Whitties knock down PLU 8-1

Feb 252012
 

What an interesting start to a match. At 4pm the weather was beautiful — highs in the 60′s and clear blue skies. However as the match progressed Mother Nature decided to get into the act and kicked in some high winds. You know the wind is bad when you need to pick up twigs and broken branches off the court on change-overs. The wind certainly added to the excitement of #3 doubles as Steven Roston and Will Huskey played one of the more thrilling tiebreaks I have witnessed. In the end the PLU #3 got the upper hand winning 14-12 in the tie-breaker! As a team we managed to gain a 2-1 lead after the doubles with Matt and Conor winning 8-6 at #1 and Andrew and James winning 8-1 at #2.

With the gutsy winds and drop in temperature we decided to move the singles indoors. Our past weekends of intense competition have certainly sharpened everyone’s game as we cruised through the match without dropping a set. Singles match of the day goes to Will Huskey who overcame a break in the 2nd set to win 7-5, 7-6.

Interesting stat of the day — Conor now sits at 98 wins! Today when we play UPS he has a chance to join the exclusive Whitman Tennis Century Club! Looks like high winds will force our 1pm match against UPS indoors. Those in Walla Walla should drop by the courts to watch us try to knock down the Loggers.

Whitman 8 PLU 1

Doubles

  1. Conor Holton-Burke/Matt Tesmond def Ah Yat/Dickey 8-6
  2. James Rivers/Andrew La Cava def Cotton/Olson 8-1
  3. Steven Roston/Will Huskey lost Berg/Herron 9-8 (14-12)

Singles

  1. Conor Holton-Burke def Ah Yat 6-4, 6-3
  2. James Rivers def Cotton 6-2, 6-2
  3. Adriel Borshansky def Dickey 6-1, 6-0
  4. Steven Roston def Berg 6-2, 6-0
  5. Will Huskey def Olson 7-5, 7-6
  6. Matt Tesmond def Angel 6-2, 6-4

Whitties clinch NWC title!

Apr 122011
 

Last home weekends of the year are always emotional. It is the last time the seniors get the opportunity to play a home match. This year was a bit different since we only needed a single win to host the conference tournament. Still its an emotional weekend knowing that the tennis careers of three special young men are coming to a close. These three seniors are amazing men and have been instrumental in the success of the Whitman tennis program.

Etienne Moshevich career records:
singles 31-15, 43-16 doubles, 74-31 overall. NWC All Conference, All-American Doubles (2009, 2007), NCAA III team tournament participant. In his career ET has only lost 3 NWC matches (1 singles and 2 doubles).
Chris Bailey career records:
56-36 singles, 23-10 doubles, 79-46 overall. NWC All Conference 2nd team, NCAA III Team tournament participant. Chris has only lost 5 NWC matches in his Whitman career.
Quin Miller career records:
38-8 singles, 53-16 doubles, 91-24 overall. NCAA III team tournament participant. Quin also has only lost 5 conference matches in his Whitman career.
Luckily these three seniors have the opportunity to play at home next weekend when we host the NWC conference tournament! On Saturday we blanked UPS 9-0 and on Sunday we defeated PLU 8-1.
What an amazing season. In year after we graduated seven players, the 2011 team went undefeated in conference play (12-0), won the NWC title, and goes into next weekend’s conference tournament as the #1 seed. Not only was the team undefeated in conference play but they went into each match with dedication and passion I have never seen from a team. This is a pretty amazing stat — we played 12 conference matches this year and only dropped 6 matches all year!
This weekend we had several milestones:
  • Our 5th straight regular season conference undefeated season
  • Our 4th consecutive NWC title
  • Earned the right to host the NWC tournament. Winner of the 4-team tournament earns an automatic birth in the NCAA tournament

Next weekend the schedule for the NWC tournament is:

Saturday 10am #1 Whitman vs #4 Pacific
Saturday 10am #2 Willamette vs #3 Whitworth
Sunday 11am finals
Admission is free and we hope to see you at the courts! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Weekend Recap

Mar 072011
 

Over the weekend we were able to win two matches in Tacoma (8-1 vs UPS and 7-2 vs PLU) but mother nature got the better of our Whitworth match forcing us to reschedule after spring break.

