Welcome back again.  I didn't have very much to say about NESCACs other than that the team was extremely disappointed so I refrained from posting last week.  If anything positive came out of that weekend it was that it gave us motivation to work harder and raise our focus and intensity.  When the brackets came out for NCAAs the team was happy to see we were a #1 seed in our region as well as a regional host.  It's hard to downplay how nice it is to be able to sleep on campus, not only for match preparation but also for getting school work done.  Our first round match (round of 32) was Saturday against U-Mass Dartmouth.  They came out fired up and ready to play but never got any momentum going and we were able to dispatch of them 5-0 in straight forward fashion.  Although Bowdoin had yet to play Vassar, we were relatively confident they would be our Sunday opponent and we saw later that evening that they had beaten Vassar 5-1.

In our previous match against Bowdoin they took 2/3 doubles but we followed by taking 5 singles.  The match started off with Bowdoin showing a lot of intensity on the court.  At #3 Kevin and I traded holds early, while courts 1 and 2 both went down early breaks.  Bret and Dicken never found a rhythm on the day and fell quickly.  Kev and I were able to break and started rolling after that and won the match 8-3.  At court 2, Nick and Will went down 6-3 and then 7-4 and were the last match on.   Even with match points against them, Nick and Will fought hard and battled every game and it paid off with an unbelievable comeback to take the match 9-7.  The momentum we got from winning that match was huge and carried over to the singles. 

The singles started off with a lot of first sets won but then things slowed down a bit which raised the intensity on all courts.  I would guess it was about 45 from the time I won my first set to when Kevin got off court for our first singles win.  This was followed shortly thereafter by Rick winning a close two set match.  At that point, Nick and I were in the middle of our 3rd sets, Will was in a 2 set battle on court 4 and Karol was in a 2 set battle on court 6.  I started to pull away in the 3rd getting 2 breaks to go up 5-2.  At that point, based on the cheering it was clear that Karol was close to clinching the match.  Moments later Karol won and the match ended.  It was a great day for Williams Tennis (the womens team made the Elite 8 as well) and a nice rebound of intensity from the previous weekend.

We leave Sunday for California for the Elite 8 at Claremont.  On Tuesday we play UC Santa Cruz.  I've heard stories of epic matches against Cruz and look forward to my first opportunity to play them.  After the team tournament, Nick and I will stick around for individuals and then head back to campus to finish off the final exams that we missed.  I'll try and post after the team tournament ends, hopefully next Thursday.

Until next week,
Jeremy
 

Welcome back.  This past weekend we finished up the regular season of play.  It has absolutely flown by and seems like yesterday we were leaving for our opening matches on spring break.  On Saturday we left early for our 11:30am match against Middlebury.  It would be generous to say that we performed well below our expectations.  The team came out flat in the doubles and we paid the price going down early breaks.  On Court 3, Kevin and I went down 2 breaks to start things off and even though our play improved as the match continued we were never able to recover.  The story was similar at the other two positions and we ended up getting swept.  The singles started off in similarly poor form with all 6 courts dropping first sets.  Karol, Will, and I were able to take the 2nd set in our matches but by the time 3rd sets were ready to start, Middlebury had already clinched the match so we played superbreakers.  I came away with the lone win on the day, certainly one of the more bittersweet in my time at Williams.  With a tough loss, we weren't very happy about the prospect of a 3 1/2 hour drive to get to Hamilton for Sunday's match.  However, bad moods and short tempers can't last long, and we quickly found some humor to lighten the mood.

