Friday, Sept. 22; Walla Walla, Wash.
The Whitman men's tennis team was the dominant force Friday as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Northwest Regional Championship got underway in Walla Walla and College Place.
The Missionaries advanced nine players into Saturday's Round of 16. In doubles, Whitman boasts four of the eight duos waiting to battle in Saturday's quarterfinals.
Whitman seniors Phalkun Mam and Steven Ly, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in singles, had little difficulty on Friday. Following first-round byes, Mam dispatched Linfield's Jed Rembold 6-2, 6-2, while Ly skipped past Pacific Lutheran's Jared Vidano 6-0, 6-2.
Mam next faces one of his teammates, junior Robert Edles-Rye, at 10 a.m. Saturday. Edles-Rye advanced on Friday with two victories. He rolled over Linfield's Matt Kauffman 6-1, 6-3 and then outlasted Willamette's Donovan LeDoux 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (10-5).
Ly plays at 1 p.m. Saturday against Puget Sound's Andrew Neil.
A third Whitman senior, No. 4 seed Robbie Munday, also started with a first-round bye on Friday. After beating Puget Sound's Nick Amland 6-2, 7-5, he advances to a match at noon Saturday against Linfield's Kyle Anderson.
Four Whitman freshmen, all of them seeded, followed first-round byes on Friday with victories.
No. 6 Matt Solomon, a freshman from Los Gatos, Calif., pushed past Linfield's Andrew Strauss 6-0, 6-4. He advances to play Pacific Lutheran's Jeff Loranger, the No. 9 seed, at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
No. 10 Christoph Fuchs, a sophomore from LaCenter, Wash., was freshman elibility, beat Linfield's Luke Rembold 6-0, 6-2. He also faces a seeded player from PLU, No. 8 Justin Larimore, in a 10:30 a.m. match Saturday.
No. 11 Jake Cappel, a freshman from River Forest, Ill., rolled to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Willamette's Micah Mack. He, too, advances to play a seeded player from PLU, No. 5 Kevin Floyd. That match is set for 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
No. 12 Nadeem Kassam, a freshman from Vancouver, British Columbia, scored a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Pacific Lutheran's Justin Peterson. That sets up a fourth Whitman/PLU showdown. Kassam plays PLU's John DeMars, the No. 7 seed, at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Sophomore Justin Hayashi is the ninth Missionary who survived Friday's two rounds of singles. After opening with a 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (11-9) victory over PLU's Tyler Oschner, Hayashi notched a 6-3, 6-2 upset over the No. 13 seed, Linfield's Nick Ruess. Hayashi's 11 a.m. opponent on Saturday is the No. 3 seed, PLU's David Miller.
Mam and Ly, seeded No. 2 in doubles, advanced on Friday with an 8-2 victory over Linfield's Luke Rembold and Matt Levering. Their opponents Saturday are two teammates, Hayashi and Jasper Follows, a freshman from West Vancouver, B.C. After posting an 8-1 win over Willamette's Shaun Mihalick and Fitz Paccione, Hayashi and Follows kept rolling with an 8-5 upset of the No. 8 seeds, PLU's Vidano and Peterson.
Munday and Fuchs, the No. 3 seeds, downed PLU's DeMars and Ocshner 8-4 in their only Friday match. Their scheduled foes on Saturday are Linfield's Rich Minice and Ruess.
Solomon and Kassam, the No. 7 seeds, pinned an 8-4 loss on Linfield's Kauffman and Strauss on Friday. They face PLU's Floyd and Loranger, the No. 4 seeds, on Saturday.
Two other Whitman duos managed victories in Friday's opening round before bowing out in round two. Cappel and Dan Wilson, a freshman from Bellevue, Wash., won their opener easily before losing 8-0 to the No. 1 seeds, PLU's Larimore and Miller. Two more Whitman freshmen, David Deming (Brush Prairie, Wash.) and Thomas Roston (West Vancouver, B.C.), followed a first-round win with an 8-5 loss to PLU's Floyd and Loranger, the No. 4 seeds.
