Saving the best for last....or is it just getting started

Hello everyone,

Today at Whitman is Whitman Undergraduate Conference Day.  If you're not a Whittie and don't know about this event, it is one of the things that makes our liberal arts education so special.  Without graduate students at Whitman, our professors (who are experts in their fields) need help conducting research and value teaching so students do a ton of work at a really high level.  This ranges from senior seminar papers/projects to a senior thesis to research or study conducted by students with professor or student grants etc.

The bottom line is that Whitman students do amazing work and one day a year the college stops classes and the whole campus is involved in presentations of this work.  Today, Jenna moderated a panel themed, "Our town, Our times" and gave a presentation on a project she did titled, "Who's Framing Whom? Critical Analysis of Jay Z and Beyonce Meeting the Mona Lisa"  How's that for an econ major (who has passed her senior exams!!!).  During the all campus lunch, Cello who plays in the Jazz Ensemble performed at the Reid Campus center, so there is music, science, social science and just about everything you can think of students doing...what a day!

Okay, enough excitement about school, last weekend we had a one match and following a great week of practice, we played our last home regular season match vs Pacific.  This is a talented team that we knew would be tough, especially at the top of the lineup and in doubles.  Through the years, I've seen teams go through matches relying on depth or talent and the result is often good, but the goal of our team each day is to use every minute we have together on court to keep improving.  Sunday was an absolute celebration of that attitude.

We got out quickly in doubles sweeping the three counting matches plus the exhibition where Lil J and Jana played brilliant attacking doubles to win 8-0.  All other teams won 8-3 and our habits are really coming out!  In singles, there was no drop, rather we stepped it up with the dangerous 1-3 matches all going our way in straight sets.  I'm so proud of Jenna as a senior to play two brilliant sets in front of friends and teammates at 1.  Mary and Allie were just as good at 2 and 3. Cello and Lindsey rested while Lil J and Lori were efficient at 4 and 5 and Jana started strong, hiccuped a bit in the second set and reset herself brilliantly to take the third set 6-1.  Hanna went inside for an exhibition and was the first done 6-0,6-1.

I'm incredibly proud of the team on and off the court, we have more fun each week as they get used to the habits or competing together as champions and growing together each day and week.

This weekend we have an exciting weekend in Tacoma/Seattle.  If you're in the area, let me know as we'd love to see you at matches and are working on a team/supporter dinner Saturday night in Seattle.

Saturday we play at 9am at UPS then go to Seattle University for a showdown with the D1 Redhawks.

If you'll be at the matches or are interested in joining us for dinner Saturday night, please email me at heinj@whitman.edu

Sunday we play PLU at Sprinker Recreation Center in Tacoma at 10:30am.

This is the final regular season matches for our team and then we play the Northwest Conference Tournament.  More info after this weekend, but in all likelyhood we will travel to Lewis and Clark where the Pios will host the top 4 conference teams.  We would be slated to play in Portland at LC Saturday 4/23 at 2pm in the second semifinal of the day.  The finals will be Sunday 4/24 at 10am with an NCAA bid on the line.

We hope to see you soon!
John