Portland Alumni Dinner Saturday Evening

We are having a team + Whitman Alumni dinner this Saturday 7pm at Nicholas Restaurant, 3223 NE Broadway, Portland, OR 97232

Please email me if you are planning on attending the dinner so we know how many to plan for.

Match time changes this weekend.

Weather might be an issue this weekend in the Portland area.

Our Sunday match against Pacific is now changed to 9am.

If we encounter wet weather the George Fox match will take place 2pm at Tualatin Hills otherwise it will be at 3pm in Newberg.

On Monday our match against Willamette will be at 1pm if indoors (Courthouse) or 2pm if dry (at Willamette).

Hope to see you at the courts!

Yellow Jerseys

First off I have to apologize for not posting the winner of the yellow jersey last week. We voted on the yellow jersey at our late Tuesday practice and I left Wednesday morning on a recruiting trip.

Last week the winners were:
Conor Holton-Burke
Quin Miller

This week the winner of the yellow jerseys:
Andrew La Cava
Etienne Moshevich

If you see any of these four players wish them well and congratulations on winning the jersey!

Whitties drop hard fought match to LCSC

Its funny how 10 minutes can turn a match. Sunday we traveled to Lewiston to play Lewis-Clark State College. LCSC is consistently one of the top NAIA programs in the nation (currently #16 in NAIA) and we typically have some real battles with the Warriors. Making matters worse, we have always struggled against LCSC in their indoor courts -- in fact in all my years of coaching at Whitman we have only won once at LCSC. Coupled with the fact we narrowly defeated LCSC last year on our home courts (4-3) we knew were going to be in for one heck of a battle.

Doubles...love or hate the 9 point system it can determine the outcome of the match. Valuing a pro-set of doubles the same as a full 2 out of 3 set singles match doesn't make a lot of sense. With a pro-set there is no chance to reset the match by starting a new set. No chance to recoup and/or regroup if things go poorly. Also all the doubles matches tend to crescendo at the same time. Yesterday our match completed turned within a few minutes. At one point I felt we might go up 3-0 after the doubles. At #2 doubles Jeff/ET were serving for their match at 7-6. At #1 doubles Andrew/Conor had broken the LCSC team to even the match at 5-5. And at #3 doubles we were up two breaks. And right when things are looking at their best everything collapses.

From the far bank of courts (the LCSC tennis center has 2 banks of 2 courts arranged in square) there is a loud eruption and it is clear something bad for us happened at #3 doubles. At 3-2 serving LCSC breaks after a long 10 duece game to even their match and completely steals the match's momentum. At #1 doubles Andrew/Conor play a sloppy serving game after breaking to even out their match at 5-5. And at #2 doubles we are serving 7-6 30-15 and we play an out ball that would of given us 2 match points. The LCSC team starts to play inspired tennis and doesn't drop another game.

The match proved to be a good lesson about the fragile nature of doubles. The momentum in pro-sets can quickly change. After being even or up in the doubles we end losing all three -- #1 doubles lost 6-8, #2 doubles lost 7-9 and #3 doubles lost 4-8.

I have enough seniors on the team that they realize the situation. Getting swept in doubles means a huge hurdle to overcome. While winning 5 out of 6 singles matches between two equal teams can happen it takes a monster effort and a bit of luck.

I have to say that I'm proud of the effort the team. It would of been easy for everyone to hang their heads and simply go through the motion of playing out the match. Instead the Missionaries battled tooth and nail for every match. We ended up taking the top 3 singles matches in dramatic fashion. At #1 singles Conor is in a slugfest playing a talented freshman from Germany. Conor takes the 1st set 7-6 and has a couple match points at 5-4 in the 2nd against the Germans serve. Saving the match points on his serve inspires the young German who takes the 2nd set 7-5. However the 3rd set was all Conor as he pushed through to a 7-6, 5-7, 6-0 victory. At #2 singles Andrew had one heck of a battle. He dropped the 1st set in a tight tiebreaker and quickly went down 0-4. After he holds at 1-4 we have a talk about keeping his energy up and staying positive for himself and to help get Conor through his difficult match. In a team match their are few things tougher than being on the court next to a teammate who is getting rolled. Andrew totally rises to the occasion winning six games in a row to take the 2nd set 6-4. In the 3rd set Andrew again goes down a break but rallies to win 6-7, 6-4, 7-5. What a gutsy performance from the freshman. At #3 singles ET is locked in an incredibly long battle. In fact, on the court next to him Jeff had lost at #4 singles 6-4, 7-5 AND Chris had lost 6-2, 6-4 at #5 when ET was only part way through his third set! ET's match featured long, punishing points on the slow courts gritty courts. ET was pounding his forehand for all his worth and the LCSC player was playing like the match was on the slow red clay of the French Open -- retrieving every ball forcing ET to hit a bigger and better shot. At 4-4 ET earns the break giving him the opportunity to serve for the match. However at this point he is now cramping in his hand, right arm, both legs, and stomach. It was hard to watch him try to finish his match while in pain. It took him 4 match points but in the end ET was able to gut out the match. If one ever need proof of why I call ET "The Lion" this was it -- I swear, sometimes I think his heart is too big for his body. Last match on was Sam who didn't play his best tennis in a losing 6-2, 6-4 effort at #6.

