We have just returned home to Walla Walla for the end of finals, camp Whitman and graduation. We had hoped to also be preparing for a team trip to the national final 8 in Kalamzoo, MI, but a tough first round regional match ended our team season. Fortunately, Alyssa and Courtney will be playing doubles and Courtney will be playing singles at the individual Nationals in Kzoo after graduation.
This season was truly special for this team. After breaking into the national rankings and NCAA tournament last year, the team challenged themselves to keep growing on and off court and the result was the most special season of tennis I've ever had. Our team is evolving each year and as good as it was last year and the year before, somehow it feels better and better to be a part of Whitman tennis. Always known for great sportsmanship, support of each other and fun at all times; the level of play keeps going up and with it, the bonds between these young women become visibly stronger. Because we performed so well and love being together so much, losing the other day was hardest because it meant the end of the season together.
That end came at the hands of a very deep and consistent Redlands team. They are a focused hard working team who stayed really tough after winning #2 doubles but being down 7-6 at #3 and 8-7 at #1. Both Redlands teams dug in to get the doubles sweep and put us in a huge 0-3 hole.
We still had belief going into singles and at #6 KKP jumped out to an early 3-1 lead, Jenna and Morgan were battling and Courtney took the first set with Alyssa at 5-4. Maddy, Tree and HP provided amazing support and Rubes had high school friends from 3 schools in California cheering her on. But as Jenna played a brilliant tie break to win a long opening set, KKP, Rubes and Morgan were each down a set so we needed some 3 set magic and a solid win from Alyssa. In a scary moment, Alyssa turned her ankle up 5-4 30-15 in the first set and after a tape job and a lot of courage, she lost the first 5-7. Totally up against the wall, everyone fought so hard and played some of their best in the end, but both Morgan's and Kate R's opponents were on fire and took straight set wins to end the match and our team season.
Out of about 340 teams in DIII, we know only one end the season in celebration and we credit Redlands with playing some clutch doubles and tough singles, but it still hurts to lose winnable matches. I know for a fact though that our seniors are very proud of their legacy at Whitman and their individual leadership and play throughout 4 years, this season and in this tournament. We are also a fairly young team with 3 sophomores and 3 first year players contributing to the counting matches. Combined with the constant growth of our juniors, our team will be deeper and more competitive next year from all of the experiences we gained this season.
I cannot say enough how proud I am of every player on the team and of how Emily has stepped into the role of coaching. We wouldn't have had the success we did without a total team effort. Our team also extends beyond us to those of you who are so wonderful in supporting us. Whether it is emails or facebook messages from alums and friends, people coming to matches or following our twitter and scores it is a special thing to know you're supported and there is no place that fosters support and community like Whitman. Dena, Mark, Sandy, Bob, Annie, Johanna and Abby it was so great to spend time with you and have you at the match.
Thank you all so much for a special season. We're not done yet, and there is a lot to look forward to next year, but having you behind us has made this year nothing short of amazing.
All our best,
John and the Whitman Women's Tennis Team
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
NCAA Regionals Are Set...We're off to California, here's the details
Thanks so much for the many congratulations on our NWC tournament win and then our first win over #7 in NAIA LCSC in my years here. I'd like to especially thank those of you in the W Club and superfan Charlie Stookey for all the positive vibes!
The team was excited to hear the news yesterday that we were selected to go to Claremont, CA for the first round of the NCAA tournament. The team knows that it is a privilege to represent our conference in the tournament and also a great opportunity to play a terrific team this Friday in the first round. With our focus on Redlands at 2pm Friday, we are having a lot of fun practicing and enjoying our time together.
That is really what this weekend is about for us, enjoying the moments as we prepare to play our best tennis. This is such a competitive group on court, but if you have been around us, you know that how much fun we have together off court creates a positive environment that I am amazed to see this balance in such a high achieving group of young women.
Enough of my rambling, we've got work to do getting ready for the weekend, here are the details about the NCAA Regionals.
Our match schedule is:
Friday 2pm Courts 7-12 (lower courts) at CMS Bizantz Tennis Center vs University of Redlands, who edged us out on Spring Break 5-4.
Saturday 2pm - if we win we play Pomona Pitzer, who has a bye
Sunday 12pm - Regional Final
If you're coming, let me know, we'd love to see you at the tournament.
There are no paper programs, but the program is online at
The brackets and information are on http://www.ncaa.com/sports/tennis-women/d3
Our great SID Andrew will keep you updated on the Whitman site http://www.whitman.edu/whitman-athletics
Host CMS will have a webpage with live stats (and maybe streaming video if we play Sat/Sun) http://www.cmsathletics.org/sports/wten/2012-13/2013_WT_Regionals/championship_central
We'll also update you on twitter @coachhein
and facebook https://www.facebook.com/WhitmanWomensTennis
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
NWC Champs and Tournament Champs....On to NCAA's!
