Beyond the scoreline. Our first match of the season

If you read my post last week, you'll know that the team has been working really hard.  One thing about college tennis is that these players have worked so long and hard to develop tremendous skills and lots of players get better in college by putting those skills to the test each day in practice and in weekly matches.  Our team has made a greater commitment to really improve ourselves on and off the court, between points, games, sets and matches.  Growth can be painful and as a program where everyone wants to win every time we step out on the court, yesterday was a bit painful, but also really a terrific step in our growth.

So, we played the Lewis Clark State College Warriors in Lewiston, ID.  Coach Kai Fong does a tremendous job not only having a team that each year is a national contender in NAIA tennis, but he instills kindness, sportsmanship and class in his team.  Yesterday, already 4 matches into their season (against all D1 teams), the Warriors were just sharper than we were and scored an 8-1 win (results here).

We had great match preparation but are still fine tuning our doubles, getting healthier every day and experiencing some slight growing pains in expanding our games.  With all this, plus the fact that LCSC is a great team with some amazing young talent at the top of the lineup and solid depth, our showing yesterday was something we're all proud of.

I am so tempted to give a complete blow by blow of the match, but I think I'll just highlight that our effort and fight was in midseason form even though the precision on our shots looked like the first match of the year.  The scores in doubles do very little to indicate how much of a strength this is for us this year.  We have so much talent in doubles and with matches and fine tuning, it will only get better.  On that note, exhibition matches weren't on the WC website recap and at #4 doubles Seana and Lindsey fought through some early nerves and then built great momentum to take an 8-4 victory.
In Singles, there is a little more time to settle in and each player has been working on individual goals and everyone showed tremendous progress, so the task at hand is to bring it all together as we prepare to play our first NWC match Saturday at Whitworth and then we'll be at D1 Eastern WA Sunday in Cheney, WA.  Our depth also showed up in the #7 and #8 exhibition matches, they played no ad to move things along and Hanna helped out with a quick 6-0,6-3 win at #7.  With Hanna's big game every match she gets is huge in her development and she took some lessons as well as some confidence from this one.  Tree played #8 and while she is still getting back her cleanest tennis, she battled really well in a 4-6,6-4,10-7 three set loss.

Let me know if you'll be in Spokane for the battle of Whits on Saturday at 10am or Cheney on Sunday at 10am, we'd love to have support and its also great for the team to engage and spend time with our families, friends and alums!

Thanks for reading!
Coach John

An Amazing Weekend

Hi out there everyone,

As we moved through our second week of Spring practice, the incredible excitement began to build into a confident routine of hard work, fitness and more precise tennis.  This set the perfect stage for a special weekend last weekend.

Though the years are going by and it was longer and longer ago, for me as a college player at UC Santa Cruz, being a part of Slug Tennis was something big.  I was fortunate to build meaningful relationships with so many people.  One of them is Morgan Shepherd.  Mo Shep was the assistant director of my first Nike Tennis Camp I worked at; a fellow Slug who was then coaching at Pomona Pitzer before moving to Boise, ID to work with Greg Patton (shout out to our Tennis and Wine Camp Brother Greg and his amazing family including CPatt who we miss!).  Morgan coached with Greg at Boise State and also ran many programs for Idaho tennis before coming back to Northern California where he lives and coaches privately now.  He came back to get a degree in somatic psychology and I was thrilled we had the opportunity to bring him up to campus to work with the team.

Not knowing exactly what Mo would bring to the table, I'm so proud of the way the team approached the weekend with open minds and hearts.  Morgan became part of our team and worked with us together on our practice and match play as well as individually with each players game.  It was an incredible experience with a great tennis mind sharing his knowledge, research on the mind-body connection and love of tennis with us.  Thanks Mo Shep, we'll carry forward many of the lessons you gave us.

We also got to name another Whittie of the Week and Lindsey was voted by her teammates to have contributed at the highest level.  She's always working really hard and this week with a lot of focus on playing singles and doubles to get our groove back, everyone was impressed with how as an opponent she brought out their best and as a partner she was so positive, supportive and uplifting.  What a week for everyone and I'm sure our first year from Bend will keep building on what she already does so well.

FINALLY, we were able to add one more match to our schedule!  Get our your calendars because we'll head over to Lewiston, ID this Sunday for a 9am season opening dual match with the NAIA top 20 Warriors!  I'll be tweeting updates @coachhein and @whitwomentennis so we hope you enjoy the energy of our first match against a great opponent.  With both teams shorthanded, we defeated LCSC this fall on the grass courts at Baker City, but Coach Kai Fong with his full squad will pose a tough challenge right off the bat that we can't wait to engage in.

Okay, one more thing...sorry.  But, since you're looking at your calendar and our schedule, you'll notice we have all our home matches between February 20th and March 14th when we leave for Spring Break in California.  We aren't setting a specific family/alumni weekend, but we hope if you're planning travel you'll let me know so we can enjoy your company and support and plan some activities around the matches for you to interact and get to know this amazing team even better.

Allright, its time for practice, I'm off to the courts!

-Coach John

2015 Season Preview

Dear followers, fans and families,

After a fall away from the blog using my email list (email me at heinj@whitman to be added for updates including new blog posts), I'm getting back to the blog as a way to share weekly - if not more often what we're up to here in Walla Walla.

