fluids in him, eating high energy foods (bagels and bananas) and in the cold hydrotherapy pool.

In the doubles final Matt and Jeffrey ran into a red hot PLU team. Gotta hand it to the PLU guys they really played well and served incredibly well. In fact I don't think they ever faced a break point. They ended up winning the match 6-3, 7-5.

Some highlights from the tournament:

• Whitman places 9 players into the round of 16
• Whitman has 3 of the 4 semi-finalist in singles and doubles
• Freshman Matt Tesmond knocks off the #6 seed (#1 from Whitworth)
• Freshman Sam Sadeghi knocks off the #5 seed (#2 from PLU)
• Tesmond/Sadeghi play great doubles reaching the QTRS before losing to teammates Quin Miller/Conor Holton-Burke
• Conor Holton-Burke upsets a seed in the 1st round 7-6 in the 3rd. He continues through the draw losing to Solomon in the QTRS (6-4, 6-2)
• Conor and Quin upset the #3 seeds in doubles and lose in the semi's to Matt/Jeffrey
• Senior Thomas Roston has his best regional showing knocking off the #11 seed and pushes #3 seed and teammate Bailey the distance losing 7-6 in the 3rd
• Jasper Follows and Chris Bailey make it to the semi's of doubles and lose to the eventual champions
• Jasper played true to his seeding (#13) winning two matches before losing to #4 seed Magdoang of Linfield
• Junior Quin Miller (#16 seed) wins two matches before losing to #2 seed Trudel 6-2, 6-3

What makes the above accomplishments even more amazing is we played without four of our key players: Nadeem Kassam and Etienne Moshevich are both studying in London, senior Jake Cappel was out with a wrist injury, and senior Christoph Fuchs is taking the semester off. Man we are on track to have a great year!

Next weekend I'm traveling with a few Whitties to participate in the Boise State Invite. Will be great competition for the Whitman players as the tournament is primarily a DI event. In fact we will be the only non-scholarship school in the tournament.

Immediately following the Boise event, Matt and I will travel to Mobile, AL for the ITA Small College National Championship.

Getting ready for day 2 of the ITA's

Morning tennis fans we are getting ready for day two of the ITA Northwest regional tournament. Unfortunately I don't have much time for a full recap (matches start in an hour). Great results for the Whitties -- we placed 9 players into the final 16!

Couple interesting results. The three Whitman freshman (Jeff Tolman, Sam Sadeghi and Matt Tesmond) had HUGE days. Jeff who is the #9 seed won both of his matches without dropping a set. Sam Sadeghi won his first match then took out the #6 seed (Michael Manser #2 player from PLU) 6-4, 6-3. Matt Tesmond squeaked by his first match in a match breaker then defeated the #5 seed (#1 from Whitworth Michael Shelton) 6-3, 6-2).

Match of the day I didn't see (was played indoors). Senior Thomas Roston defeated the #11 seed (#3 from PLU) 7-6 (15-13), 6-4. Fellow Canadian Jasper Follows cruised into the round of 16 without dropping a set. #15 seed Quin Miller had a first round battle (winning in a match breaker) then won easily in the 2nd round. Conor Holton Burke made a splash in his first regional tournament defeating the #16 seed in three sets and then beat the #1 from UPS. Chris Bailey had a bye and the won 6-0, 6-3.

We had an awesome night of doubles. Matt and Jeff had a bye then won 8-0. Chris and Jasper had a bye then 6-0, 6-3. Quin and Conor won their first match against the #3 from PLU then upset the #3 seeds (#1 from Linfield) 8-3. The freshman Matt and Sam won their first match then beat a very good Willamette team 8-5. That Willamette team won the Linfield Wildcat Open last week.

Sorry for the brief post and/or grammar problems. Getting ready to hit the courts and don't have time to proof read!

Getting ready for the ITA Regional Tournament

Day one of the Northwest ITA tournaments starts in about an hour on the Whitman campus. Lots of great matches going and I'm looking forward to seeing all the Whitties battle against others from the conference. I'll provide twitter updates throughout the day.

A camping we will go!