I must say logistically last weekend presented some challenges. All week I had been keeping an eye on the condition of Snoqualmie Pass (the I90 pass through the Cascade Mountain Range into Seattle). During the early part of the week the pass was closed but as the week progressed the road conditions improved. Additionally since Spring Break is around the corner (starts this Friday) some of the guys had a lot of academic pressures and couldn’t make the trip. Because of this we ended up taking nine players to the Tacoma matches and Coach Jake was going to bring the remaining three players to Whitworth for our Saturday match. Since we were playing three matches in 24 hours this would allow us to rotate players helping ensure everyone would remain fresh during the long weekend. Continue reading »

Tacoma here we come!

Mar 032011
 

Busy weekend for the men’s tennis team. Friday we play at UPS — 3pm vs UPS and 6pm vs PLU. We are going back-to-back so it will be a full day of Whitman tennis. On Saturday we travel to Spokane to take on Whitworth at 3pm. Yes 3 matches in 24 hours!

Whitman enters the weekend 5-0 in the conference, UPS is 1-2, the Lutes are 0-3 and Whitworth is 2-2. We are looking at maintaining our momentum heading into spring break next week.

If you can’t be at the matches I will try to give match updates via the twitter feed.

Woo Woo into the Conference Finals

Apr 172010
 

Sorry this is going to be a very short note: its 11pm already and we have an early day tomorrow. This afternoon in the NWC semi finals we faced a very tough PLU team. Even though PLU went into the tournament as the #4 seed they were arguably one of the hottest teams in the conference. In the two weeks prior to the NWC tournament they defeated both Linfield and Willamette (#2 and #3 seeds).

Our match was scheduled to start at 3:30pm, but our womens team had a GREAT win over #2 seed Linfield. I’m so proud of the women and coach Hein’s effort. They are playing in the conference finals at noon tomorrow…will be fun since we will be playing together! Continue reading »

7 matches in 5 days!

Mar 172010
 

Yesterday we finished the Portland phase of our spring break trip with a 9-0 victory over Pacific University. In the past five days we have gone 7-0 in conference play! During that stretch we defeated what I think are three of the best teams in the conference (PLU, Linfield, and Willamette). Also during this stretch we have only lost 4 individual matches! I’m feeling very good where we are as a team and how we are currently playing.

Against Pacific we started with singles (looked like it was going to rain) and we quickly ran away with the match. I think we lost a total of 16 games in the singles. Pacific is a up-coming-team and they have steadily improved each of the past few years under the guidance of Coach Jackson. However our depth and experience was simply too much for them as quickly went through the singles.
With the first phase of our trip under our belts we are headed to UC Santa Cruz where we play three great matches this weekend — UC Santa Cruz, Cal Lutheran and Pomona. The new rankings come out today and I would expect both UCSC and Cal Lu to be top 10 and Pomona in the top 20. We couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to play against some of the top teams in the nation.
Speaking of rankings, the latest d3tennis power rankings has Whitman at #21 in the nation. We are currently 13-1 on the year (only loss to #1 UC Santa Cruz) and 12-0 in conference.

Sweep PLU!

Mar 132010
 

I must admit I was worried going into our match with PLU. Don’t get me wrong I always look forward to playing PLU because historically they produce some wonderful matches. Yesterday I worried about how the guys would play after a very tough academic week. The week before spring break (Whitman has a two-week break) is always one of the toughest weeks of the year. This year seemed worse than most: almost everyone on the team was staying up late studying, working on papers and/or preparing for tests. I doubt that anyone on the team had a good night’s sleep all week and I was worried how everyone would respond to the intense academic week.

Moody Match

Feb 142010
 


This is a very tough post. Besides playing two matches yesterday, we learned that a member of the Whitman community (and good friend to a member of the tennis team) died yesterday in a tragic skiing accident. My thoughts and emotions go out to the Whitman community and family.