After one of the most fun and successful seasons in program history, it's safe to say that what we have now is a "program".  As a team, we continue to build on our strengths and push the envelope to find new ways to grow together as individuals and a team.  If you got my fall emails, you know how incredibly excited I am with our new players.  Alex has made a wonderful transition from Art School in Vancouver, though moving away from such a tight family and support system at home has it's challenges.  That's what the team is all about though, channeling that love of tennis into a true family at Whitman.  Hanna, Jenna G (or Little J as we call her) and Lindsey have met every expectation I had of them (and I thought A LOT of each of them) in recruiting and are all making huge contributions daily.

In fact, the depth on our team is a fun problem to have, and it really is fun because the leadership from so many places on this team is off the charts so we're really enjoying our court time together and looking forward to competing together.  I couldn't tell you (well, I could but that might spoil the surprise, and I could be proven wrong in the next couple weeks of practice), what our lineup is because we're having the most competitive practices full of upsets, tight sets and a really high level of play coming off of the fall and a long winter break.

We're excited to welcome in fellow Slug Alum Morgan Shepherd this weekend to work with the team on honing our practice habits and then we hit the road for back to back weekends:

Feb 8th at Lewis Clark State College (Idaho) 9am
Feb 14th at Whitworth  10am
Feb 15th at Eastern Washington University  10am

Then, we have a wonderful month of home matches up to spring break with conference matches on the road after break.  We will be planning alumni/family/fan events in Tacoma and Portland so let me know if you'd like to help in the planning of that.

I feel like I'm missing tons, like our fundraising camps with Emily Rolston, our awesome Spring Break schedule in California, a stellar academic fall for the team.....I'll have to do more posts and if you're not already, I encourage you to get involved and like us on facebook for more frequent updates, photos, videos and also so you can all interact.

For now I'll say I couldn't be more fired up for today's practice, so I'm going to go get ready and I wish you all the best in 2015.

Sincerely,
Coach John


Future Posts:
-WC Winter Classic
-Whittie of the Week Updates
-2015 Recruiting Commitments - meet our incoming Whitties

Mother's Day Tennis Love

Happy Mothers Day!

This is a recap post, but I'll start by thanking all the Mom's out there, especially of our WhitWomen's Tennis team and mostly my Mom for always being there for me - Mom, you're the best!

Well, our team season concluded yesterday with a hard fought round of 32 match with the Athena's of CMS.  Coming off an inspiring 5-4 win over UT Tyler in the first round of NCAA's, we carried our intensity and fight into yesterday's match with the #5 ranked team in the country.

After dropping one doubles quickly to an on fire CMS team, two and three doubles showcased our growth that we can play with anyone at any spot in the lineup.  Allie and Morgan have only played one match and a few practices together as Morgan spent the latter part of the season recovering from a groin pull.  They got down 6-2, but the fire was lit and it was unreal to see Morgan leading them and Allie showing off her MUCH improved doubles.  In the end they fell 7-9, but showed that our doubles future is so bright!  At two, our most consistent team of Erin and Katrina started with amazing energy to go up 3-0, then CMS fought back to 3-3 and the battle was on.  Trading games it was inspiring to see how our team embraced the moment to earn a huge hold at 6-6 and a break to win 8-6 and get us on the board.

Singles was intense from the start.  The Athenas are so good because they are solid up and down the lineup, but at 4 and 5 especially, they are wonderful experienced singles players and our newcomers Erin and Allie played like veterans fighting and staying focused on the moment, but each of them fell by deceiving straight set scores. So, down 4-1 with Maddy the only one up a set, I was again so impressed with our effort.  Many teams would go away, but we fought and scrapped with Jenna going up a break in the second set, Courtney showing her patented determination to will herself from being down a set and 4-5 to a 7-5 second set.  Morgan dropped an intense long first set and then was down 1-4.  Morgan, even still not 100% with her leg is one of the best fighters in the business and she came up with some shots and gets that were inspiring as she fought back to 4-4 in the second set.  Unfortunately it wasn't enough as her opponent stepped up to win 6-4 and clinch the match.

Overall, the tournament was such a great way to end a phenomenal season.  How much the team enjoyed the process of setting lofty goals and doing the work to get better every day was incredible.  We hold our heads high with much pride for what we've done and would have wanted more tennis as it would mean more time together.  So, there is a mix of finality with the end of Hannah, Maggie and Olivia's college tennis careers.  I'm so proud as they were a huge part our development from a competitive team in conference to a regular national contender.  Even more than that, they exemplify what it means to not only grow your tennis, but grow as teammates and people.  I'm so proud of them as they near graduation and very bright futures as intelligent, respectful, talented leaders.

This year has also seen the emergence of Chelsea Patton as a coach.  In her first year coaching, C Patt had an incredible impact on our team, adding intensity to everything while teaching the team not just how to get better on court, but how to give your whole heart, mind and body to something.  Congrats on an amazing season Coach Patton!

We also can never say enough what it means to have our incredible support system, so on Mother's day I am so happy to have had a terrific family and friend presence at the matches.  Thanks to the Wallin, Dobrin, Allick, Palkowitz, Bell and Webster families for cheering us on at NCAA's!  You're all so outstanding.

So concludes a terrific season and we look forward to summer adventures and an even bigger year next year as we return the bulk of our team and welcome a strong class of first year players.  BUT....

we're not done yet!  Courtney will be competing at NCAA individual nationals, right back at the CMS courts in Claremont CA Thursday through Saturday May 22-24th!

Happy Mothers Day!
Coach John