Bethany Christian vs. Fremont {Preview}

Thursday night we take the long drive over to Fremont. This match is a testy one for us. In their better years they have beaten us, especially after the long drive. It's tricky to drive over an hour, and then get out of the van and be ready to play a tennis match within 30 minutes. It's a test of mental strength and focus, one that we've not always been well prepared for. Hopefully, each of our guys will take time to ready their games mentally long before we take the hop out of the bus.

Fremont's varsity comes off a win of their own Invitational this past weekend. I don't know who all is involved in this tourney, so it may be impressive, or it may not be. I've been looking for awhile to get an idea of how good they may be, because their returning players do not seem to indicate a formidable team.

There number one player this year should be Steven Bressler. He bumps up from #2 singles last year, where he fell in an extremely close match with Wes Klassen. I'm sure he will be a talented, solid #1 player. I was able to find out that he won his position at the Fremont Invitational, so is evidently playing well right now.

I believe that Drake Hepp will play #2 singles for the Eagles. He too won his spot at the Invitational this past weekend. Last year Hepp played #1 doubles, a team that fell to the Bruins 6-1, 6-2. His win this past weekend again shows a player starting the season off well, but again, it's hard to judge what type of talent he was able to win against.

This rest of this team is fairly wide open. Bethany dominated the JV competition last year, losing only one match in total. So assuming things hold to form, our new varsity players should be a bit stronger than the ones in varsity debut seasons for the Eagles.

This is a match that I expect us to win. In fact, it is one that I want to start winning year after year. We were able to pull out a 4-1 victory last year against the Eagles. I expect a similar if not more emphatic result this year. I would like to see us start to build some confidence here and take care of the teams that we have more talent than. This is the way that we stay extremely sharp for when we play the team we are more equal too.

Fremont Info:
Returning Varsity (3)
- Steven Bressler lost to Wes Klassen, 6-7, 4-6
- Drake Hepp lost to Johnny Kauffman/Jordan Kauffman, 1-6, 2-6
- Kenny Wolfe lost to Jeremy Thomas/Jordan Miller, 1-6, 1-6

Returning JV (8)
- Andrew Verde lost to Jonny Shenk, 8-1
- Kyle Callahan lost to Nathan Hostetter, 8-0
- Ryan Palmerton lost to Will Troyer, 9-7; beat Austin Loucks, 6-3
- Mason Hallman lost to Micah Miller, 8-6
- Raymond Blotter/Andrew Trombley lost to Daniel Buschert/Mike Kelly, 8-2
- Nick Champion/Adam Stukey lost to Jared Christophel/Matt Amstutz, 8-2

Possible Lineup???
#1S - Steven Bressler (12)
#2S - Drake Hepp (11)
#3S - Andrew Verde (12)
#1D - Kyle Callahan (11) / Ryan Palmerton (10)
#2D - Raymond Blotter (10) / Andrew Trombley (10)