Whitman Tennis – josh wong

Spring Break here we come….

And we are off on our spring break adventure that includes travel, stops, and play in 4 states (WA, OR, CA and HI).

The story so far…

The group of 12 brave adventurers and 2 very brave coaches hit the road Thursday night driving the 5 hours to Forest Grove, OR. Of course being the day before spring break people were finishing up homework, assignments, turning in papers and of course trying to pack (more on this later). Bottom line we got out of town a bit later than expected and didn’t arrive to the hotel until after 11pm.

Oh ya that last minute packing – well it turned out a first year player forgot to pack socks and underwear for the trip! Oh those rookies…

Everyone was up early for breakfast, repacked and got ready for the longest day of our trip. First up for the day an 11am match against the #12 ranked team in the West region the Pacific University Boxers. Pacific’s strength this season has been the top part of their line-up. In fact their #1 doubles is undefeated in conference play, their #1 player Troy Zuroske was just named NWC player of the Week, and their #2 player Giancarlo Battaglia is undefeated this season. For the record Giancarlo was named NWC Player of the Week two weeks ago (hey NWC SIDs give Josh Wong from Willamette some attention). I think the Pacific #1 doubles, #1 singles and #2 singles have only dropped 1 match this year in the conference. I know our guys were really excited for the opportunity to play the top of the Pacific line-up.

Even though it was a beautiful day outside the back of the outdoor courts were still damp […]

By Coach|March 9th, 2013|2012-2013 season, Pacific|0 Comments

A most glorious weekend

What a great Presidents Day weekend! Not only did we defeat Willamette in our first home match of the year. But we had visits from Justin Hayashi (2009)and Etienne Moshevich (2011). Justin was on campus as part of Whitman’s Entrepreneurial Conference. Even though Justin only graduated a few years ago he has a wealth of experience. After graduation he joined the Boeing management program and spent two years traveling around the world learning/working for many different aspects of Beoing. Recently he left Boeing to join Zulily (one of Seattle’s fastest growing companies).

Etienne is happy to report that he too is doing fine in the business world. In fact he recently opened his own investor relation company (Transcend Resource Group). Great to see both of these tennis standouts doing well in the business world. Anyone want to guess who won more matches during their time at Whitman?

Back to the headline event of the weekend..our match against Willamette. This was a fun match because the weather was great (at least at the start of the match) so we used 4 indoor courts and 4 outdoor courts to play 8 simultaneous singles matches.

In doubles we started off rock solid at #2 and #3 doubles — at #2 the team “Mandy” (Matt Tesmond and Andy Rigss) rolled to an impressive 8-0 victory and at #3 Noah Lee and Colton Malesovas cruised to an quick 8-1 victory. Unfortunately the duo of Andrew La Cava and Sam Sadeghi dropped their 2nd match in a row 8-9. Much like their match against LCSC Sam/Andrew had chances going up a break several times but then struggled to hold serve.

In singles we couldn’t agree which matches to play indoors/outdoors so we flipped a coin to see which team would […]

By Coach|February 18th, 2013|2012-2013 season, Alumni, Willamette|3 Comments

Conor gets NWC Player of the Week

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.

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.

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 […]

By Coach|April 13th, 2012|2011-2012 season|0 Comments

What a day!

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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By admin|April 18th, 2011|2010-2011 Season, Competition, conference tournament, Willamette|0 Comments

Day one of ITA Regionals

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 […]

By admin|September 26th, 2010|2010-2011 Season, Competition, Willamette|0 Comments

Time for some tennis!

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.
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By admin|September 24th, 2010|2010-2011 Season, Competition|0 Comments

Wrapping up the Ojai

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).

By admin|April 25th, 2010|2009 season, ojai|0 Comments

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 admin|March 15th, 2010|2009 season, Alumni, Lewis & Clark, Willamette|0 Comments

Beautiful Weather and a nice win

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.
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By admin|March 7th, 2010|2009 season, Willamette|1 Comment