The rain that is falling this Wednesday morning seems appropriate to match the mood. I will be thankful for the wonderful season that we had a praise God for the talents and blessings that He poured out on us throughout the year - but I'm going to do that tomorrow. Today is just the rain falling.
It wasn't all bad against East Noble. Jared and Luke played amazing matches, getting the momentum early and never letting up throughout. All three positions that lost played well, from Jeremy and Johnny attacking on their serves, to Daniel and Mikey's valiant fightbacks, to Jonny's fist pumps and passing shots to take the second set. But in the end, it didn't work out. And there isn't much else to say.
The end of the year, it's the hardest match report to write. Last year, it took me about a month to finally post that our season had ended in the Sectional final. This year, I figured I would get something up sooner. But right now, I'm not in any mood to relive the emotions of last night. Up and down, up and down they went, but I don't want to revisit where it all ended.
We played well, and they played well, and they won. That's what I got for now. Maybe after a month of recovery we'll have more to say.
I love every player on this team. I love all the seniors. I am going to miss things about having each one of them on the team. We worked hard together and accomplished the best tennis season ever at Bethany Christian. I will never forget that. I am proud to tears of Luke, Jared, Jonny, Johnny, Jeremy, Daniel, Mikey, and Matthew and the work they put in this year, and the other JV players that pushed them. Thanks to all of you for this season. I am proud to be your coach, in the good and in the bad. I love you guys.
Scores
Luke Hostetter - 6-1, 6-0 - Kyle Johnson
Jared Schwartzentruber - 6-1, 6-2 - Trevor Derby
Jonny Shenk - 5-7, 6-4, 3-6 - Nick Ihrie
Johnny Kauffman/Jeremy Thomas - 2-6, 4-6 - Daniel Desper/Derek Romer
Daniel Buschert/Mikey Kelly - 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-7 (3) - Trevor Sparkman/Ben Taylor
First of all I hope this doesn't make you, Matt, angry that I wrote this, but there hasn't been much talk from me about this match and I feel that maybe now you guys can see what I am thinking.
ReplyDeleteHere's my match report after the first whole day after the loss. I felt as if no one on the team didn't put it all out there, we left it on the court and that is all that we could do. Personally I felt I played my heart out that was probably the best match I've ever played. But, I feel that personally, today, and for a while the emotions I experience will not be good ones. I will probably reflect on this match thinking, wow I really let all the seniors down, if I could have won my serve I could have given them another match if not more. That is something I will have to live with forever, knowing the fact that these seniors are done because I didn't do enough, because I craked under pressure, because I had the match in my serve and in my strokes and I couldn't put it away. So my match report is that its great that we made history in sectional, but we knew that this match was ours for the taking and that we could have won this regional if I could have held serve. I am impresed by the pure domination of Luke and Jared. And Johnny and Jeremy competiting with what is probably one of the best doubles teams in the state. And Jonny for battling to come back and of course Daniel for keeping his head and his serve in the most amazing, yet tense matches of our lives. To you varsity guys, Jared, Luke, Johnny, Jeremy, Jonny, Daniel and Matt (both of you) I am proud to say that I was apart of this season with you guys. I never could have asked for a better group of people to go through this season and these past seasons with. Thank you for giving leaving your heart on the court and for becoming part of my family.
I really appreciated Mikey's match report, so here's mine.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed like the whole team but me was kicking it into another gear throughout the end of the season and sectionals. I felt like I let my nerves get the best of me against Fairfield and Northwood and I went into the East Noble match without a lot of confidence. I didn't go in confident that I could win and I guess I just wanted to be able to play my best. The thing that really ticks me off about it though, is that I think I did play about my best match of the season, but I still wasn't good enough to win. I wasn't mad about how I'd played, I was just mad that I hadn't gotten any better. I wanted to be the best three singles player in the area and throughout the year I felt bad because it seemed like Mikey and Daniel had improved a lot more than me to become dominant at their position.
Then after watching Dylan Pieri beat the guy in the finals, I felt like if I had just tried harder to win, instead of being content with a good effort I could have brought it home for the team. I wanted to give Luke and Jared the chance to play Jeff and Nick since they had been playing so well, but I just didn't do it. So I'm sorry to all of you and to Matt.
I really love all you guys though and I'm thankful to have been able to be a part of this amazing team. Hopefully next year's team can learn from my mistakes.
After Mikey's and Jonny's great, honest match reports, I feel that there are some things I would like to put down about my perspective on the match. First of all, Luke and Jared did a great job knowing that they needed to win, expecting to be better, and then executing. Johnny and Jeremy gave a great fight against good opponents, and their unexpected early leads gave me some confidence. You could say that my double faults to end both tiebreaks were my main mistakes, and I did let down the team there, but I mainly lacked confidence in general. My feeling that these opponents were good enough not to look bad losing to made me tentative and less determined. And I also let myself believe that since we lost the second set and had to go indoors, that we were fated to lose. Also, learning to return the hard serve sooner would have made a huge difference, considering I let us down by not returning much, despite Mikey's great efforts in that area. Despite these things, we were able to make a late comeback in the third set, with encouragement from Mikey and great cheering from the team and all the fans. I do think we played very hard, and worked to win each point the best we could. I wish I could have changed my mentality to be more aggressive, without hitting the ball harder. But our sectional win cannot be forgotten, and everyone played hard to the end, without letting nerves play a huge part. Jonny didn't get tentative on his serves when he was at ad out in the last game of the third set, and if I had showed this strength of mind, I might have changed the outcome. But there is something to be said about a tough, heartbreaking loss, and much to be cherished within.
ReplyDelete