The Story vs. Prairie Heights: Match #9

The Lead: "Another Day"
There's a song by the band Pomplamoose called Another Day. The lyrics to this fun little song go like this:

Another day, shows its face
I'm half awake, half in space
And if you told me I was beautiful
that would just be in poor taste.

That's how tonight's match was. There were moments where we looked really good, there were moments where we looked very bad. We were half awake, alive, playing with intensity... and then half in space, losing focus, making poor decisions, moving with slow feet. For the most part, we played pretty well, about like we should have.

But if I were to say we were awesome based on tonight, that would just be in poor taste. But we're moving in that direction.

Of course, according to my post from Lamentations last week, I'll choose to focus on the hopeful things. Blake's play of late has been really good. His consistent commitment to practice is really helping him begin to get better. Every day, Blake shows up to practice with game face on. His strokes are improving, his approaches are improving, his serve is becoming clutch. And it has really started to show in his matches. Tonight, again, at #1 singles, Blake played a nice clean match and got an easy win.

Ike had the most frustration tonight. Playing up from his normal spot of #3 singles, he got a very much #3 singles type of match. He played a consistent player who made little effort to attack. Ike found himself having to make all the plays, and that's difficult for a full match. He had a large lead in the first set but couldn't keep the aggression going. He had another tiebreak, but that's a given for the team this year. After falling behind 3-0 in the second, he found the rhythm again and made the match close, but couldn't pull it out.

Nate and Evan got a 2nd win at #1 doubles, dropping one less game this time and getting the overheads they so desperately wanted :-) Nice scissors kick match ender, Evan!

So it was a good night. I won't crown us right now, but I can't wait to see more.

The Hidden Narrative
Ike's close match might have been expected. Nate Clark played a nice match against Blake Shetler last year, one that was much better than the score indicated. He is the type of player that is difficult to play against. Ike played his best tennis tonight in the first couple of games. We will become very difficult to beat as a team if he continues to play like that.

Other Storylines
- If we're counting clinchers, Nate and Evan got the 3rd point tonight. Last night it was Blake. That means that Nate and Blake are tied with 2.

- There was only 1 JV match tonight, and we lost. Joel Gerig played a very consistent player and couldn't keep up with it.

- Abe Thorne got to play tonight! After getting a forfeit singles win yesterday, Abe pulled out a win tonight over an opponent.

- Parth's ending overhead was amazing. He framed it, it barely cleared the net, and barely bounced off the ground at all. His opponents stared in disbelief as it almost bounced backwards into the net.

The Scores
Varsity
#1S - Blake Shetler - 6-1, 6-0 - Tyler Carbone (12)
#2S - Ike Lehman - 6-7 (5), 5-7 - Nate Clark (11)
#3S - Abe Thorne - 6-1, 6-1 - Justin Clark (10)
#1D - Nate Brendle/Evan Grimes - 6-0, 6-1 - Nico Accomando (11)/Drew Vice (11)
#2D - Parth Patel/Jesse Amstutz - 6-2, 6-4 - Braxton Elliot (10)/John Sloan (9)

Junior Varsity
#1SJV - Joel Gerig - 3-8 - Jacob Heller (10)