Congratulations Jasper!

Cool Shades Jasper!
Originally uploaded by jeffnortham

Jasper (class 2010) recently decided to attend Dental school at University of Melbourne in Australia! Jasper reports he is excited to see a new part of the world and study in a new environment. Special opportunity for Jasper as British Columbia and Australia have reciprocal agreement for Dental school. This means after graduation Jasper can return home to practice Dentistry.

For the Whitman tennis family this is pretty special as Jasper is the 4th member of the team to start Medical/Dental school this year!
Jasper Follow – DDS University of Melbourne
Thomas Roston – DR University of British Columbia
Reid Bennett – DR Dartmouth
Christoph Fuchs – DR Baylor

By |November 5th, 2010|Alumni|1 Comment
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Senior Day!!!!

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!
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By |April 3rd, 2010|2009 season, Pacific|0 Comments
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Squirrels knock off #17 Pomona

Great win today for the Fighting Squirrels! We went into todays match ranked #26 and knocked off #17 ranked Pomona Pitzer Sagehens 6-3. Unfortunately its late and I don’t have time for a complete match write-up.
We played PP at the UC Santa Cruz West courts. Doubles started off pretty even. At #2 Quin and Christoph went up two breaks but at #3 Jeffrey and Jake were down two breaks 0-4. About midway through the doubles it appeared that the match would come down to Matt and ET at #1. Quin and Christoph were able to close out their match 8-4. On the heals of that #2 doubles victory, Matt and ET broke (4 great returns in a row) and held to win 8-5. At #3 Jeffrey and Jake dug themselves out of a monster hole and leveled the match at 6-6. At 6-6, with PP serving we had at least two break points to take the lead. Unfortunately we were unable to convert either of the break opportunities. At 6-7 Jeffrey was serving and had a very long game. At one point Jeffrey nailed a half-volley winner to stave off a match point. However in the end PP broke salvaging a point in doubles.
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By |March 21st, 2010|2009 season, Pomona|0 Comments
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Sole possession of first place

Yesterday we once again split into two squads. My team traveled to McMinnville to take on Linfield and coach Ann’s group traveled to Newberg to play George Fox.
I was looking forwards to the Linfield match because they were off to their best start in school history and, like us, were undefeated in NWC play. This was a pretty big match in the conference..the winner takes over 1st place in the standings and takes a big step towards claiming the conference championship.
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By |March 16th, 2010|2009 season, George Fox, Linfield, University of Portland|0 Comments
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Split squad yields two victories

One of the benefits of a deep roster is the ability to split the squad into two parts. Yesterday half of the guys traveled with me to take on Willamette while the other half went with Coach Ann to play Lewis and Clark College.
Fortunately for my group the weather was great and we were able to play Willamette on their outdoor courts (often we run into rain and have to travel to indoor courts). Against Willamette we knew we were in for a good match — we defeated them 7-2 on our home courts just seven days ago. In that match the top three singles all went three sets.
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By |March 15th, 2010|2009 season, Alumni, Lewis & Clark, Willamette|0 Comments
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Sweep PLU!

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.
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By |March 13th, 2010|2009 season, Pacific Lutheran|0 Comments
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Fighting Squirrels fly over George Fox

The past week we spend a lot of time in practice talking about energy. We worked on exuding positive energy after points. In our match with the improved George Fox the guys were a bundle of positive energy. It was a treat to watch them start strong in doubles and let that energy spill over into singles. Etienne felt he was ready for doubles play so he and Matt got the opportunity to play #1 doubles. After the match Matt pointed out that this is the first dual match they have played together even though they are both two-time All-Americans with each other! Matt and ET got the ball rolling with an efficient 8-0 victory. #3 doubles wasn’t very far behind with Jeffrey and Jasper finishing with a 8-1 victory. Quin and Christoph had a good battle at #2 winning 8-4 against a hard serving George Fox team.
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By |February 21st, 2010|2009 season, George Fox|0 Comments
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Moody Match

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 […]

By |February 14th, 2010|2009 season, Pacific Lutheran, Puget Sound|0 Comments
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Team Preview

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. (more…)

By |February 10th, 2010|2010-2011 Season|0 Comments
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Yellow Jersey — Jasper Follows

The Yellow Jersey has changed hands! The team gave the leader jersey to senior Jasper Follows. Jasper is a senior from Vancouver, BC who is currently in the process of applying to Canadian DDS schools. Last year he had an unblemished record of 18-0 and is off to a strong start this year. In our first matches of the year he and partner Jake Cappel defeated the #3 doubles team from UC Santa Cruz (#1 team in NCAA III) and LCSC (a nationally ranked NAIA program).
The members of the team that nominated Jasper all spoke of how well he competed during last weekend’s inter-team matches. We all appreciate Jasper’s hard work on/off the court and his infectious smile!
Well earned!

By |February 9th, 2010|2009 season, yellow jersey|0 Comments
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