This past weekend we played our first match of the 2016 season at Eastern Washington University in Cheney.  Our first two weeks of practice have been outstanding, but as great as our practice mentality is, there is no substitute for dual match play.  The Eagles were very sharp in their 6th match of the season and in the shorter D1 format (no ad scoring, doubles to 6 games), they came out strong sweeping the 3 doubles and taking the 4th in an exhibition.  I like what we can do in doubles as the skills and competitive fire were there, just a few too many mistakes in our first set of the season.

The team supporting Lori and Lil J in their #4 doubles match

Singles was a totally different story up and down.  At #1, playing the same player she lost to 6-0,6-0 last year Jenna played an incredibly composed and competitive match losing 4-6,3-6.  Next to her, the improvement in our team was also tangible as Mary played a 5th year senior who played #1 the last time we saw her and beat Courtney 6-2,6-1.  Mary's first set was rough but she got it going in the second set finally going down 6-0,6-4, but not before showcasing her baseline skills and determination. 

#3 was the match of the day with Cello having a slow start, then coming back to make the first set close before stepping it up a notch in the second set.  This was where you could feel the first year's on the court start to feed off each other and really fight together and the spark today came from Cello's heart during the match, but also her commitment to having great habits in practice that are paying off.  With the overall match decided, the third set was a match tie break and getting down big, Cello again fought back to make it close before the final score of 7-6,2-6,10-8.

#4 and #5 were really good matches that despite both being straight set losses, show the mental toughness, fight and ability to grow on our team.  Jana at 4 was rock solid from the start, using her weapons and blending offense and defense brilliantly.  So steady and so tough, even when her opponent found another gear, JKM was in every game fighting for every ball.  She came this fall with some of the best variety on the team and seeing her integrate even more options into match play has us thrilled to see what is next from her.  In the same way, Lindsey has been working to expand her game and it showed more on court than on the scoreboard in a 6-2,6-2 match.  It is incredible to see the physical maturity of her game as her work in the weightroom showed in having some incredible extended rallies with a counterpuncher who likes the points to go as long as possible.

Allie played #6 Saturday and coming off limited practice I knew she was striking the ball well, but wasn't sure what to expect as she competed.  Well, she picked up where she left off in 2015, managing herself and using her offense and defense intelligently.  She also served great against a big hitter and lost a tough 7-5,6-4 match that could have gone either way.  We got a couple exhibitions with Hanna playing a proset that Eastern won 8-3, though after a slow start, Hanna got comfortable continues to grow with each singles opportunity.  Lori got a one set match and it is awesome to see her transition to college life in the states.  She is more comfortable and has worked really hard in the gym so her power and shotmaking was incredible in a 6-3 loss.

Overall, this match was an opportunity to beat a D1 team and we could feel the intensity of that, but mostly it was an incredible testament to the leadership of Jenna, Allie and Tree for bringing the underclassmen along and showcasing their skills and support.

For her leadership in everything we do, Jenna was voted Whittie of the Week this week by the team and for her courage and great play on court, Cello was named by the coaches as the Whittie of the match.  Thanks to Maddy and Tom for awesome work prepping the team and on court.  We can't wait to get back to work at practice and look forward to a nice home stretch.

Our next matches are this Sunday at 9am vs Lewis Clark State College (ID) and then at 5pm vs University of Idaho.  We'll get the livestreams in Bratton up and running and will make a better effort to tweet out scores (I thought they were going out, but in the end my phone must have swallowed them all - sorry).

If you haven't seen this teams energy, togetherness and tennis, you're in for a treat!

Bye until Sunday,
John

Tis the season. The season for Tennis

Sorry for the writing hiatus, but classes and practices have been back on for a week now, and I'll be blogging regularly as we have a jam packed season.  So, without further delay....here we go!

I have to start with this team.  WOW, what an incredible group of individuals who are really figuring out ways to come together as a team.  It was obvious that their off season was well spent as there is a visible strength and confidence you can see from the first day of practice.  So much of this is due to the great leadership of Jenna and Allie organizing the fall, making it fun but still allowing for the valuable time off that is built into D3 tennis.  This is overall the most talented and athletic group I've coached.  They are driven to succeed and mentally tough and if the fall is any indication of our trajectory, we're going to have a great ride this year.

We hit the ground running with one practice and fitness session before welcoming back longtime friend Morgan Shepherd for a 4 day workshop with the team.  Without giving away the details of what Morgan does blending somatic psychology and tennis while he works on publishing it, I will say it is subtle on some levels, but what I do know is that he's able to define and cultivate the key areas for players and teams to make significant improvements.  The team worked really hard over this time doing individual lessons, team practices and fitness all with a focus on implementing the core concepts Morgan introduced in the fall. 

One detail I can happily share is that the team voted on who contributed the most this week and Jana is our first Spring 2016 Whittie of the Week!  Jana is always ready and focused on improving her own game and after a semester in college, her teammates say she's opened up a bit and they love her personality - passionate, honest and fun loving, her effort and attitude earn her this weeks award. Congrats Jana!

