While many students enjoyed time off over their spring breaks, the Blues were at work and busy representing Whitman competitively. In particular, the lacrosse, baseball and golf teams saw a wave of activity during spring break.
Lacrosse
Whitman lacrosse went 3-2 in five games played over spring break against non-conference competition. The Blues started their road trip in Georgetown, Texas against The College of Wooster, University of Massachusetts Boston and Southwestern University. After losing 7-16 against Wooster, the team picked up a pair of wins against UMass Boston and Southwestern University, winning each game 17-8 and 16-3, respectively. The Blues then returned to the James Hayner field for a thrilling 13-12 overtime win against Kalamazoo College and a 4-13 loss to Chapman University.
For Head Coach Chris Duncan, lacrosse’s spring break stretch was as much about developing team identity as it was about competitive outcomes.
“We always say that a good team becomes a great team when they become a family, and I think you can’t just replace time spent with one another,” Duncan said. “It seems like every year during the spring trip, this is really our turning point.”
According to Duncan, the stretch of non-conference play — including contests against undefeated schools like The College of Wooster — meaningfully challenges the team and prepares it for intense NWC clashes. The road trip is meant to not only deepen player’s skills by giving them more experience on an individual level, but also to give them more skills on a collective level and help them become a more cohesive and competitive team.
Players’ experiences aligned with Duncan’s sentiment. Sophomore attacker Sarah Hawkins said that the team grew closer over the course of the trip.
“We built off of a lot of things that we had been discussing beforehand,” Hawkins said, “and I think as a team overall, the chemistry and morale got built on especially because we were all traveling together.”
Junior defender Andrea Garcia echoed Hawkins in her reflection.
“It was a really fun trip, and it was a good way for us to shake everything out and put things that we had been working on to practice,” Garcia said.
Junior goalie Renn Novak summed up the improvements to team play that non-NWC competition creates.
“As a team, we all obviously love to win and to dominate, and we really welcome that challenge and those teams that are going to put up a really hard fight with us,” Novak said. “There’s so much to glean off of that and so much to learn about ourselves in areas to improve on, especially going into these conference games.”
The Blues now enter the thick of conference play and set their sights on an NWC semifinal appearance on May 2.
Baseball
Baseball played 12 games over break, including three series and several one-off games. The Blues went 1-3 in a four-game home series against the University of Puget Sound and then traveled to Portland to face off against Lewis & Clark College, where they were swept in three games. Whitman ended its road trip in Southern California with a loss against Whittier College, a 1-2 split against Occidental College and a tie against University of La Verne.
Despite the team’s struggle to consistently get in the win column, Head Coach Brian Kitamura observed noticeable growth and improvement over the course of break, especially during the team’s last couple of games in California.
“Progress is not perfect,” Kitamura said, “and understanding that execution is a premium, how we continue to move throughout the game and to continue to out-execute the other team is something that we’ve done a great job of grasping.”
Junior pitcher Russell Petersen offered further insight into the team’s struggles.
“One of the three facets have been missing in all of our games,” Petersen said. “We either don’t pitch well but we hit well and field well, or the pitching’s there and we field well but the bats aren’t there.”
Even so, Whitman put up a respectable fight against Occidental College and University of La Verne. As the season progresses, the Blues are resetting their expectations but still realizing their potential.
“We kind of got shocked at the beginning and we realized that we weren’t as good as we thought we were,” Petersen said, “but I think a lot of people are making big strides, and that’s been seen with some of the younger guys like Hawthorne Moody and Garen Geoghegan, who have both pitched really well.”
The Blues resume NWC competition at home on April 11 against Willamette University.
Golf
Both the men’s and women’s golf teams began spring break by competing in the Willamette Cup with 10 other schools in attendance. While the women’s team placed last, the men’s team finished second with a particularly strong performance from sophomore Grady Brown, who finished with 71, even par, on day one and 69, two under par, on day two.
At the UC Santa Cruz Invite, the women’s team tied for 12th place on day one and earned 11th place on day two. The Blues were led by sophomore Camila Yoom who went 14 over par.
In Southern Virginia, the men’s team won both days, 7-2 and 5.5-3.5, respectively, thanks in big part to performances from Brown along with seniors Mason Remington and Eshan Singh.
The golf teams did not respond to requests for comment. They’ll play in their respective NWC Championships in late April.
