Fans of Wabash Tennis,

I am apologize for the delay in the blog, but here is the latest news from the court.  At this point in the season, we are currently 6-8 and 2-1 in the conference.  Our conference victories are over The College of Wooster (my first as coach!) and Ohio Wesleyan.  Our only loss was to the highly ranked Kenyon Lords, who recently just beat the #5 team in the nation.  In my eyes, we only have one bad loss this season.  The other losses were against higher ranked teams and more experienced teams.  I knew that it would a tough year with the schedule that I put together, but it will pay off in the long run.  The NCAC conference and its coaches have ranked us to finish 3rd in the conference this season, which is the highest Wabash has ever been projected to finish in the NCAC.  I truly think we can finish 2nd and we will know this Friday as the Denison Big Red comes to campus for a very important conference match.  

Let me get into Spring Break a little bit.  Sunny Southern California (as the picture above shows) was a great experience.  It was our first week outside playing tennis, which showed in our matches.  We were used to the faster indoor surfaces and had some trouble competing against good opponents that have been training on slow outdoor surfaces.  We came away from the trip with 4 losses.  One of those was the bad losses that I mentioned earlier.  Regardless of the outcomes, I do feel many positives came out of the trip.  For one, I got to take everybody but one on the trip, so the camaraderie of the team was heightened.  The guys began to understand each other more and learned to support one another both on and off the court.  Another positive was that the bottom of my line-up became better tennis players playing against better competition.  The whole idea of inexperience was raised to some experience having played at that level.  Each player got a little better at their game.  

We didn't only play tennis.  Part of the Spring Trip for me is giving the team an opportunity to see things that they may never be able to see.  So on Sunday I/we met up with Coach Johnson's daughter, Becca(who I went to high school with), and she showed us around Hollywood and Beverly Hills.  The guys seemed to enjoy seeing that kind of lifestyle.  On Thursday night after our last match, we went to an LA Kings hockey game at the Staples Center.  Jay Horrey ('09) talked to his uncle who is a sales rep for Staples and got us VIP treatment for the game.  We had front row parking, walked right in, and watched the game in one of the suites.  While waiting to get in, we saw one of the stars from the show Heroes, we saw Matthew Perry (Friends-Chandler Bing), and then to make the guys night even better, we saw Maria Sharapova standing right next to us.  I should have asked her to take a picture with us, but we were all a little starstruck.  On Friday, we got up and I took the team to Laguna Beach (picture above) to enjoy their last day in the sun.  We also met some alums throughout the week that have relocated to the LA area, very cool for the guys to talk to former Little Giants.

Overall a great trip, but with traffic and cost of everything out there, we will probably not go back for a few years.  

Onto the rest of the season.  Since returning we are 2-1 with wins over Rose and Wartburg and a loss against a tough Luther College team.  The matches don't get any easier as we face Denison and Calvin this weekend.  Both are ranked ahead of us.  From there we have the Kerry Seward Invitational, Wittenberg, Earlham, GLCA Tournament, DePauw, and then Conference.  The next two months are huge and I will keep updated on how we do.

Oh yes...the latest rankings have come out and we are #17 in the Central Region, which is the highest that Wabash has ever been since the ITA has been doing the rankings.  Also, freshman #1 William Pelak is #10 in the singles rankings.  If he finishes the year in the Top 8, he will qualify for the NCAA National Individual Singles Tournament.

Keep following us and if you have anything to add, I love to hear from our fans.  Can we get some sunshine please in Indiana?  I miss sunny LA.

Coach