Bethany Christian vs. Northwood {Sectional}

You can see it's taken me awhile to post anything about this match. It always takes me awhile to get over the end of a season. Especially a season that was as good as this one and that ended so close to a longtime goal.

So if that didn't help everyone know, we lost to Northwood 3-2 in the Sectional final. It was a match that Northwood played with a huge level of intensity, and a whole lot of experience. Northwood captured the Sectional title last year as well, and 3 of their returning players were pivotal to that match last year. So they had experience, but we seemed to have fate on our side coming in, having won two extremely close matches to get into the final.

And we didn't play poorly, we just didn't get to that next level in the matches that we needed to. At #1 singles, Luke Hostetter couldn't overturn an early regular season loss to Preston Swain. On the day, it just seemed like Preston had all the answers. At #3 singles, an emotionally charged Ben Baker consistently attacked Jonny Shenk, leaving Jonny frustrated and tired after a similar match in the morning. At #1 doubles, Northwood's pair of Hostetter's pumped each other up over and over and seemed to just squeak out the important points on route to victory over Johnny Kauffman and Jeremy Thomas. That gave Northwood the 3 points needed for a Sectional crown, despite the remaining two matches on the court. When Ben Baker took the deciding point, the Panthers rushed the court to congratulate him and celebrate, and our team season was over.

But not some of the individual seasons. #2 singles and #2 doubles had both extended their matches to three sets. Jared Schwartzentruber was playing one of his best matches of the season, overturning an early loss to Austin Hostetter. Jared hit some incredible angles and passing shots to defeat an attacking Hostetter 7-5, 1-6, 6-4.

At #2 doubles, Daniel Buschert and Mikey Kelly were looking to avenge the heartbreaking 3 set loss they had suffered in the regular season. After taking the first set that looked likely, but they fell in a tiebreaker in the second set. With the team match over starting the third, they were advised to finish out the season with guns blazing. They ended up playing one of their most aggressive sets of the season and winning the match, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4.

It was a wonderful season, and we're already working for next. We have an opportunity, and we hope to take advantage of it. I hope to be writing this very same article next year, but with a different ending.