Steve Tallakson
	Head Coach stallakson@whittier.edu (562) 907-4608

The 2009 season marked the second year for Steve Tallakson as the head coach of the Whittier College women's tennis program. Sine he took over the program prior to the start of the 2008 season he has accumulated five wins, which includes a season sweep of Caltech last year.

In Whittier's two wins in '09 they first snapped a 13-match losing skid with a 7-2 victory over the Beavers. The only two losses of that match came via forfeit. The purple and gold earned its second victory in the seventh place game of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament.

Whittier was too much for Caltech as it rolled to an 8-1 win.

Tallakson graduated from the University of California, Irvine, in 1997 where he was a two year member of the men's tennis team. He began his college career at Ball State where he played two seasons with the Cardinals.

In his first two collegiate seasons he earned first-team All-Mid-American Conference honors and helped guide his team to the NCAA Division I Championships.

After his sophomore season with Cardinals he transferred to UC-Irvine to complete his college career. During his junior campaign, in 1996, he earned second-team All-Big West Conference recognition in singles and was a first-team selection in doubles.

He duplicated the first-team all-conference doubles selection his senior year and also earned first-team All-Big West honors in singles. In his two years at UC-Irvine he competed at No. 1 and No. 3 singles where he compiled a 39-19 record. His senior year was highlighted by a victory over the No. 1 ranked player in the nation.

Tallakson's double resume is just as impressive where in two years at UCI he went 39-16 at No. 1 doubles and earn a victory of the top ranked doubles team in the country his senior year. Both seasons with the Anteaters his team advanced to the NCAA Division I Championships and was consistently ranked in the Top 25 in the country. As an individual he was ranked in the Top 30 in the country in both singles and doubles.

Whittier is not the first stop in college coaching for Tallakson. He coached for four seasons at his Alma Mater as an assistant for the men's tennis team. Most recently, he has been a mortgage banker in Long Beach, Calif., and the head coach for the St. Margaret Episcopalian High School boy's and girl's tennis team.

After his college playing days he competed professionally for two years and obtained a world ranking from 1996-2000. During his junior career he was ranked in the Top 20 nationally and in the Top 3 in Southern California.