In other singles action Friday, Wilson and Deming nearly gave Whitman two more players in the Round of 16. Wilson, after a 6-3, 6-2 opening round win, lost 7-5, 6-7, 1-0 (10-4) to PLU's Loranger. Deming pitched a 6-0, 6-0 in his opener before losing 7-6, 6-4 to Linfield's Anderson.
Roston won his first match Friday 6-2, 6-7, 1-0 (10-4) before losing 6-3, 6-0 to PLU's Miller. Follows dropped his first match 1-6, 6-1, 1-0 (13-11).
Two consolation brackets in singles will continue on Saturday.
Saturday, Sept. 23; Walla Walla, Wash.
Starting with nine players in the Round of 16, the Whitman men's tennis team advanced five into the quarterfinals as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Northwest Regional Championship continued on the Whitman campus. And once Saturday's dust had settled, Whitman had sent three seniors into Sunday morning's singles semifinals and two freshmen into Sunday afternoon's championship doubles match.
Whitman senior Phalkun Mam, the tournament's No. 1 seed in singles, cruised past two of his younger teammates in Saturday's play. He was a 6-1, 6-0 victor over junior Robert Edles-Rye in the Round of 16 and a 6-1, 6-1 winner over freshman Christoph Fuchs in the quarterfinals. Fuchs, the No. 10 seed, made the quarters by beating the No. 8 seed, Pacific Lutheran's Justin Larimore, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
In a Sunday morning semifinal, Mam faces PLU senior David Miller, who advanced Saturday with wins over two Whitman players. Miller started with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over sophomore Justin Hayashi and slipped past freshman Nadeem Kassam 6-2, 6-2.
Whitman's Steven Ly, the No. 2 seed in singles, had little difficulty Saturday advancing to the other semifinal. After beating Puget Sound's Andrew Neil 6-1, 6-2, Ly scored a 6-2, 6-2 victory over PLU's Jeff Loranger, the No. 9 seed. Loranger started his day with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) triumph over Whitman freshman Matt Solomon, the No. 6 seed.
Ly's semifinal opponent is teammate Robbie Munday, who opened Saturday with a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Linfield's Kyle Anderson. Munday, the No. 4 seed, then knocked off PLU's Kevin Floyd, the fifth seed, by a 6-4, 6-2 count. Floyd advanced to face Munday by downing Whitman freshman Jake Cappel 6-1, 6-2.
The semifinals in singles get underway at 9 a.m. Sunday on Whitman's outdoor courts. They will be followed on the same courts by the singles title match as well as the championship match in doubles.
Kassam and Solomon, two of Whitman's freshmen, advanced to the doubles championship with a pair of upset victories Saturday. Seeded No. 7 in doubles, Kassam and Solomon bumped off the No. 4 seeds, PLU's Loranger and Floyd, before outlasting the No. 2 seeds, Mam and Ly, by a 9-7 score. Mam and Ly made the semifinal round on the strength of an 8-1 win over Hayashi and Whitman freshman Jasper Follows.
PLU's Miller and Larimore, the top seeds in doubles, also advanced to the title match. After an 8-6 win over Linfield's Anderson and Wes Gabrielson, the No. 5 seeds, they posted an 8-3 victory over Whitman's Munday and Fuchs. The Missionary duo made the semifinals by beating Linfield's Rich Minice and Nick Ruess 8-4.
The tournament champions in singles and doubles will move to within a single step of the ITA National Small College Championships, slated for Oct. 12-15 at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. One day before the national tournament begins, champions from the Northwest and Southwest regionals will meet in Florida in one-match playoffs. Winners of those matches earn berths in the NCAA Division III portion of the national tournament, which has been hosted annually by ITA since 1986.
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| Nadeem Kassam (left) and Matt Solomon, winners of the ITA Northwest Regional doubles title, flank Whitman men's tennis coach Jeff Northam. |
"It was a great day to be a Missionary."
So said Whitman tennis coach Jeff Northam after a trio of Missionaries captured the singles and doubles titles as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Northwest Regional Championship came to a close Sunday afternoon on the outdoor courts at Whitman.
Missionary senior Phalkun Mam, the No. 1 seed, wrapped up the singles title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over senior teammate Steven Ly, the No. 2 seed.
