One of my fears with this tournament is that it would belittle some of the accomplishments that individuals had because they "lose" to others. I don't think of it that way at all, obviously, and I'm sure many of you don't either. So many guys mean so much to the program, and I hope to highlight some of that throughout this post.
So it will probably be a long post. Scroll throughout at your leisure! On to #1S!
#1 Singles
Wow, it is unbelievable for me to think that Luke Hostetter and Joel King are out. When I think of what built the Bethany Christian tennis team into a solid program, Luke and Joel are the cornerstones of that. Of course, every player has a role in making the team accepting, hard-working, and high quality. But Joel and Luke were huge leaders in the early development of my teams.
As the teams developed, they also became highly, highly skilled. No shame in Luke's matches, as he lost in both sides of the bracket to Byeong Min Lim, who was the only back to back All-District player in our history. I love the scoreline of the match between senior Luke and senior Byeong. Byeong is so good and smooth with his strokes, but senior Luke would never give up. It seems totally appropriate that the second set would get pushed to a tiebreak as Luke clawed to stay in the match.
Joel King went out at two spots as well, to Nathan and to Ben. Nathan was just so good his senior year, swinging lefty forehands to all angles of the court. Junior Joel King would have fought hard but just wouldn't quite have the shots to keep up with Nathan. But how about that match between senior Joel and senior Ben Mast. Those guys were two of the fighting-est fighters I've coached. They would dig in and just refuse to let the match go. I always tell the story of Joel's full body cramps after playing in the Concord Invitational because he wanted to finish the match so bad. He was leading in the 3rd set his senior year and wanted to finish off the win but was cramping. I told him if he cramped one more time I'd have to take him out. So he just stopped reacting to it. He finished the match (and won!) and then fell down on the ground because his legs, arms and chest (!) were cramping. We had to carry him to the bus and then drive him to his house because we were afraid he'd cramp while driving home and crash. That was his dedication.
But in this match, it was Ben who took the ridiculously close decision. I can see his smooth, attacking game in my head right now. Flat forehand attacks from the middle of the court setting him up for putaway volleys. I can see Joel whipping passing shots and testing Ben's confidence with lobs. What a match this would have been to really witness. But Ben presses on the the next round.
Interesting now, all of the #1S Final Four were All-District selections, the only four that we've ever had during my time at Bethany. It will be fun to see how the final matches play out.
#1 Doubles
The shocker in the #1 doubles bracket wasn't necessarily the winners, but how one sided the simulations ended up. I especially think this is weird in the matches involving Johnny and Jeremy. These guys were competitors. I can't imagine them losing 6-2, 6-1 or 6-1, 6-3. I mean, Johnny fought through a back injury to play his senior year, and they turned a loss to NorthWood into the clinching point for our first Sectional title. They were a force of a team, and I think the simulator missed that.
At the same time, Dustin and Jonathon were a great team in their own right, so skilled at the strategy and simplicity of doubles. I can see Dustin with his slicey returns and then sprinting to the net. Jonathon with his intimidating serve. And of course the other Johnny-Jeremy loss was to Brandon and Simon, which were a great force of a team too. I can't wait to think about those teams matching up in the Semis.
On the other side, it was probably predictable that these teams would win. Hans and Simon would definitely have taken down the junior year Simon and Brandon. Hans had such a calming effect on Simon's matches, and he played with such joy. I think that sometimes loosened up Simon. In their junior year, Brandon and Simon were getting used to playing with each other. So I could see that as 6-2, 6-3 match.
Austin and Kyle are one of my all-time surprise teams. I really didn't expect them to do well at #1D when we settled on them. They were too inconsistent. Not inexperienced enough. Austin's JV record coming into that senior year was 12-15. And yet they put in a lot of hard work that offseason. They both did a weight lifting program with me throughout the winter. And then they clicked. So, it's too bad to see them go out of the tournament, but good to see two close sets.
On to the semis, where the '16 team faces the '17 team, and Hans faces himself! Intriguing match-ups for sure!
#2 Singles
Drama on one side and straight sets on the other. Seth almost took self-sabotaged his number one seed by losing to his previous year self. I mean, both versions of Seth were really good, but his senior year he didn't lose a match. So it would have been a bummer for his first loss to come to, well, himself :-)
In the bottom half of the bracket, Liam almost pulled out another crazy comeback. Liam was so good at fighting through pressure and making his opponent feel it, and he almost did it again in this match. The other thing I recognize about this match is that it would have taken FOREVER. Jesse and Liam are both the type of players who rely on consistency and rallies to win their points, neither of them thrive on winners. In fact, I can recall Sectional matches for both of them where they almost took down heavily favored players because they resorted to "patient" strategies, also known as moonballing or lobbing all the time. As the match went longer, everyone would hold their breath silently, waiting for someone to be aggressive and take control of the point. With Jesse's forehands and backhands both being weapons, that may be the reason he ended up winning.
In the other matches, two players who were dominant parts of Sectional winning teams moved on. Byeong Min was such a consistent force for the '14 Bruins, and he beat his teammate on that team, Ethan Lapp. That seems right, because when Ethan was playing #2S in 2015, Byeong was at #1S.
