Hi Whitman tennis fans. Currently in Cary N.C. with Andrew for the NCAA singles tournament. This is a wonderful event and opportunity for Andrew as only the top 32 players are invited. For those hoping to follow on-line everything is delayed an hour tomorrow due to weather. I will try to tweet scores during the match.
Make sure send positive thoughts Andrew`s way!
I know this post is late..in fact its almost a week late. I guess I was hoping that if I didn’t make a post, our magical season would continue. But all good things must come to an end and our amazing season came to an end to the All-International team of North Carolina Wesleyan.
Getting ready for line-ups
For the NCAA championships we had a brutal draw. We are one of three teams that had to fly to a site and unfortunately the tournament committee decided to ship us to Emory as the #2 seed. Unfortunately we drew NCW in the semi’s. We knew NCW was an amazing team. In fact I would say that they were screwed by the ITA ranking committee. At the mid point of the season they were #5 in the nation (and had a win over #4) but then lost a very close away match to a talented John Hopkins University team. That loss dropped NWC to #19 in the nation… as my son would say, “I know, right?” Oh, and that John Hopkins team just won their regional event and are now in the Elite 8. Even more interesting about the NCW ranking is they moved below a team (Case Western) that they beat earlier in the year 7-2. Interesting that the Case coach is one of three people on the national ranking committee.
We faced a couple challenges going into the NCAA’s. First and foremost was finals week. The regional tournament is always during our finals which means the guys are taking tests on the road, studying, and staying up late. This year we missed all but one day of finals. This year the travel was an issue. Because of the ticket costs we had to fly out of Spokane on Thursday morning. To help the guys get a good night sleep, we left Wednesday night and stayed at a hotel near the airport. Still, our travel time on Thursday was well over 12 hours. Thankfully the Emory tournament staff agreed to let us play in the late matches so the three-hour time zone change wasn’t a factor. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we hadn’t competed in three weeks. Our conference tournament is one of the earliest in the nation and I feel having a three-week “dead” period really hurt us. We had good weeks of practice but without match competition I felt we weren’t match sharp.
wrapping a practice session
Against NCW our rust showed at #1 and #3 doubles. NCW is a very good team but I felt on a good day we could of won any/all of the doubles. At #1 doubles we went down a break but immediately broke back to even the match. At #3 doubles we were up a break — we actually there were a ton of breaks in that match but we were in the match to the end. The #2 combo of Jeff and Andrew rolled to an comfortable 8-3 victory. Honestly to have a shot against the international team we needed to have the lead after the doubles.
Even though NCW won 5 of the first sets I felt that we were finally getting our match “toughness” back midway through the matches. We were beginning to shake off the rust from our three-week break but it was simply too late. At #2 Jeff lost 6-3, 6-3 — to give an idea how good this opponent was, the next day he defeated the defending NCAA III Singles champion! At #3 Conor dropped the 1st set 3-6 but saved a match point and was serving to get into the tiebreaker when the match was stopped. At #4 fantastic freshman James Rivers overcame a very slow start to even his match 1-6, 6-3, 2-2. At #5 Sam also overcame a slow start before losing 6-1, 6-4. In the 2nd set his opponent had taken two different medical time-outs for cramping (each leg). If Sam could of stretched his match into the 3rd he would of had a great chance against his weary opponent. At #6 Adriel lost a nail biter 6-4, 6-4. What a close match, Adriel was up an early break in the 2nd set but the talented Russian battled back for the victory. How talented was the NWC #6? At one point he was ranked top 200 in the ITF!
Andrew was the only Whittie who got off to a good start. In fact he was up 6-2, 5-4 (serving) when a funny thing happened. At 30-15 Andrew was going to serve and volley and hit a great wide-serve to open the court. Unfortunately the racket flew out of hand during the serve! Instead of potentially having 2 match points he was at 30-30 with a broken racket. Talk about a momentum shifter — after that point his opponent goes on a streak winning 6 straight games to go up 2-6, 7-5, 3-0. Funny how one point can swing a match.
I’m incredibly proud of how hard the guys battled on the court. After going down in doubles and dropping the five first sets they guys never gave up or looked defeated. They continued to pick up their intensity and determination refusing to go down without a fight.
Adriel and Steven say "click me to open a photo gallery from the weekend"
Been an incredibly busy couple days. Over the weekend I took members of the men’s and women’s tennis team down the Grande Ronde River along with a crew from Minam Raft Rentals to do a two-day campsite/river clean up. Once we returned back to town it was time to start working on plans for the NCAA tournament. We have a bit of a tough draw playing NC Wesleyan in the 2nd round of the tournament. NCW is a VERY tough all-international team. In fact earlier in the year they were top 6 in the nation and had a win over the #4 team. Unfortunately for NCW they lost two matches during the year to very good teams and the ranking committee decided to moved them way down.
Our match against NCW is being played Saturday 2pm on an Emory auxiliary campus. They aren’t doing live scoring for our match but I will try to keep up a twitter feed.
