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BLOG: Inside Gopher Tennis
5/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Dino Bilankov recaps the Gophers' successful season and recent trip to Los Angeles in the final Gopher tennis blog of the season.
May 15 - Dino Bilankov
First of all, I want to apologize for a slight delay of this blog, but finals week was crazy for all of us. Unfortunately, this is the last blog this year, and I got the honor to write it. Although, I would have loved if I could have picked Lui after this one, because that would mean that we made it to the sweet sixteen, I have to say we had a great time in LA and a great year overall. So let’s start.
LA was amazing. It is as simple as that. Trust me, there was so many “blog materials,” how we like to call them, that I could write here for a whole day and not be done. But I will try to pick some of the best ones and with that say goodbye until the next season.
We left from campus on Wednesday at noon with amazing amount of the excitement about this trip. First blog material already happened in the plane on the way there. While we were finding our seats in the plane, Adam spotted two cute girls that sat close to him. So, he first gave me the look, and then said “Dino, napkin messenger, for sure!” The napkin messenger is basically sending messages back and forth on the piece of paper between our team and cute girls, whether it is in a restaurant, plane, or wherever. Anyways, that went well, we all got to know the girls later when we landed. The next thing in our mind was Lakers game. However, we realized very soon that we won’t make it because we had practice that night.
Probably the most exciting part of the trip was Thursday morning when we went to see Venice Beach, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and all those places that for us foreigners seem that we see only on TV. I was a designated photographer, taking a lot of pictures from a lot of different angles, while other guys would just walk around enjoying the moment.
However, no matter how cool it was to be in LA, we knew exactly why we were there. We had only one goal in mind and that was to beat University of New Mexico on Friday. The excitement about the match was obvious. Most of the guys have never played NCAA tournament. So, after we came back from our sightseeing trip, we went to the courts and practiced for two hours under a hot Californian sun.
It’s unbelievable how hard is to explain such a simple and obvious thing, and that is that these practices were different. One could feel that guys gathered all their strength and focus and gave everything out there, trying not to make this our last trip this year. With that intensity, we went to the match on Friday and swept New Mexico as they were not there. I still get really excited when I think of that, because the guys were just unbelievable. Every one of them gave everything he had, whether it was on the court or cheering behind the court. One could’ve seen our usual trademarks, such as Werny’s C’mon, Sebas’s yelling at other guys when they were down, and of course, a lot of “doesn’t matters” from me. I am still amazed how well we get together as a team and how united we are.
But, after beating New Mexico 4-0, there was not a lot of time to celebrate since we had to focus on tomorrow’s match against the eighth seeded University of Southern California. We had an amazing dinner at California Pizza Kitchen that night, had a team meeting, and then guys went to their rooms to get ready for tomorrow.
After the morning practice, which planning turned out to be a pain in the a** because of some fundraising 5K race, we were ready to go on the court and again leave everything out there so we don’t have anything to regret after the match. And that’s how it was. Although we lost 4-0 to USC, it was a great performance on the side of Gophers. We came out there as a family, we fought hard, we supported each other, and some of us played amazing tennis. Sometimes is hard to accept a loss when it seems that you do everything right, but I have to congratulate USC because they were a better team that Saturday.
That concluded our very successful season and we are looking forward to come back even stronger next year. It was very emotional to look back at the season and what we’ve been through, but I doubt any of guys had any regrets. A very special moment for everyone was a dinner on Saturday night when each guy in the team had to comment on the season and then remember a funny memory from it. Pipo spiced it up by telling everyone how they played in his amazing southern accent which cracked us up. If anyone could’ve seen us that night, he/she would be extremely proud of Gophers because we truly are more than just a team. We are a family.
April 29 - Ishay Hadash
I know most of you don’t believe, but I (Ishay Hadash), the one who declared “I won’t ever write the blog,” have been nominated by all-Big Ten first team player and co-captain Bruce Wernet to write the Big Ten tournament blog. I hope you will enjoy reading my bad jokes and, if not, blame the following: Bruce Wernet, Coach Young, and his best basketball player in the NBA LA BRON JAMES (yea right!).
It all started on Thursday way too early in the morning, when we left the Baseline Tennis Center in a great mood and without my old friend and roommate’s shoes (Adam showed up with a great suit and very nice silver Nike shoes!!!). Not long from the first incident the second one occurred when the taxi driver didn’t like the tip we (I) gave him so he ran away without giving us the change. It was an unlucky beginning as the team arrived to Ann Arbor safe and strong (“army strong”).
