The start of something new

Dear fans, families and friends,

The end of this season was a whirlwind of tennis, families and emotions for me.  In case you weren't following along, after the most thrilling Conference Tournament title possible with a 5-4 win over a young Lewis and Clark team that came down to a tie break in the third set of the last match, we took to California for NCAA Regionals.  Our first round as the #3 seed in the 6 team draw faced us against #6 St. Scholastica.  The Saints from Minnesota played tough doubles but our talent, experience and depth came through in a 5-0 win.  Our second round (regional semifinal = national round of 32), we faced another young talented team in #2 seed (and #10 nationally) Pomona Pitzer.  The Sagehens came out on top of two close doubles matches and played terrific at the other for a 3-0 sweep.  We fought hard, and were in many matches, but there are probably about two more subtle levels of depth in DIII and the Hens are in that next group and played great to win the match and finish our season.

Some highlights from the end of the year for me were on court.  One of these was the doubles play of Maddy and Hanna.  In Maddy's senior year, her game found an incredible new level where she was still dominating the net but was also as solid as anyone with her serves, returns and crosscourt groundstrokes.  She can know that the finished her career as one of the top doubles players in our conference and region - for someone who did not play a single USTA tournament growing up, her amazing college career is one that our program will build on as it shows how far talent, hard work and strong character can take you, regardless of your junior ranking (or lack thereof).  During the Pomona match, there was a stretch where I looked around and realized the best of the 12 players on court was Hanna.  She has been a great doubles player from day one, and the experience of playing and winning national matches is something she'll carry into the rest of her career.  I may have stated this in a previous blog, but she's also really putting together her singles game and knows exactly what she needs to do to take that to the level of her doubles which is exciting for the future of our program.

Speaking of the future, teams get better by playing better doubles and being deeper.  This year, Jenna Gilbert was the poster child for this.  If  you could have seen her getting after it every day in practice and pushing herself to improve win or lose, you would have been as blown away as me.  She's made some adjustments to transition her game to college and we saw it in spurts including a big fall win of the #3 seed at the Fall ITA, some huge exhibition wins over nationally ranked teams Linfield, Lewis and Clark and LaVerne.  All of this on top of her 7-3 singles and 6-2 doubles record shows that she's dangerous now and her future and our teams future is just as bright as her smile that lights up her teammates each day.  Another first year player who found breakthroughs but also has a long way to go before reaching her potential is Lindsey.  With a 7-3 doubles and 15-9 singles record, Lindsey was a model of toughness and hard work.  She expanded her game while competing under pressure.  I was able to coach Lindsey a few years ago at zonals and she is different player, with weapons and options that she's worked hard to build, I can't wait to see where she goes next.  Alex, while not in her first year of college, rounds out our new players and again going back to the depth we have, it is evident in Alex's 15-3 singles and 5-1 doubles records.  Alex is a competitor who has tremendous tools and really worked hard to make the adjustment in transferring as a student and tennis player to Whitman.  She would constantly be talking tennis, teaching tennis or playing tennis and it was so much fun to work with her on harnessing the feel that she has for the game.  She's made some big breakthroughs in controlling the tempo of her play and we can't wait for her senior year!

Joining her as seniors next year will be Jenna and Katrina.  These two have gone from being roommates in Jewett Hall, to productive players for us to absolute stars and tremendous leaders on our team.  Tree was showcasing both her improved balance at the baseline with her always huge net play when a knee injury sidelined her for the end of the season.  Undaunted, she's been both rehabbing and coaching for us and we wouldn't have gotten through the conference tournament final without all 12 players, Katrina being a huge part of that helping coach Morgan and Allie as they won singles to clinch the title.  Jenna has worked hard on her doubles but remains one of our best and the region's best singles players.  She cracked the West top 25 and on spring break, after a week off the court with a nasty virus, she came back to play three awesome three set matches with top #2 players.  The mark of improvement is not just how you can play at your best, but when everything isn't working, if you're able to compete.  That's just what JD has done, she went 7-2 in NWC play and had wins over #1's from Whitworth and Pacific.  She stepped up whenever Courtney was out and has also learned to use her huge work ethic to guide and motivate her teammates.  We've seen big things from the 6'1" lefty as she earned her first 1st team all NWC nod this year after making the 2nd team as a sophomore.

Another all NWC player for us this year was Allie.  Another incredibly hard worker and amazing leader on the team, she played a huge role in singles winning critical matches over nationally ranked La Verne, Linfield, Whittier, UT Tyler and the biggest one being the deciding marathon win over LC to send us to the NCAA tournament.  Allie has some of the best strokes on the team but spent significant time in the off season reworking her serve to add both power and variety, but it is her daily work in the gym that gave her the physical and mental toughness to play as long as she needs to against any style player.  We also encourage leadership from everyone by not having named captains and Allie really benefited by this by being a huge leader in every way for us this year. Her growth has been tremendous and it keeps getting better so I only see her pushing more and doing bigger and better things in the future.

As you can tell, we're working towards saying goodbye to our graduates, but without match results to update and having written a lot already, I'll save that for a separate post.  Still, there is one more player who has been instrumental in this season being so incredibly special.  I talked about everyone leading and Seana has not only been a joy for me to coach and everyone to be around, but she is a model of what it means to be a teammate.  As her tennis improves and she brings her big serve and forehand to doubles and singles, she has stepped up her consistency.  But what I really want to highlight goes back to her leadership.  You need great trust from your teammates and Seana earns this every day with her efforts, sense of playfulness and mostly her loyalty as she'll back up a teammate in any situation.  You also need great communication and Seana is exemplary.  She came to me during the season to talk about next year and her desire to commit more to other interests she has on campus.  As we talked it through, her passion for tennis and the team were so evident.  The most influential people in our lives commit to what they do 100% and while I am so excited to see Seana lead in other arena's on campus with her 100% commitment, we will miss her daily presence and leadership on our team.  I can hope that she rejoins us, but if that isn't the case it will be because she has found and stoked passions in other areas of her life.  So, thank you Seana for two special years, for trusting us and giving 100% of yourself and sharing the big tennis and bright light that you are with us.

So, my next posts will celebrate our seniors moving on to some wonderful things and also look forward to meeting our four incoming players (many of whom have birthday's coming up!).

Thanks for reading and sharing in our special season as we gear up and look ahead to an even brighter future in 2015-2016!

Coach John