MMMM #6: Matthew Amstutz vs. Malachi Randolph, 2008
Weird things happened before the beginning of this match that stressed me out more than any other match we've played in the last five years.
First of all, we were playing Fairfield, a team and a coach that I have high respect for. For a team from a small school, Fairfield has fielded excellent tennis teams for years. A couple of conference and sectional titles have come the school's way as well, and I credit a lot of that to Coach Filbrun. So every time we play, it is a big occasion for me.
Secondly, it was our senior night, and boy did we have seniors! Eight in total, and I needed to say something about each one, in front of parents, families, classmates and opponents. I also had to try to get that done without delaying the match too long. And I really hate saying stupid things, or things that are insincere, so I worried about that.
Thirdly, Luke was injured, and not sure if he could play, but he really wanted to play, but he didn't want to play singles, so he wondered if he could play doubles, but he didn't want me to be mad at him, but he still wanted to play, because it was senior night, his senior nights, and he'd looked forward to this for a long time. Whew, it was a tough decision for me. I wanted to beat Fairfield, I was afraid of what bringing a JV player up might do to the team, plus we had three top varsity quality JV players, so which one should I bring up to the varsity?
Well, the last question ended up being the easiest. Matthew Amstutz was a senior playing JV, and one of the most important members of the 2008 team. As a senior, playing JV, he could have gotten all impatient and frustrated and begun to tear apart the chemistry of the team. But he never did. Instead he practiced hard, worked the varsity guys, helped to push all the JV players who he played with. Personally, he had been rewarded so far with an undefeated JV record, while leading the undefeated JV team. With it being senior night, I asked him if he would play in place of Luke because of Luke's injury.
Of course, then Luke wanted to play, so it only seemed fair to me to put him in the spot of our only varsity underclassman. In one of the classiest team-minded moves I've seen in a while, Mikey Kelly graciously offered his spot to insert Matthew or Luke, so that the varsity on senior night would be filled with seniors. It was awesome to see our teammates care for each other in that way.
So I put Luke at doubles with Daniel, moved Matthew to #3 singles and moved the other two singles players up a spot. I was really worried about what would happen. Would we lose the two matches that we moved up a spot, would Matthew be able to hold his own at #3 singles in this match, how would Luke respond to playing doubles??? I was actually considering the idea that we could lose this match.
The match started and that was quickly put to bed. Jared and Jonny coasted to victories despite being moved up spots (6-2, 6-1 for Jared and 6-0, 6-0 for Jonny!) And #1 doubles team had moved to #2 doubles and they won easily. So we were up 3-0, team match won.
However, Matthew's match was enthralling. He was playing Malachi Randolph, a sophomore, and their games looked identical. Both players had big first serves and big forehands, backhands that were consistent but not powerful, and were not at their most comfortable at the net.
I believed in Matthew's experience, and to be honest, with the team match in hand I was just hoping that he would have a good time, win or lose. Of course, having a good time means playing your best, so I made it a priority to get down to his match and make sure that I was giving advice and support to the best of my abilities and not treat it as a second rate match because it didn't matter for the team victory. Individuals are important to me, so every individual match, I try to focus on. Sometimes it doesn't happen, but I try.
In the first set, it was amazing the back and forth of the two players. Trading forehands most of the time, Matthew was able to push the weaker stroke of his opponent at the right times. I emphasized playing inside-out forehands, taking Matthew's forehand and hitting into Randolph's backhand. I figured that more errors would be made there. And it worked, but only enough to give Matthew one break. He was able to turn that to his advantage however, and seal the set 6-4.
In the second set, things began to turn around. There is an old adage in tennis that sometimes I forget. "Don't give your opponent to much practice at their weakness." In other words, you still have to use some variety in your tennis game, because if you just hit to your opponents weakness on every point and every shot, they may be able to work out the kinks thanks to you. I think this began to happen to Matthew in the long second set. Randolph started to be more consistent and able to hit deep with his backhand, therefore he wasn't making the mistakes that had allowed Matthew to win in the first set. Matthew was still holding serve, but the match was getting much longer and points were longer and more tiring. Finally, Randolph pulled off the inevitable break and won the set 6-4.
During the break between sets, most of the team finished their matches and so they settled in to watch our senior, on senior night play the third set of what was shaping up to be a memorable match (hence getting it's own blog post). In the time between the sets, I remember wracking my brain for what Matthew could do to unlock the stalemate. He had tried to attack near the end of the second set, but Randolph had been consistently winning those points.
The answer was simple: variety. He needed to move Randolph, not just feed him strokes to one side of the court. Then he would force errors, then he would be able to attack, then he might win. Matthew went out and started to run around the balls to his backhand to dictate the match with his forehand. He began hitting his powerful forehand to all corners of the court, and Randolph began to subdue to the length and difficulty of chasing everything down. Errors began to come and to the shouts of all his teammates, Matthew broke through and cruised through the third set, 6-1.
It was a really fun match for all involved. Matthew got an amazing varsity win, his teammates got to relish watching their friend pull off a big win on senior night, and all the lineup switches turned out well for me. There were a lot of smiles out of our seniors on this evening.
I know that most people probably don't give Matthew the credit that he deserves for the success that we had this season. He worked hard liked the other seniors, played a lot during the off-season, and rarely got the chance to show it at the varsity level. I've always thought that the most important guy (or guys) on a team are the ones who don't get the opportunities they probably feel that they deserve. This year, we had several guys who probably had the ability to play varsity on 90% of the teams in the area. This could have (and probably did) lead to a mountain of frustration for these players. And yet, Matthew was a leader for this group of how to deal with that difficulty.
I really appreciate Matthew. He deserves full recognition for the role that he played. He was truly a part of our Sectional champion team, and I know we would not have been the same without his presence. This match was a proof of how hard he worked, and the player that he is.
