Today's big fall tournament got off to a great start for our team with strong performances in singles and doubles. Alyssa led the way in singles winning two matches to go through to the round of 16. Joining her there are Courtney and Morgan. Tomorrow at 830, Courtney plays Linfield first year Kaila Nip who took out Emily in the the second round while Morgan goes against Sabrina Gutierrez of Willamette. Soon after will be Alyssa against the winner of Kiana Nip and UPS first year Kira Kearsley.
Other Whitties to make it through the first round were of course Emily and Olivia in thrilling fashion, winning a close first set where she stayed super composed, then after dropping a second set and going down 6-9 in the super tie break for the third came back to win 11-9 for her first win at a Fall USTA/ITA tournament! Hannah was nearly as fortunate after jumping to a one set lead over George Fox's Shaina Inn before splitting and losing an extremely tough and well played super tie break 8-10. Then, HP took care of business in the first round of consolation while Lizzy and Hadley fell in first round matches and bounced back for big wins in the consolation bracket playing 8 game pro sets.
In doubles, first years Erin and Maddy had amazing energy and played really good tennis but a few very close shots and points had their Whitworth opponents out to a quick 4-0 lead. From there, each game was hard fought with both teams earning points rather than making unforced errors, but some great shotmaking by Whitworth and a couple missed opportunities found us down 0-7. Not to be deterred, Erin served big, down match point hitting a huge ace on a second serve, then holding and breaking for 2-7 before Whitworth finished it 8-2. There is a lot of game in these two and I can't wait to see them continue developing because they are both great players and do so much with their maturity and leadership already.
More first year leadership was found in Courtney and Morgan who each teamed up with upperclassmen(women?) for two rounds of dominating doubles to put both teams in the quarterfinals. Again, they do it on and off court as they know how to compete and have fun and it is wonderful for me to be on the road and see even more of their personalities and poise.
We were at two sites, so I did not watch Hannah and Lizzys doubles but Coach Hadley reported they had a great streak of high level play but early and late spells knocked them out in the first round, though I love seeing that their level is as high or higher as a team than it was at any time last year, which is so exciting.
More tomorrow if I'm not too tired; and I'm loving the families/alums and supporters who are here with us, this is starting off to be a wonderful tournament and we hope to continue it tomorrow.
John
News from Coach John Hein
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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.