A great Start to Spring Break in Portland

Hello out there,

First, I'd like to quickly say that I was just informed that those of you who receive these blog posts as emails have not been getting them the past month.  I'm sorry for that and am working to figure out what is going on as it looks like the settings are right.

Ok, now to tennis.  In a bit of a whirlwind, the team finished up classes for our two week spring break and immediately hit our home courts for a NWC match with PLU.  Led by first year Leah Newell, the Lutes had a lot of fight in this 6-3 Whitman victory.  This year with so much youth, I'm looking to get as many matches for everyone as I can and in this one Leah teamed with Lizzy to notch a win a 3rd doubles where they really started to move and play as a team.  In singles, Maggie stepped up to #5 and scored a solid straight set win and at #6 Hadley played tough while still working on her shots and footwork that she logged some extra hours on in practice this week, it was great to see.

After the match, Katie was off like a shot to pick up burritos and we hit the road for Portland.  By the way, good Mexican food was a MUST on my list when first came to Walla Walla on my job interview.  The drive to Portland was good and with a 3pm Saturday match against Pacific we had plenty of time to sleep in and enjoy the wonderful hospitality of Leah's family for brunch, thanks Kris, Mike and Nathan!

The Pacific match was definitely the most epic part of our weekend.  With spirits high being on break and traveling together, we arrived early to hit as we'd never played on their new courts (3 are outside and 3 are outside and covered, but the sides are open so lighting is different depending on how sunny it is).  We got adjusted and were ready to go when the weather cleared so we started outdoors with doubles, though the first ball wasn't hit until after 3:30 so we'd already been there a while.  Up in 2 and 3 and down a break but gaining momentum at 1, the rain started falling.  With Pacific serving a couple of solid first serves as the rain picked up we were down 0-30 moving to the covered courts.  Elise and Alyssa really stepped up and fought to get the break back before being broken again against a team playing really well at the net as well as defending from the baseline.  Fortunately, 2 and 3 won with Hannah back in the lineup at 3 so we were up 2-1.  Still, it was an eerie feeling going into singles.  Emily and Elise jumped out to easy first set wins while Alyssa was in a battle at #1.  With many distractions both players elevated their tennis, but it was Cat Goya from Pacific who found a way in each set to pull out a win while Elise rolled to a 6-0, 6-0 win at #2.  So, the match was 3-2 Whitman and Em had been up a set and two breaks serving for it, when the Pacific player who can be very dangerous found her A game.  Emily didn't play poorly but now close games were going the other way and she lost the set in a breaker.  The third set was super close as both players looked for an edge with it finally going to Pacific 6-4 to tie the match at 3-3. Now, with Kate up a set at #4 and Lizzy up a set at #5 with Olivia warming up at 6, things looked good.  Kate managed a straight set win in the cold of the evening and Olivia played close but was down a set and 5-1, or 5-0 maybe.  Meanwhile, Lizzy had dropped the second and was quickly down 3-0 in the third so we needed a hero to step up.  For a while it looked like we might get two as Olivia found her shots and started to scratch out some momentum to get it to 2-5 and Lizzy re-focused and rolled back to 3-3.  After dropping a game where her opponent played well, Lizzy got right back to it to win three straight and clinch the match.  Olivia smiled and relaxed, hit some more winners to get to 5-5, but then lost a couple of close games to lost 6-3,7-5.  I'd like to say it was a great performance, but really it was more a testament to the resiliency and fight that this team has up and down the lineup.  Some people played well, others struggled but we still found a way against a dangerous team, it was tough to witness, but coming out the other side, I couldn't be more proud of each one of these young women as they handled adversity beautifully with effort and sportsmanship.

This is the kind of match you want to learn from and build on, and luckily we had the chance to do just that the next day against George Fox. With Hannah resting and Leah back at 3 dubs, we scored one of our more fun and consistent doubles sweeps and it felt like Whitman tennis again.  This carried over into singles where again I had a chance to get some more match experience for our young players and because Leah and Lizzy finished quickly at 3 doubles with solid play together, we started with Maggie at #5 and Hadley at #6.  While Maggie lost her match, she learned a lot that I know she'll carry into the rest of the season.  Hadley's match was one of the highlights of the weekend for me.  Not only did she get her first college win, but the things she did well against PLU were super consistent and she dominated the first set 6-1.  A great effort by her GF counterpart had her working hard to close out the second and she did it with more quality play and movement shot after shot, I'm so excited for Hadley!  At #1-4, we also had great performances from all and I was really proud of how everyone played tactically, using their strengths and finding plays that worked.  Overall the score was 8-1 and the way we played was focused and fun like we strive for each day.

The culmination of our trip was a neutral site match indoors in Vancouver, WA (just north of Portland) against the Cowgirls from Hardin-Simmons who came out from Abiliene, TX for a spring break trip in the Northwest.  This is a good team (#11 in the West, while we are #8) and I was happy to play them during our break when we are focused on tennis and had been playing matches every day.  This preparation proved valuable as we got out to a strong start in all three doubles with Elise and Alyssa getting a break to go up 6-3 against the #8 team in the West before closing it out with a break and hold to win 8-6 in a strong comeback after dropping the Pacific match.  At 2 Em and Kate played with great confidence and won 8-3, while Hannah and Lizzy stepped up to win 8-5 at #3.

In singles, #1 pitted the West's #4 ranked player Lisa Mertz, a very solid and experienced player against #12 Alyssa.  After some ups and downs in the first set, ShoPo tightened things up and came away with a big straight set win 4,2.  Twitch continued her steady blend of offense and defense at #2 and really stepped up her serving to win 2,2.  Emily waited for a court while Kate won 2,3 even though throughout the match, her opponent seemed to get more and more comfortable and was playing better and better.  Hannah was at #6 and seeing her in singles and doubles was a great sight as she competed her way to a 2,1 win.  Lizzy had the closest match with a 7-5 seesaw affair in the first set followed by dropping the second 6-2 where she got a bit frustrated before calming down for the match tie break which was probably the best tennis by both players with Lizzy edging it out 10-8 by hitting big shots and staying really focused.  Em being last on had the tough task of staying focused and intense as the end of a long weekend was upon us, but she handled that well and played some great tennis, but just ran into a really good player at 3 who played a very nice match to win 3,1.  Still, Emily was in nearly every game and I'm really pleased with how much her shots have grown as well as her ability to compete at a much higher level than she's been asked to in the past two seasons.  Olivia got an exhibition singles with her Mom watching and there were signs of what she can do, but still she is getting great experience that I know will help her continue to grow as a player.  She brings such enthusiasm to the team and we'll continue to see great things from her I know.

That's a lot of tennis to recap, and we're just getting set for more, but first the team has some time off before heading to California for our Spring Break matches against Salisbury, Chapman, Redlands and Claremont.