Tonight we played the Churubusco Eagles, and it was a pretty quick match. Tonight, Mikey and Seth played Alex McDowell and Ryan Mey, and that was a great match.
Churubusco only has six players on their team this year, and three of them are new players. The three positions that Churubusco fielded that included these newcomers were matches that went very quickly in the Bruins favor. Ben Mast quickly won a match at #1 singles where he rarely lost a point when he got his serve in. At #2 singles, Russell Klassen was able to take his second singles victory of the season in quick fashion by making consistent forehands and finding nice angles. #2 doubles tonight was Austin Loucks and Kyle Miller. They didn't play the best match ever, but they showed flashes of their improvement in every game and dominated the net to win the match easily. And with #3 singles forfeited, we had the match won with 4 positions.
But Mikey and Seth combined to play a great #1 doubles match. Busco's doubles stars, Alex McDowell and Ryan Mey, had played some fantastic matches already this season. They pulled off a great win and defeated Fairfield, and their coach mentioned that it was likely that they would have the #1 seed in the upcoming NECC tournament.
Coming into the match, Mikey and Seth had a lot of energy. They started out amazing, winning the first three games in a row. Churubusco was completely frustrated, but then we tightened up a bit in the next game. Seth threw in a couple double faults and Busco clawed a game back. Then they won three more in a row. Suddenly we were down. After tying the set at 4-4, the Eagles won the next two to take the set 6-4. The set was the most beautiful thing ever, with points ending often on errors and nervous mistakes for both teams.
But the second set got a lot better. We picked up our strokes and our net attacking, and took the first 2 games again. We continued to build our lead with lots of attacking net play. Mikey began to feel the doubles vibe again, and found a bunch of volley winners and overheads. At one point it was punctuated with an overhead over the fence. The Eagles picked it up as well. Ryan Mey especially dominated the net, and he and Mikey had quite a few brilliant exchanges there. Mikey's quick reflexes and quick feet were serving him well, while Seth did a great job controlling the baseline. Seth pounded a serve down the middle to seal the second set, 6-4.
Unfortunately, the third set started off in a disappointing way. Mey was able to hold serve and then we were broken to go down 2-0. But Mikey and Seth fought back to 2-2 in a hard fought fashion. Then it felt like our nerves got to us again, and the Eagles were able to be a bit more aggressive. We couldn't quite hang on, and ended up losing a great match in the third set.
It was a fun match to watch, a lot more interesting than some of the other matches. I was really proud of our team and the way we handled everything about the night.
There was no JV match, so the freshman on our team played everybody else. Only one freshman was able to come away with a win in a match that was stacked against them. Ike Lehman beat Evan Grimes 8-6 in a match that Andrew said was both of their best on the season. They've been working on secret ninja training the last several weeks, so it is good to see them getting better quickly.
In the other matches, the upperclassmen dominated. Matt and Blake won easily over Ryan and Wade, Jake and Claude won easily over Josh and Himal, and Evan Eby won 8-2 over Han Gil Lee (who looked like he was from Churubusco's team). I'm really glad when these JV guys dedicate themselves to playing hard, even when it is against each other.
The moment of beauty is many different points from the #1 doubles match. Honestly, that is because of the quality of the Eagle opponents at that position. The other spots didn't give us too much of a chance to play beautifully. But I loved Mikey's point where he ran down two volleys at the baseline behind Seth and put them back high over the head of the net man. Seth contributed a couple volleys, but in the end, Alex McDowell's forehand sailed wide. Mikey's dedication to getting to the ball and putting it back in play... beautiful!
I also liked Seth's super serve to end the second set. Bring it!
Scores
Varsity:
#1S - Ben Mast - 6-0, 6-0 - Brandon Wormcastle (9)
#2S - Russell Klassen - 6-0, 6-0 - Andrew Biddle (9)
#3S - Jake Gerig by default
#1D - Mikey Kelly/Seth Krabill - 4-6, 6-4, 2-6 - Alex McDowell (12)/Ryan Mey (12)
#2D - Austin Loucks/Kyle Miller - 6-1, 6-0 - Jesse Lich (11)/Grant Stephen (9)
Matt is psychic!
ReplyDelete