Individuals Day II

No pictures today, just a few words!

Another beautiful day here in Oberlin, Ohio! The staff here at Oberlin have done a fantastic job making all of us involved with the NCAA tournament feel welcome and comfortable. They made a point of taking care of even the smallest details and showing flexibility with the inevitable mid-tourney changes required.

Well done!

Today's play? Quarterfinals in singles & doubles, semi-finals in singles. A very high-level day of play especially in singles. If I were rating today's 10 matches 8 of 10 were very high level and very competitive. As one might expect as the tournament advances towards the final day, the playing level went up, and continued to reflect the observations I have made in previous posts. To re-iterate, in no particular order. GREAT defense, tenacious competitive skills, visible fitness prowess, and a general embracing of challenging, competitive play.

The results? At noon(Eastern) #3John Watts, of WashU will take on #5Chris Goodwin of Emory University. The doubles semis give us #1Middlebury against Trinity of TX, and #2UC-Santa Cruz against #4 California Lutheran.

I promise it will be good!

Available on video streaming via http://www.ncaa.com/

D3 Individuals Day 1

Today the Individual portion of the Men's D3 NCAA National Tourney began. 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams were selected from the over 2000 players in starting lineups around the country. On Day I, two rounds of singles and one round of doubles took place. The picture above shows the concluding handshake in the round of 16 match between Sam Sweeney of North Central College and #4 seed, Andrew Peters of Middlebury College. Peters won 62 63 in an excellent match.

Again what stood out for me was the impeccable defense and shot selection displayed by the vast majority of the singles and doubles players. Very few "free" points were allowed. The other obvious difference from the regular season play that I have viewed was the virtual absence of negative emotion both in the physical sense and in the verbal sense.

Saturday, quarter and semi final singles beginning at 9am, followed by quarterfinal doubles action.

Team Finals

Middlebury wins over Amherst 5-1

The best team won. Five seniors would not be denied, and they got it done. Midd was very fit, very well-coached. Most impressively was the virtually perfect shot selection between offense and defense. Middlebury, even their big-hitters, played defense when needed, rallied HIGH over the net, and then attacked every short ball.

Well done!

Team Semifinals

Wow!

Hard to belive that today could top the finish of yesterday's Amherst/Emory tilt, but BOTH semis were great today! First Amherst took on #3 Claremont and went up 2-1 after a fairly routine hour of doubles. Then the fun began. CMS quicly won first sets at 5 and 6, Amherst countered with a quick set at #1. The teams split first sets at 3 and 4. As the match unfolded CMS actually went up 4-3 with wins at 2, 5, 6, while Amherst won easily at 1. Third sets at 3 and at 4. Another 3rd set tiebreak for the Amherst #3, and again he prevails this time rallying from 1-6 in the TB for a 11-9 win evening the match at 4-4. Five minutes later #4 closes out the match with a 6-2 win and puts #7Amherst into the final.

Where they will face the victor of the WashU/Middlebury match. On paper this looked to be a routine win for the #1Panthers of Middlebury. WashU had other ideas. The teams split 2 and 3 doubles, and WashU served at #1 87 40-15, but Middlebury has the top doubles pair in the country and they showed why breaking serve and then dominating the tiebreak to give Midd a 2-1 lead going into doubles. Straight set wins at 5 and 2 extended the Midd lead to 4-1, before WashU mounted a strong comeback winning court 6 in straight and then adding 3rd set wins at 4 and 1. Midd's 5th year senior at #3 capped a comeback after dropping the 1st set 26 and won 62 in the 3rd at the 4 hour and 35 minute mark of the match.

Middlebury and Amherst are both from the NESCAC Conference where Midd won the only encounter of the season 54 in April. Suffice to say the two schools do not like each other which adds an interesting twist to what has already been a tremendous Team Tourney.

