I wanted to take the time to congratulate Aman Manji for winning the prestigious Sonny Carter Scholarship. This is a very special award that is given every year to one student at Emory. The Sonny Carter Scholarship memorializes an Emory alumnus who was a
soccer player, physician, test pilot, and astronaut: Manley Lanier
"Sonny" Carter Jr., '69C, '73M. An applicant must have an outstanding academic record, demonstrated
involvement and leadership in the community, moral qualities supporting
the common good, and evidence that physical activity is a regular part
of the applicant’s life.
Aman is a role model for his teammates and coaching staff
because he places character and integrity above winning. Aman has become an
incredible ambassador for Emory University because he plays the game the right
way. Aman competes hard but never sacrifices his integrity in the heat of
competition. As a result, Aman has garnered much respect from his opponents and
opposing coaches across Division III.
We are all very proud of Aman! This is the third Emory tennis player to have won this award. Dylan Bird and Ian Wagner also were selected for this Sonny Carter Scholarship!
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Monday, March 28, 2016
SPRING BREAK 2016 - Part 3 - STAG HEN TOURNAMENT
The Pomona-Pitzer match was definitely a 2 day mental grind, but it's those types of experiences you can draw upon at the end of season. I was very interested to see how we would compete in the finals given the short turn around and playing Claremont on their home courts.
Zach Surmacz came down with his family to help support the team. His support and the guys that were not involved in doubles were really big for our doubles teams. They were very loud and gave our boys some momentum. Doubles started out great. Scotty and Spaulding at 1 doubles were locked in and got off to early break along with Rafe and Jonathan at 2 doubles. All three doubles teams looked fresh and up to the challenge. Unfortunately, we got down 1-4 at 3 doubles, but, they found their rhythm and started to make a comeback.
Scotty and Spaulding played their best doubles of the match winning 8-3 at 1. Rafe and Jonathan, closed out their match at 2 dubs, 8-4. Omsky and Harrington fought back from 1-4 at 3 doubles to capture of our 3rd point with an 8-6 win. We were able to go up 3-0 after doubles which was very important against Claremont, but we knew they were a talented team.
Rafe and Jonathan got off to very fast starts. Jonathan, found his game at 2 singles and looked like an entirely new player. Aman, at 3 singles, picked up where he left off and took the 1st set. Adrien, at 4 singles, saved his best tennis for the finals. Adrien closed out the first set against a solid Claremont player. Joshua dropped the first set at 5 singles, while Harrington took the first set at 6 singles.
We closed the match out with wins at 1, 2, 3, 4 singles. Joshua made a great comeback but fell short in a 3rd set breaker. Andrew, also lost in the 3rd set breaker at 6.
It was a great week in LA. Everyone at some point during the week stepped up and had important wins for the team.
Back to ATL!
Zach Surmacz came down with his family to help support the team. His support and the guys that were not involved in doubles were really big for our doubles teams. They were very loud and gave our boys some momentum. Doubles started out great. Scotty and Spaulding at 1 doubles were locked in and got off to early break along with Rafe and Jonathan at 2 doubles. All three doubles teams looked fresh and up to the challenge. Unfortunately, we got down 1-4 at 3 doubles, but, they found their rhythm and started to make a comeback.
Scotty and Spaulding played their best doubles of the match winning 8-3 at 1. Rafe and Jonathan, closed out their match at 2 dubs, 8-4. Omsky and Harrington fought back from 1-4 at 3 doubles to capture of our 3rd point with an 8-6 win. We were able to go up 3-0 after doubles which was very important against Claremont, but we knew they were a talented team.
Rafe and Jonathan got off to very fast starts. Jonathan, found his game at 2 singles and looked like an entirely new player. Aman, at 3 singles, picked up where he left off and took the 1st set. Adrien, at 4 singles, saved his best tennis for the finals. Adrien closed out the first set against a solid Claremont player. Joshua dropped the first set at 5 singles, while Harrington took the first set at 6 singles.
We closed the match out with wins at 1, 2, 3, 4 singles. Joshua made a great comeback but fell short in a 3rd set breaker. Andrew, also lost in the 3rd set breaker at 6.
It was a great week in LA. Everyone at some point during the week stepped up and had important wins for the team.
Back to ATL!
