Conor gets NWC Player of the Week

Apr 132012
 

WALLA WALLA, Wash. — For the third time this season and fifth time in the past two years, Whitman College senior Conor Holton-Burke has been named Northwest Conference Student Athlete of the Week for men’s tennis.

Holton-Burke, the reigning NWC Player of the Year, notched four more victories on Sunday as Whitman shut out two more conference opponents to extend its winning streak this spring to 18 straight matches.

Conor ripping a mid-court forehand

With Holton-Burke teaming with junior Matt Tesmond for two wins at No. 1 doubles, Whitman took charge of both Sunday road matches with a sweep in the opening round of doubles.

Playing his fourth match of the day, Holton-Burke capped his busy Sunday with a 4-6, 6-3, 11-9 victory over Willamette’s Joshua Wong at No. 1 singles. Wong was voted to the All-NWC First Team in each of the past two seasons.

Earlier on Sunday, Holton-Burke played No. 2 singles at Linfield, winning 6-1, 6-2.

As part of a talented Whitman team that has risen to No. 9 in the NCAA Division III national rankings, Holton-Burke has bounced between the top three spots in singles this spring, compiling a 14-5 record overall.

A moment of calm before the serve

He is 14-6 in doubles while playing all but two of his matches with Tesmond.

In terms of career wins, Holton-Burke shot past the 100-victory plateau early this season. He is nearing 120 career wins as the end of the regular season approaches.

Ranked No. 1 in the West Region, Whitman is 18-3 on the season and 11-0 in the NWC. It can complete its sixth straight undefeated NWC season by beating Lewis & Clark this Saturday.

Whitman has already clinched a fifth-straight conference title and the No. 1 seed at the NWC post-season tournament April 21-22. Whitman will host that four-team tournament, the winner of which receives an automatic berth the NCAA DIII national tournament field.

Saturday’s match against Lewis & Clark is set for 10 a.m. on Whitman’s outdoor courts. The team heads to Lewiston, Idaho, later in the day to play a non-conference match against Lewis-Clark State.

(article by the amazing Whitman SID Dave Holden)

What a day!

Apr 182011
 

I have to admit the NWC championship match Sunday was something special. Really a special ending (well almost ending) to a special season. What made the day so memorably was the crowd and unbelievable support from the Whitman community. Let me start by saying I (and the team) feels incredibly fortunate to have our outdoor courts. Yes there are much bigger and fancier courts across the nation. But I have never seen courts with a better location that the Whitman courts. Our courts are right in the center of campus — next to the library, administration building, and the big campus quad called Ankey field. We are very lucky to practice and play in the middle of campus.

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Day one of ITA Regionals

Sep 262010
 

Just wrapped up day one of the ITA regional tournament. Those that follow college tennis know this is a special event. It is the only time all year that players are put into one singles and one doubles draw. Makes for a very fun event. Our players have been looking forward to this event since the start of the school year.