Meanwhile, Whitman freshmen Matt Solomon and Nadeem Kassam completed their youthful trek through the doubles bracket, knocking off Pacific Lutheran's top-seeded David Miller and Justin Larimore. Solomon and Kassam fell behind 4-3 but reeled off five straight games to win 8-4.
As the tournament champions, Mam, Solomon and Kassam will travel to Florida next month with a chance to qualify for the ITA National Small College Championships, slated for Oct. 12-15 at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. One day before that tournament begins, the Whitman trio will play their championship counterparts from the ITA's Southwest Regional in a one-match playoff. Winners of those matches earn berths in the NCAA Division III portion of the national tournament, which has been hosted annually by ITA since 1986.
The Southwest Regional takes place next weekend at the University of Texas-Tyler.
Northam wasn't surprised to see Mam or his young doubles team come up victorious on Sunday. "Phalkun played in a lot of tournaments over the summer, and he's playing very, very well right now. Matt and Nadeem, even though they've only been together for a few weeks as doubles partners, are very accomplished doubles players. There are times when youthful exuberance is a good thing. They don't know their place in the world and they think it belongs to them."
Sunday's play began with the singles semifinals. Mam rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over PLU's third-seeded Miller in one semifinal. In the other, Ly was a 6-3, 6-0 winner over a third Whitman senior, Robbie Munday, the No. 4 seed.
Kassam, a freshman from Vancouver, British Columbia, and Solomon, a freshman from Los Gatos, Calif., who came to Whitman by way of St. Stephens Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, began this weekend's tournament as the No. 7 seeds. In the quarterfinals, they scored an 8-2 victory over the No. 4 seeds, Pacific Lutheran's Jeff Loranger and Kevin Floyd. Last night in the semifinals, they outlasted the No. 2 seeds, Mam and Ly, for a 9-7 victory.
"Both Matt and Nadeem are very quick, and they aren't afraid to close the middle of the net," Northam said. "What really sets them apart, though, is that both are very good at stepping in and taking serves early. That's kind of a lost art in college tennis. Most players want to stand behind the line and take a big swings at the serves. If you can step and take the serve early, that puts a lot of pressure back on the serving team."
The Northwest regional tournament got underway Friday morning with 48 men and 45 women representing seven of the nine schools in the Northwest Conference.
Fresh off his singles tennis title at the ITA Northwest Regional, Whitman senior Phalkun Mam kept on winning Friday as the Eastern Washington/Gonzaga Invitational got underway in Cheney, Wash.
Mam, the invitational's No. 6 seed in singles, followed a first-round bye with a 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 victory over University of Portland senior Scott Kennel. Mam advances to play the University of Idaho's Rob Chalkley, a junior from Solihull, England, in Saturday's Round of 16.
Whitman freshman Dan Wilson also picked up a singles victory Friday with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 comeback over University of Idaho junior Brandon Christopher. In round two, however, Wilson lost 6-2, 6-1 to Eastern Washington sophomore Kyle Schraeder.
Whitman senior Steven Ly dropped a 6-3, 6-3 opening-round decision to Brian Garfield, an Eastern Washington senior. In the consolation round, Ly bounced back with a 6-2, 6-4 win over University of Montana sophomore Alex Weinstein.
Matt Solomon, a Whitman freshman, fell 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 in the first round to Gonzaga junior Charles Adams. Solomon then rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 consolation bracket win over Lewis-Clark State's Justin Haegelin.
Two more Whitman freshmen, Jasper Follows and Nadeem Kassam, also lost first-round decisions but will not play their first consolation matches until Saturday. Kassam lost 6-2, 6-2 to Eastern Washington sophomore Kyle Cruzat. Follows fell 6-1, 6-2 to Idaho's Paulo Miranda, a sophomore from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, who played previously at Lousiana State University.
Solomon and Kassam, who teamed to win last weekend's doubles title at the ITA Northwest Regional, opened doubles play Friday with an 8-6 win over Gonzaga's Adams and Cooper Fratt. Solomon and Kassam then lost in the next round to the University of Portland's Alex Strom and Flip Zivkovic, the invitational's top-seeded doubles tandem. Strom is a senior who played previously at Texas A & M, while Zivkovic is a red-shirt freshman from Nis, Serbia.