Monday, March 21, 2016
SPRING BREAK 2016 - Part 2 - STAG HEN TOURNAMENT
The Stag-Hen tournament is one of the best tournaments of the year. We have played it a few times, and if memory serves me correct, we have only won it one time in it's 9 year history. We entered the tournament as the number 3 seed, behind Claremont and Pomona-Pitzer. The Stag Hen always fields a very strong contingent of teams which makes the tournament very challenging, but, it also tests your mental and physical stamina. The Stag-Hen is a 2 day tournament which means that teams will have to play 2 very difficult matches in one day with the finals being played on Day 2. This can be a very taunting task because there is relatively no recovery time. Teams that win this event are obviously talented, but more importantly, they usually are the teams that are in the best physical and mental condition.
Our first match was against a very scrappy team from Case Western that had a very strong showing at the ITA national indoors, capturing 3rd place. They have proven this season to be very strong in doubles and I knew going into this match that we would need to come out strong in doubles so that Case would not get any momentum going into singles. Fortunately, our guys were much more focused than our doubles start against APU. Scotty and James at number 1 doubles faced off against the number 3 nationally ranked doubles team. They came out really strong and ended up getting us a big point winning 8-4. Omsky and Harrington got off to a slow start but made a big comeback only to fall short in the tiebreaker. Rafe and Jonathan at the 2 dubs played well and got us the very important 2nd point.
When you go up 2-1 after doubles it takes so much pressure off the guys heading into singles. Rafe had mentioned to me the day before that his singles record at the Stag Hen over the past 3 years was not good. This did not seem to bother him going into the singles against the number 3 ranked player from last year. Rafe was on point the entire match notching a straight set win. Aman, at 3 singles, began to find his form and notched us our 4 point. Harrington and Goodman also played well earning our 5th and 6th points. It was a good match for us, but now we had a 2 hour turn around before our afternoon match against Pomona.
Pomona-Pitzer played at ITA Indoor Nationals in February. They did not have the best tournament, but, when you factor in the travel from the west coast and also the fact they never play inside, you can understand their results. Pomona-Pitzer is a dangerous team, especially on their home courts, so I knew we were in for tough match. Our doubles got off to slow start. We found ourselves down and early break at 1 and 3 doubles. At 2 doubles, Rafe and Jonathan, were on point securing an early break. As the doubles matches progressed it looked like we were going to go down 2-1. We were down at 1-4 at 1 and 3 doubles, and up 5-3 at 2 doubles. And then, the heavens opened up and dumped a heavy dose of rain. LA is in a severe drought so it was an amazing occurrence for this to happen. Fortunately, it couldn't happened at a better time. That night during our team meeting we talked about how the rain stymied PP momentum and that we could regain our footing the next morning.
Our match resumed the next morning. 1 dubs started out strong and began to stage a comeback. 2 doubles got off to a slow start, and at one point, found themselves down 6-5. At the 3 doubles, you could feel the momentum starting to shift in our favor, even though they were down 5-2. Our level at 1 doubles was much better than the day before, but they ended up losing 8-5. Rafe and Jonathan, regained their footing after losing 3 straight games. They clinched our first point winning 8-6. David and Andrew made a dramatic comeback and secured an important point by winning in a tiebreaker.
A 2-1 lead on a solid opponents home court is huge. As the singles matches started we won the first sets at 1, 3, 4, and 6 singles. Adrien, at 4 singles, was playing much better and he was able to secure us our 3rd point. Rafe, followed with a strong performance at 1 singles giving us 4-1 lead. That old cliche "it's never over till it's over" was very applicable for this match because PP began their comeback. Jonathan was definitely not sharp but he was also playing a very good player. PP won at 2 singles and closed out a great match at 5 singles against Josh Goodman. The momentum at this point had definitely shifted to PP favor. They won the 2nd sets at 6 and 3 singles.
Aman Manji was playing a very talented player at 3 singles and it didn't help that the crowd was sensing a comeback. Aman did a wonderful job of staying focused and not allowing the crowd to get into the third set. Aman won a decisive 3rd set securing us our 5th point.
I was very proud of our team battling back from a rain delay, a doubles deficit, and a home court advantage for our opponents. We had 2 hour rest before the playing the finals at CMS.
Our first match was against a very scrappy team from Case Western that had a very strong showing at the ITA national indoors, capturing 3rd place. They have proven this season to be very strong in doubles and I knew going into this match that we would need to come out strong in doubles so that Case would not get any momentum going into singles. Fortunately, our guys were much more focused than our doubles start against APU. Scotty and James at number 1 doubles faced off against the number 3 nationally ranked doubles team. They came out really strong and ended up getting us a big point winning 8-4. Omsky and Harrington got off to a slow start but made a big comeback only to fall short in the tiebreaker. Rafe and Jonathan at the 2 dubs played well and got us the very important 2nd point.