On court, we're playing some great tennis and are very excited to open up our match schedule this Saturday at 3pm at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, WA. 

Coach John

Looking ahead:
Thanks to alums who have volunteered to participate in mentoring program, we are working on that!

Sun, Feb 7th - Home double header vs LCSC and U of Idaho

Fri Feb 12th-Sun Feb 14th Whitman Winter Classic with Trinity, Redlands, Linfield, Lewis and Clark

Fri Feb 19th - NWC kickoff in Portland vs Lewis and Clark

2016 Spring Schedule

Here it is, our Spring Schedule as a downloadable pdf file.

We'll have more info about our special events on the road and at home, but Coach Maddy and I are delighted to have a steady diet of great opponents throughout the year.  There is something special going on with the team this year, those of you who saw us in the fall know we have depth and talent, but there is a larger team thing going on where everyone is in sync and pushing each other and loving the journey - I hope that this schedule helps you share it with us.

It kicks off with a couple of D1/NAIA matches with Eastern WA, Idaho and Lewis Clark State College (ID).  These tests will prepare us for a huge home weekend.

The Winter Classic this year brings #18 Redlands and an improved #33 Trinity (TX) along with #35 Linfield.  The traveling teams will also play #29 Lewis and Clark; so we've got 5 teams all on the rise in D3 tennis coming to Walla Walla!  We can't wait and hope you join us on Presidents Day weekend for Fri, Sat Sun matches.

We then hit the road for three conference weekends before Spring break, there will be some big matches in Portland, Salem and Spokane before we head to California for Spring Break.

On break, we've got two of the top 10 teams in the West with UT Tyler (#36 nationally) and CMS (#4 nationally) followed by a rematch with one of our favorite matches from last year #21 Vassar.

After break, we invite you to come to our Family/Alumni/Senior superweekend April 2-3rd.  We'll have matches with Lewis and Clark and George Fox as well as events on and off the court for our visitors.

 For those of you in the Seattle/Tacoma area, we finish the regular season with an action packed trip to play UPS, Division 1 Seattle University and then PLU April 16-17th.

I'll have more info about alumni/family gatherings around the road matches and ways to RSVP for home matches.  We hope to see you or have you follow indoor livestreaming/tweeting/updates from our adventures on the courts this spring.

A very special guest

Hello out there!

I hope you're enjoying the shift from summer to fall half as much as I am.  Here in the Whitman bubble, we've had ideal conditions to focus on learning from the fall tournament and getting right to work on those things that we need to improve on to have our best season.  Of course, our thoughts and hearts go out to those around the world who dwell on less happy problems; notably the community in Roseburg, OR, not far from Lindsey and Hanna's homes.

That being said, here it is tennis and school, or school and tennis depending on the time of day.  From the ITA regionals and our first weeks of practice, I knew our team has loads of talent and competes with incredible heart.  But how do we build on these hallmarks of Whitman tennis?  Well, the answer is we work hard to identify the areas we can improve and set our minds each day to being better.  Such a simple model for improvement is far from easy to implement as a tennis player and then to integrate each individuals needs into the team is even harder.  So, I decided to bring back friend, coach, and somatic psychologist Morgan Shepherd to work with the team.  My goal was to have Morgan help each player clarify what she needs to take her game to the next level while guiding the team towards a common goal they can work for in this next phase of training.

Morgan is brilliant at this as we did team practices, individual lessons and meetings over the four days he spent with us.  Maddy and I learned a ton about each player, some made some technical breakthroughs, and everyone honed their mental skills on court which showed in the last practice when we played doubles and singles sets with our usual toughness, but also a poise and consistency that will serve us incredibly well going forward.

It was gratifying to see how open and engaged everyone was at a time when our mid semester break, midterms and the off season are all within sight.  On the contrary, all I saw was focused desire to use the time we had with MoShep to learn and improve.  Each player had a different experience, while the team gained insight to where we have been, and where we're going.

So where are we going? and what is the answer to how good this team can be?  For me, it was certainly clarified this weekend and I'm now more convinced than ever that we have the talent to be as good in D3 as we want to be and each day any one of our 10 players can be the best out there.  The level of engagement and understanding this weekend really took shape and it is clear that we can do special things with this group as long as everyone keeps doing the work, maintaining balance and enjoying each other....so if you know Jenna, Katrina, Allie, Hanna, Jenna, Lindsey, Cello, Mary, Lori and Jana, then you know we're in for an amazing ride!

I must extend a very huge thank you to all of you who have supported the Whitman Women's Tennis team; we are just getting into fall fundraising, but through the Tennis and Wine camp and generous donations already made this year we were able to fund Morgan's visit; we hope to bookend the offseason by having him back for a few days in January of continuing the current work and focus on doubles, if that is something you're passionate about making sure happens, I'd love to talk to you about how you can help.

Thanks also to all of the alums and families who have paved the way with your experience here at Whitman and with contributing to the current team's wonderful attitude and spirit with your love and support through the years and at home, Maddy and I couldn't ask for a better environment or group of people to work with.

That's all for the fall season, talk to you soon.

Coach John