Climbing Report 6: Aug. 26 Invitationals

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Varsity Match Reports
After playing some of the better teams in northern Indiana to start this season, what I really appreciated about the Western Invitational was that we were able to play some "normal" teams. These are teams with strengths and flaws. These are teams that have strong positions and weak positions. These are teams juggling their lineups a bit to find out what works. These are teams in the learning process of tennis.

In other words, these are teams like us.

And that gives me some good perspective on the season. Playing Concord, Jimtown, Northridge, Angola, Goshen - many of those matches give us a glimpse of what is much higher up the ladder. Playing Lebanon, Western and LCC gave us a chance to see how to take the next step.

We started out play with Western. My brother coaches their team, and I knew from the beginning that he was going to be missing his #1S player, a perennial All-District player and last year a 2nd team All-State selection. He was taking his SAT. Western was also missing half of their #1D's team at the test, while we were missing Joel Yoder.

So, with some switched around lineups, we started out very strong. Liam secured our first point of the match, playing a fairly evenly matched opponent but really stroking his forehand strong and well. I loved seeing his attitude and belief. Jonathon Yousey followed Liam off the court with a win, playing his style of controlled aggression. We quickly had two points from the top two positions and needed only one more.

Caleb Shenk, playing his first match back from a back injury, provided that third match. I loved his energy and determination - getting through a tight first set and then sailing through the second set as he got more comfortable. His win gave us the team win, even though the doubles had yet to finish up.

But the doubles both found ways to win as well. Jacob and Dustin played an excellent match. In the first set, they had gotten to a tiebreak even though they were playing very tentative tennis. In fact, they had a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreak. Unfortunately, a close call so Dustin's return float long and they went on to lose the set. In beginning the second, I told them to go for their shots early to begin to loosen up. They did. And the second set was not as close. They played much more aggressive and were able to break serve more often to win 6-3. The third set at tournaments is always a super tiebreak, and so they completed their victory in this match with a 10-5 tiebreak win.

#2D also got a tiebreak, and also made a comeback. But their comeback was more emotional than score related. They won their first set and then played an awful second set. They were angry at themselves and feeling pretty down entering the tiebreak. But they reset their emotions and tried to get excited rather than angry. It worked, their level went up and they won a 10-8 decision in the third.

So we beat Western 5-0, and our second match in the round robin tournament was against Lebanon. It so happened that they won their first match as well, eeking out a 3-2 decision over Lafayette Central Catholic. This Lebanon match started out well for us too. Liam cruised through his #2S match, again relying on consistent forehands and deep shots. #1D also cruised to victory, looking very good in the process I must say. Dustin had found an aggressive groove in the first match, and Jonathon was feeling good from his singles victory. So we won the first two matches and were up 2-0. As our last three matches took the court, we only needed one more - and we would win the tournament.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Jacob Woolace ran into another great player at #1S (which pretty much always happens, #1S is a tough position :-) He fought so hard and played so great, but again was on the lopsided end of the score card. Will Nisley got his first varsity match, and he worked hard but couldn't find the finishing stroke in long points at #3S. So that meant the match came down to #2D.

Jonah and Nathan played a good match, they hung in there and competed... but they also couldn't find the finishing stroke. One of the Lebanon players was constantly hunting at the net, and the consistently good volleys from the Tiger team hurt us time and time again. Every time we mounted a rally and got some positive momentum, they would track down a volley and finish the point.

So, with a 3-2 victory the Tiger's were guaranteed first place. And so we finished out the round robin against Lafayette Central Catholic to determine second and third. And we worked and worked and worked, but we just couldn't secure a singles position. All the matches were fairly even, but we were tiring and getting frustrated as the day moved along. The doubles matches were pretty easily in our favor, which was really fun to watch. But we lost this match 3-2 as well.

So, 3rd place in the tournament, but we brought home another win. In the "Climbing Up" section, I'll talk about the things that we need to learn to continue to reach the next rung. But I have to say that I loved how the day ended, as we sat as a team watching Nathan and Jonah wrap up a victory over the #2D's of LCC. We joked, laughed, snacked, took videos and cheered for our brothers. We had made a good day's work, left our best on the court, and were ready to just enjoy each other's company.

That's what I always ask for. Praise God that we were able to get there. And praise God for no more injuries... that's already been too much of the season :-)

JV Match Reports
Coming Soon

Climbing Up (Great Moments of the Matches)
For the rungs in this match, I want to put forth the three things this team needs to do to improve in this season, and some glimpses where I saw this is the matches.

1st Rung - Footwork is the cost of a good shot.
When Liam moves, he is a fantastic player. In his first match against Western, he was really getting forward to balls that fell shorter in the court. In fact, if these ball came to his forehand, he was often able to hit winners. As he got more tired, he began to try to "flick" the ball more, reaching forward and twisting his wrist. These balls went in the net. Footwork is the cost of a good shot. In the Western match, coming forward, Liam blistered passing shots past a bewildered opponent. Movement created that, and it was good. That's our first step.