Yesterday we had a very long day in the UPS fieldhouse as we took on rival PLU and host UPS. We arrived at the fieldhouse at 10am and didn’t leave until until 7pm! As readers of my blog know I have the greatest respect for the PLU team. They are an experienced team with enough talented players to give most any team trouble. Yesterday they were trouble for us….
While we ended up gutting out a tough 5-4 match I’m not happy with how the match played out and our team attitude. As a team we spend time talking about values — personal values, team values, core values, gratitude and competition. We work on how we want to look (individually and as a team). We have an expectation of how we want to compete on the court. As a group, as a family we know how we should compete in the face of adversity. Frankly we were a moody, angry group on court and it showed in our results. Is it possible to be disappointed in a 5-4 victory that came down to the last match? I believe I speak for our group when I say yes. Hopefully yesterday’s experience will serve to motivate us, inspire us and teach us. I truly believe we have all the tools to be a great team. However if yesterday’s performance and attitude is going to be the norm we are in for a long season.
Doubles. Doubles its so important in DIII tennis…not only is it three points but with the pro-set format it is over in a hour. Its a game of confidence and momentum. There is no second or third set to recoup, regroup or reset. Doubles sets the tone for the match. The energy, or lack thereof, carries over to singles. We are used to success in doubles, we are used to having good energy coming out of the doubles. The strength of our team should be doubles. I know we have the skill-set and players to stand toe-to-toe with any DIII team in the nation. So far this season we have aways been playing from behind. Even in our doubles sweep of LCSC we were behind and on the ropes the entire match. Against UC Santa Cruz we were behind but that had numerous opportunities to take a 2-1 or 3-0 lead.
Yesterday was more of the same. Our woes started at #1 doubles. Right out of the blocks Matt was broken — a couple bad mistakes and they are down after the first game. Later in the match they break back only to immediately get broke back. In their three matches this year Matt and Jeffrey have been down early (sometimes multiple breaks) and are forced to play from behind. Its bad flow and doesn’t produce good energy going into singles.
While one doubles was struggling we were rolling at two and three doubles. At number two Quin and Christoph have been playing solid doubles. So far this season they have been serving well and haven’t faced much pressure on their serve. In three matches I think they have only been broken once (against UC Santa Cruz). I have no explanation for what happened at three doubles yesterday. Unfortunately Jake re-injuried his wrist and was unable to go on Saturday. However with our team this shouldn’t be a problem, we have a plethora of people that can fill in three doubles. I opted to go with Jasper and Conor at that slot. Everything looked great as they raced out to a 5-0 lead in about 15 minutes. They get broken one time and the wheels started to fall off. Instead of shrugging off the break they got mopey and moody. Then they got broke again and they fall apart. The PLU team seized the momentum of the match winning 7-0 in a tie-break.
Not only do we go into the singles down 1-2 but we go into the doubles down 1-2 after falling apart in the doubles. Not a good way to start the singles.
In singles PLU’s #1 player showed everyone why he was 2009 NWC Player of the Year by dismantling Matt 6-0, 6-2. PLU’s Trudel played some incredible tennis and Matt certainly helped make him look good. Matt didn’t play well and is disappointed with his performance. At #6 Jasper shrugs off his doubles performance and wins 6-2, 6-1. At this point the match score is 2-3 and we have won the 1st sets at #2 (Moshevich) 6-1, #3 (Tolman) 7-5, and #4 Bailey (6-0) but lost the 1st at #5 (Fuchs) 4-6.
Moody players and the tide turns…Moshevich, Tolman, and Bailey all drop the 2nd set. Christoph isn’t playing well but wins the second set. Jeffrey drops his match 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 and now we are down 2-4 with 3 singles matches in the third set. Props to Moshevich, Bailey and Fuchs for overcoming some shaky tennis and pulling out third sets wins to give us the match 5-4. Moshevich got the ball rolling by winning 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in the third. Fuchs was up 5-2 in the third but got broke before breaking to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. That put Bailey in the spot light in a very streaky match. I’m damn proud of how Bailey overcame a huge mental lapse (lets say he was way up in his match) and momentum shift to win his match. By virtue of Christoph’s win the match was tied at 4-4 and Chris was at 3-3 in the 3rd set. At three games all Chris breaks and quickly holds to go up 3-5. The PLU player is starting to cramp and needs a training time-out. At 3-5 Chris has 3 match points and nets a three backhands. PLU holds and regains energy. Hats off to Chris who bombs in three huge first serves and holds at 40-15 to clinch the team match 5-4.
Its days like yesterday that I’m grateful we have a deep roster. Immediately following the PLU match we start against host UPS. No team warm-up or talk just play. For the UPS match we used a completed new set of players (good thing because everyone was physically and emotionally strung out). After watching their teammates struggle through a close match against PLU the guys playing against UPS were fired up and ready to go. They swept through the UPS match without losing a set.
We don’t travel again until Spring Break and now have the luxury of time to get down to serious training. Its been a rough few weeks playing the #1 team in the nation, a top 20 NAIA team, and our conference rival. As a team we all felt like yesterday’s match gave us a second chance at the season. Yesterday we were a moody bear that just woke out of hibernation. Now we will see what the spring brings!

