One streak ends

Apr 182012
 

 Saturday was a long, and bit different of a day. We started off with a morning match against Lewis & Clark College. Since it was our last regular season home match of the year we got almost everyone into the match (unfortunately Will Huskey is injured and couldn’t play). LC is a MUCH improved team and they have one of the top players in the conference (Olivier Groot). Big props to new coach Pat Dreves who took over a team that hadn’t won a match in three years and molded them into a much better team. The only match we dropped was #1 were Steven Roston lost to Groot 6-4, 6-2. This was our 19 straight match win of the year (crazy) and our 90th straight regular season NWC win.

Immediately following the match .. actually there was still one match being played..we jumped into the van and drove to Lewiston to take on NAIA power LCSC. Even though we have limited match dates I’m not sure that in the future we will play a match at home and them drive 2 hours to play another. Certainly doesn’t provide the best playing experience but nonetheless the guys competed hard. The match was 7-2 but featured 4 three-set matches. And so ends our amazing 19 match winning streak.

Whitman 8 LC 1

Doubles

  1. Conor Holton-Burke/Matt Tesmond def Groot/Roth-Carter 8-2
  2. Jeff Tolman/Andrew La Cava def Gee-Tayler/Pfeifer 8-1
  3. Sam Sadeghi/James Rivers def Monismith/Stanbrook 8-6

Singles

  1. Steven Roston lost Groot 6-4, 6-2
  2. Adriel Borshansky def Gee-Taylor 6-0, 7-5
  3. Matt Tesmond def Roth-Carter 6-3, 6-1
  4. Colton Malesovas def Monismith 6-0, 6-1
  5. Dylan Bodet def Pfeifer 6-1, 1-6, 10-3
  6. Atanas Atanasov def Fodor 6-1, 6-0

Whitman 2 LCSC 7

Doubles

  1. Holton-Burke/Tesmond lost Robert/Tischer 8-6
  2. La Cava/Rivers lost Uauy/Krijanto 8-4
  3. Borshansky/Sadeghi lost Tozer/Oram 8-5

Singles

  1. La Cava def Tischer 2-6, 6-0, 6-4
  2. Holton-Burke lost Krijanto 6-4, 6-1
  3. Rivers lost Tozer 3-6, 6-4, 7-6
  4. Sadeghi lost Uauy 6-1, 6-1
  5. Borshansky def Robert 3-6, 6-1, 10-7
  6. Tesmond lost Gay 1-6, 6-3, 6-4

 

Tough Loss to LCSC

Feb 102012
 

Good day of tennis in the Bratton Tennis Center. Day started off with the Whitties taking on the #19 NAIA team in the nation Lewis-Clark State College. The past few years we have had some barn burners with LCSC and today proved no different. A bit of an interesting day for us academically. Next Friday we leave for Washington DC so I was reluctant to have the guys miss class today. Because of this we were shuffling the line-up and warm-up times so everyone could make their classes. For the record we play 26 matches this year and will only miss one day of school this semester (next Friday).

In doubles Matt and Conor started off the #1 spot strong going up early with several breaks. They played very solid the entire match (with the exception of one small hiccup) winning 8-3. Number 3 doubles was a wild topsy turvy match. Steven and Will played some solid tennis but had a let down in the middle section of the match. Even though they were down a break they battled back to get on serve at 6-7. With Big Will serving the LCSC team nailed 4 returns to break and win the match. With the score tied 1-1 all eyes turned to #2 doubles where Jeff and Andrew were down a break with LCSC serving for the match. Kudos to Jeff and Andrew as they dug in their heals and played their best tennis at the end of the match. The Whitman duo ended up fending off 4 match points before falling 8-6 in the tiebreak.

With several guys out of the line-up it provided a wonderful opportunity for some to get into or move up the line-up. Both freshman on the team (James and Colton) took advantage of their opportunities to win close three-set matches. It was especially gratifying to watch James work his way to a grueling three-set win. Really a special moment for James — his past two matches he lost in three sets to D1 opponents. I know this match meant a lot to him (and the team). Colton raced out to a quick lead in his singles match but dropped the second set 1-6. In the tiebreak he made a very smart tactical change to take the 3rd set in a match tie-break.

Speaking of match tie-breakers Will Huskey continued to play impressive tennis, overcoming a slow start to take his match the distance also winning a match break. One of bright spots of the day was having Adriel return to the line-up. Playing at three today Adriel had a wonderful match — even though he lost 6-4 in the 3rd, he played really good tennis against a quality opponent. In fact his opponent finished the evening by beating the #2 from Santa Cruz in straight sets.