Hello everyone! It's very exciting to write knowing our wonderful season will continue as we hosted and won the Northwest Conference Tournament to earn the automatic qualification to the NCAA touranament! Before getting into the home matches last weekend, I have to give credit to Conor H-B for an amazing sequence of photos!
So, as I said, our season continues and that is really everything I could hope for. This team is just so close and so much fun that we had to move on and continue playing for each other. Also, the improvement from the Fall to Spring and then from the start of Spring to now has been phenomenal. I think this was reflected in the way that we were able to take it to some very good teams in the tournament and it is exciting to think about building on it even more in the NCAA regional rounds.
The matches Friday against Linfield and then Saturday against Lewis and Clark showcased one of the best displays I've seen of the entire team focusing and being present in the moment together. From the warmup, into doubles until the last ball, weather it was cheering, being physically and mentally ready or hitting huge shots, everyone knew their part and played it well.
Against Linfield we played inside on a rainy spring day and the crowd in Bratton had awesome energy for a 10am match. One and two dubs played solid tennis and the key was Katrina and Rubes fighting there way through a tough 8-6 win. They were pumped coming in to know that their NWC record of 5-0 at #3 was only surpassed by the Linfield team's 11-0 record. It wasn't their cleanest match, but they established what they wanted to do early and were able to execute at key times to put us up 3-0. In singles, while Jenna and Morgan battled to first set wins, Alyssa was cruising at #2. At #1, Courtney was misfiring repeatedly to go down an early break 0-3. Fortunately, she has worked a ton to improve her serve the past two years and was able to fight out two holds to get to 2-4 before breaking twice to take the set 6-4. After Alyssa won, Courtney clinched the match and as she went to shake her opponents hand, Jenna returned serve and hit a screaming down the line winner on match point, so we had an unusual match score of 6-0 (playing to 5).
With our job done, we were able to enjoy our home advantage to rest, recover, study and enjoy a family dinner. It was wonderful to have several families with us in Walla Walla and I can't thank you all enough for your support and love.
With a 9am final and no idea if the rain was done or not, we woke to dry courts and were pumped to be outside in the center of campus. Often in dubs, our all-American team of Alyssa and Courtney leads the way and with the women's basketball team cheering them on they did recover from being down an early break to take a lead. But the way that we played at two and three was incredible. At three, against an LC team who made the semi's of the fall tournament, Tree and Rubes put together probably their best display of executing big doubles. I couldn't be happier for them becuase they are never satisfied and constantly work to raise their level. With one in a fight, however, Maddy and Morgan provided the energy in the middle. Playing a tremendously talented team of highly rated first year players, Morgan and Maddy played off of each other and worked as a team so well that the result could never be in doubt. This energy from two and stellar play from three dubs carried over to one where we grabbed the momentum to go up 7-4, then eased off a little giving up a break to 7-6 before closing it out, again on a big shot from Alyssa who went for it when it counted.
After her struggles against Linfield, Courtney was all focus and against one of the top players in conference, showed that she is ready to play her best tennis in the playoffs and scored a resounding 6-0,6-0 win to put us up 4-0. We won first sets at #2 and #4 but at three it was Morgan's turn for a slow start and her opponent played amazing tennis to take an easy first set 6-1. It's Morgan though, and she set herself to the task at hand. Despite continued great play from her opponent, she was up 5-0 in the second when Alyssa hit the backhand winner to end the match.
Both LC and Linfield played great and showed how our conference keeps getting stronger while maintaining an outstanding level of sportsmanship and respect. We are lucky to compete with some very classy teams here in the Northwest. But, I'm very proud to also coach a team that while competing as hard as anyone, can be a model of what team tennis should be. Playing on four courts (for the final time outside - new courts this summer!), it was incredible how Rubes and KKP stayed ready. In fact both days, Rubes was up 1-0 in her match when we clinched and while KKP asked the team to keep her off of the court, she was ready as well. Maggie was again on top of tweets and HP and Liv were a constant presence of vocal support. After playing big dubs, Maddy was our finals Whittie of the Match as she cheered constantly to keep everyone pumped up until the end.
The next step is NCAA regionals. We don't know where we'll go. We find out May 6th and play May 9th or 10th, and the team is preparing to fly wherever they send us and to play our best match of the season in the first round.
To be ready, we have one more home match before the courts are torn down and rebuilt with the addition of two more courts! We play LCSC in a rematch of our first match and one of our losses this season. That is set for Sunday May 5th at noon.
Again, thanks so much to everyone for all your help and support. The celebration wouldn't be nearly as sweet without you.
-John
 |
| Alyssa in the last shot of her home NWC career rips a backhand winner up the line to win her match, clinch the team match and send us to the NCAA's! |
 |
| The emotion comes out and everyone knows what just happened, especially Rubes in the background! Good job by coach Em playing it cool...though keep an eye out for video of her dancing on court in celebration. |
The matches Friday against Linfield and then Saturday against Lewis and Clark showcased one of the best displays I've seen of the entire team focusing and being present in the moment together. From the warmup, into doubles until the last ball, weather it was cheering, being physically and mentally ready or hitting huge shots, everyone knew their part and played it well.