Here is the link to the official NCAA d3 tennis site.
Wish us well as tomorrow we begin our journey to the east coast.
Talk about stepping outside of your comfort zone! Last night men’s team took a MAJOR plunge and performed at the 86th annual Whitman Choral Contest. This is probably the first time in the history of the even an athletic team has performed. Adriel Borshansky arranged the “Eurotrash Medley”. Amazing job!
Some pictures from Greg Lehman photography. Click the picture to open the gallery.
Click photo to open a gallery
Over the weekend we capped off a perfect NWC season by sweeping the NWC Mens Tennis Tournament without a dropping a set. On Saturday we defeated Whitworth 5-0 and on Sunday in front of a large boisterous crowd we defeated George Fox 5-0. The victory over Fox was especially sweet for the team as earlier in the year we defeated Fox 6-3 and were down 1-2 after the doubles. Yesterday we knew it would be key to get off to a fast start and enter the singles with a lead. At #3 doubles James Rivers and Sam Sadeghi came out on fire and put us on the board first with a quick 8-1 victory. This was especially gratifying for Sam and James as earlier in the year they lost to the same doubles team 8-1. At #2 doubles Jeff Tolman and Andrew La Cava started slow and were down a break at 3-4 before winning the next 5 games. And at #1 Conor Holton-Burke and Matt Tesmond gave us a sweep of the doubles with a solid 8-5 victory. This was the same team that beat them 8-5 earlier in the year.
In singles Jeff got off to a slow start going down 0-2 (and down break points) before finding his rhythm and winning 11 straight games! His 6-2, 6-1 victory not only put us up 4-0 but was his 100 career victory — welcome to the Century Club! Senior Conor Holton-Burke sealed the match for us with a wonderful 6-2, 6-0 match. Earlier in the year Conor lost to the same opponent in three sets. What a sweet day for the senior– his match seals the the NWC tournament and he defeats they only NWC opponents who beat him this year (in singles and doubles). We also had great performances from NWC Player of the Year Andrew La Cava who was up a set 6-3, 3-2 and freshman James Rivers who was up 6-1, 5-2.
Was wonderful playing at home and thanks to all who showed up to support the team. Special thanks to the womens basketball team who showed up sporting body paint! We love you!
Congratulations to Coach John Hein/women’s tennis and Coach Skip Molitor/women’s golf for winning their NWC Tournament! Exciting day for Whitman athletics.
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — The five-time Northwest Conference champion Whitman College men’s tennis team shoots for a spot in its sixth straight NCAA Division III national championship field when it hosts the annual NWC post-season tournament this weekend.
Whitman earned the right to host the four-team tournament by finishing atop the regular season standings with a 12-0 record, continuing an era of dominance now measured in years rather than weeks or months.
Whitman has stockpiled six consecutive undefeated NWC regular seasons, winning its last 90 matches. The winning streak began in April of 2006.
Pacific enters this weekend’s tournament as the No. 2 seed after posting an 11-1 NWC record during the spring season. The lone blemish on the Boxer record was a 7-2 loss to Whitman in early March in Forest Grove, Ore.
Third-seeded George Fox (9-3 NWC) and fourth-seeded Whitworth (8-4 NWC) complete this weekend’s tournament field.
Saturday’s first semifinal gets started at 10 a.m. and pits favored Whitman against underdog Whitworth (click here for match preview). Whitman and Whitworth are the only two schools to play in all 14 NWC tennis tournaments since the conference adopted a team championship format in 1999.
Saturday’s second semifinal, which starts at about 2 p.m., matches No. 2 Pacific against No. 3 George Fox (click here for a match preview). Pacific is making its second straight appearance in the post-season tournament while George Fox is competing for the first time since 2005.
Saturday’s winners meet at 11 a.m. Sunday to play for the NWC’s automatic berth in the NCAA DIII national championship field. Whitman has already won the 2012 NWC title by virtue of its first-place finish in the regular season standings.
Whitman, 19-4 on the season, enters the tournament as the top-ranked NCAA DIII team in the West Region. It also has risen to No. 8 in national ranking, its highest such position in more than two decades.
Whitman, which has yet to lose to an NCAA DIII team this season, is a combined 5-0 this spring against the other three tournament teams. In addition to its 7-2 victory over Pacific, it blanked Whitworth 9-0 and beat George Fox twice, 9-0 and 6-3.
Pacific, No. 11 in the latest regional rankings, is 13-2 against NCAA DIII teams this spring. Its only DIII loss (other than to Whitman) came in a 8-1 setback to Colby during a Spring Break trip to Florida.
Pacific, 13-5 overall this season, has one victory apiece over both George Fox (winning 5-4 in mid-March) and Whitworth (prevailing 8-1 in early March).
George Fox, 10-7 on the season and No. 12 in the regional rankings, has beaten Whitworth twice this spring, winning 7-2 in early March and 5-4 just last week. Whitworth is 11-8 overall.
