Wednesday Opponent Overview: Prairie Heights

Sorry about the laziness/overwhelmedness yesterday. A day late, here's the overview for the 2009 Panthers.

Last Season Review
Prairie Heights enjoyed a very successful season last year. Much like our team, they have had 4 players playing varsity since their sophomore year. This past season they were seniors, and were joined by 3 juniors. This experienced team was able to finish a very respectable fourth in the Northeast Corner Conference, behind power teams Angola, Westview, and Fairfield. They had no players make the All-Conference team, but just put in solid, middle of the pack performances at all their positions. In the Sectional, they drew Angola in the first round and were thus eliminated. But it certainly was a team who showed improvement over the years and again showed that hard work, especially in the offseason, can pay off in some measure of on-court success. I don't know if we remember, but a number of their players were playing in a tournament at Angola during the time we were at team camp. So it is good to see them rewarded with a 4th out of 9 place finish in the conference.

Returning Varsity Player
Brandon Buechley - Playing #3 singles, Buechley was unfortunate to play Jonny Shenk in one of Jonny's better matches. He fell 6-1, 6-0. He had a very consistent style of play, but was making errors when Jonny attacked him. Buechley's game is one that fit very well at #3 singles, but if he is playing #1, he'll have to adapt certain aspects of his play. However, that could be said of many of us as well (hint, FOOTWORK!)

Travis Northup - Part of a #1 doubles combination last season that pushed Johnny and Jeremy at times, Northup and partner had interesting serving motions and hit with a lot of topspin on their forehands and a lot of slice on their backhands. When hit well, they made for a good number of winners. When hit poorly however, the ball would stand up at the net for Jeremy and Johnny to crush. When Johnny and Jeremy took good form and time to finish points, they won a number of easy games. When they lost focus and took for granted points, Northup and Svoboda pushed them.

Tim Morris - Part of the #2 doubles team that saw Daniel and Mikey really put together a complete match against them. They were just overwhelmed by the attacking ability of our 2008 doubles team. The final score of 6-0, 6-0 reflects more on Daniel and Mikey's ability to put pressure on and force mistakes and win overheads and slam volleys. However, it was also clear that this was not the Panther's strongest position.

Other Possible Varsity Contributors
Cory Owens - lost 8-1 to Seth Krabill
Torin Kellett - lost 6-0 to Ben Mast
Danny Hamm - lost 8-0 to Matthew Amstutz/Russell Klassen
Brad Hughes/Donald Cook - lost 8-1 to Austin Loucks/Claude Stickler

Outlook
Losing four seniors will be difficult for the Panthers. Buechley, Northup, and Morris will bring back some successful experience for Prairie Heights, but I think that their JV players moving up will find real difficulty in making the transition. Buechley will be making a big move from #3 to #1, and to win matches Prairie Heights is going to need to find wins at #2S, #3S, and #2D. Those spots will mostly be filled by newcomers. Their ability to win those spots may depend on offseason improvement, and while many players dedicated some of their summer last year, will that be the case this season? I hope so.

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