This past weekend I took members of the tennis team on an overnight backpacking trip. I've always thought it would be fun to share my love of the outdoors with the team and this year I decided to make it happen!

We kicked things off Friday with a brief fly casting lesson. Since I teach a fly fishing class at Whitman I'm lucky enough to have access to a fair amount of equipment. Was pretty fun watching the guys try their hands at casting a fly. Those that have ever tried to fly fish know the difficulties of learning how to cast.

Saturday we were up "bright and early"..well I didn't think that leaving at 10am was all that bright and early but some of the team members had a difficult time getting up. In fact we had to get Adriel out of bed!

Since this would be the first time backpacking for some of the guys I decided it would be best to head to an area and trail I know well: the Wenaha Wilderness area. In terms of distance the Wenaha Wilderness area is pretty close to campus (about 50 miles). However it takes a couple hours of driving on gravel roads to make it to the southern part of the wilderness area. We hiked the 3.5 miles down the Hoodoo trail to the Wenaha river to set up camp. Let me say its a pretty steep hike down..certainly a MUCH easier hike in than out.

After getting the packs loaded up and hiking down the trail we were able to set up camp around 4pm. This left the guys a couple hours to try out their new fly fishing skills. Below the camp is a nice stretch of river where I've caught a number of Bull Trout. After getting everyone set up with rods, reels, leaders, flies, waders and boots they were able to start with the fishing. After making sure everyone was doing OK, I slipped across the river to fish the deeper section of the hole. First cast and BAM I caught a nice 20" Bull Trout..much to the surprise of the team. Someone asked if it were skill or luck that I caught a fish so fast..obviously it was skill!

After an evening of fishing we gathered around the camp fire for a dinner of steak fajitas (complements of coach). With full bellies we hung around the camp fire talking and sharing stories. It was wonderful to be away from cell phones, text messaging, emails, computers etc. and spend a relaxing evening together. Was an absolutely perfect team event!

Next morning we awoke, huddled around the campfire to have breakfast. After a bit of exploring our time was short so we packed up camp to make the hard hike out of the canyon.

All agreed it was a wonderful personal and team experience.

Here are some pictures of our night in the wilderness area.

Coach

PS- for those not familiar with a wilderness area, it is a designated area where nothing mechanical is allowed: no bikes, motorcycles, or engines. The only way into a Wilderness area is by hiking or horseback.

Updated Individual Records

Updated 2009 season and career records (since 1995). Check the link on right side of page to view a sortable spreadsheet of player records.

10 Whitman Men's Players Named to the ITA All-Academic Team!

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – The Whitman College men’s and women’s tennis teams have earned academic honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association for the 2008-09 school year.

Ten players on the Whitman men’s team, along with four members of the women’s squad, also received individual recognition.

The team award requires a cumulative team grade point average (gpa) of 3.2 on a 4.0 scale. For the NCAA Division III level, the ITA handed out team honors to 35 schools in the men’s division and 72 institutions in the women’s division.

To be named an ITA Scholar-Athlete, a player must be a varsity letter-winner and have a minimum gpa of 3.5 for the academic year.

Reid Bennett and Justin Hayashi, both of whom graduated in May, are among players on the Whitman men's team who earned individual honors.

Other ITA Scholar-Athletes for the Whitman men are juniors Christoph Fuchs, Nadeem Kassam, Thomas Roston and Dan Wilson, sophomores Chris Bailey, Quin Miller and Etienne Moshevich, and freshman Conor Holton-Burke.

Fuchs, Hayashi and Wilson netted individual recognition for a third straight season. Bailey is now a two-time winner.

Both Fuchs and Hayashi earned ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honors this past spring, and Fuchs was named to the Academic All-American Third Team.

On the women’s side, Katie Oost and Alex Robinson capped their Whitman careers by earning ITA Scholar-Athlete honors.

It was the second award in four seasons for Oost, who will stay with the tennis program as an assistant coach this academic year as she applies to graduate programs in the field of psychology.

Divneet Kaur, a Whitman junior this past season, and first-year player teammate Emily Rolston also earned ITA individual kudos.

Whitman's tennis coaches are Jeff Northam (men) and John Hein (women).