Northridge Preview

Details: August 18, 2009 at 4:30. To be played at Northridge High School.

Last Season Review: Northridge defeated Bethany Christian 3-2, at Bethany Christian.

Northridge Details: Northridge's team record stands at 0-0 as they open the season against the Bruins tomorrow. On Thursday, the Raiders conducted a scrimmage against the East Noble Knights, but the results were not published anywhere. The Raiders compete in the Northern Lakes Conference, but obviously have yet to open up season play in the conference.

Bethany Christian Details: BC's team record is also 0-0. We opened up competitive play against Angola on Thursday, and it was a mixed bag of results. 4 wins between the 3 different segments, but enough good play to move forward confidently.

Projected Matchups:
Again, I've not seen or heard anything about Northridge's lineup officially, but one of my players mentioned that he thought Dylan Pieri and Jeremy Runge were going to be playing #1 doubles together. With that information, I'll go ahead and make a guess at the rest of the lineup, since this is just for fun anyways. Oh, and did I mention I've got a billion lineup ideas in my own head. So don't read too much into this segment if you are a player or parent. It's guesses both ways.

#1S: Nick Myers (NR) --- Ben Mast (BC)
#2S: James Brandenburger (NR) --- Seth Krabill (BC)
#3S: Cole Wogoman (NR) --- Mikey Kelly (BC)
#1D: Dylan Pieri/Jeremy Runge (NR) --- Kyle Miller/Austin Loucks (BC)
#2D: Tim Wagner/Collin Roberts (NR) --- Russell Klassen/??? (BC)

Outlook: Northridge returns Nick Myers, a dominating singles player who has played behind Jeff George for 2 years at #2 singles. Now he gets his chance at #1 singles, and I believe he will be one of the better players in the area. As for the rest of the lineup, it's pure guesses at this point. I thought that all of Northridge's returning varsity players made huge strides last year in their games, and so I would expect Brandenburger, Pieri, and Runge to be strong again this year, wherever they end up playing. Another interesting development will be the debut of Raider coach Evan Atkinson, a former NorthWood and Taylor Universtiy player, and a good friend of my brother's. It will be interesting to see how Evan deals with the pressure of a team coming off a Regional title and returning a good number of talented players. I assume that the expectations are high for another good season.

We, on the other hand, return one player from our Sectional champion team. We'll see how a crop of new players react to varsity tennis. I expect us to play with aggression and confidence, and really, we don't have anything to lose in this match. I'm really looking forward to starting the season, confident that we will compete. Even if I don't know the lineup at this point...