Fairfield Match Report

This was one crazy yet satisfying senior night match. We played a sectional rival, and we won. We played seven seniors on varsity, and they won. We played against an undefeated JV, and we won. Leaving last night, I felt blessed to be the coach of a team with such good spirit for one another, with parents that support the program and their sons so sincerely, with so much talent and willingness to work that talent.

Luke Hostetter had such long matches on Friday and Saturday that he was still feeling too sore to play a singles match for senior night. But he certainly wanted to play. So we made some adjustments to get all of our seniors into the varsity match. Luke moved down and played #1 doubles with Daniel Buschert, moving up from #2 doubles. Regular #1 doubles pair, Johnny Kauffman and Jeremy Thomas, moved down and played #2 doubles. Then Jared Schwartzentruber moved up to #1 singles, Jonny Shenk moved up to #2 singles, and finally Matthew Amstutz came in to play #3 singles.

And it turned out beautifully. In the first match off the courts, Jonny Shenk coolly took down Brock Bechtel, a Fairfield senior. Jonny's strokes are again rounding into form, as he was really hitting through his forehand and forcing Bechtel to stay deep. Jonny's net game has also improved, and he was able to put away so many overheads as he came forward. With that type of consistency and attacking option, Jonny won 6-0, 6-0. The margin of victory surprised everyone, including Jonny himself.

At number one singles, Jared Schwartzentruber controlled the match against Wyatt Stutzman from the beginning. Wyatt has a very good groundstroking game, hard to break down. But Jared used a regular strategy of waiting for the short ball to attack and keeping everything else back deep. Right now, Jared may have the prettiest strokes of any Bethany player that I've ever coached. He's playing so well, winning matches and staying focused and just making me, as the coach, proud of his progress. A win over a local rival at the number one position has to be good for his confidence as well.

Number one doubles was another battle of Bethany players in new positions for the night. Luke Hostetter playing doubles in an official match for the first time ever in his high school career, and Daniel Buschert playing one doubles for the first time. It was a good match to see that singles is not like doubles, because it took Luke a little while to adjust to the pace of play and the placement needed on his shots. Daniel was steady and did not look at all over-matched in stepping up the one position. Trailing early in the match 3-2, Luke began to dominate the net by taking away the middle of the court and putting down some massive overheads. Daniel followed suit by pounding away on serves and forehands and taking the net away from the Falcons. They won 4 straight games to take the first set. In the second set, they again fell behind but stayed close. In an almost exact replica, except they were down 4-3 at the time, they began to gain control of the net and the emotional tide of the match turned. Daniel and Luke won 3 straight games to finish out the match.

At number two doubles, Johnny and Jeremy struggled early in putting away easy balls. But soon after that happened, they began dominating like we knew that they could. They had serious serves going on, making it hard for the Falcons to return. These serves also allowed them to control the net, always key for this team. I was impressed as they cruised through the second set with the quality of Johnny and Jeremy's putaway volleys. They putaway this match 6-2, 6-0.

The match of the day was at number three singles. Matthew Amstutz filled that spot for us and faced an almost carbon copy of himself on the other side of the net. Malachi Randolph was a player with a big forehand and suspect backhand, who often gives away errors when put under pressure. Matthew has a big serve and big forehand, and his weakness is his backhand as well. It was quite a battle through the first two sets, Matthew winning the first 6-4, then losing the second 4-6. This set it up for a classic third set. Matthew, the senior on senior night, rolled through the third set. His forehands were seeking the weaknesses of Randolph, forcing errors and moving Randolph all across the court. He was returning Randolph's big serves and hit big serves of his own. In the end, the set score ended up 6-1.

After a great varsity win, the JV match was important as well. Fairfield entered the match 10-0, while Bethany entered the match 12-0. It was a battle royale of undefeated teams.

Mikey Kelly got the Bruins off to a good start at number one singles. He won 9-7, in a close match with fellow junior Trent Kauffman. It was a match he was looking forward to, and the pace of his serve was a big difference maker in this match. The other difference maker was Mikey's ability to put pressure on Kauffman by attacking the net.

Ben Mast continued his sweep through the season, tonight playing at number two singles. He won 8-1 and never seemed seriously challenged by senior Colin Holmes. His forehand was booming throughout the match, especially when Holmes tried to come to the net. With the net option taken away, Holmes simply couldn't stroke through points with Ben.

At number three singles, Seth Krabill overcame a tentative streak to win his match 8-3 over freshman Josh Mullett. At number one doubles, Russell Klassen and Kyle Miller stroked their way to a 8-4 doubles win. At number two doubles, Misha and Nick Rebec continued to show marked improvement and won 8-2. That gave the Bruins five positions and the match win, to stay a perfect 13-0.

At the bottom four positions, the Bruins didn't fair as well. Austin Loucks and Claude Stickler led 7-2 in their match, and then lost 5 straight games to tie at 7-7. Austin and Claude won the next game on Claude's serve to lead 8-7, but were tied again and lost in the tiebreaker. Blake Shetler took on one of the one doubles players and lost 0-6. Jake Gerig and Matt Ebersole took on the number two singles player and one of the two doubles players and lost 2-6. Justin Gregor, our last senior on the night, teamed up with freshman Evan Grimes, but they lost to a combination of Fairfield's number one and number two doubles.

So all in all it was a great night. Varsity moves to 11-4 with an emphatic win. JV stays undefeated for now at 13-0. Let's go Bruins, one week to go 'til sectional!


Varsity: Goes to Matthew Amstutz for the first point of the third set. I let him know that because he and his opponent played so similar, he needed to focus on getting some of his opponent's best shots back. Then Randolph might become frustrated from seeing these good shots returned to him. First point, Matthew gets an overhead hit at him from just inside the baseline, but he is able to pop that kill shot up and back in the court. A couple strokes later, Randolph hits a forehand long and begins to get frustrated. Matthew wins the set 6-1. Brilliant!

JV: Although I'm partial to Mikey's serves, and I love watching Ben's forehand, I'll have to say that the moment of beauty came in Misha and Nick's match. Misha was close to the net, getting ready to put away a volley when he swung and missed!


Scores

Varsity
Jared Schwartzentruber - 6-2, 6-1 - Wyatt Stutzman (10)
Jonny Shenk - 6-0, 6-0 - Brock Bechtel (12)
Matthew Amstutz - 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 - Malachi Randolph (10)
Luke Hostetter/Daniel Buschert - 6-3, 6-4 - Josh Beck (11)/Derick Troeger (11)
Johnny Kauffman/Jeremy Thomas - 6-2, 6-0 - Jordan Garber (12)/Derek Thwaits (11)

JV
Mikey Kelly - 9-7 - Trent Kauffman (11)
Ben Mast - 8-1 - Colin Holmes (12)
Seth Krabill - 8-3 - Josh Mullett (9)
Blake Shetler - 0-6 - Brad Shipley (10)
Russell Klassen/Kyle Miller - 8-4 - Nate Kropf (10)/Brad Shipley (10)
Misha Rebec/Nick Rebec - 8-2 - Josh Ketcham (10)/Logan Munn (10)
Claude Stickler/Austin Loucks - 8-9 (4) - Austin Beer (10)/Jake Walter (10)
Jake Gerig/Matt Ebersole - 2-6 - Colin Holmes (12)/Josh Ketcham (10)
Justin Gregor/Evan Grimes - 0-6 - Nate Kropf (10)/Logan Munn (10)