Monday Morning Match Memories

MMMM #7: Bethany Christian vs. Lakeland, 2004

Not all memories are good memories. And that is unfortunate. That is also "life." This falls under the category of a not-so-good memory.

Each year we played the Lakeland tournament the weekend after we played the Concord tournament. And so, traditionally, we came into the tournament needing to win it in order to reach the .500 mark on our season record, because Northridge, Concord, and Jimtown piled up the losses on us at the beginning of the year. Once we got to the Lakeland tournament, we generally did win it, defeating Churubusco in the first round and then always facing Lakeland in the final.

In 2003 we had won easily, but in 2004 Lakeland had some new faces playing for them. The Winans twins had decided that tennis was a sport they could also excel at, being stars in both basketball and golf already. So they joined the team as seniors and provided some extra firepower for the Lakers. Joining them were 3 other senior players, making an experienced squad.

We came in with an interesting group. In the early season we had only beaten Mishawaka, and in the morning round we took out Churubusco. But we had lost all our matches at the Concord Invite, so going into the championship match we were 2-5. The season looked bleak already.

Except, we kept on winning positions in each of our matches. Even though we would lose the team match, we'd win a random position. Much of the time, that position was number one doubles. Seth Troyer and Evan Stahley, pictured at the top of the report, had defeated Northridge and Fremont, two teams that had swept the rest of our positions. Seth had the confidence having advanced with Jordan Mumaw to the Individual Regional in 2003, so was feeling like a fairly accomplished player. Evan was a senior playing his first year of varsity, but was good friends with Seth.

So this match was interesting. I figured that if we could win one of the three singles matches, we would win the match. Our two doubles team had been starting to come together real well in the previous matches, and number ones had won the difficult matches so, the pattern should continue here. Both matches started out really close, and so I was tensely trying to fight these guys through their matches. Meanwhile, the singles matches progressed quickly and what we needed to do began to take shape.

At number one singles, Joel was handling his business very well. Taking his role as team leader and team motivator to heart, he was cruising past a talented opponent and letting out shouts with every passing shot and winner. I can remember his opponent getting upset and trying to mock his calls of "Let's go Joel," but it didn't really work, because Joel won quickly in two sets. But just as quickly, Jordan Kauffman got down on himself as he played a fast, consistent player. Jordan couldn't hit anything past his opponent, who would run it down and literally tap it back to Jordan's side. After a rash of errors and somewhat of a mental letdown, Jordan lost in straight sets.

At #2 singles was Casey Diener. After this match, I switched our lineups and Casey went on to have a very successful season at #3 singles, defeating many of our sectional opponents and rivals. However, he was a little above his head at #2 singles, and didn't really have much of a shot. He lost, also in straight sets. Little side note: It's interesting about this year's team that when we were asked to play out of normal position, we actually did it pretty well (Ben against Northridge, Jonny against Fairfield, Matthew against Fairfield, Mikey against Goshen and Rochester, Seth against Northridge and Goshen, etc.) I think that is another mark of a great team, that they are actually playing a position lower than they could handle. That was not true of the 2004 team.

That brought it all down to doubles, with Bethany being down 2-1. The first sets of the doubles matches were intense, and Joel's yelling and screaming had migrated to the doubles courts as well. Except, on the doubles court it seemed to be a bit more mean spirited. What I mean by that is that Joel often did a good job of getting pumped either on big points or when he hit big shots. Our doubles teams were up and down with every point, maybe like the third set of Johnny and Jeremy versus NorthWood during the regular season this year.

Both first sets came down to tiebreaks. Ben Shenk and Michael Steury were playing #2 doubles and they were able to come out and win the crucial points, with Michael stalking the net and Ben patrolling the baseline. They were gifted several errors, and were able to pull the tiebreaker out 9-7. On the other court, Seth and Evan battled back and forth, battling their own return errors against the good shots of Lakeland's players. In the end, they lost the tiebreak 10-8.

Then the matches flip-flopped. Instead of carrying their momentum to the second set, Michael and Ben came out flat and not aggressive and lost the second set. Seth and Evan were motivated by their first set loss, and turned up the intensity to win the second set 6-2. So it all came down to the third sets.

I told Michael and Ben to turn up the attacking pressure. Oh my goodness, it's awesome when advice works like a charm. They didn't drop a game and quickly cruised to tie the match 2-2.

Seth and Evan had it all down to them, and the pressure was easily noticed. Soon, the match became like a Sectional match, where both teams were close to the fence cheering and encouraging on every point. Parents were showing lack of self-control and applauding loudly with every opponents double-fault. Lakeland quickly took the lead and the situation began to get to our players. They grew frustrated, irritable, and it was obvious there was no way back into the match.

Down 5-1, Evan made an error to finish the match as a Lakeland win. Parents and players screamed from behind him. And then Evan lost control. He turned to the crowd and yelled at them, for cheering his double faults and errors. For calling him fat and ugly and cursing at him as he was serving. I had heard none of this during the match, as I had been removed from the crowd a bit in order to get a better feel for coaching. And Evan had never told me that it was going on during the whole final set. As Lakeland's players rushed the court to celebrate a tournament win, I rushed the court to calm Evan down.

I was embarrassed, fuming mad (probably the maddest I've ever been, close second's were Jared at Goshen this year, and Johnny at Sectional last year), but at the same time, I don't understand fans.

How do we expect our players to remain calm in situations where we are abusing them? Cheering as they get clearly more frustrated, encouraging after double faults, apparently even cursing at them. I want us to be excited on the court when it is appropriate, to play with emotion and fuel our games. But playing with overt emotion also invites overt emotion from the crowd and opponents. So how do you deal with it?

So that's my question for this match report, and I would love to hear what you all have to say:

When a match gets heated, emotional, tense and the crowd is into it, how do you deal with that tension in a healthy way?

Scores
Bethany ----- Score ----- Lakeland

Joel King ----- 6-2, 6-3 ----- Aaron Winans
Casey Diener ----- 1-6, 3-6 ----- Adam Winans
Jordan Kauffman ----- 2-6, 0-6 ----- Nathan Kauffman
Seth Troyer/Evan Stahley ----- 6-7 (8), 6-2, 1-6 ----- Kyle Ulrich/Lance Huth
Michael Steury/Ben Shenk ----- 7-6 (7), 4-6, 6-0 ----- Cyle Kline/Doug Bontrager