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