Recently the USTA/ITA started a new program called the Campus Showdown. These events are one-day, open tennis events held on college campuses. I figured hosting a campus showdown would be a great way for some of the guys to play extra matches. I didn’t figure on the alumni getting wind of the event and coming out to play! Saturday’s Whitman Campus Showdown will feature 8 Whitman alumni, 6 current team members and 2 PNW junior players. So really this is a Whitman tennis alumni showdown! Continue reading »
Feb 042011
Apr 032010
Yesterday we honored our seven seniors before our home match against Pacific. To say these seniors have had an impact on Whitman and the tennis program is an understatement. They have set the bar incredibly high for any sports team at Whitman. These seven seniors have never lost a regular season conference team match (60+ and counting), have qualified for three straight NCAA III appearances, won two conference titles, been an ITA All-Academic team for three straight years and have a team GPA around a 3.5!
Mar 142010
Yesterday we followed up our sweep of PLU with a 9-0 victory over a pesky UPS team. Because of our rough upcoming schedule we rested a few players. Was fun to watch guys that normally don’t play show their stuff.
Conor Holton-Burke got the call at #1 and defeated fellow Coloradoan Mike Cutter 6-2, 6-0. Sam Sadeghi continues to play very solid tennis winning at #2 6-2, 6-1. We had some hiccups at #3 and #4 as both Jake and Quin lost the 2nd sets before winning in match breakers. Jake reports his match was full of ups and downs. Quin was down a match point in his 3rd set break before ripping off straight 3 points. At #5 and #6 Adriel and David won dropping a combined 4 games.
Following the match we loaded into 2 vans and headed out for the start of our spring break road trip! For the first couple days of the break we are dividing into two teams and playing matches in the Portland area. Coach Ann has a group playing against Lewis and Clark College today and my group is playing Willamette. Tomorrow Coach Ann’s group is playing George Fox and my group takes on undefeated Linfield.
Mar 082010
Finished out our weekend home stand with a 9-0 victory over Lewis Clark College. LC is down a bit this year so most of the matches were lopsided. For this match I tried to use as many different players as possible. Always nice to get a chance to play at home!
Feb 102010
Dave Holden, Whitman’s incredible SID, posted this preview of our season.
WALLA WALLA, Wash. – The men’s tennis program, the flagship for athletic success at Whitman College for the past decade, has plenty of wind at its sails as it embarks on its latest spring voyage.
If anything, Whitman is riding the waves at a speed a few knots faster than a year ago, when it surfed merrily through a 24-5 season that included a third consecutive undefeated Northwest Conference regular season, a second straight conference tournament title (fourth in 10 years) and a berth in the NCAA Div. III national tournament for the third time in as many years. Continue reading »
Jan 312010
What a great night of tennis! It was so gratifying to have a PACKED house supporting our team as we took on the defending national champions UC Santa Cruz. When I mean packed house we are talking over 200 people in the balcony of our indoor center. And boy were they treated to some great tennis.
Much like last night the doubles came down to the end. Bit of a topsy turvy affair. At #2 doubles (Quin and Christoph) we were close but never saw a break point and lost 8-6. At #3 doubles Jasper and Jake served well and were never broken. We had quite a few break points and at 7-8 had 2 matches points (15-40) but couldn’t put a return in play. Was nice to see the seniors really rally in win 7-4 in the breaker. Continue reading »
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.
Oct 082009
Going to be a busy week for some Whitman players. This weekend David Deming and Conor Holton-Burke are traveling to Boise State to play in the BSU invite. Will be great experience for the two since the majority of teams are DI (we are the only DIII school playing). On Monday Matt Solomon leaves for the ITA Small College National Championships in Mobile, AL.
I’ll try to update match scores via Twitter and provide recaps on the blog.
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.
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.
Mar 272009
Long last day of matches on Hilton Head. Started off by picking up group B at 7:30am (4:30 pacific time) for our morning match against Oberlin. Against the OC I decided to move Thomas and Conor up to one doubles and put a new pairing of Jasper and Quin at #2 doubles. The blustery winds didn’t allow for either team to play their best tennis. Despite the wind we were able to post an 8-6 win at #1 doubles, 8-0 win at #2 doubles and David/Reid won 8-1 at #3 doubles.
In singles Jasper continued his torrential play posting a quick 6-0, 6-0 win at #2 singles. In his last 3 matches his scores has been 6-2 6-0, 8-0 and 6-0 6-0. This break has been very good for his game. Quin had a very competitive first set against the OC’s #1 player. After breaking to go up 6-5 Quin only dropped 1 game for a 7-5, 6-1 victory. Thomas looked a bit bewildered in the wind but still managed to win 6-3, 6-2 at #3. Conor and David both posted routine wins at #4 and #5. Reid was especially impressive in his 6-2, 6-0 victory in the last spring break match of his career.
As we were finishing up with Oberlin, Coach Jennifer took the rest of the team to warm-up for our show down with #18 DePauw. Myself and group B was able to catch-up with the rest of the team with about half an hour left in the warm-up.
I was really looking forward to our match with DePauw. Not only is DePauw traditionally one of the best programs in DIII but they are a good group of guys and they have a very classy coach. It is nice going into a match without umpires knowing that the opposing team will be competitive, respectful and their coach will keep players in line (not that this is a problem for DePauw). This is a major contrast to a team we played earlier week.
We just can’t find our groove in doubles! It’s frustrating to know we are close to some of the better teams in the nation but just can’t grab the lead after doubles. Obviously it is nice having the lead after the doubles, but even more important it sets the tone going into singles. Typically the team that grabs the lead is loose and plays aggressive going into singles. Its crazy but these pro-sets in doubles really have a huge influence (probably too big an influence) on the outcome of the match.
Against DePauw we got rocked at #3 doubles. Jake and Nadeem had game points in almost all the games but ended up on the short end of a 8-0 match. Somehow Dan and Justin managed to find a way to win 8-6 after being down 4-6 (DePauw serving). I didn’t realize it until someone told me, but Dan and Justin haven’t lost a match all year. What an effort by these two! With the doubles knotted at 1-1 the lead came down to #1 doubles. Christoph and Quin were up a break at 6-5 playing very good tennis. Unfortunately a sloppy service game let the DePauw team right back in the match. At 7-8 DePauw was able to break serve to take the match. Christoph and Quin have proved they have ability to play with the best #1 teams in the nation. Now they just need to get over the hump of learning how to close out matches.
Singles didn’t get much better. The bright spot of the day was the continued strong play of Adriel. Even though the team match was decided (7-1) Adriel showed a great attitude and competitive spirit at #6. In fact, Adriel was down 3 match points in the 3rd set super breaker (6-9) before winning 5 points in a row for a 4-6, 7-6, 11-9 victory! Wow!
Great spring break trip for us. Combining our conference matches last week we went 11-2 over the past two weeks (in college tennis that is a crazy amount of matches). Plus our only losses were to two top 25 schools. Puts us 19-4 on the year and only 1 match away from another 20 win season.