Both Conor (#1) and Steven (#4) had gutsy performances but both dropped their first sets 7-6. Steven was down 1-4 before rallying and held a set point in the first set. Conor’s match was nip and tuck the whole way. One of those matches that could of gone either way. Conor has played a couple of these matches in a row and they will benefit his game as the season goes on.

So another close one between LCSC and Whitman — 5-4 to the Warriors. We will play our last match of the regular season against LCSC in Lewiston. Hopefully we can continue our pattern of losing to them early in the year and getting the victory at the end of the year.

Doubles

Singles

  • Conor lost Krijanto 7-6 (3), 6-2
  • James def Tischer 6-4, 1-6, 7-5
  • Adriel lost Tozer 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
  • Steven lost Uauy 7-6 (6), 6-1
  • Will def Robert 2-6, 6-3, 10-7
  • Colton def Gay 6-4, 1-6, 10-6

Great come behind victory on Mother’s Day

May 092011
 

This year I tweaked our schedule a bit and scheduled the always tough LCSC Warriors the weekend before the NCAA’s. The NWC conference tournament is one of the earliest in DIII and the past few years I felt the 4-week break hurt us in the NCAA’s.

After the conference tournament this year we upped our playing intensity and training. Its been a grueling three-week stretch but the extra playing and training should get us ready for the NCAA’s. Unfortunately finals start this week so the guys have been doing double duty — training hard and studying hard.
Our hard work paid off in a big way today as we knocked off LCSC (#19 in NAIA) 6-3. One of our first matches this year was in Lewiston against the Warriors and they thumped us 6-3. In that match they swept the doubles and grabbed 4, 5, and 6 singles in straight sets. Our only victories in that meeting were hard fought three-set victories at #1, #2, and #3.
Today we started off a bit better in doubles with Matt and Quin posting a 8-5 victory at #3. I’m really impressed with how Matt and Quin have shook off a rough spring break trip and are now playing their best doubles. Unfortunately we dropped #1 (Andrew and Conor ) 8-6 and #2 (Jeff and ET) 8-5. In both of those matches we were up breaks but LCSC upped their games to come behind to claim both matches.
After the doubles I was a bit worried about our energy level. Everyone looked tired — not physically tired but mentally drained. Even though we faired better in doubles that our first meeting we were still down 1-2 and facing a very talented group of singles players. LCSC top six are all international players who grew up playing on slower clay courts. Typically when we have beaten LCSC we have been up after the doubles.
Mother’s day was especially kind to us as we took 5 of the 6 singles. Even more impressive is we managed to take the 5 singles without our standout #4 player Jeff Tolman (Jeff has been battling a sore hand since conference and we hope to have him back for nationals). This is really one of our best matches of the year — in fact I feel we are playing better than when we took down #9 Trinity 5-4. Great effort, and emotional lift, for us to come back from 1-2 after doubles to take 5 of the singles. Even more gratifying since earlier in the year we lost to LCSC 3-6.
Again great effort from the entire team. And not just for this match but a great effort the past three weeks. We are all excited and ready for the NCAA’s this weekend. The NCAA committee will announce the draw and locations tomorrow afternoon.
Whitman 6 LCSC 3
Doubles
1. Andrew/Conor lost Ivan Krijanto/Benjamin Robert
2. ET/Jeff lost Oliver Sindayigaya/Viktor Svoboda
3. Quin/Matt won Cesar Uauy/Lincoln Gay
Singles
1. Conor lost Krijanto 6-4, 6-4
2. Andrew def Anders Tischer 6-3, 6-2
3. ET def Uauy 6-3, 6-4
4. Sam def Sindayigaya 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5)
5. Quin def Svoboda 6-4, 6-4
6. Adriel def Robert 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
order of finish 2, 1, 5, 3, 6, 4
Happy Mother’s Day to all Whitman moms!

Whitties drop hard fought match to LCSC

Feb 142011
 

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.

By the hair of our chinny chin chin

Jan 302010
 

Unfortunately its late so this short post won’t do justice to our LCSC match. First matches of the year are always scary and this proved to be no different. We knew we would be in a for a battle, but who knew it would be a 5-4 match that featured five three-setters!

