Wayne Tennis Invitational Report

We won every match at every position, including one of our JV players being loaned to Elmhurst to play #3 singles and winning both of his matches. It was a good day and we are champions of the Wayne Tennis Invitational!

While the competition was not quite like the Concord Invites that we have played this year, it still feels really good to have won a trophy for the old display case in the gym. In some ways, it feels like a good reward for having won the Penn match as well. What was really great is the way that people were able to come off an emotional match at Penn, perhaps not even play their best in the Fort Wayne tournament, and yet still have enough desire to find a way to win.

Just going right down the line, Luke Hostetter started off play at number one singles against Fort Wayne Wayne. The Generals number one player was much improved from last year, and the school's valedictorian, so it was a very intelligent match with Luke. It was a strange adjustment for Luke to go from playing one of the best players in the state to playing an average high school number one player. I was impressed however at the Wayne number one's ability to stay in the point and make Luke hit shots. However, in the end, Luke's ability to hit good shots forced errors and found winners.

Luke moved to the championship to play Wabash, the team that tied us last year for the title. He played against last year's number three, who their coach informed me had not lost once last year, and had only lost twice this year. He was tall with a booming serve and solid groundstrokes. But interestingly he was also a patient player, willing to play lob ball in order to throw Luke off of his game. Luke looked to be cruising in this match, winning the first set 6-2 and up 4-1 in the second when the change of pace with the lobs began to take effect. The match became very even as Luke found his attacking shots floating wide and long. As it tightened up, it also became more intense. Luke could be heard shouting "c'mon!" after his winning shots and when he had opportunities to close out the match. Finally, the last shot sailed long and both players dropped their rackets in fatigue and emotion.

Jared at number two singles breezed through his first opponent, from Fort Wayne Elmhurst. Jared was the only player on our team who had to face Elmhurst, which maybe that was a good thing as the final score was 6-0, 6-0. He advanced into the final to play against Wabash. Wabash's player was deceptively good. He was small and didn't hit the ball hard, but he ran everything down and hit very good lobs and angles. He even ran down several of Jared's overheads. At the beginning of the match, Jared had trouble with this type of player, and started trying to make his shots too good and too close to the lines. But he soon found the right mentality and his shots followed. After being tied 3-3 in the first set, Jared won 8 straight games to win the first set and be up 5-0 in the second. But Wabash's freshman didn't quit, he made Jared close him out. It took Jared three games to finish the match, but he did with a nice attacking game and some big serves to start the points. Jared sealed the championship at number two singles.

At three singles, Jonny Shenk started with his most difficult opponent. In the first round he drew Wabash. For the second night in a row he was playing a very similar player. Consistent groundstrokes, weaker serve, tentative in attacking the net. The match went back and forth in the first set, trading unforced errors on simple groundstrokes as each player got tighter and tighter and began to hit softer and softer. Jonny finally broke through the hesitancy to pick up the pace a bit, and in so doing won the first set 7-5. The second set followed the same pattern, except when leading 3-2 Jonny played two very aggressive games. That gave him the 5-2 lead, and he was able to seal the match at 6-3. He advanced to the championship to play Fort Wayne Wayne, and a player who Ben Mast had defeated in the first round, but had advanced because officially Ben's match was a forfeit. The Wayne player had a very odd game of huge topspin forehands and then random low slice shots. However, he also through in a lot of errors. The strategy was basically to hit the ball back and wait for the error, because he controlled a lot of the points until he made the big error. Jonny did that well and brought home the number three singles championship 6-3, 6-1.

Number one doubles played aggressive, attacking tennis that was simply too much for any of their opponents to handle. Really, they weren't ever challenged. They fell behind early against Wayne, perhaps because of a Penn hangover, but soon the emotion and the fire came back and they rolled through the rest of the day. Some new serving techniques and strategies have really been putting the pressure on opponents, and it is good to see these guys succeeding in such a dominant way at a tournament like this.

Speak of dominance and you might as well be speaking of our number two doubles team. Right now they are fun to watch, with attacking of the net, big overheads, solid groundstrokes, and crisp volleys, these guys are clinically taking apart opponents. They are almost always the most experienced doubles players at their position. They may be one of the top number two doubles teams in Northern Indiana when they work hard, play together and play positive. In fact, in the largest conference in our area, the NLC, Concord's two doubles won that position in the conference tournament. Our two doubles defeated Concord's last Saturday by the score of 6-2, 6-2. They are playing so well and it was no different as they aggressively fought their way to the championship on Saturday.

