Fall USTA/ITA Tournament Coming Up!

Hello out there,

In less than a week on this Saturday (9/25) we host the annual USTA/ITA regional championships. This is a wonderful singles and doubles event that includes players from all nine of our Northwest Conference teams. It gives us a well timed tangible goal for our fall practices and I love the chance for new players to show their stuff as well as for returners to demonstrate the growth in their games. As a bonus, the tournament winners receive ITA All-American status and travel to the National DIII tournament.

Our first two weeks of practice and fitness have been outstanding. This group is balanced with 2 seniors, 3 juniors, 3 sophomores and 3 first year's and it has been inspiring to see them work with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine. First year's Maggie Eismeier (Portland,ME), Hannah Palkowitz (San Diego, CA) and Leah Siegel (Portland, OR) are adjusting rapidly to college life and college tennis and I'm excited to introduce them to their first college competition. And I can't deny the small pleasure I get in Hannah being the filling of a Bi-coastal Portland sandwich.

If you are planning on being here this weekend, keep in touch with me as we'll have a team dinner with family and friends on Friday in the late afternoon/early evening and I'm also planning a meal on campus Sunday evening for everyone.

I'll post more updates this week as the seeding and draws get posted.

Best,
John

Berry Picking with the Men's Team

Apologies to those who follow Coach Northam's men's blog but we've got more pictures from our Friday activity.

To those who haven't heard, after the first week of classes, the men's and women's tennis teams headed out to the banks of the Walla Walla river at the base of the Blue Mountains where Biology Professor (and 2010 Convocation speaker) Delbert Hutchinson and his wife Kathleen hosted an afternoon of berry picking and hanging out by the fire.

We enjoyed the wonderful outdoors, the teams got to spend some time together off court and Hutch and Jeff (with Katie's help) made some mean Blackberry cobbler in dutch ovens in the fire.

It was a ton of fun, thanks so much to the Hutchinson's for their hospitality and to Jeff for the idea.

Check out photos here.

-Coach Hein

Player feature: Charlotte Scott

Name: Charlotte Scott
Real Name: Squeaks
Year: Junior (2011)
Hometown: Seattle, WA
High School: The Bush School
Major: Spanish
Academic Interests: First became seriously interested in Spanish after a high school trip to Guatemala and decided to choose it as a major after reading Julio Cortázar’s "La noche boca arriba". She is also planning on getting a minor in Anthropology and wants to travel abroad next year, although where is unknown.
Family: daughter of Jim Scott and Linda Chalker-Scott, sister of Jack

Life before Whitman: Born in Buffalo, NY with a bagel and sponge candy in hand. Having grown up in Seattle and with both her parents each earning 3 degrees from Oregon State where Charlotte went to tennis camp every summer, she opted instead for Whitman. As a 4 year varsity letter winner at the Bush school, Charlotte was a three time team league champion and was the Emerald City league and district doubles champion with her doubles partner before falling the the State 1A/B doubles finals.

Life as a Whittie: Always a solid force in doubles, Charlotte has contributed in singles as well with some notable non-conference wins playing in the 7 and 8 spots against Claremont and Chapman. A wonderful ambassador for Whitman tennis, this dual language, multifaceted, versatile player is a huge asset on and off the court. Her heart is as big as her huge serve and if there is a chance to be there for her friends and team, you'll find Squeaks.

Hadley is famous!

Ok, sort of. There is an article on the Whitman webpage about our new desert biological field station and look who's sporting their Whitman Tennis hat in the photo. Nice work Had putting your smarts to good environmental use.

For the ecology minded out there (check this out Linda C-S!), they are doing a project on cheatgrass, an important desert invader.

Here is the link or go to http://www.whitman.edu/content/news/fieldstation