Senior tennis player Daniel Redfern has made the most of his two-year Pirate career. Since joining the program from Skagit Valley Community College in 2011, Redfern has had two All-Northwest Conference seasons.

“Daniel can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the conference,” head coach Mike Shanks said. “He has the best forehand in the conference and he’s amazingly quick. It’s been a pleasure to watch him perform.”

Redfern, a math major from Camano Island, Wash., was the Pirates’ No. 1 singles player the past two seasons and was also part of the No. 1 doubles team this year and part of last year. He has a combined 40=++ wins in these two seasons, his best season coming this year with 22 total wins.

“Daniel is a great teammate,” junior Cameron Williams said. “It’s awesome to see him raise his game to the next level.”

Before Whitworth, Redfern played two years at Skagit Valley Community College where he won the singles conference championship as a freshman and placed second as a sophomore.

“It really was fun,” Redfern said of his experience. “The competition wasn’t the greatest because there were only four teams in the conference and there was only really one guy that consistently challenged me, but I still learned a lot.”

After transferring to Whitworth, Redfern earned NWC Player of the Week honors three times and was also named first team All-NWC in 2011 and 2012. Of all of his great accomplishments and experiences at Whitworth, there were two moments Redfern will always remember.

“Personally my favorite moment was when we were in Dallas over Spring Break last year,” Redfern said. “I was losing badly in the first set of my match, but I came back and won the set. I lost in the second set and I started cramping, but both the men’s and the women’s teams were there watching and supporting me. They helped me persevere through the pain and I won the third set.”

That match was against LeToureau University in Sherman, Texas, where Whitworth won 7-2. Every set in Redfern’s match was decided by at least two games, the final score being 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 6-4. Redfern played his best tennis in that match, but his favorite team moment came when he didn’t have his best personal day.

“My favorite moment as a team was when we were playing at Linfield last year,” Redfern said. “We lost all of our doubles matches and I lost my singles match, meaning we had to win five straight singles matches for the victory. We had some guys pull out some close matches and we ended up winning 5-4, taking third in conference because of that.”

Even though his Pirate tennis career might be over, Redfern still plans to be a part of next year’s team. Redfern is a junior academically but has senior eligibility in tennis so he will return next season to be an assistant coach on the team while finishing his degree.

Contact Nathan Webber at [email protected].