CLAREMONT, Calif. No. 20 Whitman College, making it to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships for the first time in 30 years, simply had no answers for the No. 1 ranked team in the country. The Blues managed to avoid the sweep, but fell to Middlebury College 5-1.
Whitman was the true Cinderella of the tournament, coming into the team quarterfinals as the lowest ranked team remaining in the tournament at No. 20. Of the final eight teams, which included each of the top four, the next lowest remaining seed was No. 10 (Washington –St. Louis). The score was not reflective of the quality of the tennis being played on Monday afternoon, the first day of the team tennis championships. The day's matchup was the first ever meeting between Whitman and Middlebury.
On top of being the underdogs, Whitman also battled one of the things that becomes part of the proverbial obstacles this time of year: graduation. Whitman College hosted its graduation commencement Sunday afternoon on campus, which included eight members of the team who earned their degrees. Then the team boarded a plane, which got delayed, and did not arrive in Claremont and get to the hotel until after 2 a.m. Monday morning.
Monday morning started with rain, and as a result, the start of the matchup between Whitman and Middlebury was delayed an hour on day one of the NCAA Men's Tennis championships in Claremont. The Bizantz Family Tennis Center, which is hosting both the NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis championships this year, was backed up and so the Blues and Panthers played down the road at Pomona-Pitzer's Pauley Tennis Complex.
After doubles play, the Blues (18-8) found themselves behind 2-1 with a win on court No. 3 where the Whitman pair of Chase Friedman and Ben Kirsh defeated the Patriots Peter Martin and Timo van der Geest.
The two teams traded the first sets back and forth before Whitman took the advantage they would hold the rest of the way when they went up a break 3-2. The Blues duo went on to win three of the next four games to lead 6-3. Middlebury took the next two games, and three of the next four to draw within one game at 7-6, but Whitman responded to take the point 8-6.
Unfortunately for Whitman, by that point, they had already lost the points on the first two doubles courts.
The Blues top pair of Zach Hewlin and Robert Carter were in a battle with Middlebury's Lubomir Cuba and Kyle Schlanger, who grabbed the first point of the day. The match between the top doubles pairs was all knotted up at three before Middlebury grabbed the upper hand, winning four of the last five games and took the point 8-5. On Court two, Trevor Fennessy and Alex Hwang were also held serve through the first four games against the Panthers Noah Farrell and William de Quant, but the Panthers duo claimed five of the next six games to win 8-3.
By the time it got to singles, Whitman left it all out on the court, but simply found themselves overmatched by the top team in the country. The top singles match between Cuba and Hewlin watched Cuba take the first singles point with a straight set win over Zach, pulling it out 6-2, 6-3. Zach looked to be in contention with Cuba as it was tied 2-2 in the first set, but then Cuba took over to beat the Blues top singles player.
In the No. 4 spot, Kyle Schlanger cruised to a straight sets victory over the Blue Robert Carter, winning 6-2, 6-0. While the Blues took the first set on court two where Kirsh defeated Middlebury's Noah Farrell 7-5, the match came to a close when the Panthers Nate Eazor took down Daniel Foster in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.
In the other two matches that were unfinished, Gary Ho trailed 6-1, 5-3 on court three and Chase Friedman trailed Middlebury's Andrew Xiao 6-4, 5-2 when the match was concluded.
"We played well" said Head Coach Jeff Northam. "I was really impressed with how we played, they were just a little bit better. We've played several of the top teams in the country this year, but they are playing better than anyone that we've played right now, and it was a good match for us. Middlebury's No. 1 (Cuba) won the individual championships without losing a set last year. They are pretty potent 1 and 2, but really strong 3-6."
With the win, Middlebury will advance to play the winner between No. 2 Emory and No. 4 Williams on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. The Panthers have now advanced to the National Semifinals for the fifth-consecutive year.
The day closed out an all-time great season for the Whitman tennis team, and reaching the Elite Eight was the cap on what was a remarkable year.
"It was an unbelievable season, dream season. We started with 10 days in Cambodia and it was unbelievable experience, we played a great schedule all year, and to make the Elite 8 is a dream come true" added Northam. "It [Making the Elite Eight] was one of the things I wanted to do as a coach, and I'm so happy for all of the seniors."
The season is not over for a couple members of the Blues. Zach Hewlin, who wIt ill compete as one of the 32 members of NCAA Division III to play in the singles bracket, while Hewlin will compete with his doubles partner Robert Carter as one of the 16 final teams to compete in the NCAA doubles tournament. The singles and doubles events will take place May 24th – 26.