NWC Championships Recap

Apr 202009
 

Sorry about not getting this out yesterday. Weather was too nice to be inside and replacing a spring shackle on my Jeep became a major project that included cutting the frame, modifying brackets, and the removal of auxiliary parts.

This year’s NWC tournament certainly provided us some challenges both on and off the court. Even before our first match we had some funky issues to deal with. Since there are no warm-up courts at the Yakima Tennis Club we went off-site before our matches to get loosened up and hit a few balls. During this warm up Nadeem got hit in the head and broke his glasses. Luckily he was prepared and had an extra pair of glasses in the hotel. Unfortunately the van wouldn’t start! Now we are stuck at a public park with a broken pair of glasses and no way to get back to the hotel or even to the tournament site. Fortunately Coach Ann was driving six guys from Walla Walla that morning so we waited for her to arrive. Once she arrived, Nadeem and I jumped into the van to go back the hotel. However, Jake left his rackets and shoes in the van and didn’t have his equipment to warm-up with. What a crazy morning! In the end we were able to shuttle people to lunch and to the tournament site. Coach Ann had to do the dirty work and find a repair shop, tow-truck and shuttle all while being left with a broken van. For the record Brett Hall Chevelot is Yakima was AWESOME…they towed the van, provided a shuttle for Ann and provided a complimentary Enterprise van.

Because of morning rain the tournament was running a few hours behind schedule. The extra hours allowed us to get eye-glasses, everyone feed, equipment to the correct players and everyone shuttled to the Yakima Tennis Club. Without that delay it would have been an incredibly stressful morning.

The NWC conference is a six-team tournament with the #1 seeds (us) and the #2 seeds (PLU) getting byes. Our first match was against Willamette (#4 seed) who defeated #5 seed Whitworth. As great has the facility is at the Yakima Tennis Club it can be very windy. Friday was no exception — as my sailing friends would say it was “blowing like stink”.

Against Willamette we didn’t play our best doubles and they really brought their top game. In fact at one time we were down breaks at all three doubles! Last time we played Willamette we won the doubles by the scores of 8-1, 8-1, 8-0. What a change to be looking down the barrel of being swept. To use another sailing term (approriate because of the wind) we were able to “right our ship” and take #2 and #3 doubles. At #1 Justin and Dan played pretty nervous with the dual-pressure of an undefeated season on the line and playing at the #1 doubles spot. Even though they broke back at the end of the match to serve at 7-8 they were broke at love losing the match 9-7.

Singles wasn’t great but we started better in the wind and hitting our stride. Chris was down early in his match to the talented #1 from Willamette 2-6, but was able to win the second 6-3 and was up a break in the 3rd when the team match was finished. The junior trio of Dan Wilson, Nadeem Kassam and Jake Cappel all won in straight sets to clinch the match for us. Because of the tournament delay the match was stopped (normally we play out the matches).

