Climbing Report 11: NorthWood

Links
Instagram Post
Facebook Photos

Varsity Match Report
This varsity match seemed to be the culmination of a lot of weariness on the season. Again, we switched up the lineup. We moved #2D to #1D, where Nathan and Jonah fought hard but were defeated by an excellent NorthWood team. At their #2D spot, we had two of our seniors on this Senior Night match - Joel and Braydon. Again, they faced a difficult opponent and couldn't find a win.

The singles, well, we expected these positions to be a lot closer. And they were, but not like we may have liked. Jonathon had several difficult and long matches against NorthWood #1 Wes Troyer in the past, but in this match Jonathon couldn't find a good rhythm at all and Troyer played phenomenally well. At #2 and #3S, Jacob and Liam both had portions of their matches where they played great, and then portions where they couldn't work past their own mental blocks.

Overall, we didn't play a great match against a good team. And when you don't play great against teams that are really good - you tend to lose. And we did.

I'm being blunt because I think most of us recognize the mistakes we made in this match. So the key is not to sit in them. Let's acknowledge that we didn't play, coach, think, prepare or whatever well. Then, let's move on.

There's no shame in that. We can do that with joy. That is what life is. We make mistakes. We correct those. We keep moving on up :-)

JV Match Report
Similar story as the varsity, it wasn't our best play tonight. I do want to acknowledge two things for sure. First of all, Philip and Joseph had incredible energy and gave themselves hope. They went down 6-0 and could have easily just kept quiet, still, and gone down without showing any grit. But they hit some big shots, gave each other hi-fives, fist pumped and tried to bring their best shots. And then they lost 8-1.

But the thing isn't the score. They continued competing, and so they continued growing. The key in "climbing up" is to always try to play the way that you want to play. Joseph and Philip got better in this match because they kept that energy going.

Will and Aaron are the second people to mention. They played with confidence and consistency tonight. They moved well to the net and made the simple volleys. They took constructive advice well. And they continue to have a joy in playing together. I love that. I love players that love playing tennis and it infects their teammates too!

Climbing Up (A Prayer)
God, our seniors have left us a legacy of many things. Faithfulness to the task, friendship with our brothers, zeal and a battling spirit of figuring it all out. May we display these in the rest of the season. May we seek this community of brothers for our support. May we give glory to you!

Scores
Varsity
#1S - Jonathon Yousey - 0-6, 3-6 - Wes Troyer (10)
#2S - Jacob Woolace - 1-6, 6-4, 0-6 - Landon Holland (10)
#3S - Liam Bradford - 6-3, 5-7, 0-6 - Jack Wysong (10)
#1D - Jonah Farran/Nathan Oostland - 2-6, 0-6 - Jared Hoffman (12)/Brant Mast (12)
#2D - Braydon Harshberger/Joel Yoder - 0-6, 1-6 - Trevor Klotz (12)/Trajan Schwartz (11)

Junior Varsity
#1SJV - Braden Bohn - 5-8 - Ben Vincent (9)
#2SJV - Tommy Nguyen - 4-8 - Dawson Bley (11)
#3SJV - Tyson Miller - 2-8 - Brad Demitruk (9)
#4SJV - Angel Torres - 2-8 - Skip McCoy (9)
#5SJV - Jim Lyu - 0-8 - Brad Demitruk (9)
#1DJV - Philip Krabill/Joseph Mounsithiraj - 1-8 - Grant Topping (11)/Chase Horner (10)
#2DJV - Will Nisley/Aaron Shenk - 8-1 - Tyler Hahn (12)/Zach Parisi (11)
#3DJV - Chris Craw/Theo Siemens-Rhodes - 5-8 - Nate Clickovich (10)/Bryce Horner (10)