When you go up 2-1 after doubles it takes so much pressure off the guys heading into singles. Rafe had mentioned to me the day before that his singles record at the Stag Hen over the past 3 years was not good. This did not seem to bother him going into the singles against the number 3 ranked player from last year. Rafe was on point the entire match notching a straight set win. Aman, at 3 singles, began to find his form and notched us our 4 point. Harrington and Goodman also played well earning our 5th and 6th points. It was a good match for us, but now we had a 2 hour turn around before our afternoon match against Pomona.
Pomona-Pitzer played at ITA Indoor Nationals in February. They did not have the best tournament, but, when you factor in the travel from the west coast and also the fact they never play inside, you can understand their results. Pomona-Pitzer is a dangerous team, especially on their home courts, so I knew we were in for tough match. Our doubles got off to slow start. We found ourselves down and early break at 1 and 3 doubles. At 2 doubles, Rafe and Jonathan, were on point securing an early break. As the doubles matches progressed it looked like we were going to go down 2-1. We were down at 1-4 at 1 and 3 doubles, and up 5-3 at 2 doubles. And then, the heavens opened up and dumped a heavy dose of rain. LA is in a severe drought so it was an amazing occurrence for this to happen. Fortunately, it couldn't happened at a better time. That night during our team meeting we talked about how the rain stymied PP momentum and that we could regain our footing the next morning.
Our match resumed the next morning. 1 dubs started out strong and began to stage a comeback. 2 doubles got off to a slow start, and at one point, found themselves down 6-5. At the 3 doubles, you could feel the momentum starting to shift in our favor, even though they were down 5-2. Our level at 1 doubles was much better than the day before, but they ended up losing 8-5. Rafe and Jonathan, regained their footing after losing 3 straight games. They clinched our first point winning 8-6. David and Andrew made a dramatic comeback and secured an important point by winning in a tiebreaker.
A 2-1 lead on a solid opponents home court is huge. As the singles matches started we won the first sets at 1, 3, 4, and 6 singles. Adrien, at 4 singles, was playing much better and he was able to secure us our 3rd point. Rafe, followed with a strong performance at 1 singles giving us 4-1 lead. That old cliche "it's never over till it's over" was very applicable for this match because PP began their comeback. Jonathan was definitely not sharp but he was also playing a very good player. PP won at 2 singles and closed out a great match at 5 singles against Josh Goodman. The momentum at this point had definitely shifted to PP favor. They won the 2nd sets at 6 and 3 singles.
Aman Manji was playing a very talented player at 3 singles and it didn't help that the crowd was sensing a comeback. Aman did a wonderful job of staying focused and not allowing the crowd to get into the third set. Aman won a decisive 3rd set securing us our 5th point.
I was very proud of our team battling back from a rain delay, a doubles deficit, and a home court advantage for our opponents. We had 2 hour rest before the playing the finals at CMS.
Friday, March 18, 2016
SPRING BREAK 2016 Part 1
We left warm Atlanta on Monday, March 7th, and traveled to cold and rainy LA. When we landed, I started thinking that this might be an omen of things to come, and then, we had to stand in line at the rent-a-car agency for 2 hours. Not a good start to the week. Fortunately, our traditional lunch at In and Out made me start to feel better.
Our spring break trip was very important because we wanted to keep the momentum going, and, as a coach, your always worried about chemistry, especially when you are spending an entire week with each other. Thankfully, we have a great group that genuinely enjoy spending time with each other.
We have played Azusa-Pacific University many times on our trips out to LA. APU is always loaded with talent and we have only beaten them once in 2006, when former number 1 player, Michael Goodwin, clinched the final point with a 3rd set tiebreak win. I had no idea how we would fare against APU with this team. As the doubles started we definitely looked flat. I had no idea if we were a little jet lagged or didn't believe we could beat them. We also had a new 3 doubles team, because David Omsky, had suffered a concussion against Sewanee so he we was sitting out. Alec Josepher, a very talented transfer from SMU, took his place.
We got off to a very slow start at 1 doubles. Scotty and James were playing a very strong team and really never found their footing. Rafe and Jonathan were in a battle at 2 doubles and Harrington and Josepher were playing together for the first time. On top of the slow start, the APU crowd was all over us. It was by far the most aggressive crowd this team had faced all season. We ended losing at 1 doubles and 3 doubles. Thankfully, 2 doubles clinched a very important point.