Whitman 5 PLU 1

The victory over Willamette set up a show down against #2 seeds PLU. PLU played a great semi-final match against Linfield (#3 seed). I knew the PLU vs Linfield was going to be tight and I figured whomever had the lead after doubles would win the match. As usual Linfield played great doubles and took two of the doubles. However PLU swept all six singles match giving them the victory. What a great effort by PLU. Also gives a strong indication of how much better PLU is playing (we beat Linfield 5-4 and 7-2).

Weather wasn’t an issue in the finals…it was a beautiful day. It was also a beautiful day to have our full line-up playing for the first time all year. Because of injuries and illness we have never had our top singles and doubles line-up play a match. Nothing like the conference finals to finally have a full line-up!

In doubles we were able to quickly go up breaks at #2 and #3 doubles. At #1 Dan and Justin had their hands full against a very hot PLU team (on Friday they had beaten the #10 team in the region 8-0) and were down 1-4. At #3 Nadeem and ET fired up the entire team with a pretty quick 8-3 victory. #2 doubles Christoph and Quin won six of the final eight games posting a 8-4 victory. With everyone watching, Dan and Justin picked up their game playing aggressive doubles and bombing overheads. After being down 1-4 Justin had serve and broke at love putting the match back on serve. At 5-6 Justin had a quick hold and they broke the NWC Conference player of the Year (Joel Trudel) giving Dan the opportunity to serve for the match. Playing on the stadium court infront huge a crowd with the match on the line, I was so proud of how Dan and Justin embraced the moment and served out the match. One of the best proud coaching moments!

The sweep in doubles turned out to be huge. PLU continued their great singles play and put up an incredible match. I was really impressed with the PLU team. This is a team we had beaten 8-1 and 7-2 this season, we were up 3-0 after doubles and they didn’t bow their heads or have any negative energy on the court. They came after us…hard!

The key to the match came down to the experience of juniors Jake Cappel and Nadeem Kassam. Both of these young men have played in the conference finals and NCAA National tournament. They were also matched up against two players who had never played in a conference final. Both had solid first sets with Jake winning 6-1 and Nadeem coming back from 0-3 before reeling off 6 straight games. Those were the only 1st sets we won: #1 (ET), #2 (Chris), #3 (Dan) and #6 (Adriel) all dropped their 1st sets! The final match score doesn’t indicate the competitive nature of this match.

About 45 minutes into the singles we started to hit our stride. Jake finished out his match 6-1, 6-3 giving us a 4-0 lead. His quick victory really put the pressue squarely on every PLU player: they all had to win or the match was over. At #3 singles Dan had a great rally — after being down 0-4 in the first he came back to even the match 4-6, 6-2. At #2 Chris overcame a horrible start and gutted his way into a 3rd set 2-6, 7-6 (10-8). At #6 Adriel ran into a red hot Justin Peterson but was able to even the match 2-6, 6-2. For the record Justin is a great player who is capable of producing unbelievable tennis. In fact last year he played #3 for PLU. As all these matches were splitting sets ET was locked in a battle with PLU #1 player. ET ended up dropping the 1st set 7-5 but had a ton of break points that he couldn’t convert. Hats off to Joel Trudel. I’ve been around some high level tennis and I’ve never seen anyone serve themselves out of trouble the way Joel did on Saturday. Every break point he was able to bomb in a 1st serve. He certainly deserved to be named NWC Player of the Year.

As we were splitting sets at #2, #3 and #6, Nadeem clinched the match with a 6-3 6-3 victory. What a great win for Deem. In the past he has struggled closing out matches. Today Deem showed his maturity, composure and improved play. Once he got up in each set he was able to play his best tennis closing out each set! Very gratifying to see Deem clinch the match.

With the match over Dan and Chris won match breakers giving us a 7-0 lead. At #1 ET lost 6-4, 7-5 and at #6 Adriel lost 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Even though ET lost it was unbelievable to have him back in the line-up. His fire, passion and love of the game (and competing) inspires the entire team.

