I recently received word that Reid Bennett ’09 was accepted to Dartmouth Medical school! I hate to sound like a proud parent but that is the third Whitman tennis alumni entering medical school this year — Christoph Fuchs at Baylor, Thomas Roston at University of British Columbia, and Reid at Dartmouth.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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:)
What a fun weekend of tennis for the Whitties. Sunday we had the wonderful opportunity to split the team into two and play DI Montana (at home) and conference opponent UPS (in Tacoma). Since I was in Tacoma I can’t write too much about the Montana match. From text messages and calls it appears that Etienne had the match of the day defeating Montana’s #1 (a senior from Poland) 13-11 in the 3rd set super-breaker. At #3 Jake had a good effort winning the first set 6-2 before dropping the next two 6-3, 6-3. We also picked up a 9-7 win at #3 doubles (Dan and Justin) that doesn’t count on the official team score since we played the 7 point DI format.
