Bethany Christian vs. Concord {Match Report}

A match in which a number of us get to play old rivals or our neighbors. A match in which we get to play a school at least 7 times as large as us. A match in which we are competing well in recent years.

However, this year again, it is a match that ends in a loss. So close in the first four matches, but only one has ended in victory. While that could be continued frustration, I actually feel for the first time in Bethany history that if a few points would have fallen our way we would be 4-0 with victories over Northridge and Concord. But the reality is that they haven't. That's where we start to improve then: How do we win the big, pressure points?

In this match, we had some incredible efforts and one very big win by our number one doubles team. Johnny and Jeremy were in control the whole time in this close match, and closed out each set impressively with real attacking tennis. Always rushing the net they forced the Concord sophomores to hurry shots and make errors, and when presented the opportunity Johnny and Jeremy both put points away emphatically. It is always good to watch a match where we out-work and out-strategy our opponents, and that was the case at #1 doubles.

Luke ran into a great player in Concord's number one, and the talent didn't drop off much to their number two. As Jared slugged away in a match against his neighbor at #2 singles there were some excellent points played on both sides, but not quite enough consistency at big points for Jared to put away the games. Luke played probably his most attacking match of the season so far, but could not quite keep pace with Concord's Austin Conrad and his flat, pacy groundstrokes.

Jonny Shenk battled his way through an extremely close match at three, and found himself with a two set points in a first set tiebreak. Andre Ziebold, a sophomore, was able to find the shots and crawl back into the tiebreaker, eventually winning 8-6. The second set showed more of the same determination by Jonny, but he couldn't quite find the winning formula as Ziebold took that set as well, 6-4.

Two doubles also had themselves a set point at 5-4 in the first set. However, a Daniel Buschert backhand volley just found the tape and dropped short, and the Concord doubles team was able to rally themselves to take the game. Their new found momentum continued as they pushed to take the first set 7-5, then continued to ride that wave of confidence to a 6-1 second set. A match that ended in a huge run was much closer than the score indicated, a frustration for sure for Daniel and Mikey.

All in all, it was a good day for Bethany tennis at the Concord Invitational. It was a day that showed much promise for the year ahead. But it also showed that we need to continue to hone our games and improve, to learn to push through frustration, to find ways to bounce back and compete when things don't go our way, to simply enjoy the beauty of tennis.

Hopefully, we'll look back to this tournament as a point of motivation for the rest of the season. Things will get better from here, and they are already pretty good. I hope we keep looking ahead to where we are going...

Scores
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Bethany --- Score --- Concord

#1S - Luke Hostetter (11) --- 3-6, 2-6 --- Austin Conrad (12)
#2S - Jared Schwartzentruber (11) --- 1-6, 2-6 --- Cameron Tomasbi (12)
#3S - Jonny Shenk (11) --- 6-7 (6), 4-6 --- Andre Ziebold (10)
#1D - Johnny Kauffman (11)/Jeremy Thomas (11) --- 6-4, 6-4 --- Andre Moore (10)/Jared Queener (10)
#2D - Daniel Buschert (11)/Mikey Kelly (10) --- 5-7, 1-6 --- Matt Schoeffler (10)/Trevor DuMont (11)