The first practice gave us a glimpse into the severe winds of the following day. The weather, which later played an important role in the match vs. Indiana, provided a funny incident with the Ohio State head coach Ty Tucker. I hit the racket frame with Julian’s ball (he put too much spin on his forehand ) which almost fell on his head while he collected the balls behind our court. Unhappy and embarrassed, he gave as the worst ball he could find.
The following day waking up felt wrong! And as most of you know, the consequences followed my feelings. We started the match slow and this time we couldn’t bounce back. Personally, I didn’t perform as I was expected and I left Ann Arbor hoping to forget April 24, 2009.
Special thanks to the Young family and their close friends in Ann Arbor that supported us in the tough time we experienced last Friday and hosted us in the most amazing way. I don’t want to get in trouble, but the brownies were almost as good as Marcia’s and that’s a tough task to accomplish.
Any way It’s getting late and I hope I provided a glimpse into the short trip we had and that you didn’t suffer reading my writings.
April 14 - Tobias Wernet
Freshman Phillip Arndt nominated me...Bruce, Werny, or however you want to call me, as the one to write the blog for this week’s trip - my favorite one by the way - to Chicago and Madison. We know what to expect: Nice Hotel, Flat Top, all you can eat, and a battle against our rival Wisconsin.
So we took off Friday morning at 8 a.m. in two U of M minivans. Being in my second year as an inherent part of the party bus driven by Urban, it turned out to NOT be a party bus this time. Altepeter left us hanging, having a migraine sleeping in the back. The other car was affected by the "I cannot lose" attitude of Geoff, Sebas and Julian as they were playing this game where you can ask 10 questions to find out what person they are thinking of.
Arriving in Evanston, we drove to the courts for a two-hour practice. In practice I could see this excitement already in the guys’ eyes...Flat Top was waiting for us. All you can eat and the second annual napkin-messaging was waiting for us. Six cute girls on the table next to us were chosen to be our victims for this year's messaging. It was one girls' birthday. I don't want to show off here, but it took us one napkin-message and two minutes to get their number and half of the birthday cake...GOOD WORK GOPHS!!!
The next day started with a nice breakfast and the pre-match warm-up. Same procedure as every week, warm-up, national anthem and the cheer, which I have the honor to lead: GO GOPHS, GO GOPHS, GO GOPHS, YEEEEAAAAHHH GOPHERS!!!!
I really want to keep that part short, falling 4-3 to the "Cats" is not the best feeling. Our away weakness obtained. After the match there was big disappointment in the guys’ eyes. After a shower, food and some silence and sleep on the ride to Madison everything looked different. I am in my bed right now looking forward to tomorrow and I totally agree with Coach Young's statement in tonight’s meeting: "The best way to forget about today is to win tomorrow." Tomorrow is not just a dual match. It is the rivalry that makes this special: Gophers vs. Badgers...THE BORDER BATTLE!!!
It is Sunday night and I am sitting in my room now with a smile on my face. What happened today is hard to express but, believe me, what happened today makes it easier for me to write this. We woke up at around 8:30 a.m. and went for a run "to get us going" as coach Young would say. Breakfast at Panera Bread and some preparation time in the hotel until we checked out and drove to the courts at 10:45 a.m. It was a sunny, but windy day in Madison and soon we found out that today’s match is played outside. We know one thing from the outset: today was about heart and toughness and not about playing pretty tennis.
Again, we came out not as good as expected and fell short in the doubles. The meeting was embossed by the disappointment of our assistant coach Urban. Thanks to Adam, Ishay, Julian, and me who tried to talk to the guys and make them come out on fire and WE DID COME OUT ON FIRE.
That is how it looked like from my perspective: Michael won 1-1, Julian won 2-1, Ishay lost 2-2, Dino won 3-2, Sebas was up a break and I was down a break both in the third set. We had to win one out of those two in order to clip the Badgers. Sebas could not decide the third set for himself and I knew it all came down to me. Down 4-2 in the third set the Badgers started celebrating their apparent win already, I could not stand their cheering, so (excuse my language) I fought my ass off and I came back, 4-3, 4-4, 5-4 and 6-4. I couldn't believe it, probably my best moment in college tennis: Beating the Badgers 4-3 and saving the number 3 spot in the Big Ten. I hugged whoever ran on the court, coaches, my teammates and whoever traveled with us.
The ride back home to Minnesota turned even my bus into a party-bus. Altepeter and Michael singing Taylor Swift...that says everything.
So...enough for this weekend, I hope I will see you guys next weekend as we host Iowa and Purdue!
