NorthWood Preview

Details: Friday, September 7, 4:30 at NorthWood High School.

Last Season Review:  Last season we were rained out in our regular season matchup with the Panthers, so we only played against them in the Sectional. We won 3-1, in a rain shortened match where we won all 3 singles and were tied in a third set at #2 doubles.

3 Interesting Facts:
#1 - NorthWood returns four varsity players from last year's team, the same number that we had returned.
#2 - We are approaching a .500 record against NorthWood all-time. Currently they lead the all-time series 11-9. The only school in our Sectional that we have a winning record against is Goshen (6-3).
#3 - Speaking of Sectional rivals, in 2008 when we won our only Sectional title, it was NorthWood that we defeated 4-1 in the final. They had defeated us the year before in the Sectional final.

NorthWood Details: The Panthers enter this match with an 0-8 regular season record. But don't let that fool you too much. Their losses have come against quality competition (Plymouth, Culver Military, Concord, Fairfield, Elkhart Memorial, Elkhart Central), and they've competed at several positions in those matches.

Bethany Christian Details: We've got our record back up over .500, and have won 4 matches in a row. The last two have been impressive in different ways, Triton for the quality of play that we had throughout and the Westview win for the final scoreline (5-0).

Projected NorthWood Lineup:
Individual Records in Parenthesis
#1S - Mitchell Keiser (0-10)
#2S - Quinn Stillson (3-8)
#3S - Abe Robinson (3-8)
#1D - Brennan Angle/Jayson Linhart (4-7)
#2D - Devyn Maugel/Caleb Yoder (4-7)

Outlook: This is another match where we have an opportunity to win. Despite some of NorthWood's losing records, they are going to be competitive with us at most positions. This is also a team that has continued to improve over the years and stayed positive through a lot of difficult matches and seasons.

The bottom line is that this is a big match for our season. We have yet to beat a Sectional opponent. We were competitive against Goshen and Jimtown, but couldn't find the final point to put us over the edge. I don't want to see that happen again in this match. I'd love to see us come out aggressively and put the matches away in 2 sets. We have the ability to do that, but can we focus and perform?