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
Jun 022010
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.
Good luck and congratulations to all three!
May 222010
Graduating senior Thomas Roston recently received notice that he was selected to enter the University of British Columbia Medical school! Thomas is very excited to be going back home (Vancouver, BC) to start the next part of his education.
With Christoph Fuchs going to Baylor to this fall that means that two members of the Whitman tennis team class of 2010 will be entering Medical school this fall. It is rare for students to gain admission to medical school immediately upon graduation. Most students end up working for a few years, improving their resume, and MCAT scores before gaining admission to Medical School. It speaks volumes of Thomas’s and Christoph’s dedication and hard work to get admitted immediately after graduation.
Big congratulations!
May 172010
Last week was the Whitman athletic banquet. This is a wonderful event where all of Whitman’s athletes (about 20% of the student body) gather to celebrate the year in sports. It is very fun to mingle with other teams, see the accomplishments of all Whitman sports, watch the slide/video show, and be apart of the outstanding athlete awards.
Apr 122010
Yesterday we wrapped our regular season conference schedule with a double-header sweep of Whitworth in Spokane. Double-headers are typically associated with baseball but in an effort to save dates (and travel) we have been playing double-headers with Whitworth the past couple years .. alternating between Spokane and Walla Walla.
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 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.
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 »
Oct 012009
Sorry for the delay in this post. What a great weekend of play for the Whitties at the Northwest Regional ITA tournament (which we hosted). Not only was the tennis incredible but we able to play under picture perfect blue skies!
On Monday the tournament got underway with the men’s semi-finals. As a team we were fortunate to get three of our players into the precious final four. One semi’s featured senior Matt Solomon vs Linfield’s talented #1 player Mark Magdaong. The other semi was an all-Whitman showdown between junior Chris Bailey and freshman Jeffrey Tolman. I should point out that both Chris and Jeffrey had incredible matches on Sunday. Chris battled past teammate Thomas Roston in a 3-hour 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 match. Not to be outdone Jeffrey pulled off the upset of the tournament when he defeated PLU’s #1 player Joel Trudel 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. Great win for Jeffrey, Joel was NWC player of the year last year (going undefeated in singles) and is DI transfer from U of Idaho.
In the semi’s Matt was locked in a tight 1st set battle with Magdoang. At 4-4 Matt kicked it up a notch winning 8 of the last 9 games posting a 6-4, 6-1 victory. Good win for Matt..Magdoang is one of the most talented players in our conference and was playing some sweet ball at the end of last year. On any given day he has the ability to knock off any DIII player. In the other semi’s Jeffrey and Chris had a slug fest and traded leads several times each set. In the end Jeffrey was able to gut out a 7-6, 7-6 victory over his teammate.
The first set of the finals was incredible. Jeffrey put on a display of shotmaking that has rarely, if ever, been seen on the Whitman courts. He was literally hitting winners from every position on the court (needless to say I was one happy coach)! Jeffrey ended up winning the first set 6-3. However the long weekend of tennis finally took its toll on Jeffrey and he simply ran out of gas. At the end of the match I wondered if he was going to be able to finish. In the end Matt’s won his third straight regional title by a score of 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Now the real excitement began. With only an hour break we had to get Jeffrey ready to play in the doubles finals with Matt against the #1 team from PLU. We had Jeffrey in the training room for most of the hour getting fluids in him, eating high energy foods (bagels and bananas) and in the cold hydrotherapy pool.
In the doubles final Matt and Jeffrey ran into a red hot PLU team. Gotta hand it to the PLU guys they really played well and served incredibly well. In fact I don’t think they ever faced a break point. They ended up winning the match 6-3, 7-5.
Some highlights from the tournament:
- Whitman places 9 players into the round of 16
- Whitman has 3 of the 4 semi-finalist in singles and doubles
- Freshman Matt Tesmond knocks off the #6 seed (#1 from Whitworth)
- Freshman Sam Sadeghi knocks off the #5 seed (#2 from PLU)
- Tesmond/Sadeghi play great doubles reaching the QTRS before losing to teammates Quin Miller/Conor Holton-Burke
- Conor Holton-Burke upsets a seed in the 1st round 7-6 in the 3rd. He continues through the draw losing to Solomon in the QTRS (6-4, 6-2)
- Conor and Quin upset the #3 seeds in doubles and lose in the semi’s to Matt/Jeffrey
- Senior Thomas Roston has his best regional showing knocking off the #11 seed and pushes #3 seed and teammate Bailey the distance losing 7-6 in the 3rd
- Jasper Follows and Chris Bailey make it to the semi’s of doubles and lose to the eventual champions
- Jasper played true to his seeding (#13) winning two matches before losing to #4 seed Magdoang of Linfield
- Junior Quin Miller (#16 seed) wins two matches before losing to #2 seed Trudel 6-2, 6-3
What makes the above accomplishments even more amazing is we played without four of our key players: Nadeem Kassam and Etienne Moshevich are both studying in London, senior Jake Cappel was out with a wrist injury, and senior Christoph Fuchs is taking the semester off. Man we are on track to have a great year!
Next weekend I’m traveling with a few Whitties to participate in the Boise State Invite. Will be great competition for the Whitman players as the tournament is primarily a DI event. In fact we will be the only non-scholarship school in the tournament.
Immediately following the Boise event, Matt and I will travel to Mobile, AL for the ITA Small College National Championship.