Since the start of practice last week we have been focusing on doubles. The 9-point system really places a huge emphasis on doubles. A strong doubles team can go up 3-0 in pretty quick order. Fortunately for us that is exactly what we did. At #1 Matt Solomon/Jeffrey Tolman were down a break for most the entire match but broke serve at 7-8 forcing a tie-break. They saved their best for last, stringing together first serves and returns to take the breaker 7-4. At #2 doubles Christoph Fuchs/Quin Miller realized how much fun Matt/Jeff were having and decided that they too would win in a breaker. Our senior #3 team of Jake Cappel/Jasper Follows decided to take pity on a poor stressed out coach (me) and post a solid 8-4 victory. Continue reading »

Boise State Wrap-up and Mobile, AL

Oct 142009
 

Been a busy few days for Whitman tennis. Last weekend David Deming and Conor Holton-Burke traveled to Boise for the Boise State Invite (mainly a DI event). What a wonderful event: great facilities, fun people and incredible tennis!

Conor had a great weekend of play. In his first match he defeated a LCSC player 6-3, 6-1 but then lost by the same score to talented University of Portland freshman Jackson Martin. The following day Conor wrapped up his tournament with a straight set win over a sophomore from U of Montana. David went 0-2 but played some pretty good tennis considering he has been out most of the fall with a sore back. In his first match he lost 7-5, 6-4 to a very good freshman freshman from Montana State and then lost to a freshman from Idaho State 10-8 in a 3rd set match break.
Currently I’m in Mobile, AL with Matt Solomon for the ITA Small College National Championships. Tomorrow at 10am Matt squares off in a play-in match against the winner of the Texas region. Winner makes it into the final eight tournament grouping. One very exciting and interesting aspect to this tournament is the winners of DIII, DII, NAIA, and JC play-off in the “Small College Superbowl” Winner of this Superbowl gets to play in the NCAA DI National event.
I’ll try to provide twitter updates during the match.

Whitties start the season 1-1

Jan 282009
 

The Whitties opened their schedule on Saturday with a double header vs NAIA power Lewis-Clark State College and DI Idaho. Our recent matches against LCSC have been competitive. In fact last year we lost a heartbreak 5-4 to the Warriors. This year we were able to turn the tables with a narrow 5-4 win.

In doubles the #2 team of Christoph Fuchs and Quin Miller powered to a quick 8-0. At #3 Dan Wilson and Justin Hayashi posted a solid 8-2 victory. We couldn’t compete the doubles sweep as Etienne Moshevich and Nadeem Kassam lost 8-3.

In singles I was very proud of hard the guys competed. Most of the matches could of gone either way and we were able to win 2 of the matches in 3 sets. Perhaps the most gratifying match of the day was Etienne’s 3 set win at #1 singles to clinch the team victory. Last year at this same time ET suffered a major shoulder injury that forced him out of tennis for the rest of the year. He has worked incredibly hard on his shoulder rehabilitation and is playing/competing incredibly hard.

Match results
Doubles
#1 Moshevich/Kassam lost Dufour/Berhane 8-3
#2 Miller/Fuchs def Mermut/Stone 8-0
#3 Hayashi/Wilson def Chong/Nibley 8-2
Singles
#1 Moshevich def Dufour 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
#2 Bailey lost Berhane 6-4, 7-6
#3 Wilson def Stone 6-2, 7-6
#4 Hayashi def Mermut 6-4, 1-6, 4-4 ret injury
#5 Kassam lost Chong 7-5, 6-2
#6 Cappel lost Nibley 6-3, 1-6, 10-8

Immediately following the LCSC match we took to the courts to play a very tough Idaho team. Being DI, Idaho is able to offer athletic scholarships and fields a team with a very international flavor. Also 3 of their players have earned ATP points.

Because we were playing back-to-back matches I rotated the line-up to keep people fresh and to give more players match opportunities. Even though we got swept 7-0 (DI scoring) highlights of the day were Christoph’s and Adriel’s singles matches. Both matches were close 3 set affairs that could of gone either way.

Match results
Doubles
#1 Miller/Fuchs lost Kuzntsov/Joitoiv 8-5
#2 Kassam/Cappel lost Huynh/Chalkley 8-2
#3 Bailey/Borshansky lost Shin/Glukhov 8-2

Singles
#1 Bailey lost Joitoiv 6-4, 6-1
#2 Wilson lost Glukhov 6-1, 6-1
#3 Fuchs lost Huynh 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
#4 Miller lost Chalkley 6-2, 6-0
#5 Follows lost Shin 6-0, 6-3
#6 Borshansky lost McDonald 3-6, 7-5, 10-6