Follows and Wilson also posted a first-round doubles win, beating Christopher and his Idaho teammate, freshman Eric Hieb. The Missionary freshmen then were blanked 8-0 in the next round by the University of Portland's Charlie Yemm, a junior, and Joel Kincaid, a sophomore.
Mam and Ly, the No. 6 seed in doubles, advanced with a first-round bye but then lost 8-3 in the second round to Kennel and his Portland teammate, sophomore Carlos Machado.
The invitational continues through Sunday on the Eastern Washington campus. Most of the competitors are from NCAA Div. I schools. Whitman is the only NCAA Div. III school represented.
Whitman senior Phalkun Mam dropped a close 7-6, 6-4 decision to the University of Idaho's Rob Chalkley in Saturday's Round of 16 at the Eastern Washington/Gonzaga Invitational in Cheney, Wash.
Mam was the last Whitman player still alive in the tournament's championship bracket. Most of the competitors in the tournament are from NCAA Div. I schools.
In Saturday's consolation singles bracket, Whitman senior Steven Ly won his first match before losing 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (10-7) to Eastern Washington senior Kevin Erickson.
Missionary freshman Matt Solomon stayed alive, however, beating two players from Gonzaga. Solomon downed sophomore Mike Merz 7-5, 6-1 and beat senior Brett Womack 6-2, 6-2. Womack was Gonzaga's No. 2 singles player last spring.
Whitman's Jasper Follows, also a freshman, lost his first consolation bracket match to Womack by scores of 6-4, 6-1. Nadeem Kassam, a third Missionary freshman, fell 6-4, 6-3 to Lewis-Clark State's Kevin Lee.
The tournament concludes Sunday on the Eastern Washington University campus.
Phalkun Mam made some Whitman College athletic history Wednesday, winning a play-in match in Fort Myers, Fla., to become the first Missionary player to qualify for the NCAA Division III portion of ITA's National Small College Championships.
Playing at Florida Gulf Coast University, Mam pinned a 7-6 (7-0), 6-2 defeat on D.J. Petros, a senior at Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas). Mam advances to play in Thursday morning's main draw of eight players. He faces John Watts, a freshman at Washington University (St. Louis, Mo.).
The news wasn't as good Wednesday for Whitman freshmen Nadeem Kassam and Matt Solomon. They lost their doubles play-in match by a 7-5, 6-4 count to Eric White and Daniel Quinones, a pair of seniors at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (Belton, Texas).
All three Whitman players qualified for Wednesday's play-in matches by winning the singles and doubles titles at the ITA's Northwest Regional Championships in late September. Their opponents Wednesday had won the ITA's Southwest Regional titles.
Mam, who had beaten Petros in a three-set singles match last fall, wasted little time grabbing the upper hand on Wednesday. But with Mam serving for the first set at 5-2, Petros rallied to win three straight games. Mam regained control in the tie-breaker, winning 7-0.
"Phalkun really picked up his game in the tie-breaker, and he never looked back from there," Whitman coach Jeff Northam said. Mam was an easy 6-2 winner in the second set.
By advancing to the tournament's final eight, Mam will be ranked nationally among the top eight when the NCAA Div. III national rankings are released later this year. In addition to being the first Whitman player to qualify for the Small College Championships, he is only the second player from the Northwest Conference to earn a spot in the tournament.
Mam plays at 9 a.m. Thursday, which equates to a 6 a.m. Pacific coast time for Mam and his internal clock. Temperatures are expected to be in the 80s with high humidity. "We'll be battling the elements and the time difference as well as an opponent," Northam said.
Watts, Mam's next foe, advanced to this week's tournament by winning the ITA's Central Regional. As a a freshman, Watts was seeded No. 16 in that tournament. But he beat the top seed, DePauw's Evan Webeler, in the semifinals and dispatched second-seeded Keith Kortney, also from DePauw, in the finals.
In their Wednesday doubles match, Solomon and Kassam fell behind 5-2 in the opening set before bouncing back to even the score at 5-5. White and Quinones answered by winning the next two games to take the first set. "A couple of points is really all that separated the two teams in the first set," Northam said. Then, he added, the "only difference in the second set was one service break."