Wins all around, including for Ben Mast, who defeated the same two opponents as Jonny Shenk. Ben's game is certainly improving, and I think he'll look forward to a full varsity season next year. Going into the Howe Military match tomorrow night, Ben has actually compiled a 5-0 varsity record this year, to go along with his 12-1 JV record. It's been quite a season, hopefully a prelude to next year.

I'll post up some pictures of us with the trophies later on Monday night or Tuesday morning. Got to find time to transfer them. For now, we're glad to have taken the trophy this year!


I'm really enjoying watching us play right now, their are so many well played points. But I'm also enjoying our smaggression, so here is an award for a smaggressive play! Daniel Buschert was returning serve against Wabash in the championship, and the server had a very weak, pretty much dinked second serve. Daniel moved up on the ball and noticed that the net man had not moved back. So, instead of pounding the ball crosscourt or trying to hit a winner down the line, he took a controlled forehand swing and hit the ball right at the man at the net. With no time to move, the ball hit the player right on his right leg, as he flailed wildly trying to connect with the ball, not to hit it over but to prevent it from hitting him. It was a great two ball shot, smart and controlled, but aggressively winning the point. An extra ball for Daniel!

Scores

Luke Hostetter - 1st Place
--- 6-2, 6-1 vs. Fort Wayne Wayne
--- 6-2, 7-5 vs. Wabash (Frank Granger)

Jared Schwartzentruber - 1st Place
--- 6-0, 6-0 vs. Fort Wayne Elmhurst
--- 6-3, 6-2 vs. Wabash (Justin Middleton)

Jonny Shenk - 1st Place
--- 7-5, 6-3 vs. Wabash
--- 6-3, 6-1 vs. Fort Wayne Wayne

Johnny Kauffman/Jeremy Thomas - 1st Place
--- 6-2, 6-1 vs. Fort Wayne Wayne
--- 6-2, 6-0 vs. Wabash

Daniel Buschert/Mikey Kelly - 1st Place
--- 6-1, 6-0 vs. Fort Wayne Wayne
--- 6-0, 6-2 vs. Wabash

Ben Mast
(unofficial, played in #3S bracket in place of Fort Wayne Elmhurst #3S)
--- 6-2, 6-0 vs. Fort Wayne Wayne
--- 6-3, 6-0 vs. Wabash

Bethany Christian at Wayne Invitational

Click here for photos from this match.

So things went very much according to expectations. Every position in which we came up against Wayne or Elmhurst well dealt with them easily. Each position when we came up against Wabash, well, that was a match.

At #1 singles, Luke Hostetter drew Anthony Griffin of Wabash right off the bat. This match was nip and tuck all the way through the first set. Luke seemed to continually be on the verge of taking the set when Anthony would find a way to force through and tie it back up. Finally, Luke took control with a quick start to the tiebreaker, taking a 5-0 lead before losing his first point. He finished off the tiebreaker 7-3 to take the first set. Afterwards, Griffin's confidence appeared to be shot. Luke won the second set without losing a game in strange contrast to the strongly contested first set. In the final, Luke played Wayne's #1, who was simply overmatched by the array of shots Luke could throw at him, all with fairly consistent power. Luke won easily to secure his individual championship.

At #1 doubles, the task seemed even easier. Also drawing Wabash in the first round, Johnny and Jeremy steamed to a first set lead of 5-0 before losing a game. The Wabash team seemed timid in comparison to Jeremy and Johnny, who were taking control of the net and making the other team hit over them. This was difficult as they were hitting their overheads extremely well also. After the first set was quickly secured, it looked like there was no comeback for the Apaches. Indeed, #1 doubles were able to dominate the second set similarly to the first and advance to the final. In the final they also played Wayne. Comments before the match seemed to already indicate what the outcome would be, as Wayne's players asked Jeremy and Johnny to "not kill them because [they] had to go to work that night." Johnny and Jeremy complied by not physically abusing the Wayne doubles, just abusing their strokes. After an easy 6-1, 6-1 final the Bruins were champs at #1 doubles.