Against Linfield we played inside on a rainy spring day and the crowd in Bratton had awesome energy for a 10am match. One and two dubs played solid tennis and the key was Katrina and Rubes fighting there way through a tough 8-6 win. They were pumped coming in to know that their NWC record of 5-0 at #3 was only surpassed by the Linfield team's 11-0 record. It wasn't their cleanest match, but they established what they wanted to do early and were able to execute at key times to put us up 3-0. In singles, while Jenna and Morgan battled to first set wins, Alyssa was cruising at #2. At #1, Courtney was misfiring repeatedly to go down an early break 0-3. Fortunately, she has worked a ton to improve her serve the past two years and was able to fight out two holds to get to 2-4 before breaking twice to take the set 6-4. After Alyssa won, Courtney clinched the match and as she went to shake her opponents hand, Jenna returned serve and hit a screaming down the line winner on match point, so we had an unusual match score of 6-0 (playing to 5).
With our job done, we were able to enjoy our home advantage to rest, recover, study and enjoy a family dinner. It was wonderful to have several families with us in Walla Walla and I can't thank you all enough for your support and love.
With a 9am final and no idea if the rain was done or not, we woke to dry courts and were pumped to be outside in the center of campus. Often in dubs, our all-American team of Alyssa and Courtney leads the way and with the women's basketball team cheering them on they did recover from being down an early break to take a lead. But the way that we played at two and three was incredible. At three, against an LC team who made the semi's of the fall tournament, Tree and Rubes put together probably their best display of executing big doubles. I couldn't be happier for them becuase they are never satisfied and constantly work to raise their level. With one in a fight, however, Maddy and Morgan provided the energy in the middle. Playing a tremendously talented team of highly rated first year players, Morgan and Maddy played off of each other and worked as a team so well that the result could never be in doubt. This energy from two and stellar play from three dubs carried over to one where we grabbed the momentum to go up 7-4, then eased off a little giving up a break to 7-6 before closing it out, again on a big shot from Alyssa who went for it when it counted.
After her struggles against Linfield, Courtney was all focus and against one of the top players in conference, showed that she is ready to play her best tennis in the playoffs and scored a resounding 6-0,6-0 win to put us up 4-0. We won first sets at #2 and #4 but at three it was Morgan's turn for a slow start and her opponent played amazing tennis to take an easy first set 6-1. It's Morgan though, and she set herself to the task at hand. Despite continued great play from her opponent, she was up 5-0 in the second when Alyssa hit the backhand winner to end the match.
Both LC and Linfield played great and showed how our conference keeps getting stronger while maintaining an outstanding level of sportsmanship and respect. We are lucky to compete with some very classy teams here in the Northwest. But, I'm very proud to also coach a team that while competing as hard as anyone, can be a model of what team tennis should be. Playing on four courts (for the final time outside - new courts this summer!), it was incredible how Rubes and KKP stayed ready. In fact both days, Rubes was up 1-0 in her match when we clinched and while KKP asked the team to keep her off of the court, she was ready as well. Maggie was again on top of tweets and HP and Liv were a constant presence of vocal support. After playing big dubs, Maddy was our finals Whittie of the Match as she cheered constantly to keep everyone pumped up until the end.
The next step is NCAA regionals. We don't know where we'll go. We find out May 6th and play May 9th or 10th, and the team is preparing to fly wherever they send us and to play our best match of the season in the first round.
To be ready, we have one more home match before the courts are torn down and rebuilt with the addition of two more courts! We play LCSC in a rematch of our first match and one of our losses this season. That is set for Sunday May 5th at noon.
Again, thanks so much to everyone for all your help and support. The celebration wouldn't be nearly as sweet without you.
-John
Thursday, April 18, 2013
NWC Tournament Updates
You can follow the tournament online through the Whitman Website, where we have set up a tournament page with live stats, http://www.whitman.edu/whitman-athletics/2013-nwc-tennis-championships
We'll also keep twitter going with updates during Whitman matches @coachhein for the Women and @northam for the men.
As we have the morning match tomorrow (10am vs Linfield!!!), and if we win, the final is at 9am Saturday, we're providing coffee and donuts to fans, so bring your mug or enjoy a tasty bite if you're at the matches as a thanks for coming out early to cheer and enjoy the excitement.
-John
https://www.facebook.com/WhitmanWomensTennis
We'll also keep twitter going with updates during Whitman matches @coachhein for the Women and @northam for the men.
As we have the morning match tomorrow (10am vs Linfield!!!), and if we win, the final is at 9am Saturday, we're providing coffee and donuts to fans, so bring your mug or enjoy a tasty bite if you're at the matches as a thanks for coming out early to cheer and enjoy the excitement.
-John
https://www.facebook.com/WhitmanWomensTennis
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