Even though we lost 3-6 this was a great match for us. We had great intensity, effort and competitive fire throughout the match. It was also good to play a very competitive match in front of a large partisan crowd. Lastly I must say we had our hands full with a very talented LCSC squad. They really have 6 players who can play #1 on any given day. In fact their #6 player during our match played #1 for the Warriors three years ago.

We start conference play this weekend with 3 tough matches in 2 days -- Sunday we have a double header with the improved squads of Pacific and George Fox and on Monday we play Willamette.

I recently purchased a nice camera and am in the process of learning how to take good sports pictures. Below are a few pictures of Etienne's of the closing minutes of ET's singles match. If they don't come through the email check out my Flickr stream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/77626588@N00/?saved=1

Also I have been putting many pictures up on Facebook.

Alumni Showdown

What a weekend! The Superbowl was a bit anticlimactic after Saturday's campus/alumni showdown. Such a blast to have a number of alumni back on campus for a day of playing and weekend of memories.


Coming into the match the alumni were serious about the competition. Once most of the alumni e made it campus Friday night (David Deming didn't arrive until midnight) we grabbed some pizza and headed over to Bratton for a late evening hit. To assure their solid play, the alumni stayed up late Friday night making sure they were well hydrated going into Saturday's matches.

On Saturday the alumni and current players battled it out for six straight hours! Great tennis all day long. After such a wonderful event I think we were all winners!

Photos of the weekend.

USTA Campus Showdown = Alumni Showdown

Recently the USTA/ITA started a new program called the Campus Showdown. These events are one-day, open tennis events held on college campuses. I figured hosting a campus showdown would be a great way for some of the guys to play extra matches. I didn't figure on the alumni getting wind of the event and coming out to play! Saturday's Whitman Campus Showdown will feature 8 Whitman alumni, 6 current team members and 2 PNW junior players. So really this is a Whitman tennis alumni showdown!

I can't even begin to explain how excited I am for this event. Besides the tennis I'm excited to see Whitman alumni Justin Hayashi ('09), Thomas Roston ('10), Nadeem Kassam ('10), David Deming ('10), Steven Ly ('07), Robbie Munday ('07), and Brad Changstrom ('05). Rounding out the alumni group is assistant coach Jake Cappel ('10).

Great alumni-player match ups on Saturday:

Conor Holton-Burke vs Robbie Monday

Adriel Borskansky vs Justin Hayashi

Matt Tesmond vs Nadeem Kassam

Quin Miller vs David Deming

Will Huskey vs Jake Cappel

Steven Roston vs Steven Ly

Singles matches start at 9am and doubles should start around 2pm. Below is a video preview for the showdown.

Update from Ben Marcus

Another one for the alumni. I just got a rather nice update from Ben Marcus '92 (I think) that I thought I would repost.

_____________________

I would love nothing more than to be able to come to one of these alumni functions! I should have said this a long time ago, but I am so impressed and proud of the program you are running. Having coached (at a much lesser level) for close to twenty years now, I can fully appreciate the strength of what you now have going both academically and athletically. And, I love reading the detailed reports from the season. Our team was so much less competitive than what you have going now, but we still managed to win a conference doubles title my senior year--and considering our lack of training and facilities in comparison, we did alright. I know you were part of a very, very good team right before my class came in, so had a very different experience.

After teaching tennis, then teaching high school and coaching teams in Arizona since college, I've now been living in Switzerland for the last two and half years, teaching middle school social studies at Zurich International School and coaching the middle school tennis team (boys and girls). My wife, Vanessa, and I now have a 16 month old son, Jack, who was born in 2009 on my birthday Sept. 27--pretty cool.

We are really enjoying life over here, and my tennis team road trips even take us to other countries, which is kind of cool to think about. Always happy to put up any Whitman guests if they can make it over here! Also cool to be on a continent that really appreciates its tennis, and in a country whose most well known person (by leaps and bounds) is a tennis player.

I hope all is well, and would love for you guys to make a European road trip. How about a meet up at Wimbledon or the French Open? How about a reunion over here. If not, I would really love a way to make it over for my 20th reunion in 2012, although I have a feeling the timing during the year won't be so great for me. Hope the season brings you much joy! Take care,

Ben Marcus