Coach Donn has been extremely fond of his GPS taking care of all the navigation for us, especially on unfamiliar territory during spring break.  It does have its shortfalls though.  As we left Middlebury the Garmin had us take an abrupt turn onto a single lane dirt road.  For several miles we traveled next to farms and within a few meters of cows on the rocky unpaved road.  Then up ahead in the distance we could see water, but interestingly, no bridge. As we approached the shore it became clear we would be taking a cable pulled ferry across Lake Champlain.   We had a few minutes before the ferry arrived and talked to a local at the rustic family owned ferry dock.  It turns out the ferry was in operation for 1st time all year.  Further, we arrived at 5:30pm, and the ferry closed at 5:45pm.  Luck? Karma?  Who knows but it did cut an hour off the trip time it would have taken to reach a bridge.  We crossed and landed next to Fort Ticonderoga and drove another 2 hours to Clinton, NY and spent the night ready to play Hamilton the next morning.  The Hamilton match took about 90 minutes to clinch and we won 9-0.  We definitely brought some extra intensity to the match to let out some latent frustration with our performance against Middlebury.

The NESCAC tournament starts up on Friday and we play our 1st round against Bates on Friday morning.  It was a tough weekend for the team, but we're looking forward to a focused week of practice and a great start to postseason play.

Until next week,
Jeremy

With last nights win over Trinity, the team capped off a 4-0 run.  On Saturday, our match against Bowdoin started outdoors, but within a few games of doubles the rain started and we headed indoors.  We ended up dropping the doubles point losing at #1 and #2 but came out firing in singles.  The top 3 took care of business in straight sets, with Nick having a great win over Sullivan.  At 4 and 5, Will and Kevin won in 3 and at 6, Karol lost with the match already clinched for a 6-3 win.  Sundays match was against lower ranked Colby.  After going up 2-1 in the doubles, Coach Donn gave several players and the option to take the day off from singles to rest up for Bates.  Nick, Rick, and I played but Kevin and Will took the day putting Ari and Bret into the lineup at 5 and 6 respectively.  All 6 courts had straight set wins to take the match 8-1.

With 2 matches down we were ready to keep things going against the always tough Bates squad.  The weather was poor and the match was played inside.  We took 2 of 3 doubles with the loss coming at #1 to the tough team of Stein/Ruupasinghe.  At #3 doubles, Kevin and I blanked our opponents 8-0 beating the other teams off the court by at least 30 minutes.  In singles, Nick and I won relatively quickly at 1 and 2, giving the team a 4-1 edge.  At 3, Rick lost a close 3 set match.  Petrie was feeling under the weather and didn't play singles, and Kevin came through to clinch the match in 3 sets.  Karol and Bret both won giving the team a 7-2 victory.  After last years close match with Bates, it was nice to see the team stay focused and take care of business.

Last year we lost to Trinity and it definitely left a bitter feeling.  We all remembered the Bantoms storming the courts and it gave us motivation to clamp down and play good tennis.   Like the match against Bowdoin, we started off outdoors for a few games but quickly moved inside.  Kevin and I were first off at #3 beating a previously unbeaten team 8-4.  At that point, we were down breaks at both #1 and #2.  Bret and Dicken came up short losing by 1 break, while Nick and Will fought back from a 4-1 deficit to win a well fought tiebreaker.  Up 2-1, the singles started with close matches on the top 3 courts, and Will winning handily at #4.  Petrie was the first one off the court.  At that point, I had won my 1st set but was about to split, and Nick and Rick had each dropped their first sets.  After a shaky 2nd set, I played smarter tennis in the 3rd and took it easily 6-1 to give the team a 4-1 lead.  Rick battled back to split and played a great 3rd to clinch the match 5-1.  For ranking purposes, Nick finished his match and won in a superbreaker to make the final match score 6-1.  The win capped off a great stretch for the team.

We travel to Middlebury on Saturday for another big match and then play Hamilton on Sunday.  We're looking forward to beating Middlebury for the second straight year and are also excited for the 80+ weather expected for the match.  These are the last two regular season matches of the year, with NESCAC's starting up May 1st.  I'll post again Sunday after we get back from Hamilton.


-Jeremy

Welcome back.  This past weekend we had 2 matches.  The first was Sunday against Tufts.  We left early from Williamstown for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Boston only to arrive to rainy and cold weather.  The Tufts indoor facility consisted of 4 decent courts on what can only be described as a tennis rug.  The other 2 courts were extremely fast and in a part of the building that was extremely hot for no apparent reason.  The doubles started off with quick wins for us at 2 and 3.  At #1, Bret and Dicken served extremely well but had a few loose games and fell in a tiebreaker.  In singles, we lost at #6 and I went 3 sets at number 2.  Everyone else won in straight sets to give us a solid 7-2 victory. 

