BC v. NorthWood

Two years ago, the knots in my stomach were tight and turning as we traveled to NorthWood. On a bright Friday afternoon, we were about to find out if our hard work had been enough to defeat the most talented Sectional rival. Fast forward to the present, and things are much different. NorthWood is struggling to build a program again after losing that talented 2008 team. We are hoping that we are building to have another shot at the Sectional title this year.

NorthWood has a young varsity, there isn't a senior on the team, and four of the players are sophomores or freshmen. We have experience on our side, as we have four seniors in our lineup. We also have experienced success this year, as we were looking for our 11th victory on the year. NorthWood was still searching for their 1st.

The Panther marching band, the "Red Regiment," providing some backing music as we strode onto the courts for our matches. It was soon evident that the match would not be close. At every position we took 3-0 lead, and then at 3 of the positions we went ahead and won the first set 6-0.

We emphasized before the match learning to play "our" styles no matter who our opponent is. It was interesting to see each player play to their strengths and work on their weaknesses. Ben Mast placed the ball wherever he wanted, continued his good serving, and hit many winners. Seth Krabill hit through the ball and constantly put pressure on his opponent. Nate was hitting unreturnable serves and pounding through the angles. #1 doubles dropped some games, but their crosscourt and groundstroke game looked excellent. Russell and Blake continued to dominate the net.

There were little problems in some of the matches. Matt struggled a bit with his serve. Nate fought frustration. We lost bits of focus in all of the matches. But there is not much to complain about in a 5-0 win where we only dropped 7 games as a team.

The JV was very interesting. Evan Grimes found his opponent to be consistent but unable to deal with his power, and at doubles again our experience (Wade and Himal) and our practice (Joel and Justin and their summer workouts) proved to be the difference against several beginning players.

In the other JV singles matches, things were much more revealing. Parth Patel won his match against freshman Riley Smith, a player who hit every shot with backspin. Parth and Ryan Minter played their matches against him, and they both struggled adjusting to coming in to hit the ball. Our JV still struggles with reading the shots of their opponents off the racket. But they didn't struggle too much. Both Parth and Ryan were able to win their matches.

For Abe Thorne, he didn't win but his match was just as revealing. Throughout the summer and beginning of the season, we've worked on Abe's consistency. While he is truly starting gain that consistency, especially on groundstrokes, Abe now has to start hitting for placement as well. While aggressively attacking the net, Abe hit back to his opponent Abe Robinson. In the end, Abe Thorne lost a tight tiebreaker.

So we won the JV match, and we're on a 2 game win streak at that level. For the varsity, we won our 11th, and we're on an 8 game win streak. We'll take both of those streaks to LaPorte LaLumierre next week, where we play for the first time. Right now, we are excited to hit the courts again.

Varsity
#1S - Ben Mast - 6-1, 6-0 - Brennan Angle (10)
#2S - Seth Krabill - 6-0, 6-1 - Ben Zercher (11)
#3S - Nate Brendle - 6-0, 6-2 - Shawn Stahley (11)
#1D - Kyle Miller/Matt Ebersole - 6-2, 6-2 - Tyler Rhoades (11)/Jayson Linhart (10)
#2D - Russell Klassen/Blake Shetler - 6-0, 6-1 - Austin Sanders (9)/Mitchell Keiser (9)

Junior Varsity
#1SJV - Evan Grimes - 8-2 - Abe Robinson (10)
#2SJV - Parth Patel - 8-5 - Riley Smith (9)
#3SJV - Abe Thorne - 8-9 (6) - Abe Robinson (10)
#4SJV - Ryan Minter - 8-6 - Riley Smith (9)
#1DJV - Justin Zehr/Joel Gerig - 8-2 - Matthew Newman (9)/Greg Perrin (12)
#2DJV - Wade Troyer/Himal King - 8-1 - Matthew Newman (9)/Greg Perrin (12)