Special thanks to family Young, Sicora, Carlson and Perla, who were a great support and made it all the way to Madison and some of them to Northwestern.
March 30 - Phillip Arndt
Well it was a split result this weekend for the Minnesota Golden Gophers men's tennis program. We had a long day of flying ahead of us on Thursday with a one hour layover in Detroit and getting to Penn State at 11 o'clock at night.
We all woke up and ate a heart healthy breakfast and left to go hit at about 11 in the morning. It was a long drive to the courts so some of us entertained ourselves in the car by telling funny jokes relating to elevators, sandwiches, and other random topics.
The match against Penn State started at 3 o'clock and the guys were all ready to go! We all knew it was going to be a tough match. All of the doubles had trouble starting going down 3-1, 3-1, and 4-1 right away on all courts. With 10 Penn State Nittany Lions and a whole crowd against us, the three Gophers in the stands did not let them beat us in cheering! After a few cheers yelled by the Gophers, Minnesota picked it up! The rest of the doubles matches cruised from then on giving the Gophers the doubles point! With the momentum on our side, we won four out of the six singles to win the match 5-2.
We all celebrated the match by going out to eat at Champs. but the mood of celebration quickly ended with the service. After waiting an hour and 15 minutes for the food with some of us not even getting our right orders, we were some tired Gophers and decided to hit the hot tub and then get some sleep with a long day of driving ahead of us.
At around 9 in the morning on Saturday we took off to Columbus, Ohio. The six hour ride down to Ohio State was probably one of the most interesting car rides I've ever been apart of. Me, Ishay, Adam, and Mikey for some strange reason decided to take part in listening to "The Tacitus" on CD. After listening for about two pages of boring Roman history we decided that was quite enough. One of the best quotes of the ride: Adam- "Do you guys think there are more trees in Pennsylvania than people in the world?"
We got to the hotel around 3:30 Saturday afternoon and went to practice to get used to the courts around 5. After practice we went to dinner where I was blessed by seeing my parents and my old coach who drove three and a half hours to support the Gophs. After dinner Mikey lost Urban and Geoff in the parking lot and unintentionally decided to take the Arndt family on a scenic tour of Columbus for 45 minutes to find the hotel that was only five minutes away from where we ate... he still blames the while thing on Ishay's GPS.
It was a tough day on Sunday for the Gophs as we lost to Ohio State in all close matches. We all had the chances during the match to do "big thangs" but the Buckeyes prevailed.
After leaving the facility the Gophs headed to the airport where we waited for an hour and a half for the plane to arrive. Sebastian and Ishay had the best seats on the plane having fun converstions and sharing candy with 12 year old volleyball girls.
All in all, I think this was a good weekend for the Gophers as we all fought hard and figured out things we need to work on to improve as a team and succeed together on and off the court.
March 24 - Michael Sicora
With midterms done and spring break here, gopher men’s tennis was ready for the long awaited trip to San Diego, California.
The trip to San Diego went fairly smooth, barring the fact that some of the team was pretty late coming onto the plane and we were afraid that Phil would be left behind. Not to worry, he and the rest of the team made the flight.
During the flight each person had a different way of passing the time. Julian, Tobias, and Geoff were having intense games of backgammon. Julian had a few loud screams of defeat and proclaimed to the whole plane that, “Geoff is the luckiest man in the world!!” Jake, Adam, and Sebas played black jack with Adam coming out on top. Jake was not happy.
Dino had is head in a business book the whole time, preparing himself for when he is CEO of a major corporation or when he finally comes up with an idea that revolutionizes the world. Phil, Urban, and Ishay were quizzing each other about world capitals and imitating Geoff. We landed safe and had a Latino band playing salsa music to welcome us to San Diego. Team spirit was high and we all looked forward to the up coming days in the sun!
The next day was for practicing! It was our first time hitting outside in months so all the guys were trying to figure out the elements again. Julian seemed to have a difficult time during practice yelling out, “I can’t play outdoors!!” To that Tobias replied across two courts, “You just have to deal with it!” We had another practice that day and everyone was starting to get a little bit more comfortable with the conditions.
Sunday was our match against San Diego State. We started a little slow in doubles and ended up losing the point. In singles there were many close matches, all of us were cheering each other on, both those who were playing and those who were not. We fell behind early 1-3 but had three very close matches in progress.
Sebas had a great comeback to win his match in three sets and Julian did well to fight through his tough opponent. The rest of the team showed good effort but in the end did not come out on top. After the match Geoff recognized the fact that it was not easy for us to play this team outdoors, but we fought hard and that is what we can take away from the match. He said that he thought we played like a team in this match more than any other this season. Although we were disappointed by the loss it was good to hear that from him.