From a coaching view, today's play only reiterated what I saw yesterday. Good players competing with positive energy, intelligent shot selection, tremendous fitness & willpower. Most of all they all played with a sense of confidence and expectation of success. Momentary setbacks, like losses of points & games, were mere blips in the road towards their end goal of winning. While only 1/2 the players, pairs and teams ended up winning, not a single point was given to an opponent. Everything was contested and earned.

Beautiful!

FINALS at 1pm Eastern

Team Quarterfinals

Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

Team Day I

#1 Middlebury 5 #8NC Wesleyan 0

#4 WashU 5 #5Carnegie Mellon 0

#3 Claremont 5 #6Trinity(TX) 2

#7 Amherst 5 #2 Emory 4

Morning matches both were highlighted by uneventful doubles sweeps which set up the winners. Hidden behind the 5-0 scores were some very strenuous singles matches. Middlebury was working hard at #1-#4, and WashU struggling at #2, #3, #5 and #6. The message from the morning was twofold. Doubles is critical at every level of D3, even the Elite Eight.

Middlebury looked worthy of their top billing. ALL their doubles pairs made serves, returns and 1st volleys, and in singles, even tho their top two had loads of offense, it was their defense that impressed. Very solid, high clear rally strokes and defensive shots. NO UNFORCED ERRORS from Middlebury. Much better 1st serves than the Kohawks have. Currently!

The afternoon matches produced the drama of the day. Trinity continued their streak of great doubles winning 81 at #1, rallying from 0-4 at #2 before falling 86, then their #3pair won 98 coming back from 1-5 in the tiebreak. Trinity taught the lesson of positive emotion and body language during doubles. Claremont proved talented in singles, winning at four of the six singles in a hard fought match.

In the feature match of the day, #2 Emory jumped off to a 3-0 lead after doubles against the streaky Jeffs of Amherst. Since Emory featured unbeaten D3 players at #1 and #2 singles, it appreared bleak for the NESCAC runnerup. But in exciting fashion, Amherst won at #5 and #1 in straight sets before Emory won a 3rd set at #4 for a 4-2 lead. Amherst wins the final three matches in 3rd sets including the decider 76 at #3 for the unlikely upset after being swept in doubles.

A great day and tomorrow should be better! Semifinals at 1pm Eastern

Team Practice Day

Got the opportunity to watch all eight teams put in their final moments of practice before tomorrow's quarterfinal matches. Very interesting in how the differing coaches prepared their teams. Some were very scripted practices, some very intense point play, but others had a much lighter atmosphere. I am looking forwrd to seeing how the different approaches play out in match play.

Individually, the Teams looked like they were full of talented players. Fitness did not appear to better, if at all, than your Kohawks, but in general the racquet skill was a step up. By this I mean, the "ease" in which the players were able to produce quality shots. Another factor that was readily apparent, was the "completeness" of game. Each player was at least "solid" on serve, return, and on both wings of the groundstrokes. Underspin BH's were practiced all day, and even the volleys, while not of great technique, were all put into play. Power was there, but selectively used on all shots, and as a matter of fact, an across the board willingness to "just" hit the ball back in the court was very easy to see.

We will see how this all holds up once we start keeping score in the morning matches!

NCAA Tennis Championships

Tomorrow begins my week long stay in Cleveland, Ohio for the Men's D3 Tennis Championships. They are being held at Oberlin College just a few miles west of Cleveland.

Why am I here ?

This marks my 4th and final year on the NCAA National D3 Tennis Committee. The Committee serves as part of the Games Committee during the Championships. Sounds important, but the staff at Oberlin do the bulk of the leg work! Tomorrow is the practice day for the eight participating teams. Play will open Tuesday morning at 10am Eastern.

Funny, in an ironic sort of way, that I am here chairing the Championships in 2010. A bunch of years ago(1976) two teammates and I rode all night to Jackson, Mississippi to support our teammates as they tried to win the very first D3 Tennis Championships. They did win and some 34 years later I am again receiving the opportunity to watch great tennis by "real" student-athletes!

