BC v. Fairfield - Sectional, Semi-Final

I don't really know how to make end of the season speeches, right after we've lost our last match of the year and been eliminated from the State tourney. It hurts too much. I don't really know how to write end of the season match reports so quickly after the match, it hurts too much.

Here are facts for now:

Seth Krabill won his match with some beautiful play and nice finishing at the net. His win means that he ends his season 20-0, and 39-3 for his varsity career playing singles. Actually, playing singles for Bethany in all four years, combining varsity and JV, Seth only lost 3 times. He was undefeated sophomore year at JV and now senior year on the varsity.

#1 doubles, Matt Ebersole and Kyle Miller, came to play. They stormed out with belief and took the first set in a heart-stopping tiebreak. In the second set, they took a 5-3 lead and had several games to clinch the match and they couldn't quite do it. In the third set, they were fired up while the match was still alive, but understandably lost motivation after the match was over.

Ben Mast's match was amazing, but the hardest to write about. Ben had a set point while up 5-4 on Wyatt Stutzman in the second set, that would have forced a third set. Then he had several set points in the second set tiebreak, that ended up being extended all the way to 14-12. Unfortunately, that score was for Wyatt, and that was the clinching point for Fairfield.

Nate showed tremendous fight in his match against a pumped up senior in Malachi Randolph. Malachi had a 5-1 lead in the second set, but Nate battled back to make it 5-4 before eventually losing out. But the mental toughness shown to get back into it is something to continue to build on for our talented sophomore.

Our #2 doubles didn't ever seem to get anything really going. Fairfield played well, really well, and we didn't seem convinced that we could keep up with that. And we made a lot of nervous errors. I felt bad for Blake and Evan, because it didn't seem like they could find their best tennis at the time they needed to. But I never questioned their desire, they were trying and digging and battling.

And so we lost, to a really good Fairfield team that could be undefeated if not for a slip up against Columbia City. We played hard, and I was extremely proud to be our coach at this match. The thing that makes this hard to write is that I will never be the coach of this exact group of players again, and I loved it so much. That's the pain, but I am thankful that I got to go through it all with all of them.

Scores
#1S - Ben Mast - 3-6, 6-7 (12) - Wyatt Stutzman
#2S - Seth Krabill - 6-1, 6-3 - Josh Mullet
#3S - Nate Brendle - 2-6, 4-6 - Malachi Randolph
#1D - Kyle Miller/Matt Ebersole - 7-6 (8), 5-7, 1-6 - Brad Shipley/Jordan Hochstetler
#2D - Blake Shetler/Evan Grimes - 1-6, 2-6 - Nate Kropf/Austin Beer