We brought 11 players and have 8 into the round of 16. Even more impressive is that all 5 of our doubles teams are into the quarter finals! Its too late for a full write up but here are the results.
Matt Tesmond
1st round defeat Justin McClain (George Fox) 6-4, 7-5
2nd round lost #1 seed Mark Magdaong (Linfield) 6-3, 6-4
Conor Holton Burke (#6 seed)
1st round defeated Micah Spaun (Whitworth)
2nd round defeated Troy Zuroske (Pacific) 6-1, 6-4
Quin Miller
1st round defeated Michael Tieu (UPS)
2nd round defeated #4 seed Michael Baumgartner (Willamette) 7-6, 7-5
Anatas Anatasov
1st Round defeated Tim Wagar (Linfield)
2nd round lost #13 Seed Daniel Redfern (Whitworth)
Etienne Moshevich #7 seed
1st round defeated Will Cooper (Willamette)
2nd round defeated Josiah Jackson (George Fox)
Andrew La Cava #16 Seed
1st round def Michell Davidson (Linfield)
2nd round def Neal Berg (PLU)
Sam Sadeghi
1st round def #12 seed Tal Dewitt (Linfield) 6-0, 6-1
2nd round def Eric Furuya (Pacific) 6-1, 6-2
Jeff Tolman #3 seed
1st round def Colin Barett (Whitworth) 6-3, 6-4
2nd round def Taylor Dickey (PLU) 6-3, 6-0
Steve Roston
1st Round def Brian Burger UPS
2nd Round def #15 seed Brent Kingzett (Linfield) 6-2, 7-6
Chris Bailey #9 seed
1st round def Hector Alcayde (Pacific)
2nd Henry Williams (Whitworth) 6-2, 6-0
Will Huskey
1st round def Jose Reque-Martinez (Pacific)
2nd round lost #2 seed Josh Wong (willamette) 6-2, 6-1
Doubles
Huskey/Roston
1st round def Wager/Dewitt (Linfield) 8-6
2nd round def Massey/Wales (Whitworth) 8-6
Holton-Burker/La Cava #5 seed
1st round def Burger/Murphy (UPS) 8-1
2nd round def Hing/Kinghorn (Pacific) 8-1
Miller/Tesmond
1st round def Berg/Gunstone (PLU)
2nd round def #7 seeds Levein/Lyons (Linfield) 9-8
Bailey/Sadeghi
1st round def #4 seed Baumgartner/Houser (Willamette)
2nd round def Brown/McClain (George Fox)
Tolman/Moshevich #2 seed
1st round bye
2nd round def Barrett/Williams (Whitworth)
Play resumes tomorrow 9am at Willamette University

Time for some tennis!

Sep 242010
 

This weekend is one of my favorite times of the year — the ITA Fall Regionals! This is my favorite college tennis event of the year. It is the only time all the singles players and doubles teams in the conference are put into one large draw. Doesn’t matter if a player is #1 or #10 on a team — everyone has a shot to win the event. I know the Whitman players really look forward to this opportunity. This is the only time that many of them get a shot at the top players from the other teams in the conference.

Wrapping up the Ojai

Apr 252010
 

Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple days. With individual tournaments the days are long (starting before 6am) and with players playing at different times and sites its pretty much none stop all day. Good news for the tournament is everyone won a match. Jeffrey started us off by winning against the #3 from Pomona 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. He was down 0-3 in the 3rd before rallying for the victory. Later in the day he lost to Willamette’s Josh Wong 6-4, 6-1. I was impressed with the play of Wong this weekend and I imagine I will see many Wong vs Tolman battles in the coming years. Nadeem lost his 1st match to the #5 from UCSC 6-3, 6-1. Matt had a bye in the 1st round then defeated a player from CMS, the #2 from Pomona (6-2, 4-6, 6-4) and then lost to the #3 from UC Santa Cruz in the quarters.

In doubles Nadeem and Jeff defeated a CMS team before losing to the #1 team from UC Santa Cruz (this team is probably the best tadem in the nation). Jeff and Nadeem played well and had chances to make it a pretty close match.
Our flights aren’t out until this evening so we currently hanging out Robert Rye ’08 (currently coaching at Chapman).

Split squad yields two victories

Mar 152010
 

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.

Beautiful Weather and a nice win

Mar 072010
 

Just wrapped up a 7-2 victory over Willamette on our home courts. Had another great crowd and glorious weather as we took on undefeated Willamette. Coming into today both teams were undefeated in NWC play with Willamette at 6-0 and Whitman 3-0. Willamette was also on a bit of a hot streak coming into today’s match having just defeated PLU 6-3, whereas three weeks ago we squeaked by PLU 5-4.

In todays match we started off very strong in doubles. Great energy, high level of play and took command of all three matches right off the bat. Had to make an adjustment at #3 doubles because of an illness so Jeffrey Tolman and Jake Cappel got the call. They played great together cruising to an 8-0 victory. Number two doubles wasn’t very behind as Quin and Christoph won 8-2. Matt and ET continued to play well together winning 8-3 at #1 doubles.