With all of the weather and cancellations of matches I haven't been very good about posting match summaries and results this year. Since the last blog post we have had six more completed matches.
We finished out the first rotation of our league schedule by defeating Newberg 6-2 on their home courts. Their coach Dave Brown is a good friend of mine and we always enjoy getting together to coach against each other. As always he had a very athletic team who competed hard. We were able to show dominance in singles at the 1, 2, and 4 position, and win good close matches at 1, 2, and 3 doubles. Nathan's win at 4 singles gave us the 5 matches we needed to take the dual match. The guys were pumped with our win against our geographic rivals and we finished the 1st half of the league season in 2nd place in the Pacific Conference:
2011 Pacific Conference Standings (1/2 way point)
1. Tualatin 7-0
2. McMinnville 5-2
2. Newberg 5-2
2. Glencoe 5-2
5. Hillsboro 3-4
6. Forest Grove 2-5
7. Tigard 1-6
8. Century 0-7
We were in great shape heading into the 2nd half of our league season.
The 2nd Half of the league season started well with us winning 2 matches in efficient fashion. We downed Forest Grove on the road 7-1 despite a slight setback with a one hour rain delay. The next day we were at home against Century, a match we won 8-0. That night, we took advantage of the nice weather and had a night practice in preparation for our match the next day at Tualatin.
With much of our regular season left, we looked at the Tualatin match as a chance to contend for the Pacific Conference Regular Season title. In my two years running this program we have only lost to 2 schools in our conference during the regular season - Glencoe and Tualatin . . . and in this match we set out to earn our 1st win against Tualatin in the last 2 seasons.
Tualatin is a well-coached and very experienced team. All 12 of their starting players started for their team last season as they went 10-0 in league play. I knew this would be a tough test, but our guys were ready for the challenge.
Our 4 singles players came out firing, battled hard, and in singles we were able to win 2 of 4 matches. Jesse dispatched his opponent 6-2, 6-1 while Nathan won at No. 4 singles 6-3, 6-2. His win was a revenge win as his opponent beat him in 3 close sets the first time we played Tualatin this season. In doubles, Chris and Myles led the way by winning in 3 close sets and by playing a great match. All 4 players in that match played with energy, determination, skill and class. Chris and Myles avenged their only loss of the season and won a key match. It was great to not only see the boys compete hard and with good sportsmanship, but to see the friendship between our guys and their team was something special for me as a coach. The Tualatin parents were great and commended our players on a great effort as well - they even brought the guys 2-dozen glazed treats!
Unfortunately in our No. 2-4 doubles matches we didn't quite play with the energy level we could have, and lost to 3 very talented doubles teams from Tualatin. We ended up losing the match 5-3 to a very solid Tualatin team. Overall, I'm proud of the way the guys competed and the sportsmanship they displayed during the match.
Our goal is to finish the season strong, and to defend our Pacific Conference District Tournament Title in a few weeks!
Thanks for the support from parents, families, etc. You guys are fantastic.
I'm hoping for some great weather in the weeks to come. Also, if you have any pictures from matches I would love to post them for all to enjoy on this blog, so please send them to me if you'd like to see them posted!
Til next time.
-Coach Wes
