The Winter Classic...A Battle in Bratton

Hi everyone,

Today really kicked off the main part of our Spring dual match season and it was a barnburner with La Verne.  If you look at rankings, we came in favored as the #16 team nationally and La Verne was #28, but preseason rankings are from last year so I figured this one would come down to a few points here or there.  The team did just about all we could to get things to fall our way, but in the end fell to a great team 5-4.

The match started with tremendous energy.  We played a 4th doubles and the freshman/senior combo of Seana and Hannah were both efficient making balls and simple plays as well as ruthless finishing shots as they rolled to an 8-1 win.  Next to them, Tree and Erin at #2 just played really solid doubles, starting off with a break of serve and rolling to an 8-3 win.  These two do a great job playing off of each others shots and against a tough opponent they were also covering the court extremely well extending points and turning defense into offense...it was a great testament to the footwork and fitness we've practiced.  The trend continued at #3 with Jenna and Maddy showing huge emotion at the right times winning the key games to win 8-4 and put us up.  The lead was slim though with Courtney and Morgan facing a dynamic and loose team at 1 doubles who got a lead and held on even when the twins stepped it up.

So, we had that energy you want going into singles needing a split and with 4 matches on, we knew it was a battle with Court, Jenna and Tree dropping their first set but Morgan winning hers.  Each match turned with Morgan and Tree going to a third set and Courtney having points to go up 5-4 and Jenna up 5-2 before long long hard fought games ended in straight set Leopard victories.  Now down 3-2 and in third sets we felt good as Erin took the court at #5 and quickly got up 3-0.  Maddy was pumped to go on at #6 while Mo and Tree fought.  Morgan's set was a war every game with smart play and huge shots from both players.  Tree was down a break 1-4 but fought back to serve for the match 5-4 while Morgan was at 5-5.  It was intense and thrilling to see Tree fight back so hard and for Morgan to battle one of the better #2 players in the West Region.  I have to give tons of credit to LaVerne as their players stepped up to hit key shots and two winnable matches went away.  Even with Erin holding on to win the first set then steamroll the second and Maddy rocking her singles it wasn't enough.  I've been in a lot of college tennis matches and these are the ones you feel the most, the most joy, the most pain, but as a coach if you can look at your team, feel their support and love for each other and know they left everything they had on the court, you feel very proud.

This makes what Erin, Maddy and Olivia at #7 did even more special, to know the match is over but to dig in and pull out matches shows how these players only know one way to play...tough.  This match will sting in our ranking, but it is still February and as we start the Northwest Conference season at home this Friday and Saturday, it is so cool to see that we've applied many of the lessons from our Hawaii trip and so now we can turn to how we crank it up one more notch.  I'm sure we'll enjoy a day off tomorrow and be ready to hit the courts again Tuesday getting ready for perennial conference contender Linfield.

The atmosphere in Bratton was so fun today, we had family, friends, community members, students, staff and profs as these two great teams went head to head.  Coach Jeff was instrumental in getting some tennis streamed live and Coach CPatt was on point all day, way to go Chels!  Thanks so much to those of you who came out, especially if you made the trip to come here.  The winter classic was a great success and your support means so much as we LOVE playing on our home courts.

Happy Presidents Day and a huge birthday shout out to Jenna!

Coach John