Choking, and Hedging my Bets

I spent my early Sunday afternoon watching the Madrid Masters 1000 final between the top two players in the world, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. As it was on the red clay, in Spain, Nadal was the favorite. It was the first time these two had met in exactly one year as Federer had beaten Nadal in the 2009 Madrid final.

What did I learn? Nadal is good, really good. The best I have ever seen on clay. Better than Bjorn Borg. His defense is amazing, the spin is back on his FH, and his BH pass was electric when he needed it. Yet for all that, Federer was on the verge of taking the second set tiebreak. He was up 4-2 when disaster struck. Four straight unforced errors, a winner, then a whiff on a bad bounce to his FH.

As I just began trying to compete again myself after a number of years, I most certainly recognized the choking. On the edge of accomplishing something(a win over Rafa) that he really wanted, the body tightened up and the errors came quick. Of course, when I am trying to play I am not even close to making the shots I make in practice. It's like some alien has invaded my body and is missing shots I would never miss! On the bright side, choking is just one step away from success. As we become adjusted to the situations the score dictates, the body tends to relax a bit and produce more recognizable tennis. At least I hope this happens soon!

Oh, and my previous post about the demise of Federer? I retract that 100%. He is stil capable of producing the most beautiful tennis in the world, even against the best clay court player playing in his home country. Federer will remain a Grand Slam title contender until physically unable.

COE'S JANSSEN NAMED IIAC MVP

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) announced today that Coe College senior Greg Janssen (Oshkosh, Wis./West) has been named 2010 IIAC Men’s Tennis Most Valuable Player.

Janssen was named All-Conference in both singles and doubles after winning the Flight A singles title and, with Elliot Rausa, placing second in the Flight A doubles draw at the 2010 Iowa Conference Men’s Tennis Championship. He is the second Coe Flight A singles champion in three years, capturing the title when Dubuque’s Nick Garcia retired after the first set due to illness. Janssen capped his senior season with a 45-18 overall record, including a 21-9 mark in singles. He and Rausa advanced to the final in the doubles draw with a win over Luther’s Utsab Rijal and Scott Martin in the semifinal, then fell to Wartburg’s Mitch Eslick and Tom Koenen in the championship match.

Janssen is the fifth different Coe men's tennis player to be named IIAC Men's Tennis MVP, joining Johnny Watson (1999-2000-01), Nick Barnes (2002-03-04), Ryan Yao (2005), and Tom Jennings (2008). Greg is Coe's 9th IIAC MVP in their 13 years in the Iowa Conference. He finished 6th in Coe Tennis history on the all-time wins list with 157 and helped Coach Rodgers attain his 450th career win on May 6th against Central College.

Greg graduated May 9th, 2010 and is currently back in Oshkosh training his younger brother, Michael, for the Wisconsin State Tennis Tournament in early June. After that he will be doing in-service work in the Caribbean, and then this Fall will be serving a Business Internship in Santiago, Chile. He plans to attend law school in the Fall of 2011.

Is the End in Sight?

So I watched Federer defeat Benjamin Becker of Germany in the 2nd round of the Madird Open. First impression? Federer still better than most, but not as efficient as in the past at putting foes away. To me, it did not appear that he would play defense full out, unless the score dictated. What is up? Getting bored with the non-Grand Slams? Only time will tell, in this case, the upcoming French Open, but I predict the end of his streak of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals or better.

Conference Day!

I know it has been a long while since I last posted. No excuses, just busy with bringing the season to a close. Today is the IIAC Men's Championship day. A rather melancholy day for me. On one hand, VERY excited to participate in two matches today, hopefully challenging for the title. On the other hand, a rather sad day to be a tennis coach as the season could well be over in a few hours.

No more practices, no more working with the players on court. You see, here in D3, the NCAA forbids coaches from working with their players outside of the designated 19 week season. For those coaches, and I include myself and Coach Kris, we LOVE the time we get to spend on court with the players. That is the single driving force behind me being in this profession!

It is certainly not the four racquets I have to get strung before we go to Iowa City!