Thursday, October 31, 2013

Family Weekend Fun

I want to thank all the families who came to Walla Walla last weekend.  It was truly one of those special times that puts the big picture of what we're doing into such great perspective.

Over the weekend I was able to watch Liv in the Orchestra (if you didn't see it, not only were the students amazing, but the new professor on the piano was out of this world!).  Many of us watched Whitman Volleyball and it was so fun to show the new courts and our NWC Championship Banners to some of you!

The highlight for me though was for Jen and I to be able to host the team and families for a brunch.  Just getting together and enjoying some relaxing time together is so much fun.  We are blessed to have wonderful family support and I couldn't ask for a better group of players to coach.  As they work on their own, I'm counting the weeks and days until we take off for Hawaii and get back to work together!

Happy Halloween!

John

Thursday, October 17, 2013

2014 Whitman Women's Schedule is online

Well, it's not all there as we have to tie up some loose ends with court times etc., but you can check our revamped WC Athletics website and look at our schedule at:

http://athletics.whitman.edu/schedule.aspx?path=wten

The fall season showed me that we have another tremendous group of dedicated student athletes.  We also have what I feel is our most talented team in terms of depth.  It is so rewarding to go to practice and see the competition level between everyone being so hard fought.  That intensity has only brought us closer together as the team is showing great leadership to a person and we just love being together on or off court and it makes the work so much fun.

Because of our desire and potential, we not only have a great conference schedule that includes home and home matches with #33 ranked Lewis and Clark (OR), but we have added

  • Chelsea's alma mater in DI Eastern Washington University
  • #2 DII BYU Hawaii on our preseason Hawaii Trip
  • 9 nationally ranked DIII matches including - 
    • #5 Claremont Mudd Scripps on our preseason Hawaii Trip
    • #14 UC Santa Cruz and #28 La Verne at home for our Whitman Winter Classic over Presidents Day weekend
    • #3 Amherst, #6 Bowdoin, #10 Pomona Pitzer and #30 Denison on our California Spring Break Trip
This season will be such a wonderful test of our growth as a team and embracing this level of competition is something I'm incredibly excited for as it should bring out the best in us.

I'm still working to organize a home family/alumni weekend (one of our last two home weekends usually) and of course if you will be at matches at home or on the road, let me know.  We can also do team/family/fan/alum dinners or events if enough people are coming.  The team loves all the support you all provide.

Here's to a productive off season and an exciting 2014!

John

Friday, October 11, 2013

Tough Tennis at the USTA/ITA Small College Nationals

It has been a couple of days now since day one of the fall USTA/ITA small college national championships.  This year, our twins from Texas Morgan and Courtney dominated the fall regional in doubles and Courtney repeated as singles champ.  So, it was off to Florida to fight for a spot in the rest of the weeks action.

And, a fight it was, as the singles play in match featured last years #25 and #26 nationally ranked players, with the winner entering the main draw as the #3 seed.  After a shaky first game, Texas Lutheran's Sofia Vega settled down and battled through some long games to a 6-1 first set as Courtney tried to find her strokes.  Our brave Whittie showed signs of her normal play midway through the set, but still had trouble finishing off points as consistently as she usually does.  This was not the opponent to be off at all against as evidence by the score.  The second set had Courtney resolved to dig in and fight and these two battled in what was one of the longest, most physical sets I've seen.  After a close start, Sofia looked like she might take the match in straight sets going up 5-3, but Courtney stepped up her first serves and backed them up with more free flowing aggressive tennis while maintaining all the tough defense needed to not give away free points.  Suddenly it was 5-5 and another great service game put her up 6-5 before she broke to force a third set.  Something in the third fell off ever so slightly and Sofia again took advantage winning almost all of the close games en route to a 6-1 third set. The match took a full three hours in 89 degree heat and humidity.   The heat rule would have kicked in at 90 degrees to give them a 10 minute break between sets, but neither player asked for it and they soldiered on and displayed their fitness and mental stamina.




Courtney, however had to come back and play in one hour for doubles with Morgan against a very talented UT Dallas duo.  Showing no effects of the marathon singles match, we jumped out to a quick start, being aggressive during a great first set which we would have run away with if not for UTD tightening up their game and making it close; still a 6-4 first set had us close.  The second set was back and forth with UTD taking advantage of a bit of first set hangover from us, getting an early break to lead 2-0.  Jumping right back in we broke back to tie it at 2-2, but then a close game to go up 3-2 gave UTD confidence and they took another break to lead 5-2 and win the set 6-2.  We made some good plays early to 3-3 in the match tie break with both Courtney and Morgan displaying tremendous net play.  Some huge plays by UTD and a couple loose points from us put Dallas up 7-3 and then I have seen some terrific efforts, but as UTD played better and better, the twins willed themselves through sheer determination back into the match, closing to 6-7 before finally falling 7-10.

It was a tough end to come up short on two matches where we played well and competed with so much heart, but in the end it just wasn't our best tennis at the right times and with the quality of opponent across the net, nothing was going to be easy.  We enjoyed a couple of days watching the main draw between studying and it was especially cool to cheer on our men's doubles duo of James and Andrew to the national finals where the dropped a tough match to my college coach and his new team at Middlebury.

All four Whitties represented our teams, Whitman and the Northwest with great pride and determination and I'm so proud of them.  As we travel home for a much needed 4 day weekend to catch up, we are thankful to have had the opportunity to compete nationally and I am especially proud of Morgan who rehabbed her back enough to play doubles and she showed she belongs on the national stage, so I can't wait until Spring. 

Our next competition will be in late January in Hawaii as the team travels to train, bond and compete in matches vs BYU Hawaii, Chaminade, and for a top 25 showdown with West region #1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

Special thanks to C-Patt for planning her college tennis reunion in Florida (we got lucky on that one), so she was able to stay and be at the matches and also to Sandy Seaman for coming out for the tournament and taking some wonderful photos which you can view here on our flickr site.

Best regards to all from a proud proud coaching staff.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Fall USTA/ITA Small College Nationals Starts Tomorrow

Hi everyone,

It is incredible both how quickly time passes and how much can be fit into a couple weeks.  After returning home from a terrific regional USTA/ITA tournament in Portland, it was so much fun to watch the Whitman Men play on campus as host's of their event.  This was the first competition on our newly refurbished outdoor courts and the guys didn't disappoint, playing some great tennis and having both doubles finalists and all-Whitman semifinals too.

We then had our last week of fall practice where we got to enjoy the new courts.  Of course, Courtney and Morgan were preparing for the fall Nationals this week, but it was so much fun to get at it with this group and see how motivated they are after the fall regional; in fact the whole fall has really brought the team together in a great way.  There has been so much leadership and contribution across the board and it shows both in how productive we've been on court and how the friendships and bonds on the team keep growing stronger off court.

As of right now, Mo, Court and I are on east coast time, arriving in Florida today with play in matches at Fall Nationals tomorrow.  You can follow on the ITA and Whitman websites, but as usual; more recent updates will be on twitter (@coachhein) and facebook (Whitman Women's Tennis).

The small college nationals are such a special event as it may be the only event in college sports that combines every division with DIII, DII, NAIA and JuCo with the winners going on to play in the DI championships.  Men and Women all compete at the same site so tomorrow's schedule is:

Singles play in's:  Courtney vs Sofia Vega (TLU) 11am EST; Andrew LaCava (WC) vs Paxton Duel (Trinity)

Doubles play in's: Courtney/Morgan vs. Johnson/Tran (UTD) 2pm EST; Andrew/James (WC) vs Guin/Thompson (Trinity)

Go Whitman!