Sunday was the big match against Amherst.  Weather conditions were unclear as we prepared to leave Sunday morning.  Due to cold temperatures, wind, and a chance of rain the match was ultimately decided to be played at the Hampshire College tennis center.  The center has 4 real hard courts and was nicer than the Mt. Holyoke facility which is Amherst's usual backup.  As warm-ups came to a close, the Amherst home crowd arrived outnumbering our fans about 100 to 8.  Before going into details of the match, I want to thank our Williams families and friends who attended the match.   The atmosphere was electric and tense as the doubles got under way.  At #2, Nick and Will played a great match and won quickly.  It certainly took some of the pressure off Kevin and I at #3, and we were able to break serve up 7-6 to win our match.  Bret and Dicken fell in a close 8-5 match to wrap up the doubles with Williams up 2-1. 

Because there were only 4 courts, #1-4 hit the courts after the doubles ended.  The first match off was Petrie, who for the first time all season went down to tie the match at 2-2.  After going down 4-1 in the first, Rick came back to take the set and ultimately won the 2nd set 7-6 to give us a 3-2 lead.  Nick and I both won our 1st sets and then went on to split.  I served for my match at 5-4 in the 2nd and let it slip away and ultimately lost in 3.  Nick lost an extremely tough and tense battle 7-5 in the 3rd giving Amherst a 4-3 edge.  That left Kevin and Bret on court.  Bret, playing in his first dual match of the season, was unable to break down his opponent and went down in straight sets clinching the match for Amherst.  Kevin split and since the match was already decided, played a super breaker which he won to make the match 5-4 for Amherst.

The day was long and emotionally draining.  For the second year in a row we lost in a battle to our biggest rival.  On a personal note, it never feels good to serve for your match and then lose, but it felt even worse to watch the team go on to lose 5-4 when I know my match was on my racket.  Although we were all a bit down right after the match, we were optimistic in knowing that it was a match that we should have won, and will win when we get our next shot at them.  This coming weekend we hit the core of our NESCAC schedule.  We have matches Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday which will certainly be a test of our fitness and focus.  Since I'm posting Wednesday this week, I'll do the same next week after our match on Wednesday against Trinity.

Until next week,
Jeremy

After a great week in LA the team departed for Georgia on Tuesday.  We had planned to practice outdoors on Wednesday morning but rain prevented this.  Instead, we went to the World of Coke in downtown Atlanta and were able to sample about 60 different flavors of coke and coke owned brands.  We all left on a major sugar high but were happy to see that the sun had come out.  Thanks to an alumni who goes to Emory Law, we were able to get some courts at the graduate campus and hit in the afternoon.  The forecast for Thursday in Atlanta called for heavy rain, but just a few hours away in Chattanooga the weather was supposed to be nicer.  We left early Thursday for Chattanooga for our match against Sewanee.  Conditions were tough with high winds but we were able to get out to an early 3-0 lead with a sweep of the doubles.  The singles began and most courts were ahead when the downpours started and the match was canceled.  Although no official result came out of it, the match helped in preparation for Friday's battle against #1 ranked Emory.

Although Williams hadn't played Emory in my time at Williams, I had heard stories of previous matches and knew we were in for an intense and closely fought match.  The doubles started up with early breaks against our 1 and 2 teams while Kevin and I were able to stay on serve.  Although Bret and Dicken fought well, the Goodwin brothers proved too tough on the day.  At 2, Will and Nick fell behind 6-1 and although they began to mount a comeback, it was not enough to pull through.  Kevin and I were able to break several times in the match but had trouble consolidating the breaks.  It ultimately went to a tiebreaker in which we fell behind 3-0 after I missed some easy forehands.  Thankfully, we battled back to win the breaker and avoided the doubles sweep.  We needed to take 4 of 6 singles matches to pull off the win, but were only able to get victories from Kevin and Will.  Though we fell 6-3, we were happier with our singles play than in our close win against Claremont.  Our flight out of Atlanta wasn't until Saturday night and we had a great day lounging by the Emory pool and having a light hit.

