trevorthorpetravels

An ITA Hall-of-Famer Celebrity Coach + Anti-Fresh Takes Slight Edge in First Dual Match

Anti-Fresh has taken a 6-4 lead in the first of two dual matches to be held this week. The match will be completed tomorrow afternoon to break the 2-2 tie in the week-long competition for Owl Points.

In the morning, Team Fresh 2.0 put in a dominant performance untangling themselves from “the human knot” to take a 2-1 lead, but Team Anti-Fresh countered with a win during the footwork relay race.

During the early-day court rotations, we had the pleasure of welcoming celebrity coach Barbara Hallquist Degroot, arguably the most successful female player in USC history. After becoming the first female athlete at University of Southern California to receive a scholarship, Barbara went on to lead USC to four consecutive national titles, and another as a coach several years later.After her stellar college career, Degroot went on to reach #30 in the world after a quarterfinal performance in the US Open. She also reached the quarters twice as a doubles player.

Needless to say, the slice and touch-volley court featured a very talented and experienced celebrity coach today. I had the pleasure of coaching with her at Cate School for five seasons so it was great to be on the court with her again! Continue reading “An ITA Hall-of-Famer Celebrity Coach + Anti-Fresh Takes Slight Edge in First Dual Match”

Laguna Blanca Summer Tennis Camp is Here!

Day one is done and dusted, and what a day it was! Talking with our returning coaches Ben and Tristan while setting up this morning, we were all excited to reunite with our returning campers (Laguna campers are the best), but we also enjoyed welcoming some new players into the fold. Continue reading “Laguna Blanca Summer Tennis Camp is Here!”

Laguna Blanca Boys’ Tennis Season Wrap

Now that the season is a few weeks in the back mirror, I want to take a moment to reflect on our success.

Despite playing our first couple matches short-handed, we finished the regular season with a 13-3 mark, with our only losses coming against San Marcos (D1 playoff team), Cate (D3 playoff team), and Rio Mesa (D3 playoff team).

We qualified for the CIF D4 playoffs for the third consecutive year, and for the third consecutive year the Owls picked up a first-round victory in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year. In the last three seasons, we have managed 3 playoff wins and a combined match record of 50-12. Continue reading “Laguna Blanca Boys’ Tennis Season Wrap”

The Playoff Picture: Laguna to Travel Early, but Receives Favorable Draw

CIF has released the playoff pairings and all-in-all I think it looks promising. Tomorrow, we’ll travel north to Templeton to play the Los Padres League #2 seeds. With a victory, we’ll make the main draw, where Buckley awaits an opponent on Wednesday. Here’s a look at final division seedings and the draws:

Templeton has long been a distant second to Santa Ynez in the Los Padres League, but this season they keep much closer to league victory. On April 14th, Santa Ynez won an 11-7 match with a clean sweep of the doubles and two wins in singles. Templeton will be led by senior Jarred Hall, a tournament-level singles player who recently finished runner up to PJ Marymee (Santa Ynez) in their individuals tournament. With junior Phillip Hicks (pictured at top) hitting form at just the right time and a solid lineup from top-to-bottom, we should have all the answers.

Looking ahead to a second match, Buckley is a private school in Sherman Oaks that has recently been moved back down to D4 from D3 last season, so they may be a bit under the radar at #8-seed. In fact, they are entirely under the radar, since there is not a single report in a newspaper or website about any of their matches this season. It’s just as possible that, without exposure to many teams outside of their league, Buckley might yield Laguna the #8-seed spot in the draw on Wednesday, leading to a potentially easier quarterfinal round.

First thing is first, though, and that first thing is in Templeton at 3pm tomorrow. Riding a streak of 11 wins in our last 12 matches, I like our chances.

– Coach Thorpe

Whole Team Gets Involved in 12-6 Owls Win

The whole team got involved in the action today, with all 13 members playing during the match at the Dunn School in Santa Ynez. It was a far cry from our first match of the season, where we could only field seven players, two of which had not yet learned to keep score.