Fans of all four teams can disregard those earlier results once the tournament gets underway, says Whitman coach and tournament hostJeff Northam.
“Those of us with the Whitman program look forward to playing, and we know the other three teams — Pacific, George Fox and Whitworth — are playing well as they come into the conference tournament,” Northam says. “All three teams are legitimate contenders to represent the NWC at the NCAA Division III tournament in May.”
Weather permitting, matches this weekend will be played on the four outdoor courts at Whitman. The Bratton Tennis Center (four indoor courts) is the standby in case of rain.
Matches start with three flights of doubles before moving into the six flights of singles. Each match ends as soon as one team scores the clinching fifth team point.
This season marks the second year that NWC has used a four-team tournament to award its automatic berth in the national championship tournament.
Prior to last year, the top six teams advanced to the post-season tournament, which also was used to decide the conference championship.
Tennis fans not able to watch this weekend’s matches in person can access a Live Tennis Blog for scoring updates as doubles and singles matches play out.
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Between the two of them, seniors Conor Holton-Burke and Adriel Borshansky have collected nearly 190 career victories in singles and doubles as part of a Whitman College men’s tennis dynasty that has taken root over the past six years.
Holton-Burke and Borshansky, the only seniors on the roster this season, take to the Whitman courts for their final home matches this weekend as the Northwest Conference post-season tournament comes to campus.
Whitman, the five-time NWC champion, faces Whitworth at 10 a.m. Saturday in one of two tournament semifinal matches.
By beating the Pirates, Whitman can advance to Sunday’s 11 a.m. final against the winner of Saturday’s other semifinal.
That second semifinal, which pits Pacific against George Fox, is slated for a 2 p.m. start on Whitman’s courts.
The winner of Sunday’s final gets the NWC’s automatic berth in the NCAA Division III national championship tournament.
Both Holton-Burke and Borshansky have played key roles this spring as Whitman pieced together its best season in more than two decades.
Ranked No. 1 in the West Region and No. 8 nationally, Whitman is 19-4 on the season, 12-0 in NWC matches, and 19-0 against DIII opponents.
Holton-Burke, the reigning NWC Player of the Year, is 14-6 in singles this spring, which includes a 9-1 mark in NWC matches. He is 15-7 in doubles, playing most of those matches with junior Matt Tesmond.
Borshansky has been all but unbeatable in singles during his senior campaign. After dropping a three-set decision to a player from the NAIA’s Lewis-Clark State back in February, he has won his last 19 matches.
While helping Whitman post its sixth straight undefeated NWC regular season, Borshanksy and Holton-Burke have continued to shine just as brightly in the classroom.
Borshansky, who came to Whitman from Ridgewood, N.J, has compiled a 3.925 grade point average in his religion major. His senior religion thesis is titled “Women from the Diaspora and of the Wall: An Ethnography on Jewish Ritual Innovation.”
Borshansky is also completing a minor in politics and plans to work this summer at a “Seeds of Peace” camp in Maine.
Since its founding in 1993 by journalist John Wallach, Seeds of Peace has set the standard in international peace-building by providing young people and educators from regions of conflict with an otherwise impossible opportunity to meet their historic enemies face-to-face at its International Camp in Maine.
Seeds of Peace is headquartered in New York City but has year-around staff located throughout the Middle East and South Asia.
Borshansky, who studied in Nepal during the fall semester of his junior year, is uncertain about his future plans beyond this summer. His interests in recent years have ranged from working with Hillel-Shalom (Jewish student group) to volunteering at a local retirement center and performing with Schwa, the premier a cappella group on campus. He has also been a guitarist, singer and songwriter for the band Dabbles in Bloom.
Borshansky is the son of Dahlia and Natan Borshansky. His father was a collegiate Nordic skier in Russia.
Holton-Burke, who is majoring in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, has maintained an overall grade point average of 3.972 at Whitman and will graduate with honors. He has the highest GPA of any varsity athlete on campus, and is pursuing a minor in mathematics
He is the only member of his class elected as a junior to Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic honor society, and he was one of 10 juniors who served as commencement marshals at Whitman commencement ceremonies last May.
His senior thesis is titled “Identification of Potential Small-Molecule Cancer Drugs in E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Systems.” His thesis is based on his work last summer in the laboratory of Dr. Xuedong Liu at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where his research focused on development of small-molecule cancer-fighting drugs aimed at preventing degradation of tumor-suppressing proteins.
Holton-Burke, who works as a chemistry tutor in Whitman’s Academic Resource Center, plans to remain on campus next year as an assistant tennis coach while he considers a number of M.D./Ph.D programs.
Holton-Burke, who came to Whitman from Boulder, Colo., is the son of Nancy Holton and Pat Burke. His father played collegiate rugby and golf at Regis University while one of his older brothers, Matt, played varsity tennis at Catholic University.