The spring trip was a great start to the season and showed us that we can compete with the top teams in the country.  It was also a great opportunity to relax without work and enjoy the warm weather before returning to Williamstown.  Looking ahead, we have a very demanding NESCAC schedule.  Things kick off on Saturday against Tufts followed by the always big match against Amherst on Sunday.  We're crossing our fingers that the weather will remain nice so we can continue to train and play outdoors in the coming weeks.

Until next week,
Jeremy 

Welcome back again.  Since my last post we've played 3 matches against ranked teams and I'll start off with a quick recap of each.  On Thursday we took down Cal Lutheran 7-2.  Two years ago conditions were crazy for that match with near gale force winds, but this year it was perfect tennis weather at a brand new facility.  We swept the doubles followed by the 3-6 spots in the lineup having straight set wins to clinch match.  Friday was the always intense match against Redlands.  The team came out flat and payed for it right away getting swept in the doubles.  Being down 3-0 we knew a battle was about to begin in the singles.  Kevin took down his opponent quickly to send the match score to 3-1, but Nick's opponent came out firing to send the score back to 4-1.  At just about the same time, Will and I won our singles matches to bring it back to 4-3, leaving Rick and Karol on court.  Both were involved in extremely close and well fought 3 set matches. Rick was able to pull out his match, however the match ended with a 5-4 loss as Karol lost after putting up a great fight.  Although the match ended with a loss, we were proud of the fight we put up in singles after the hole we dug ourselves into with the doubles.

My apologies for the lateness again, time has been at a premium since getting out to LA.  We arrived on Saturday after departing my house at around 3:45 in the morning.  We wasted no time getting acclimated to the outdoors and went out for a light hit Saturday afternoon.  On arrival it was cool and cloudy which did little for team moral, and Sunday was forecast to be rainy.  Thankfully, the rain held off and we were able to get a solid hit in.  On Monday, we played local junior players from Bret's club in a duel match format.  The wind was crazy causing some frustration and a variety of funny accidental double bounces and whiffs.  I am pleased to announce that for the 2nd straight year we held off the juniors from Mountaingate.

Welcome back again, between work and tennis this week has flown by.  We made our final trip of the year to Pittsfield on Friday and had a productive practice of drilling with a doubles set at the end.  Our games continue to sharpen up as we near our season opener and on court intensity and focus have begun to increase dramatically.  We were treated to some unbelievable weather this weekend which allowed us to practice outdoors both days.  Frustration was rampant when we first hit the courts as many of us had forgotten what is was like to play with the outdoor elements.  It didn't take long to get readjusted and everyone enjoyed the 50's and blue sky.  Between Saturday and Sunday the change in comfort level with the outdoor environment was even more apparent.  We started off practice with some competitive doubles sets and finished things off with a set of singles.

Our schedule for the week includes lots of matchplay.  We'll be playing singles and doubles sets almost every day and there is no doubt in our minds that we will be ready for the high level of competition that awaits us in California and Georgia.  On Friday afternoon the team will travel to my house in New York where we will feast Friday evening, spend the night, and then take off for our 6:30am flight out of JFK.  Everyone is excited to get up at around 3:30am, especially Bret who likes to remind us that in junior tournaments he never won a match if it started before 9am.  Two years ago we had a travel nightmare, getting stuck in Albany and then Chicago, so we're hoping for a smooth travel day this year.

Saturday night was the annual Men's-Women's Tennis Team Mixer.  We were thrilled to be in the company of the defending national champions and had a great time.  The theme for the event was Wimbledon, though most on the Men's team "forgot" to dress the part. Ben Kelley and Kevin being the noted exceptions to this.  I'll post a few pictures from the event below (thanks to Grace for the great camera work).  A few members from both teams were absent due to crazy amounts of work from upcoming midterms.