Leading the way for the Owls were Atty Roddick (pictured above), Phillip Hicks, and Ethan Tyng, who partnered with different teammates throughout the matches en-route to 3-0 records on the day in doubles. The Laguna doubles lineup, in fact, went undefeated on the day.

In singles, senior Connor Elmore picked up two wins and sophomore Henry Farrell (pictured below) added another in one set of play before being subbed out.

We are now 7-3 and will play again today at home against St. Bonaventure High School at 3pm. As a freelance team (not part of a league), CIF requires us to play a minimum of 16 matches to be eligible for playoffs. In addition, we must have a winning record to be considered for selection and must have an 80% win-percentage to get an automatic bid.

Doing the math, that means we have a chance to automatically qualify if we go undefeated in the last six matches of the season. Our hopes of achieving this goal have been buoyed recently by the addition of freshman Ethan Tyng and senior Cooper Farrell, as well as sophomore Kelvin Chen. The three newcomers accounted for five of our 12 sets yesterday and they figure to improve with regular practice. In addition, we are expecting the return of our wayward thespian, Mitch Gravelle, who provided a boost to the roster in the early part of the season.

One of the challenges of a 10-week season is getting to the end of it with the team intact and firing on all cylinders. I believe we are poised to do just that, making us a potential outside contender if we can just claw (or “talon”) our way into the CIF playoff picture.

– Coach Thorpe

*Thanks to Kristin Tyng for providing most of the photos for this post!

Laguna Beats Dunn and Bishop Diego, Battles in Loss to Cate

Last Friday, Laguna picked up a decisive win against Dunn without our usual #1 singles player. Henry Farrell and Alex Furukawa led the charge with sweeps in singles and doubles was dominant as well.

On Tuesday, we faced Bishop Diego and their star player Spencer Ekola. Despite being unable to make any headway against the NCAA-bound player, Laguna came out with a 14-4 victory. Jason Barnick and Kylan Tyng swept in doubles, and Martin Barnick paired with Mitch Gravelle for a win and then helped Eric Chen gain his first two victories in high school tennis. Atty Roddick and Connor Elmore were dominant in two sets before a third-round substitution that saw Erik Qin come to within a few points of his first win of the season (paired with Elmore).

Yesterday we faced the Cate School, a familiar opponent from the former Condor League. Although an early departure of the London spring break trip meant we had to forfeit three sets right off the bat, we battled to a 6-12 final score against last year’s CIF semifinalists.

Alex Furukawa and Henry Farrell paired for two wins in doubles and a close third set against Cate’s #1’s, while Barnick/Gravelle and Elmore/Roddick each added a set to the total. In singles, Phillip Hicks fought admirably against the big one-two punch of Kevin Ha and Jason Xiao, before getting a quick win at the #3 spot. Kylan Tyng reversed his fortunes from a week ago to take an exciting tie-break win against the #3 player as well.

As we enter spring break, Laguna boys’ tennis can feel pretty good about the current state of affairs. With a 3-2 record, and several of the toughest opponents of the season out of the way, April looks promising if we continue to improve.

Laguna Tennis Splits First Two Matches of 2015 Season

It’s been a crazy first two weeks of tennis this season, with a number of our players being part of playoff teams for winter sports. After rescheduling the first two matches of the season, we decided to just dive in regardless of the soccer team’s impressive run to the CIF Championship game tonight.

On Wednesday, we beat Oxnard High 12-6 on the back of sweeps in singles from Phillip Hicks and Alex Furukawa. In doubles, senior Martin Barnick paired with Connor Elmore for a sweep, while Atty Roddick and Jason Barnick picked up two wins as a doubles team. Kylan Tyng came through with a solid win against the Oxnard #3 in the final round of play.

Today we faced San Marcos High without two of our top three players and came out one set better than last season with a 5-13 result. Seniors Martin Barnick and Mitchell Gravelle claimed a doubles sweep with 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 scores in an impressive first appearance together. Connor Elmore and Jason Barnick also played a strong three rounds, taking a win over the San Marcos #3 team by a 6-4 score and playing two more close 3-6 sets. Phillip Hicks added a 6-2 win in singles.