We finished the year with undefeated conference season and repeat conference championships!

We now wait a couple weeks to see where we were be shipping off for the NCAA team tournament.

Whitman 7 PLU 2

Whitties finish NWC 16-0!

Apr 122009
 

Yesterday was a great day for the Whitties. In beating rival PLU 7-2 we finished the conference season with an unblemished 16-0 record! This is the third constitutive year we have finished 16-0 in the conference and our 50th consecutive regular season conference victory!

Ending our season against PLU was especially gratifying since they have been one of the best teams in the conference and will go into the conference tournament as the #2 seed. Certainly nice going into the conference tournament as the #1 seed and just beaten the #2 seed 7-2.

We went into the match a bit off-balanced with our doubles. Doubles standout Christoph Fuchs has been sick the past two weeks and he stayed at home to rest and recover. I was also hoping to insert Etienne Moshevich into the doubles line-up but at the last minute decided to scratch him from the line-up. As a coach it can be a bit unsettling having new doubles combos and teams playing in different positions going into a big match. However one of beautiful aspects of our team is our tremendous depth and team spirit. We put about 14 players into the doubles line-up and not miss a beat. This was evident against PLU as Dan Wilson and Justin Hayashi moved up to #1 doubles, Nadeem Kassam and Chris Bailey played #2 and the relatively new team of Jasper Follows and Quin Miller filled in at #3.

Justin and Dan continued their unbelievable season gaining an early break and never looked back winning 8-5 against a very good PLU team. Justin and Dan have been incredible this season. They started the year at #3 doubles and the past few matches have been playing #1 — simply amazing that they haven’t lost a match all spring! Nadeem and Chris were in early control of their match going up 5-2. However the resilient PLU team won three straight games to even the match at 5-5. At this point Chris played some great doubles: getting in a high percentage of 1st serves, closing at the net and putting Nadeem in good position to finish off points. They won three games of the final four games taking the match 8-5. Number three doubles was a treat to watch as both Quin and Jasper played smart, aggressive doubles. They both were animals at the net crossing at the appropriate times against a team that tried to dictate play from the baseline.

Honestly I was hoping for a 2-1 lead going into doubles. Being up 3-0 was early Easter gift!

In singles Dan gave us a 4-1 lead with a 6-0, 6-4 victory at #2 singles. PLU’s #1 standout Joel Trudel, a DI transfer from University of Idaho, put PLU on the board with a 6-2, 6-4 over Chris Bailey. So far this year Trudel hasn’t lost a singles match in conference play. I know ET was disappointed not to get a shot at him on Saturday (ET is also undefeated). However if the conference seeding holds true the two might square off on Saturday in the conference finals. Junior Jake Cappel clinched the match with a 7-5, 6-2 victory at #5 singles. Nice to see Jake play solid tennis, he has been sick the past couple weeks and he is just starting to get his legs back (also happy birthday Jake). Quin Miller had a good 6-4, 6-3 victory at #6 over PLU’s Justin Peterson. Peterson played #3 on last year’s PLU team and is a very talented, dangerous player. Each week it is a amazing to watch the progress that Quin makes in his game — at the moment he is playing very solid ball. At #4 Adriel suffered his first defeat of the year 3-6, 6-3, 10-3. I felt that Adriel was in control of the match but at 3-3 in the 2nd the wheels fell off and he dropped three quick games and could never recover. In my eyes match of the day was #3 singles where Nadeem Kassam defeated Kevin Floyd 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. This was a great win for Nadeem — last year Floyd played #1 for PLU and for the past three years has been one of the best players in the conference. Great confidence booster for Nadeem heading into conference.

Whitman 7 PLU 2

Next weekend is the NWC conference tournament in Yakima WA. As the #1 seed we get a bye and play the winner of #4/#5 (Whitworth and Willamette). If we make it through that match the finals will be at the Yakima Tennis Club around noon on Saturday.

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