Hello Tennis Fans!
It is that magical time of year when we celebrate what we've done and look to the coming weekend of playoff tennis. Our journey this year has been incredible as we have come so far and learned so much. With a challenging national schedule and three D1 matches in there, we have passed many tests to remain in the top 25 nationally in D3 and are building our momentum for the days ahead.
Our final tuneup for the postseason came with two resounding conference wins over Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran. We played a terrific match against UPS and fought through a slow doubles start to gut out a 2-1 lead and roll through singles versus PLU to get an 8-1 win. It was also an incredible experience to play D1 Seattle University on their home courts outside in Seattle. With families, friends and alums cheering us on, we had a great win by Allie and Lindsey at #3 doubles and Cello and Jenna were right there at #2 while their #1 team did a great job against Hanna and Mary. In singles it was Allie again getting us a point with a terrific 3 set battle. But every match was terrific. Cello and Jenna each had really high level tennis with Cello coming back from 0-4 in the second to push it to a tie break, it was so good seeing how both of them competed and hit their shots so freely. Mary had a slow start but then went toe to toe with a great player at #2 and the final matches on were battles from the start. Lil J went up 3-0 before her opponent cut down errors and hit bigger as the battled each set 6-3,6-3. Lori was last on and after dropping a close first set, found a way to break her big serving opponent for a 7-5 second set and she carried that momentum into the match tie break.
From our previous D1 matches where we competed but couldn't get points, this was a big improvement and shows the hard work the team has put in. We also couldn't be more excited to play the conference tournament right now where we have wins over two of the teams and from a 2-7 loss early to Lewis and Clark, we are headed in the right direction with a narrow 4-5 loss a couple weeks ago. We are certainly focused on Linfield who has everyone healthy and is a great team deserving of their national ranking so I hope you can come watch us play in Portland this weekend as we look each day to enjoy the moment and extend our season!
Championship Schedule at Lewis and Clark College
Saturday, April 23 - Semifinals at L&C
10am #1 Lewis & Clark vs. #4 Whitworth
Not before 2pm #2 Whitman vs. #3 Linfield
Sunday, April 24 - Championship Match at L&C
10am semifinal winners
News from Coach John Hein
Summer Tennis Camps and Events:
Team Photo's on Flickr!
Coaching Philosophy
To me, being a college student is about opportunity and growth. As a coach, I consider myself lucky to spend 4 years providing opportunity while nurturing growth. We use common goals, hard work, open communication, respect and accountability as means to building meaningful relationships and improving each player’s skill set on and off the court. This means embodying championship virtues to inspire athletic, academic and personal growth that not only happens while you are at Whitman, but becomes a part of who you are throughout life.