Jared played Joel King, the #2S for my very first team. Joel was the most consistent player on that team as a sophomore. He was someone that we could always count on. That year, he had one of the most intense comebacks that I have ever seen from a Bruins player. He was down 1-5 to Triton, with the team match tied at 2-2. We were playing at Triton, and he roared back, yelling "C'mon" after every winner or game. It was the first time that team had seen true passion, and it changed the course of his class of tennis players.
But Jared was pure class his senior season. Smooth serve, smooth groundstrokes, smooth movement. He dominated that season from start to finish and deserves that spot in the #2S Semi-Finals.
#2 Doubles
The one seed was holding there breath in the quarterfinal here. Our beloved Will-Tyson team didn't have the best of first sets, but then they played pressure tennis to force the third set. Will and Tyson would have been controlling points with placement and scrambling while Daniel and Mikey had smooth doubles strategy and strokes to bring to the play. In the end, the strength of Daniel's groundstrokes and Mikey's intensity sealed the match for the top seed.
The other positions went according to seeding and in a fairly predictable fashion. Lane and Dustin didn't need a third set this time :-) Parth and Landon were some of my favorite brothers to play for BC tennis, I loved the dedication and time that they put in. Their matches were always entertaining, as Landon had a big serve for a #2D match and Parth had the control. They also have to be one of the smartest combined IQ doubles teams we've ever had... but now that I say that, I realize we've had a lot of high IQ tennis players. I have such fond memories of that time period as a coach too, those teams were teams that were really all in.
But Lane and Dustin were pretty dominant, and they were able to take that match. On the other side, the other Daniel-Mikey combo lost to Russell and Blake. Daniel and Mikey in '07 were an interesting combo, one that we didn't actually land on until the last tournament of the season. Matthew Amstutz had a huge impact on this doubles team, taking some matches playing with Daniel and competing all the way through his senior year for the #3S and #2D positions. Matthew didn't appear on any of these brackets, but I wanted to make sure and acknowledge his impact... in fact, there are several players that I've been thinking of that didn't ever get a full season on varsity but impacted things: Joel Yoder, Weston Troyer, Chris Craw... and many others. These guys are crucial to the brotherhood. And I'm glad you've all been around.
Russell and Blake were almost an undefeated team in their season together, so it's no surprise that they slip through here. The surprise is the third set. They only went to three third sets in their year, one against the #14 ranked Valparaiso team, one against Triton who put all of their best players at doubles for our match only and again against an Eastern team who did the same thing. Only when teams were state ranked or purposely rearranged their team could they take Russell and Blake that deep in a match.
Finally, Ethan and Ryan defeated Joel and Hans. Joel and Hans were another surprise team, one that I didn't see coming until halfway through the season. That year, Joel had put in a ton of work, and was ready to play some doubles. But I thought for sure Hans was going to be a singles player. In fact, he had won a big match against Goshen as #3S. But when we made the switch, it felt right. We didn't know how well they'd do, and then continue to do the next year at #1D.
It was a little the same with Ethan and Ryan. Ryan had some of the best tennis form that I've ever seen, using his knees to get down to any volley and keeping the racket in front of him. But he had never played varsity until this senior year. And Ethan surprised us with his jump from consistent JV player to powerful varsity player from tenth to eleventh grade. They combined to form a #2D team that went 20-2 on that Sectional winning season. That was crazy.
So it was a good, three set match that sent Ethan and Ryan through. I could see their simple but consistent strokes, Ryan's serve and volley, and Ethan's groundstrokes and tall net presence ruffling the young Hans and somewhat inconsistent Joel.
The Semis look enticing here as well. The average record of the remaining teams is 18-3! What dominant #2D we've had over the years!
#3 Singles
One surprising result here, as the #6 seed Abe Thorne takes down junior year Jonny Shenk. It was a very close match, with Jonny fighting back in the second set to force a tiebreak. Abe was probably the hardest server we've ever had at #3S, but Jonny excels at get so many balls back in play. I can see Abe trying to power play and work his way to the net with big forehands, while Jonny slides flat passing shots and lobs around him. In the end, Abe got the upset.
But Jonny stayed in the tournament by taking down junior year Sol in two tight sets. But Sol stayed in the tournament by taking out last year's #3S, Philip Krabill. In the final match, Wes Klassen defeated Nathan Brendle. This had been Nathan's first year at Bethany, and it took him a while to get comfortable with the brotherhood. He put a lot of pressure on himself that first year, and sometimes found himself playing against himself as well as his opponent. I could see that happening at the end of each of these close sets. In fact, all of Nathan's losses in this sophomore #3S season were very close, ones that he couldn't pull out in the pressure. But he got a lot better at that over the next few seasons.
Wes was also great under pressure, scampering around the baseline and putting balls back with his surprisingly powerful forehand. So, he came through and gave us four different players in the Semis here that are not left in any of the other brackets. Until next week when we see how it turns out!
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