2nd Rung - Using our whole body to create consistent shots.
Even though footwork puts us in position, we can sometimes still flail at shots with just our arm. This is what was happening to Jacob Woolace in his first doubles match against Western. He would get in good position to hit a return, and then just try to "arm" it over. And the ball kept spinning into the net. Using the special coaching rule at tournaments this year, I encouraged him to use his body. On the next return, he turned his hips with the return. Even though it was a bit of a mishit, it went over and he and Dustin won the point. At deuce, his next service return he turned on a backhand and crushed it down the line. In fact, he rarely struggled with return after this. That's because he learned to use his body to help his arm in returning serve.

3rd Rung - Spend time improving specific weaknesses.
This didn't happen at the match, but I've noticed it this week. Joel Yoder is getting a lot better at his serve. That's because he spends time after practice hitting 100 serves. A big part of climbing up this ladder and getting better is spending focused time on something. If you struggle with your backhand, 100 backhands a day is really going to help. Ditto for volleys, overheads, serves, powerful approach shots... whatever. I challenge you to go above and beyond in whatever area you struggled with on Saturday and start putting in some extra time. Practices are ending at 5:30, so I encourage us to be motivated. Don't you worry I've got practice plans for you.

4th Rung - "Every breath in is gratitude, every breath out gets rid of our fear."
To me, this is near the top of the ladder for Bethany Christian tennis. How to mentally prepare for every point. Three years ago, this was our theme. I keep coming back to it as a way of describing what we need to do between every match, set, game and point. We got too tired and frustrated in our last singles matches on Saturday. We lost hope at some points. Let us instead come to each point with gratitude for being there, and let that gratitude and love drive out our fear.

Scores
Varsity
Round 1 - vs. Western
#1S - Jonathon Yousey - 6-3, 6-1 - Tate Lockwood (12)
#2S - Liam Bradford - 6-4, 6-1 - Palmer Harrell (10)
#3S - Caleb Shenk - 7-5, 6-2 - Braden Freeman (10)
#1D - Dustin Miller/Jacob Woolace - 6-7 (6), 6-3, (10-5) - Mason Anderson (12)/Henry Lerche (12)
#2D - Jonah Farran/Nathan Oostland - 6-4, 1-6, (10-8) - Brady Miller (12)/Clayton Shanks (10)

Round 2 - vs. Lebanon
#1S - Jacob Woolace - 1-6, 0-6 - Michael Wright
#2S - Liam Bradford - 6-2, 6-1 - Drew Davidson
#3S - Will Nisley - 0-6, 2-6 - Daniel Hood
#1D - Dustin Miller/Jonathon Yousey - 6-1, 6-0 - Sam Hood / Thomas Engels
#2D - Jonah Farran/Nathan Oostland - 2-6, 2-6 - Harrison Love / Nick Nies

Round 3 - vs. Lafayette Central Catholic
#1S - Jonathon Yousey - 5-7, 3-6 - Austin Chyall (11)
#2S - Liam Bradford - 4-6, 3-6 - Jonah Switzer (12)
#3S - Caleb Shenk - 2-6, 0-6 - Patrick Gothard (10)
#1D - Dustin Miller/Jacob Woolace - 6-2, 6-1 - Joe Regich (12)/Brenner Oliver (9)
#2D - Jonah Farran/Nathan Oostland - 6-4, 6-1 - Sam Martin (11)/Sebastian Lux (10)

Junior Varsity
Round 1 - vs. Jimtown
#1SJV - Braden Bohn - 8-7 (5) - Andrew Eaton (10)
#2SJV - Philip Krabill - 8-5 - Lucas Flick (10)
#3SJV - Kameron Branum - 4-8 - Christian Vanderworf (9)
#1DJV - Joseph Mounsithiraj/Aaron Shenk - 7-8 (4) - Kayden Wolfe (11)/Chandler Bridgewater (11)
#2DJV - Angel Torres/Chris Craw - 3-8 - Nate Hostetler (12)/Carson ?

Round 2 - vs. NorthWood
#1SJV - Braden Bohn - 2-8 - Ben Vincent (9)
#2SJV - Chris Craw - 8-4 - Tyler Hahn (12)
#3SJV - Jim Lyu - 1-8 - Zach Parisi (11)
#1DJV - Philip Krabill/Joseph Mounsithiraj - 8-6 - Grant Topping (11)/Chase Horner (10)
#2DJV - Kameron Branum/Theo Siemens-Rhodes - 2-8 - Nate Clickovich (10)/Brad Demitruk (9)

Round 3 - vs. Concord
#1SJV - Braden Bohn - 7-8 (7) - Gavin Smith (9)
#2SJV - Philip Krabill - 7-8 (5) - Kayden Cain (9)
#3SJV - Aaron Shenk - 8-2 - Brayden Newburn (9)
#1DJV - Chris Craw/Joseph Mounsithiraj - 5-8 - Jack Steele (11)/Matt Auger (12)
#2DJV - Kameron Branum/Theo Siemens-Rhodes - 5-8 - Kaleb Sotcher (11)/Baily Morrison (9)