The men’s tennis team recently completed an arduous two weeks of competition against teams from all over the nation.

For the first week, the team traveled to Portland, Ore. to compete in conference matches. The second week, they flew to South Carolina to compete against schools on the East Coast.

“The trip was pretty intense,” said first-year Adriel Borshansky. “It was a pretty solid two weeks of matches.”

The tennis team played well throughout the break, winning 11 out of 13 conference matches, and five out of seven matches on the east coast. Many Whitman players were recognized for their outstanding performances: Senior Justin Hayashi was named the Northwest Conference Student-Athlete of the Week, sophomore Etienne Moshevich entered into a super tiebreaker with the University of Chicago’s top player, and Hayashi and junior Dan Wilson were undefeated in doubles.

Talent showed itself throughout the Whitman line-up.

“I think the biggest surprise was seeing Adriel [Borshansky], who’s playing number six singles for us this year, come into his own,” said junior Thomas Roston. “One of the fortunate things we have on our team is that it’s pretty deep.”

While the team usually travels to California to play during spring break, this year the team competed against teams on the east coast.

“In conference we see a lot of the same teams over and over again, so it’s really nice to get experience outside of our area,” said Roston. “I think that getting that competitive edge and experiencing high-pressure situations is what we were looking for.”

Whitman is currently ranked first in the Northwest conference, fifth in the west, and twenty-first in the nation. Over their spring break matches, Whitman slipped in the national rankings, but retained their standing in the west.

“It’s great to protect your national rankings, but what it comes down to is the end of the year,” said Roston. “Our spring break trip is mostly for experience, and I think everybody would agree that the big goal is the conference tournament.”

The spring break trip allowed the team to analyze their performance, particularly when encountering more difficult teams on the East Coast.

“We learn a lot from our losses, and I think we definitely learned a lot about what we need to do,” said sophomore Quin Miller.

The men’s tennis team currently leads the Northwest Conference, and seems set to do so throughout the season.

“It would be a huge surprise if we didn’t finish the year number one in the conference,” said Borshansky.

Whitman will compete against Whitworth University on Sun., April 5.