NWC Tournament Champions!

Apr 232012
 

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.

NWC Championship Preview

Apr 202012
 


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.

Whitties defeat Whitworth 9-0

Apr 042012
 

With our Saturday victory (I know this is a bit late) over Whitworth it appears we have just about locked up a 5th straight NWC Championship and earned the right to host the NWC post-season tournament the 3rd weekend of April. The NWC has a bit of strange schedule in that all the schools play a round robin and half. To keep the conference standings fair when teams play against each other twice the average of those scores are used to determine conference finish. Fortunately for us each of the remaining schools on our schedule (Lewis Clark, Willamette, and Linfield) we have defeated 9-0. Mathematically all we need to do is win a set against Linfield and Willamette this weekend to have the higher “average” score and hence the season “victory”.

Speaking of this weekend don’t forget Dr Clifford Mah is hosting a Whitman tennis alumni event at Flying Pie Pizza (in Portland) Saturday 6pm. Hope to see all the Whitman tennis alumni (and families) at the event! Anyone planning on attending should RSVP with me by Friday.

Whitman 9 Whitworth 0

Doubles

  1. Matt/Conor def Redfern/Williams 8-0
  2. Andrew/Jeff def Hamming/Dernbach 8-3
  3. Sam/James def McConnell/Goebel 8-3

Singles

  1. Andrew def Redfern 6-3, 6-2
  2. Jeff def Williams 6-4, 6-1
  3. Conor def McConnell 6-4, 6-2
  4. James def Dernbach 6-0, 6-1
  5. Sam def Hamming 6-2, 6-2
  6. Adriel def Engelman 6-2, 6-2

 

Team takes big strides to clinching 4th straight NWC title.

Apr 052011
 

This past weekend was a special and unique coaching weekend. Yes the team went 3-0 and moved one step closer to one of our goals of winning the NWC title. But more interesting was that my 8 year old daughter made the road trip with the team to Portland. I honestly can’t remember seeing her so excited (with the exception of Christmas). All week all she could talk about was going on a trip with the team. When I woke her up Friday morning she jumped out of bed and rushed upstairs to start her morning because it was the big day. Was a lot of fun watching the team interact with her — she had 12 big brothers who were willing to playing catch, run around after her, and/or carrying her around. It was a weekend she will remember for a long time!

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.

Day two of ITA

Sep 272010
 

I know the title says day two of the ITA but we are actually starting day three. Rain swept through the Willamette Valley yesterday pushing the tournament back a few hours and a change of venue to nearby indoor courts. Was a very long day we didn’t get back to the hotel until 11pm last night.

All I can say about yesterday’s tennis is wow. I felt like we had the top players in the conference coming at us all day long. In fact the day reminded me of one very long (11 hour) dual match. In the first round of matches we were lucky to have Whitman players on 5 out of 6 courts. One of the most entertaining matches of the day was freshman Andrew La Cava vs senior Etienne Moshevich. It was unfortunate these two teammates had to play against each other. Andrew ended up getting the better of his teammate 7-6 (11-9), 6-3. Besides the high level of play it was wonderful seeing how the competed against each other. Even though this was an important match they played it like true brothers — complimenting each other, replaying points, and truly being supportive of each other. Etienne is such a blessing to have on the team. Besides being a warrior on the court he is supportive of his team and a true leader. Continue reading »

16-0 conference season

Apr 122010
 

Yesterday we wrapped our regular season conference schedule with a double-header sweep of Whitworth in Spokane. Double-headers are typically associated with baseball but in an effort to save dates (and travel) we have been playing double-headers with Whitworth the past couple years .. alternating between Spokane and Walla Walla.

Squirrels Sweep final home matches

Apr 062009
 

Great weather and some great tennis for our final home matches of the year. Only bummer for the day was illness took three Whitties out of the line-up (Jake Cappel, Christoph Fuchs and Reid Bennett). This was especially disappointing for senior Reid Bennett who was scheduled to play in his last EVER home match.

Our matches yesterday were against conference opponent Whitworth University. Whitworth is a solid team that will be the #4 or #5 seed in the upcoming NWC conference tournament. They have had some impressive doubles results this year including sweeping all three doubles against a very good PLU team. Also,  the previous day Whitworth played very close against Linfield — a team that always plays great doubles. Even though Whitworth was swept in doubles against Linfield they lost 9-8 at #1 and #2. Obviously getting off to a good start in doubles was going to be key to the match. After our long spring break trip we are in the process of reevaluating our doubles. One doubles team that doesn’t need any reevaluation is Justin and Dan. Yesterday they kept their undefeated streak alive with a convincing 8-3 win at #1. At #2 Jasper and Quin played very well together posting a solid 8-4 victory. For their first match together I was really impressed with how well they moved and communicated. At #3 Thomas and Conor struggled a early in their match but after being knotted at 5-5 they won the last 3 games for earning an 8-5 victory.