#2 singles was a tale of two different matches for Jared Schwartzentruber. In the first match against FW Elmhurst, Jared dominating from the opening serve losing few points and no games to cruise off the courts before anyone else was done with their first set. In his final, he also matched up against Wabash's Nick Macaluso, a strong, consistent, fast player who ran down most of Jared's big shots and was able to wail on a few of his own. Jared tried desperately to get back into the match in the second set, but Niko seemed to deny every attempt. In the end Jared had to settle for 2nd despite his best effort.

At #3 singles, Jonny Shenk followed much the same path. Winning his first match of the day against Wayne set him up against Frank Granger of Wabash, an interesting combination of consistency and attacking that left Jonny searching for answers. In a close first set, Jonny held serve for quite awhile and saw Granger get consistently frustrated with the long points that he was able to keep him in. However, Jonny seemed to lack the extra bit of power needed to take care of Granger when he came to the net. In the second set, Granger began to pick on some of Jonny's weaknesses and the match was hard to hold together. Jonny fell by a 6-0 score in the second set.

This meant that outright victory came down to #2 doubles. A win and we had the title of the invitational alone. A loss and we would tie in points with Wabash. Full of confidence, Matt Amstutz and Daniel Buschert rushed out to a 5-0 first set lead before dropping 4 games in a row to make it close. But then they were able to right the ship, won the set and took a 1-0 lead in the second. The match went back and forth as Matt and Daniel became more timid and stopped moving as much, due to increasing nerves. They held a 5-4 lead, but couldn't close out the match. Then they held a 6-5 lead, but couldn't close out the match. Then it went to a tiebreak and they quickly went down by a big score in the tiebreak and then could not recover and the match headed to set number three. In set number three, the Bruins were constantly playing from behind. They would go down a game and get it back, go down a game and get it back. It was frustrating to watch, but they seemed as if they were going to pull it together. When they played a great game to tie the set at 4-4 it seemed as if the momentum may have turned. But it wasn't to be, they lost the next two games, ending in a nervous service game.

This meant that Wabash and Bethany were tied at 14 points for the day. With no official tiebreaker, the official result was a tie for first. However, with Wabash having beat Bethany at 3 of 5 positions, they were allowed to take the team trophy as sort of a unplanned tiebreker. It was disappointing to lose the outright title, but guys were trying hard. Unfortunately, we will have to overcome some mental blocks that we've had against playing our best if we are to reach our goals this year.

I have great faith that this will start happening this week.

Bethany Christian at Fort Wayne Wayne Invitational {Preview}

No that's not a misprint in the title. We are playing tomorrow at the Fort Wayne Wayne Invitational. Fort Wayne Anthony Wayne High School is the host, and the other teams are Fort Wayne Elmhurst and Wabash.

I'm really looking forward to this invitational. I don't know much about the teams, but I do know there will be a good chance for us to win this invitational. Wayne and Elmhurst are traditionally weak. Elmhurst has been at the Lakeland Invitational for years, and we've yet to play them because they normally have lost to Lakeland in the first round, who we've always beat in the final. So if that follows this year we shouldn't have a super difficult time in handling any Elmhurst players we face. This season, Wayne lost to Fremont 5-0. We beat Fremont 5-0. So again, not a big problem.

But there is good competition at this tournament, and it comes in the Wabash Apaches. The Apaches have a very good record (8-2) on the season, and I don't know much about them. I know a lot of their scores, but I don't know what there scores mean because we've played so few of the same opponents. Their losses have come to Manchester and to Mississinewa. They've beaten an opponent we've beaten as well, Rochester. Most recently they finished 2nd in the Knox Invitational and defeated Whitko 4-1 during the week.

In the Knox Invitational, they finished well in the singles positions, winning #2 and #3 and coming in 2nd at #1. I also know there lineup...

#1S - Anthony Griffith
#2S - Niko Macaluso
#3S - Frank Granger
#1D - Ryan Richman/Ethan Powell
#2D - Zach Sailors/Zac Frazier

So that's the information I have. What it tells me is that this match is going to be competitive. But I hope to come out of this battle with a title.

Info:

Start Time
9:00 AM

Location
Tillman Park
600 E. Tillman Rd.
Fort Wayne, IN 46816