Goshen Match Report

First victories are always fun. First victories over crosstown rivals are sweeter. First victories over crosstown rivals, on the courts where the Sectional will be played, against a Sectional opponent... well, that is sweet and satisfying. Last night's win, both JV and Varsity, felt very fulfilling.

Not to mention that we played well. But it felt very good as a coach to know that we are building something. From our stellar senior class to each of our freshman now owning an individual win, the season is proving that we've got a complete and deep program, not just one great class.

The varsity match was interesting. I, as the coach, felt the pressure of making a good lineup to face this sectional opponent. With so much depth, and caring so much about the mentality, confidence, and relationship of each player, filling out the lineup card can be the scariest thing for me on a match day. We played a different lineup than Tuesday, moving Jared back into the singles lineup and bringing a recovered Mikey into the #1 doubles spot.

And the doubles did a great job against the Redskins. Daniel and Seth lost the first game of the match to their younger opponents, freshmen Seth Koble and Paul Johnson, but then built a 4-1 lead with good footwork and finishing skills. Similarly to their match against Northridge, the Bruin team looked to have a superior talent level that made the result never in doubt. Though we did have to coach them to stay focused and remember to focus on their movement and form, #2 doubles played a nice match from start to finish.

#1 doubles didn't start as well, but maybe that was to be expected in Mikey's return. Playing a Goshen team that excelled at getting the ball back in play and not attacking very often, Mikey and Jeremy found themselves having difficulty finishing points. This has been a pattern of the Goshen doubles teams the past two years, that they do a good job of moving to the ball and getting returns back, but rarely do they apply much pressure. Mikey and Jeremy had trouble finding the range early in the match, but after several trips to the net and their own adjustment of strategy, they started to keep the ball in more themselves and turned a 4-3 first set deficit into a 6-4 set win. The second set wasn't exactly a walkover, but it also never seemed in doubt.

At one singles, Luke made a fast start to the match, taking a 3-0 and then 4-1 lead. What was really impressive about the start was that Luke was down love-40 in both of the first two games but came back to win them. Honing in on his strokes, Luke forced senior Mac Hussey into a lot of errors, and Luke mixed up his attacks very well. After stepping off the gas a bit at 4-1 ("I'm playing not to lose instead of to win," Luke noted), and letting Mac draw to 4-3, Luke efforted and attacked and "battled" to win the next 8 games in a row.

Jared started off brightly as well, taking an aggressive, attacking, and all-around well played first set from shaky senior Ryan Wengerd 6-1. But Wengerd began to find his game in the second set, which infuriated Jared. That's because Wengerd's difficult but highly effective strategy was to run down basically every ball, make no mistakes, and hit the ball slow and high. This took the bite out of Jared's attacking game and made every point last longer and end in an error. Unfortunately, despite long rallies and great groundstrokes, Jared couldn't hold out against the consistent strategy of Wengerd. In a long final two sets, Jared lost.

In #3 singles, Jonny took Wengerd's same strategy and executed it against the Goshen player, junior Andy van Klaveren. After losing the first set 5-7, Jonny found another gear of competitiveness and consistency. Like a new man in a new match, Jonny completed turned the tables and in shocking fashion won the last two sets 6-0, 6-0!

The JV competition was much the same as Jonny's last two sets. Goshen seems a bit down as a program, and we are cranking right along. All positions had big wins, except for injured freshman Matt Ebersole. We looked the more conditioned, more practiced, more poised, more consistent and simply the better team at many spots. The highlight of the day was freshman Evan Grimes grabbing his first victory after only two and a half weeks of playing tennis! Congrats Evan!


Varsity:
2 beauties being given out today. They go to Luke Hostetter and Jonny Shenk, who both played beautiful matches on the whole. The points though that amazed me both had them coming to the net and hitting amazing finishing shots. Luke had a point where Mac attacked first, getting to the net and taking Luke's well struck pass and dropping it short in front of Luke and to his backhand. Luke scooped it up while moving forward, and ripped a nice backhand pass that Mac stretched to drop in front of Luke again. This time Luke barely reached it with his forehand, but still managed to get good pace on a dripping, forceful shot that barely cleared the net. Mac dropped the volley into the tape and Luke took the point.

Jonny's point was different, especially set against the backdrop of the rest of the match. He played mostly long baseline points, wearying his opponent into many errors. But for one point in the third set he was drawn to the net by a short ball that van Klaveren had volleyed to him. Jonny got to it, but now found himself at the net. Andy hit a hard ball at Jonny's feet and on the backhand side, and Jonny bent to pick it up. He had to go quick, almost without thinking and the result was a slicing low winner of a volley. I loved it because I think it took the heart out of his opponent. One of those match winning shots that happen in the middle of a set.

JV:
Because the JV played at the same time as the varsity, and because they won so fast, I didn't get to see many points. So the moment of beauty goes to Evan Grimes because of his match. Starting only two weeks ago with tennis, he was able to pull out a 9-7 victory over one of his former classmates. And that is always beautiful.

Scores

Varsity
Luke Hostetter - 6-3, 6-0 - Mac Hussey (12)
Jared Schwartzentruber - 6-1, 1-6, 1-6 - Ryan Wengerd (12)
Jonny Shenk - 5-7, 6-0, 6-0 - Andy van Klaveren (11)
Jeremy Thomas/Mikey Kelly - 6-4, 6-3 - Stefan Baumgartner (10)/Jonny Tan (10)
Daniel Buschert/Seth Krabill - 6-2, 6-2 - Seth Koble (9)/Paul Johnson (9)

JV
Ben Mast - 6-0, 6-0 - Nick Dandino (9)
Matthew Amstutz - 8-0 - Alex Johnson (10)
Russell Klassen - 8-1 - Jorge Hernandez-Walton (9)
Matt Ebersole - 3-8 - Alex Johnson
Evan Grimes - 9-7 - Jorge Hernandez-Walton
Austin Loucks/Nick Rebec - 8-2 - Philip Bontrager (10)/Eli Metzler-Prieb (9)
Blake Shetler/Misha Rebec - 8-1 - Philip Bontrager/Eli Metzler-Prieb