Whitman Tennis

Long post incoming. Sorry for the length of the post but it has been a few days since I’ve been able to provide match recaps.

First off scores from yesterday:

Whitman 9 Westminster 0

Whitman 5 Colby 4

What an unbelievable spring break trip! Two weeks on the road with an amazing group of guys (we are starting our second week). Many people have asked why we are taking a two-week trip. Whitman has a two-week break and traditionally we have taken the 1st week to travel and play matches. This year I decided to schedule most of our away conference matches the first week of break and use the second week to travel to Hilton Head Island.

So far the trip has been a blast. Our team is more a family than a team and we are the best vacation ever! Well its not exactly a vacation since we are playing something like 14 matches during our trip.

Last time I really updated the blog was on Monday after the Pacific and George Fox matches. On Tuesday I took part of the guys to Salem for a conference match against Willamette. Since we had a two hour drive to Salem we left about 10am to ensure we had plenty of warm-up time. Weather was actually perfect in Salem and we got to play the match outdoors. This is quite a rarity in Salem: they have only played two home matches at their outdoor courts in the last two years!

We played Willamette 5 days earlier in Walla Walla so we knew what to expect coming into the match. In our earlier meeting we had close matches at both #1 and #2 doubles (both were 8-6). In this match we came out firing and took control of the match from the start. In fact we only lost a combined 2 games in the matches! In singles the matches were much more competitive. Chris really struggled at the start of his match before settling down for 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory. Dan also had a close three set match 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. We were able to win the rest of the matches in straight sets. One of the highlights was Reid Bennett’s 6-0, 6-3 victory at #6. Reid was scheduled as the alternate but Justin’s shoulder didn’t feel right so I pulled Justin out of the singles and moved Reid to the #6 slot.

After a snack in Salem we drove to Lewis-Clark to watch Team B take on the Pioneers. Even though the two teams had only been apart for a day it seemed like forever since we had seen each other. We actually arrived after David “the clincher” Deming won the match with his 6-4, 6-2 victory at #6. However we able to watch Jake post a solid win over Vincent Groot (Vincent is top 30 in the region). When we arrived Jake was down 1-4 in the third. With the strong encouragement of his teammates, Jake was able to reel off 5 straight games for a 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 win. By the time we got to the Fuch’s house for dinner it was already around 10pm…talk about a long day!

Thursday was another early day as our Linfield match was moved indoors in Salem. So up at 6am and out the door at 7am for another two hour drive to Salem. We had played Linfield about three weeks ago in the comfort of our indoor tennis courts. Even though we escaped with a 5-4 match we felt terrible about the way ended (we were up 5-2 in team scoring and let #5 and #6 slip away). The kicker for this match with Linfield was we were playing without our #1 standout Etienne Moshevich (injury).

I was so proud of the way we stepped up and started the match. At #1 doubles Christoph and Quin broke the first game and never looked back winning 8-5 (they lost to this team 8-6 in our first meeting). At #2 doubles Dan and Justin where down a break at 2-4 and motored to a 8-5 win (they played #3 doubles the first time we played). At #3 doubles Nadeem and Chris were down from the first game and battled back for an 8-7 lead. Unfortunately they couldn’t convert a few match points and Linfield was able to send the match to a tiebreak. At this point Nadeem really showed his doubles skills and made it a personal point to take over the breaker…which he did. After the doubles we are up 3-0. In NCAA DIII tennis coming back from 0-3 in doubles is incredibly tough.

We only had four courts to play on so #5 (Quin) and #6 (Christoph) had to wait. We were able to take the 1st sets at #1 (Chris), #3 (Jake) and #4 (Nadeem). Unfortunately Dan ran into a red hot player and dropped his match 6-0, 7-5. Chris was able to close out the #1 match 6-4, 6-4 giving us a 4-1 lead. At this point Jake and Nadeem both drop the second set. I must say that this trip has been great for Jake. He has really stepped up his game and is becoming “clutch” in tight matches. He was up a break in the 2nd and let the set slip through his fingers. In the 3rd he was able to break at 4-4 and serve out the match 6-4. For the record at this point Jake has played 4 consecutive three-set matches and won them all! With the match over Nadeem played a 10 point breaker for the 3rd and ended up losing 6-7, 7-5, 10-5. Although Deem felt like he didn’t play his best tennis he competed hard and pushed a very good player to the limits.

For Christoph (#6) and Quin (#5) this match was about redemption. One great thing about tennis is you always get second chances. In our first meeting Christoph and Quin were both up 6-1 and a break in the 2nd set when the wheels fell off and they both ended up losing in a match breaker. I know this didn’t sit well with either of them and they were chomping for a rematch. To make a long story short (and this has been a long story) both were able to use the opportunity and reverse the outcome of the previous meeting — Quin won 6-4, 6-4 and Christoph won 6-2, 4-6, 10-8.