Monday we faced UNLV. We came out ready for doubles, winning at second and third doubles. First doubles had a close match, barely losing in the end. Singles went well and we won the match 5-2. We showed improvement playing outdoors and got through a solid opponent.
That night the coaches treated us to a dinner on the beach. Different guys took turns manning the grill, although there were some problems with meat falling into the charcoal. It all turned out to be very good! We enjoyed a good time as the sun was setting on the beach. One thing Phil learned during the dinner was to not mess around with Ishay. Let’s just say Ishay would win in a wrestling match! It was a great way to wind down from the matches and relax.
Tuesday we played soccer at 10:00 a.m. on the beach. The freshman team was victorious! The other team as punishment for losing had to jump into the ocean. From what I hear it was very cold! Next was a light practice. We had take advantage of the awesome weather and get some more outdoor hitting in. The rest of day was spent enjoying the sun and different activities.
One story worth mentioning was when Geoff, Tobias, Julian, Sebas, and I decided to go golfing on the resorts short par 3 golf course. Sebas and I were definitely beginners to say the least, so we were put with Geoff on a team and the Germans were a team. At one hole Sebas was at the tee and a car was driving along the fairway. As a joke Julian warned Sebas to not hit the car. Sebas said, “Ah shut up Loui, don’t worry about it.” Sebas swings back and hit the ball, and we all watched to see where it would go. Sure enough the ball was bouncing down the street right towards the car Julian warned him about! We all were anticipating impact but luckily the ball just missed the car, landing on the other side of the street in a rough patch of grass. We couldn’t stop laughing for about five minutes. I think for the safety of everyone, we should stick to tennis on trips from now on!
All in all, the trip was a great time for our team. We learned to be more of a team and had the opportunity to play outdoors in warm weather. It was fun to be apart of and look forward to the next spring break!
March 10 - Sebastian Gallego
The second trip of the season for the Gophers brought a disappointing loss at Washington. However, as we concluded in the meeting after the match it was a good lesson.
The trip started on Thursday since the match was on Friday. The first funny thing of the trip happened right at the beginning. Unfortunately, I decided to go with coach Young to the airport and I say unfortunately because as soon as we got into his car, he told us "Guys, I am sorry I forgot my bag at home, I have to take it before we go to the airport " I thought...it's ok coach, it’s not the first time you forgot something. Luckily, his wife brought amazing brownies for us for what I think coach was really glad.
We checked in our bags and went to eat in the airport as usual. Right after that we went to the gate and wait for the boarding process. Once we were in the plane it took at least 30 minutes to take off, having the Gophers just wasting their times!!! During the flight there was a solitaire contest between captain Wernet and coach Young. Unfortunately, Geoff is not the best solitaire player and lost the contest once again as the last trip.
As soon as we got to Seattle, most of the team was impressed by the city especially us foreigners, except for mister Dehn, who thought it was not pretty. Its ok LOUI there is always a black sheep. Seattle is a completely different city compared to other in the US, having mountains covered with houses and the pacific going into some parts of the city.
Before we checked in the hotel as we always do, coaches decided to first hit and as they say "get those bodies going"... We hit for about an hour and then went to the hotel for the first time. We checked in and got ready to go eat. Even though, coach Young was starving, he came up with some super funny imitations about some of the guys in the team. After that, the whole team got into imitating each other and saying how other teammates act on the court. It seems that we have good actors in the team!!!!
The next day began having breakfast in the morning and going to hit. All the imitations came once again in the court, having a fun time and laughing at each others habits. Some games of MJ's made the practice even better; after all is the nicest thing to do overall!! We went back to the hotel, where we didn't stay, because some of the guys wanted to go to the fish market and to the space needle tower, two of the main attractions that Seattle offers to their tourists. I went to the tower, being an amazing experience. Once we got to the top, we could see all the city, having an amazing view because it was sunny day.
Now it was time to the match, "the actual game" , we were more than motivated after all it was a week full of good things. The team ranked 24th in the nation, mister Hadash ranked 48th and Big Ten player of the week and two out three doubles team ranked also. However, everything was not happiness this time for the Gophers. The match started at 4pm local time in Washington. We started with the doubles matches. From the beginning, nothing went in the right direction, it was not the best performance for some guys and we were playing against a good team.
