Bethany Christian vs. Warsaw

It's taken me forever to update this blog, and honestly, it is because I am a bit disappointed at the result of this match. Well, not so much the result as the way that the majority of the team seemed to play. Warsaw brought a lot of energy to the match, yelling and high fiving and enjoying every good point they had. At many of our positions throughout JV and varsity we weren't able to match that.

But, I remind myself, the season is about improving. If we are able to rebound and do that, this will be a very important match for us. We may have learned that we aren't quite as good as we may have thought or hoped, but that doesn't mean we can't get there. So despite suffering a 4-1 loss, I am figuring that this will be a refocusing.

The match didn't really start out well at any position. Despite my desire to see us come out strong, my words didn't really work. We quickly fell behind at every position. Warsaw had switched their anticipated lineup, and I think it was a good switch for them, as they moved Richard Feng to #3 singles instead of #2 doubles. Feng was an excellent singles player, using speed, placement, and a good volley game to attack. His replacement at #2 doubles was Scott Campbell, who was more of a big hitter, well-suited for attacking doubles tennis.

At both of those positions, we fell into quick holes. Mikey didn't play his best coming out of the warmup, and #2 doubles was a bit in shock of the attacking tennis that was being played. Both positions lost the first sets, but began to rally in the second. Mikey began to attack more often and found better range on his shots. His opponent, Feng, had begun the match just casually punching the ball back to the middle of the court. But as Mikey started to attack, Feng began to come to the net as well. In so doing, he revealed that his biggest weapon was the angled volley. Feng put many of them away even as Mikey fought to come back, and in so doing, Feng pulled out the win.

#2 doubles tried to stay aggressive as well, but just couldn't get positive energy from anywhere it seemed. They played many close games but could never find the finishing points very well. They ended up losing to a team that attacked and took the net better than they did.

#1 doubles also lost to a good team that attacked the net hard. And yet Austin and Kyle seemed to find themselves in just about every game. But they also couldn't seem to win the big points. They would have points and rallies worthy of winning the match, but those points didn't seem to come at times that would win them a game. Constantly, Kyle and Austin would hold 30-15, 40-30, ad in scores, but weren't ever able to convert the next point. Credit to the Tigers for bringing an aggressive game in those points (and for hitting lobs that ran us into the fence).

#1 singles was a great match, in which Ben showed his improvement in taking balls early and not being pushed off the court. However, he was plagued by the same thing as Austin and Kyle. The big points simply fell in favor of his opponent. Ben had chances to send the first set into a tiebreak, but couldn't capitalize on them. When he lost the first set, his opponent, senior Will Coen, seemed to find a rhythm and cruised a bit in the second. Well, the games were still close, but Ben never threatened as he did in the first.

Seth was the only exception to our pattern of lost matches, but he was not exempt from mental lapses and lack of aggressiveness. He came out in the first set and immediately went down 4-1. But in a game of streaks, Seth got his feet moving and won the next five games to take the first set. In the second set, Seth was the one who fell to the streak, as his opponent, senior Bryce Scott, ran off 5 games straight to take a 5-0 lead. Seth took one game before the set ended, and then Scott streaked away again in the third set, leading 3-0. But Seth wasn't done. Moving his feet and finding his aggressive stroke, Seth pulled back into the match with 2 straight hard-fought games. Then he took 2 more to take the lead. Finally, he closed out the match with 2 more games, for a total of 6 straight to win the match.

Seth's was a good win, and left the varsity seeing what we need to improve. That is: closing out the big points.

Again, I didn't get to see much of the JV match. Blake Shetler pulled out 2 9-7 victories for 2 of the 3 JV wins, and at the other spots we were a little overwhelmed for experience and talent. With many of our younger players playing, and no juniors at all, this was a good upper level talent match for our JV guys. Hopefully we'll use it to continue getting better.


Varsity: Ben Mast had a beautiful shot under pressure, a shot where he was aggressive despite the circumstances. I want to celebrate that. We need more of that. Down match point, Ben attacked the net and was lobbed over. Backing up, he planted his feet and hit a leaping overhead into the backhand corner for a winner. I was impressed with his ability to stay loose and hit in a big situation. We must keep doing that.

Junior Varsity: I saw Blake Shetler getting pumped up about a match. I loved it. We are so much in need of the positive emotion, and to see it out of Blake was great. Pumping his racket, talking to himself, getting himself ready to play. I think that competitiveness is what pushed him over the edge to win both of his matches on this night.

Scores

Varsity
#1S - Ben Mast - 5-7, 2-6 - Will Coen (12)
#2S - Seth Krabill - 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 - Bryce Scott (12)
#3S - Mikey Kelly - 0-6, 2-6 - Richard Feng (12)
#1D - Austin Loucks/Kyle Miller - 2-6, 2-6 - Andrew Cutshall (12)/Shawn Carmichael (12)
#2D - Nick Rebec/Russell Klassen - 1-6, 2-6 - Keaton Joyner (11)/Scott Campbell (11)

Junior Varsity
#1SJV - Blake Shetler
#2SJV - Misha Rebec
#3SJV - Josh Helmuth
#4SJV - Blake Shetler
#5SJV - Misha Rebec
#6SJV - Josh Helmuth
#1DJV - Evan Grimes/Matt Ebersole
#2DJV - Ike Lehman/Wade Troyer
#3DJV - Evan Grimes/Matt Ebersole
#4DJV - Ike Lehman/Wade Troyer