In singles our line-up was #1 Dan, #2 Quin, #3 Jasper, #4 Justin, #5 Thomas and #6 Conor. Dan was positively chomping at the bit to play #1 and get a chance to avenge a preseason loss to the Whitworth #1. In our Fall ITA tournament Dan lost to Whitworth’s #1 player in three hard sets. In that match Dan cramped horribly in the 3rd set. One thing about Dan he absolutely loves a challenge and always wants to play someone that beat him earlier in the year. In his rematch Dan played fired-up tennis and was the first one off the court with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. For the record Whitworth’s #1 player is a very good player (and maybe the quickest player in the conference) and this was solid win for Dan.

Quin got the call to play #2 singles and certainly rose to the occasion. I feel that Quin has the ability and talent to play with anyone in DIII. At times he can positively play spooky tennis and flat out beat people. If Quin continues his rapid improvement and learns to balance out his game he will become a major force in our conference and nationally. Playing #2, Quin was solid throughout the match winning 6-3, 6-2

At #3 Jasper had the closest match of the day winning 2-6, 7-5, 10-5. Just a bad first set for Jasper. His backhand slice didn’t have any effect and was floating on him and he had a horrible time finding his form. Once he started focusing on keeping balls more towards the middle of the court and sustaining rallies he was able to pull out the match.

Justin played a great first at #4 quickly winning 6-1. Second set was much tighter but Justin was able to take the match 6-1, 6-4. At #5 Thomas played through a bad back winning 6-1, 6-3. I must point out that it has been a pleasure watching Thomas’s game mature over the course of the year. He, more than anyone, is doing a beautiful job setting up points and having a plan of attack when he plays. At #6 Conor (Co-Co or Con-Con, depending on the mood) struggled a bit in the 1st set. But once he remembered he doesn’t have to win every point (i.e., it’s OK to let the other person make a mistake) and was able to win 7-5, 6-1.

Whitman 9 Whitworth 0

The day was only half over for us. Both teams took a quick Subway break (thanks again for the wonderful $5 subs!) and then hit the courts for match #2. Since the women were playing in the afternoon we started our second match against Whitworth with singles. Going into the weekend I had every intention of using two-different sets of players against Whitworth. However because of illness Quin and Conor again played singles.

Singles line-up for the second match #1 Chris Bailey, #2 Nadeem Kassam, #3 Adriel Borshanky, #4 Quin Miller, #5 Conor Holton-Burke and #6 David Deming. Both Chris and Nadeem played some of their best tennis of the year winning 6-1, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-2. Was especially nice to see Chris bounce back after a rough spring break trip and play good tennis. In fact yesterday was probably the best he has played all spring. As a coach it is great to know your top players are playing better towards the end of the year. Adriel continued his solid play winning 6-2, 6-1 against the player that went three sets with Jasper earlier in the day. Unfortunately since we were using two sets of courts I didn’t get to see Conor or David play. I do know, however, that David once again clinched the match for us!

Highlight in doubles was the return to the doubles line-up of All-American Etienne Moshevich. Having ET back will be a big booster to our line-up. At #1 doubles ET and Nadeem posted a 8-4 victory. At #2 Adriel and Jasper struggled closing out the match but won 8-6 and at #3 Chris continued his strong play partnering up with Quin for a 8-0 at #3.

Whitman 9 Whitworth 0

Couple of milestones for the team. We are now 15-0 in conference and clinched the #1 seed going into the conference tournament. Additionally, we posted our 3rd consecutive 20-win season. In NCAA III tennis this is not easy to accomplish since teams are limited to 20 dates of competition. Perhaps most importantly we getting close to having a healthy team. Interestingly enough we have not played a single match all-year where we able to use our “full” line-up. The injury bug has hit us pretty hard and our success has been due to the great depth of our team. Really it is pretty amazing to be 21-4 this year without being able to use a full line-up and at semester losing our #1 stand-out Matt Solomon to Boise State. Really a great team effort.

Next Saturday we travel to Tacoma to make up a rained out match against PLU (11am). Earlier in the year we beat PLU 8-1 and I’m sure they will be fired up to play us on their home courts (provided it doesn’t rain). Even though seeding in the conference tournament is now complete (we will be #1 seeds and PLU #2) we always look forward to playing to the Lutes. Over the past couple decades this rivalry has produced some of the best tennis in the NWC conference.