After dropping the doubles point, the team was sad and down a little. Even though we fought hard to come back it was not enough to beat this team. Good job for Loui and Phil though, good matches. Frustration, sadness and anger were the feelings after the match. However, as I said at the beginning was a good lessons for the rest of the season.
Finally, some good expressions and habits coming from some of the guys make a fun trip. Among the expressions ... No, NO, NO Geoff!!!!!!!!!! .... Guys, it doesn't mean you always have to go .. and some others that just can be made by our good actors in the team.
February 10 - Adam Altepeter
2/5/09 - The weekend started off about as you would expect with a trip for the Minnesota Men’s tennis team, with something being forgotten and a practical joke being played on one of the players. The joke started after Ishay forgot his racket bag at security in the Minneapolis Airport. After other players were told that there was a racket bag at the security, by a friendly security guard, these players decided to play a small joke on Ishay. They decided to hide the rackets in Michael’s racket bag and then to give Ishay the empty racket bag. Ishay upon receiving the bag was happy and just set the bag down without checking to see if anything was missing.
Then as we started to board the plane Ishay came to realize that his bag was extraordinarily light. He then checked the bag and discovered his bag to be empty. As he then looked around mystified and slightly scared, he sees smiles, and smirks of all the other players. You could see in Ishay’s eyes fear of his rackets being stolen and what that would mean. Ishay then smiles after a few seconds upon realizing that his rackets had not been stolen but rather that Michael and Sebastian and taken his rackets. After this point our ride to Louisville went smoothly. Upon arrival we go to the hotel unpack and then hit the courts to get used to the playing conditions for our big upcoming match.
2/6/09 - Friday has arrived after a good night of sleep. We all stumble out of bed to eat breakfast at the hotel. The food was very good (thanks coach). Then at 11:00 am, we take our rented vans to the courts to hit. After which we hang out for a few hours before grabbing something to eat, and heading to the courts for our big match.
At 5:50 after hitting we get together and hear words from the coaches. After some strategy has been talked about it’s time to get pumped up for the match. We start this with ”The Full Cheer” “GO, GOPHS, GO GOPHS, GO GOPHS, YAAAAAAAAY GOPHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The match starts at 6:00 pm Eastern Time. We come out hard in doubles. Although this is true the Cardinals proved themselves a worthy foe in doubles sweeping all three matches.
In singles, this match became a battle. We fought hard winning matches at spots number 2, 3, 4. As Sebas, Tobias, and Phillis put in dominating performances. Although this is true we were not able to beat the Cardinals at the top of the line-up or the bottom of the line-up, and the Cardinals prevailed, handing us our first loss of the season. After the match Coach Geoff Young, told us that although we might have had hopes, “that there is no such thing as a perfect season.” This helped us to recover from obvious disappointment and get ready for our next match the following day.
2/7/09 - Saturday was a good day for the team. After having lost a close match the previous day it was nice to have a little bit easier match the following day. On this day we woke up early and drove to Richmond, Ky. to take on our next opponent, Eastern Kentucky University (EKU). On the two-hour drive to Richmond we were treated to something that does not happen often, we got the pleasure of getting to go to the house of one of the players. We stopped in at Phillip “Phillis” “Pipo” Arndt’s house. At his house we engaged in a ferocious game of Wii Tennis. Geoff and Jake, among screams of delight, emerged victorious in many matches and you could tell that they were very happy with winning against the other duos.
After being tired out from the Wii matches, we headed over to EKU to take on the Colonels. This match went more favorably for the Gophers. We emerged victorious by the score of 6-1. In doubles we won matches at number 2 and 3 doubles. In singles won all matches except for number 1 singles, where Ishay lost a tough match in a third set tiebreaker. Clinching the match for your Golden Gophers, was Phillip Arndt at number 4 singles. Phillip had an estimated 40 fans from his home town at the match, while EKU had an estimated zero there to watch (estimations based on my own perceptions).
After the match we witnessed something from Phillip “Pipo” Arndt that may have been even more impressive then his earlier match, that of him flirting with girls in Lexington with his southern accent. “What ya’ll do fur fuun round here?” being one of Phil’s lines.
After dinner it was off to the races to get back to Louisville. Our navigation device had us arriving in Louisville at 12:01 am, but what the navigation system could not factor in was Yurban’s will to arrive earlier. After scaring me a few times we arrived in Louisville at 11:40 pm, just in time for Tobias to go to sleep and wake up for his birthday . . . or something like that . . . but that is another story.
There concludes an overall successful trip to Louisville. Although we did not win all our matches I feel we didn’t do half bad and we look forward to next weekend.
Players Mentioned
