Concord Match Report

Is there such a thing as bitter encouragement?

There's no doubt that Concord will be one of the better teams we play this year when we look back at our schedule, so to lose 4-1 is not a terribly discouraging thing. And yet...the match came down to 2 10-point tiebreakers and we failed to win either. Winning both would have given our team and our program our first win ever over Concord, and probably the Invitational Championship. So encouragement because we almost beat a strong team, bitter because we didn't quite finish it.

Our one win came at two singles, where Jared brilliantly dismantled junior Jared Queener. It was a patient and controlled match for Jared, marked with long rallies and timely passing shots and lobs. This match really showed the work that Jared put in last winter and during the beginning weeks of practice to make his game consistent. The final score showed what a great match Jared played, 6-1, 6-2.

In several other matches, we were able to make sets close, but Concord was playing well. At three singles, Jonny Shenk continued his great play from the morning match and forced junior Andre Moore into a long set, but fell 6-4. Moore gained in confidence from the first set win, and his errors became powerful winners. This limited Jonny's effectiveness and Moore prevailed 6-1. At one doubles, Johnny Kauffman made his season debut, and the first set started slowly. Concord's doubles team played with a great deal of confidence coming off a nice win over Jimtown. After losing the first set 6-2, Johnny and Jeremy took a 4-3 lead in the second set. However, after a long game on Johnny's serve that they eventually lost to tie the set at 4, the pair couldn't recover and lost the second set as well. The good news was they were right there ready to take the match into a tiebreak as well.

So the last two matches, one singles and two doubles, were the matches where we showed good fight to go to tiebreaks, but then couldn't seal the deal. Daniel Buschert and Mikey Kelly showed great resiliency to come back from a 6-3 first set loss to take a 6-3 second set win. The momentum figured to carry them into a tiebreak victory, but instead the pressure began to make them tighten up. After missing several simple shots and making two key double faults, they lost the super tiebreaker 10-5. That clinched the match for Concord, but Luke still had his tiebreaker to finish up.

He had fallen in the first set 6-3 as well, but had mixed it up in the second set, giving his junior opponent, Andre Ziebold, high balls and backhands, attacking the net on occasion, and really trying to throw off the rhythm Ziebold had established in the first set. It worked extremely well, as Luke took the second set 6-0, and looked set to cruise in the tiebreak. But Ziebold took a commanding lead as Luke began to tighten and cramp in the heat of a long day. With Ziebold leading 9-4 and needing only one more point, Luke put together a run of 3 in a row, giving himself hope. But Ziebold finished the match with a rocket forehand, and made the final scoreline 4-1.

So, we lost but we competed well. No one looked outclassed, indeed, it looked like we had the momentum going into the tiebreakers, but again, we didn't quite finish the job. Hopefully this is a lesson learned, and we can move on with the confidence we need.


There were several memorable moments in the match, but I think that the beautiful passing shots of Jared Schwartzentruber deserve the credit here. There were several times where frustrated Jared Queener of Concord tried to change the course of the match by changing to a net-attacking style of play. Each time he tried he was disappointed once again by Jared controlled and beautifully placed topspin passes. I love to see our opponents looking at the ball going past them and shaking their heads at the wonder of our shots...

Scores

Luke Hostetter - 3-6, 6-0, (7-10) - Andre Ziebold (11)
Jared Schwartzentruber - 6-1, 6-2 - Jared Queener (11)
Jonny Shenk - 4-6, 1-6 - Andre Moore (11)
Johnny Kauffman/Jeremy Thomas - 2-6, 4-6 - Matt Schoeffler (11)/Trevor DuMont (12)
Daniel Buschert/Mikey Kelly - 3-6, 6-3, (5-10) - Jordan Hershberger/Michael Ciesielski