Next week we will face perennial rival Santa Ynez on Wednesday and then Dunn School on Friday. Both of these matches will be played at home on the new Laguna Blanca Furukawa Tennis Facility.

Julia Gan Takes Title at Oxnard Winter Junior Tournament

Last weekend we drove down to the Oxnard Winter Junior and on Sunday afternoon came back with the hardware.

Julia has had some tough luck with draws in her first few tournaments in California, but this time breezed through an easy first-round match without dropping a game and followed that up with a convincing 6-1, 6-4 win over #1-seed Yu Mu. Mu trains full-time at Weil Tennis Academy and is currently ranked #498 in the country in the senior class.

In the finals, Gan faced a challenging 2.5-hour match against Dominique Derse. In the first set, Gan had a 4-2 lead and several break-point opportunities to go up 5-2, but Derse fought through the long service game and came roaring back to win the first set 7-5. The second set was also close, taking over an hour to complete, with Gan taking it 6-4.

The beginning of the third set looked troublesome for the Cate junior, with Derse breaking in the first game and going up 40-0 in the next. However, Julia Gan’s tenacious style-of-play was taking its toll on her opponent and Derse began to fatigue, making more unforced errors than in the previous two sets. Gan took the break back and from there she rolled on to a 6-1 third-set victory.

Julia Gan now sits at #534 in the nation for the junior class and holds the #16 spot in her native North Carolina, according to tennisrecruiting.net.

Julia Gan Collegiate Tennis Recruiting Video

It’s my pleasure to have the opportunity to work with talented players who have NCAA aspirations. One such player is Julia Gan, who will be graduating from the Cate School in spring of 2016. Here is a showcase video, presented by Thorpe Tennis:

2014: Thorpe Tennis Year-in-Review

This has been, undoubtedly, a banner year for Thorpe Tennis and the schools and individuals with whom I get to share this great game. Every day I am thankful for the opportunity to share my passion for tennis with a great group of people in this paradise called Santa Barbara. As I plan for my next big adventure (read about it here), I’m already looking forward to all the exciting things that lie ahead in 2015, but before we turn the page…

A few highlights from the year at Thorpe Tennis:

Worked with 49 different players from age 8 to 56
Spent over 1,000 hours on-court teaching lessons and coaching high school matches
Saw three years of planning, campaigning, and finger-crossing come to fruition with the completion of the Furukawa Tennis Courts at Laguna Blanca
Launched the Laguna Blanca Summer Tennis Camp to rave reviews
Coached Laguna Blanca Boys’ Tennis to an 11-5 record, a second-consecutive CIF playoff appearance, the #7-seed in CIF Division 4, and a second-round showing in CIF playoffs
Started a Laguna tennis tradition with a weekend trip to the desert for the BNP Paribas Open, where we got to see Nadal, Wawrinka, the Bryans and many other pros play
Led Cate School Girls’ Tennis to an 8-5 record and another CIF playoff appearance, despite moving up two divisions and facing much stiffer competition. Cate battled through a wildcard round victory and made a strong 6-12 showing against future CIF finalists, Murrieta Valley
Coached Julia Gan to several singles wins against nationally-ranked juniors and brought Gan and McKenna Madden together for a Tri-Valley League finalist showing in doubles, followed by a second-round appearance in CIF Individuals
Enjoyed another successful year from Daniel Newton, who qualified for the Central Coast Grand Prix Masters and currently holds a ranking of #107 in California, plus more hardware for Alex Furukawa, despite an apparent blinking problem!
Helped Ben Furukawa achieve a personal best #112 in California ranking. Fellow Laguna senior Tristan Prinz also notched victories over Jason Xiao (f0rmerly undefeated in Condor League play), Kevin Ha (currently #308 in the country), and scored the biggest victory of his career against Dimitri Colffer (recently ranked as high as #190 in the country) in his last high school match
Had the pleasure of watching seniors from Laguna and Cate tennis programs go on to college at UCLA, University of Washington, Colorado School of Mines, Ole Miss, UPenn, Yale, and USC