Wednesday Opponent Overview: Mishawaka

Last Season Review
Mishawaka suffered many defeats last season, but perhaps that isn't the only indicator of success and failure, as detailed on this site before. One very good thing for the Cavemen was the increasing number of players on the team. Last year, they had the 7 players to round out the varsity lineup. This year there were 10 players total. Hopefully this upswing in numbers continues in the program, because interest often comes before winning. On the statistical side, the team did not record many wins. They won twice, and were 1-7 in their conference, finishing in last place. However, there is some promise in their returning players, as five players total look to return.

Returning Varsity Players
Dylan Thompson - Thompson was an impressive athlete who is obviously learning the game of tennis quickly. Playing his first year of tennis as a sophomore last year, Thompson bounced around the lineup from #2 singles to #1 singles to #1 doubles. In his play against us, I marveled at his reflexes as he probably returned Jared's serve as good as anyone else throughout the season. His athleticism also allowed him to stay in many points by never quitting on any balls. Last year, his tennis skill was just lacking the finishing power and precision, and so he lost many points due to inconsistency swing form.

Adam Barnhart/Bobby LeRoy - This team was overwhelmed last year by the attacking ability of Matthew Amstutz (see Monday's article about Matthew!) and Jeremy Thomas. Their strokes were tentative and that allowed them to be gobbled up by our netminded team. In addition, they had difficulty dealing with the pace of our serves, something that they would have rarely seen in practice or in the early part of the season when we played them.

Anthony Tomlinson/Andrew Laubner - ditto for Tomlinson and Lauber. Tomlinson has played varsity for several years, but still looked uncomfortable with the doubles task he was given. Perhaps his game is better suited for singles, because he has somewhat of an unorthodox swing but can get a lot of balls back in the court. That wasn't helping too much against Daniel and Mikey, as they ended points shortly by coming to the net.

Other Possible Varsity Contributors
Nick Hoover - lost 0-8 to Evan Grimes

Outlook
A big part of the coming season for the Cavemen will be how much work they can put in during preseason and offseason and what new talent comes out for the team. If they can convince some more athletic players to join and simply pick up a tennis racket, they'll be headed in the right direction to win tennis matches. However, they do a good job enjoying the sport and hopefully creating some tennis "lifers" and as a coach, I see this job as important and successful as well. So, while the tennis talent will need to improve to bring wins, there is a good chance that the Cavemen will be one of the more polite and enjoyable teams that we play next year.

Blessing
We continue to pray that God will bless this team in many ways throughout this year.