Hello from Mobile, Al. As the rest of the field from DIII, DII, NAIA and JuCo arrives to register, warm up and get ready for the tournament tomorrow, the Northwest and Southwest regional winners play off for the final spots in the draw of 8 for singles and doubles.
This is certainly better than all of the Texas teams coming to the PNW every other year and the Northwest teams going to Texas for the regional, but it is a long way for both players to travel and potentially go home. Fortunately, this year it was all Whitman and Trinity so both schools sent men's and women's singles and doubles champs. The day started on the men's side with Whitman Sophomore Andrew LaCava knocking off the #4 player in the country 6-36-1. Cava was awesome and beat a very good very experienced player, what a match by both guys who had both played in this situation before. On the court next to them Alyssa battled Trinity first year McKenzie Knoop. Both players displayed some amazing tennis but honestly it wasn't the cleanest match and McKenzie was a bit tougher at the right times beating Alyssa 6-2, 6-3. I'm excited to see how she does in the main draw as she's a very good young player.
In doubles, the same pair took to the court again with their partners Courtney for us and Stephanie Williamson for TU. After a dominating first game by Trinity, we fought to go up 2-1 and carried the momentum to 5-1 before a gutsy game found us up a set. The format here in doubles is 10 pt tie break for the third so we wanted to keep it going but they stepped up their game to go up a break 4-2 in the second. We held and broke back for 4-4, then held again for a 5-4 lead. Trying to break for the match we got down 0-30 before rolling off 4 straight points for the win. The last one was the longest point of the match with both teams executing great shots before we finally got the point and the win. Tons of credit to Trinity as it was gratifying to see some really good tennis from both sides.
Tomorrow, Courtney and Alyssa play at 1pm CST against the #4 seed from University of Chicago.
More to come from Mobile....
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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.