White and Quinones are "two seniors with a lot of experience, and it was that experience that got them through this match," Northam said. "Matt and Nadeem didn't play as well as they can, so they were a little disappointed in that respect. They battled and fought hard, even though their play was off just a bit."
The ITA's National Small College Championships, which date back to 1986, feature a total of four divisions. The other three are NCAA Div. II, NAIA, and Junior/Community Colleges. The singles and doubles winners in each division play one another this Sunday in the ITA's "Super Bowl" of small college tennis.
A quick start wasn't quite enough to get Whitman's Phalkun Mam past his opening round opponent Thursday morning at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's National Small College Championships in Fort Myers, Fla. Mam dropped a 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 decision to Washington University's John Watts.
"Phalkun played extremely well in the first set, but he wasn't able to keep his game at that level the rest of the way," Whitman coach Jeff Northam said.
After spraying winners around the court in the opening set, Mam began missing those shots in the second set, Northam said. "He started missing the big shots he had been making in the first set. He basically hit himself out of the second set."
The deciding third set stayed on serve until Watts broke Mam in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead. Watts then held serve to take the match.
The third set was the most competitive of the three, Northam said. "It was hot and humid and both players were tired. Phalkun had break points in the set that he wasn't able to convert."
Watts, a highly recruited freshman at Washington, is a "very solid, consistent player," Northam said. "He doesn't make many mistakes, and he has a big serve."
Mam plays a consolation round match Friday morning against Mikhail Gurevich, a junior and the No. 1 singles player at New York University. Gurevich lost 6-0, 6-3 to Emory University's Michael Goodwin. Mam then plays a second consolation match on Saturday.
Mam is the first Whitman player to ever qualify for the National Small College Championships. He qualified by winning the Northwest Regional and then beating Trinity University's D.J. Petros, the Southeast Regional winner, in a play-in match on Wednesday.
Nadeem Kassam and Matt Solomon, two Whitman freshman, also made the trip to Florida this week after winning the doubles title at the Northwest Regional. They lost their play-in match on Wednesday.
Overcoming a slow start, Whitman's Phalkun Mam rallied for a 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 victory over New York University's Mikhail Gurevich in the singles consolation bracket Friday morning at the ITA's National Small College Tennis Championships in Fort Myers, Fla.
Mam, a senior, advances to play in a Saturday morning match for fifth place. He faces John James, a sophomore at the University of Mary Washington (Fredericksburg, Va.). James advanced Friday with a three-set victory over Jesse Brauer, the tournament's No. 2 seed and a senior at Gustavus Adolphus College (Saint Peter, Minn.).
"Phalkun got off to a super slow start (against Gurevich)," Whitman coach Jeff Northam said. "After the first set, he started competing a little better and started keeping balls in play. He started working the court a little bit, instead of trying to pull the trigger early in the point."
After Mam won the second set in a 7-4 tie-breaker, the third set stayed on serve as the two players battled to a 2-2 deadlock. "The first four games were very competitive," Northam said. "I think every game went to deuce."
Mam seized control by breaking Gurevich in the fifth set. He won the next three games as well to close out the match. "Once Phalkun got his first break in the third set, he rolled from there," Northam said.
Mam's match on Saturday starts at 11 a.m., which means temperatures should be in the low 90s with high levels of humidity, Northam said.
If past history is any indication, Mam should be ranked in the top eight nationally once the ITA's fall rankings are released next month, Northam added. That would be the highest NCAA Div. III ranking for a Whitman player since Chris Gregerson reached No. 1 as a sophomore in the spring of 1987. Gregerson transferred as a junior to Northwestern University, where he teamed with Todd Martin in doubles to reach No. 1 in the NCAA Div. I national rankings.
Playing his most complete match of the tournament, Whitman's Phalkun Mam cruised to a 6-3, 7-5 victory over the University of Mary Washington's John James to claim fifth place Saturday in the NCAA Div. III portion of the ITA's National Small College Tennis Championships in Fort Myers, Fla.
Mam, a senior, won three of four matches in the tournament and will receive Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American honors at the end of the year. "Phalkun played at a high level in both of his sets today," Whitman coach Jeff Northam said. "Going three-and-one in this tournament means that he definitely stands as one of the best players in the nation."
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