It was great defeating 7-2 minus our #1 player! Certainly a good sign when we go into the conference tournament.

After the match we grabbed a quick lunch, raced back to our housing to pack-up, string a few rackets and hit the road for the Seattle airport. Ended up checking into the hotel at 10pm. After a quick dinner we hit the sack to grab a couple hours of sleep before our 6am flight (at the airport at 4am) to Charlotte NC.

On a personal note Charlotte was one of the highlights of the trip. Note only did my lovely wife join us for this stage of the trip but we stayed at the home of ex-Whitman professor, baseball coach and Athletic Director Travis Feezell and his family. For Jennifer and I it was wonderful catching up with our friends.

On Saturday we had a nice hit at a local high school, packed up the vans and hit the road. Its about a 4-hour drive from Charlotte to Hilton Head Island, SC. Reason we flew into Charlotte instead of closer airports was ticket price. Our tickets into Charlotte were less than half some teams paid to fly into Savannah, GA. I figured the $300 savings per ticket (16 tickets) was worth the the 4-hour drive.

Hilton Head is a wonderful place for matches. We are staying at the Hilton Head Island Beach and Tennis Resort and staying in condos. The condos are great since they have full kitchens, living rooms and separate bedrooms. Plus three of our matches this week are right outside of of the condos!

Yesterday we played a double header/split squad match against Colby and Westminster. In the morning the top players took on a tough Colby squad. It was really hard to gauge the Colby team. They are ranked #8 in the tough NE region but haven’t played any matches (we were their first match). As I mentioned in an earlier post this marked the return of our best player Etienne Moshevich — we decided to have him only play doubles to see how he responded to competitive play.

For the past two-weeks I’ve been preaching to the team that we need to be in close matches and look forward to the battle and intensity in close matches. Winning matches 9-0 with half a squad doesn’t prepare us for tough national level competition. Well Colby provided our first test. We didn’t play well in doubles and found ourselves in a 1-2 hole. Plus after watching the doubles it was clear that Colby had two very good players at #1 and #2. Everyone knew they needed to step up play in singles. And step up play did they ever. We won 6-0 first sets at #3, #4, #6 and 6-2 at #5. Talk about a momentum swing! The entire team was supporting everyone and playing with positive enthusiasm. We ended up rolling to 6-0, 6-1 victories #6, #4, and #3. With the match score 4-3 (Dan lost at #2) we only needed one more win to clinch the match. Chris lost an incredibly long set at #1 so the “clincher” appeared to come down to Quin’s match. Quin was absolutely rolling in his match he won the first set 6-2 (didn’t lose a point on serve) and was up 5-2 serving with a match point. At this point Quin thinks the team match is over and is wondering why his teammates are hanging on the fence screaming and yelling for each point he won. At 5-2 match point Quin hits a wall losing about 8 straight points — he can’t find the court with anything! From that match point Quin doesn’t win another point until 4-5. It is one of the most incredible turn arounds I have seen in a match. At 5-4 Quin starts to get his focus back and earns a couple match points only to get broke. At 5-5 things are really tight and the entire team is squirming on the sideline. Of course Quin is blissfully ignorant to the match situation. Quin finally breaks after a long duece game. Serving 5-4, Quin loses 3 more match points (6 match points lost); lucky for us Quin finally wins the match on his 7th match point…whew!

We immediately started our second match against Westminster. Kind of funny since Chris was still playing his singles match when we started singles against Westminster (because of courts we started with singles). Team “B” looked incredibly sharp mowing through a team that has been to the NCAA team tournament the past 2 years. Adriel looked incredibly sharp in his 6-1, 6-2 victory at #1 (over a very solid player). Based on his strong play he is going to play #6 against Chicago later today. Thomas also played very thoughtful tennis and posted another routine win. So far this trip he has yet to drop more than 2 games in a match!

Later today (noon) we play a very loaded Chicago team. We are both ranked in the 20′s but Chicago is one of the most talented teams in the nation. Their roster is loaded with 4 and 3 star recruits. On paper they are the better team. However, matches aren’t played on paper and it is impossible to measure a team’s work ethic and competitive spirit. We are certainly looking forward to today’s challenge. We are also looking forward to having ET back in the line-up. At 6pm Team “B” takes on St Thomas.

Big shout out to former Whittie Dan Solomon who is finishing his college career at Colorado College. Over the weekend he defeated PLU #1 Joel Trudel in straight sets. He told me it was a very sweet victory:)

Pictures of our trip