Some of the Women's Team (Left to right: Lucy's Sister, Lucy, Taylor, Nikki, Grace, Annie, and Cary in front)  

   Great day of outdoor tennis

My apologies for not having a post up yesterday.  I wrote my entry at around 2am last night, just to have it erased when I accidentally hit the wrong button.  It was devastating.

With just two weeks to go before Spring break the team is getting extremely focused on refining our skills and getting more point play and sets in.  On Friday the majority of the team took advantage of warmer weather to get outside for a run and some hill sprints.  Saturday afternoon we traveled to the Pittsfield tennis center once again to get sets in on the better courts.  After returning from Pittsfield we went bowling as a team.  A variety of interesting styles were shown ranging from Ben chucking the ball as fast as possible down the lane to the finesse and spin of Kenny Taubenslag.  Dicken also showed a certain 'comfort' on the lanes, barely breaking 60 in a hotly contested matchup.

Midterms are the next two weeks followed by our departure for LA.  Coming off the hard work and exams makes the shift into spring break even better.  For the second year in a row we have the luxury of staying in some awesome houses around LA rather than staying in hotels.  This is thanks to several team members families as well as some generous families from the tennis club where Bret grew up playing.  Our first match will be against the historically strong Gustavus.  My freshman year we lost to the Gusties 5-4 in the quarterfinals of NCAA's, so it's a great opportunity to avenge the loss and tally the first win of our spring campaign.

We have one more trip to Pittsfield on Friday and then the hockey rink courts should be ready.  We may also try to hit outside on Saturday or Sunday with a balmy mid-40's forecast for the weekend.  That's about it for this week, I'll leave you with a picture I found a few weeks ago scrolling through the Williams Tennis archives.  It shows Josh Lefkowitz clinching the national title in 2002 and was given the caption "SIMPLY TOO MUCH HEART".  I have a hard time not being inspired to play after seeing it.

 

Link to the rest of the 2002 nationals gallery:
http://www.williams.edu/athletics/photos.php?album=302&sport=24&year=2003

Hello and thanks again for visiting my blog.  The team had an extremely productive week of practice.  Focus has begun to switch from getting back into the season by just hitting a lot of balls to more focused drilling.  We spent most of our time in the field house running through circuit drills, with each court highlighting a different aspect of play.  To round out our on court time with the team, we've also begun to have individual hits with Coach Donn to work on targeted aspects of our games.  In addition to our on court training, we've made sure to get cardio workouts, lifts, and squash court agility runs in.  A 5-mile run was planned for Friday, but was derailed by bad weather which forced us inside to bike and cross train with some basketball.  

Yesterday afternoon the team traveled to Pittsfield, MA which has the closest real indoor tennis facility.  Though it was a 40 minute drive from campus it was our first chance to get some singles sets in on a nice hard court surface.  It felt great to get a real sense of timing on the ball and by playing sets we were able to expose, and then work on correcting, weaknesses in our games.  Once our main indoor facility, the hockey rink, is ready the Pittsfield trips will stop.  The hockey rink courts play extremely well, however, they won't be ready for at least another two weeks given the hockey team's victory over Bowdoin this weekend.  Though we were disappointed not to have the courts ready sooner, it was nice to see the hockey team move on through the NESCAC playoffs.

Rather than give any match previews at this early stage, I figured I would give a quick intro to our captains and then share a few pictures.  There are three senior co-captains this year: Rick "The Diesel" Devlin, Bret "The Handsome Bachelor" Thacher, and Karol "Furmberg" Furmaga.  Rick is noted for his ability to swing as hard as possible at every ball while making almost no errors. Bret, for his great hands and craftiness on the doubles court and Karol for taking a nearly vertical swing on his backhand and turning it into a short cross court winner.


Team huddle before last years season opener against Point Loma
 



Gary's novel service motion has been missed