We got off to a slow start in singles dropping the first sets at 1,2,3,4,5. Harrington was locked in and took the first set at 6 singles. At this point, it looked pretty dim, but the boys started to rally. Rafe was playing one of the best players in NCAA D-2 and ended up losing. We found ourselves down 3-1, but we took the 2nd sets at 2 singles and 5 singles. Harrington was able to close his match out and you could feel the tide starting to turn. Jonathan was playing a very good player at 2 singles, but, I could see that his opponent was starting to get tired. Josh Goodman, at 5 singles, had a very slow start, but he was beginning to find his rhythm. Aman, was battling even though he was not sharp, and unfortunately, he lost which gave APU it's 4th point. We needed to sweep the remaining 3 matches at 2,4, and 5 singles. We looked in control at 2 and 5 singles, but Adrien Bouchet at 4 singles, found himself down a set and multiple match points. Adrien, is a very good competitor and found a way to come back and win the 2nd set. Jonathan pulled out the biggest win of his season at 2 singles. Josh's mental toughness enabled him to survive a slow start and eventually pull out a big win. Our match was tied at 4-4 with Adrien entering his 3rd set. Adrien had worn down his opponent by the 3rd set and you could tell that his opponent was out of gas. Adrien clinched the match enabling us to secure our first win against APU since 2006. The match was definitely not our best performance, but it proved to our guys that you can never give in, and when all the odds are stacked against you, keep fighting, which they did. It was also important for the team to see that they could handle having a crowd in there faces for an entire match.
On our day off, we ventured off to the BNP to watch the best players in the world play. The best part of the BNP was getting a chance to watch the pro's practice on the side courts.
Our spring break trip was very important because we wanted to keep the momentum going, and, as a coach, your always worried about chemistry, especially when you are spending an entire week with each other. Thankfully, we have a great group that genuinely enjoy spending time with each other.
We have played Azusa-Pacific University many times on our trips out to LA. APU is always loaded with talent and we have only beaten them once in 2006, when former number 1 player, Michael Goodwin, clinched the final point with a 3rd set tiebreak win. I had no idea how we would fare against APU with this team. As the doubles started we definitely looked flat. I had no idea if we were a little jet lagged or didn't believe we could beat them. We also had a new 3 doubles team, because David Omsky, had suffered a concussion against Sewanee so he we was sitting out. Alec Josepher, a very talented transfer from SMU, took his place.
We got off to a very slow start at 1 doubles. Scotty and James were playing a very strong team and really never found their footing. Rafe and Jonathan were in a battle at 2 doubles and Harrington and Josepher were playing together for the first time. On top of the slow start, the APU crowd was all over us. It was by far the most aggressive crowd this team had faced all season. We ended losing at 1 doubles and 3 doubles. Thankfully, 2 doubles clinched a very important point.
We got off to a slow start in singles dropping the first sets at 1,2,3,4,5. Harrington was locked in and took the first set at 6 singles. At this point, it looked pretty dim, but the boys started to rally. Rafe was playing one of the best players in NCAA D-2 and ended up losing. We found ourselves down 3-1, but we took the 2nd sets at 2 singles and 5 singles. Harrington was able to close his match out and you could feel the tide starting to turn. Jonathan was playing a very good player at 2 singles, but, I could see that his opponent was starting to get tired. Josh Goodman, at 5 singles, had a very slow start, but he was beginning to find his rhythm. Aman, was battling even though he was not sharp, and unfortunately, he lost which gave APU it's 4th point. We needed to sweep the remaining 3 matches at 2,4, and 5 singles. We looked in control at 2 and 5 singles, but Adrien Bouchet at 4 singles, found himself down a set and multiple match points. Adrien, is a very good competitor and found a way to come back and win the 2nd set. Jonathan pulled out the biggest win of his season at 2 singles. Josh's mental toughness enabled him to survive a slow start and eventually pull out a big win. Our match was tied at 4-4 with Adrien entering his 3rd set. Adrien had worn down his opponent by the 3rd set and you could tell that his opponent was out of gas. Adrien clinched the match enabling us to secure our first win against APU since 2006. The match was definitely not our best performance, but it proved to our guys that you can never give in, and when all the odds are stacked against you, keep fighting, which they did. It was also important for the team to see that they could handle having a crowd in there faces for an entire match.
On our day off, we ventured off to the BNP to watch the best players in the world play. The best part of the BNP was getting a chance to watch the pro's practice on the side courts.
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