Spring Break Walla Walla Report Card

I know you don’t usually get grades over Spring Break, but let’s be honest, we all know none of these teams are actually on Spring Break, and we have only used this monicker to lightly poke fun at Walla Walla for being a potentially sub-optimal spring break destination. On to the grades.

Here are the matches (box scores added after helpful comment below):

#24 Whitman def. #20 Gustavus Adolphus 6-3

#9 Pomona-Pitzer def. #20 Gustavus Adolphus 7-2

#20 Gustavus Adolphus def. #31 Pacific 7-2

#24 Whitman def. #9 Pomona-Pitzer 6-3

#9 Pomona-Pitzer def. #31 Pacific 7-2

Whitman – A

I don’t give out A’s often, but it’s hard to find fault with the Fighting Squirrels this weekend. Coach Northam did a masterful job scheduling, and Whitman got contributions up and down their lineup. Both Hewlin and Carter/Hoeger picked up big wins over P-P for nationals qualification. Jivkov is the only guy who didn’t pick up a singles win, but he was the definitive underdog in both of his matches, and both went three sets. Considering the drop-off between Hewlin and the rest of Whitman’s roster, I’m guessing whoever plays #2 for Whitman this year is in for a difficult season. Chase Friedman came up absolutely huge for Whitman, winning an enormous tiebreaker in the first set over Entwistle against GAC to stem some Gustie momentum, and dominating Bello against P-P to squash any thoughts of an epic comeback. Not to be forgotten is junior Trevor Fennessy who went 2-0 at #3 doubles with Gary Ho in his first ever starting gig. Fennessy was a 2-star ranked #604 in his class, and his UTR is 9.75. It’s nice to see some classic Whitman development!

What’s next?:

Next up for Whitman is a Presidents’ Day weekend trip to Swarthmore for matches against CNU, Swarthmore, and Haverford. As I pointed out in a tweet, Whitman is now 7-0 against ranked competition at home and 2-10 against ranked competition on the road over the past three seasons. Part of this is the caliber of the competition (they’ve played many more top 10 teams on the road), but for the past couple season’s we’ve gotten excited about Whitman’s prospects after a strong early season only to see them have disappointing Spring Breaks. Here’s hoping continued success for the upcoming year.

Gustavus Adolphus – C-

It was a weekend of missed opportunities for the Golden Gusties. Against Whitman, they were only down 1-2 with the first sets at #3 and 4 coming down to the wire when Whitman took over. Carter broke Johnson late, and Entwistle couldn’t capitalize on a set point in the tiebreaker. After he and Johnson lost their close sets, it was all over but the shouting. Against Pomona-Pitzer, their #2 doubles team surrendered a 7-4 (two break) lead, while their #3 doubles team couldn’t hold on to an early break. Even after being swept, they had their chances. After P-P pulled Maassen, Al Houni and Ekstein won matches in straights, but Entwistle was broken serving for the match at 5-4 in the 3rd, which would’ve pulled the Gusties within 3-4. That ultimately probably would not have mattered, but it’s hard not to wonder what could have been. Gustavus salvaged the weekend with a solid 7-2 win over Pacific. The match against the Boxers had every reason to be close, given it was Gustavus’ 3rd in 24 hours, but you have to give some credit to Gustavus for fighting through this one. Oddly, after being the only Gusties to win singles matches in the first two contests, Ekstein and Al Houni were the only ones to lose against Pacific, with fatigue likely being a factor. After getting a chance to see Derbani play, it’s obvious that he’ll be a very strong option at the bottom of the singles lineup moving forward. If Whaling can come back and move him down to #6, Gustavus will be very dangerous moving forward. First order of business will be to shore up their doubles.

What’s Next?:

Gustavus moves into a central slog for a month with their next big matches coming against Kalamazoo (big singles qualification match between Metzler and Al Houni) and UW-Whitewater. GAC and Whitewater have a great rivalry, but both teams have some pretty big question marks at the moment. The loser of the match will be in danger of falling out of the top 30 entirely, so it has some added significance this year. (Side note: GAC doesn’t has zero seniors in their singles lineup, so if this year doesn’t pan out, that huge 2014 recruiting class will have to take them to the promised land next year).

Pomona-Pitzer – C-

Obviously, the Hens were hoping to come away from this weekend with a 3-0 record, but I’m going to point towards a couple of reasons to be optimistic about this loss:

1. They started their amazing 2015 season with a 5-4 loss to Bates before going on an absolute tear.
2. Last time Whitman beat a top 10 team, they beat Santa Cruz at home under very similar circumstances, and the Slugs went on to make the finals of Indoors and beat CMS later that season

A couple lineup highlights: Mandic and Gearou both went 3-0 against tough competition. 2-star freshman Avery Bicks (#359) played some amazing doubles both against GAC and against Pacific. The question marks moving forward will surround their seniors in singles. When you’ve got four seniors in your top four singles spots, you’re usually feeling pretty good, but they didn’t have a great weekend. Between Maassen, Yasgoor, Kim, Bello, and Simonides, the senior leaders went 2-7 in singles, which obviously wasn’t what they were looking for. I’m also curious about Malech only playing #6 singles against Gustavus. Given his performance at the end of last season and this Fall, I would have thought he would be in line to start, so I’m wondering if he’s also dealing with an injury, especially since he didn’t play against Pacific. Either way, Coach Bickham’s decision to challenge his team with three tough matches indoors on the road can only help them moving forward, as a loss to a non-Pool C team is not going to be that significant moving forward with direct matches against much of the Pool later in the season.

What’s Next?:

The Hens have two weeks off before a home match with the Bates Bobcats, who have always given them fits. After that, they’ll head to Indoors where they’ll be definitive underdogs in their first round match against Chicago. Some might not feel too optimistic about Pomona-Pitzer after this weekend, but I’m thinking the best is in front of this senior-heavy group.

Pacific – B-

The story of the weekend for Pacific is really Clark “The Shark” Winning-er. After having an unrecognizedly awesome 2016 season (16-2 with wins over Murad and Locklear), he made waves this weekend by beating Mahanad Al Houni and Anthony Bello. Those two wins will definitely put him in the singles qualifying conversation. It’s a shame that he didn’t get a shot against either Maassen or Yasgoor, as PP was the only non-NWC west region team on Pacific’s schedule. Nevertheless, Winning-er will have at least two shots at both Hewlin and Watanabe this season. If he goes 3-1 in those four matches, he almost certainly makes the post season, which I know would make his grandparents very happy.

What’s Next?:

It’s not surprising that the Boxers didn’t come away with a win this weekend, but I’m sure they didn’t expect to go 0-6 in doubles. They have just two weeks to shore up their doubles because they have a huge match with Lewis and Clark on the 18th, followed by an away match with Whitman the following weekend. The Pios showed last season that on the right day, an NWC competitor could unseat the Fighting Squirrels, but it will be important to earn a 2-3 seed, so they can hopefully unseat them in the NWC Final and go to  nationals.