The Story - Chapter 14 - Bethany Christian v. Fairfield

 Video Highlights

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The Varsity Story 

"What's Next"

We enter into the last week of the regular season with five matches left to play before Sectional. Each year, our goal is to go into Sectional playing at our peak, giving us the best chance to have an epic finish to our season.

This Fairfield match is an important step, as Fairfield is always…
1. Good (They are 15-2 this year)
2. Skilled (They get a lot of balls back and make few mistakes)
3. In our Sectional (Which means we might see them again)

All of these things make this chapter of the story an important one to respond to, a challenge that can propel us to growth. We always hope to bring our best and compete, so we can know what’s needed next!

And each of us brought some of our best tonight. And we had some moments where it was difficult. But that lays out a great road map to growth.

At #2S, Elias had a slow start. Maybe nervous, maybe rusty from the rainy weekend, maybe playing against a really good opponent… but for whatever reason Elias was a bit slow on his feet. His normal consistent game wasn’t there, and he struggled to feel like he could find it.

But at the beginning of the second set, Elias really focused on getting his feet to the right spots that allow him to put his shots in the right spots. Doing this allowed him to put more pressure on his Falcon opponent, and this pressure brought some errors. That’s the place for Elias to continue to lean in with his focus, and to not lose sight of. His opponent brought some more firepower and ended up taking the set. But Elias gained an incredible gift of focus. This helped Elias in the second set, but his opponent still ended up winning the match.

At #1S, Judah was facing another returning All-District player, the fifth he’s faced this year. Early on, Judah was energetic and full of belief. He served really well and drew some errors. Tied at 3-3, his opponent stepped up and tightened down the errors. This left Judah feeling like there wasn't any place to win points. He continued to fight hard, but Judah's game relies on his changing depths and variety. He lost a bit of that as the match went on, as it felt like maybe he was just trying to hold on. He couldn't hold on in the second set, and the match also went to the Falcons.

With the Falcons up 2-0, they only needed one more point to hand the Bruins our fifth defeat of the season. And though the Bruins were giving all their effort, that point came at #2D. Jordan and Lucas were playing well and working hard, but were moving in ways that were reactive instead of proactive. They are always needing to be proactive with their feet to give themselves the space they need to hit the shots they want. In that way, they can stay active and in control. Tonight, they were very active, but it always seemed to be in response or desperation against something the Falcons were doing. Still very proud of the effort.

And their was a lot of effort at #1D. This team continues to rise to every occasion. Malachi and Ethan went ahead early in the match, and then the Fairfield seniors fought back to tie up the set at 5-5. Keeping cool under the pressure, the Bruins reeled off 2 straight games to take the set. It was good intensity and confidence from the #1D pair, but they immediately lost that focus and went behind 3-0 in the second. But point by point, they built momentum again. Game by game they came back, 3-2, then taking a 4-3 lead. Then they had won 6 games in a row to take the second set. Super proud of the way that they played aggressive and confident tennis, but with simple spots and simple shots.

Finally, though the match result was decided, the last position to be decided was #3S. Aaron had really come out well, taken the first set with confidence and movement. Aaron carried that into the second set, but then ran into a little bit of a brick wall. In other words, his opponent just kind of stopped missing. This put a lot of pressure on Aaron, and he couldn't quite finish off the second set. This sent the match to the third set, and Aaron played it close at the beginning. But eventually, the Falcon #3 pulled away and won.

So the Bruin varsity lost 4-1, moving us to a record of 10-5 on the season. But the question becomes, where do we go from this match? How will we learn to compete against teams that good, skilled, and matches that bring pressure? That's a question I can't wait to get into...

Let's go Bruins!

The JV Story

On the Monday night that the varsity played, the JV guys stuck around and cheered the varsity on. Then, later in the week, they traveled to Fairfield to complete the match while the varsity played Elkhart at home. Because I wasn't there, I don't have eye witness accounts to the match. 

But what I do know is that we played everything incredibly close. Only one of the nine matches that we played didn't have a tiebreak in it. And so the Bruins got valuable experience playing tiebreaks, and playing under the pressure of tiebreaks. In all, there were 11 tiebreaks, but the Bruins only won 4 of those 11. So, we got experience but we're going to have to perform a bit better.

It's a lot like the varsity, pressure is a crazy thing. So much of tennis is built around how you can respond to it. Tonight at the JV level, no one laid down and didn't bring effort. Everyone gave there best.

I was especially proud of our seniors on JV, for whom this was there final tennis match. Isaya gave it all, Silas and Ender pulled out a third set tiebreak win, and Ayden never has stopped. I said this on senior night, but this group of seniors has done more for the culture of Bethany Christian tennis than many. All 6 guys bring something unique and needed to the team. I'm so grateful for that. This beautiful picture sums a lot of things up for the JV in this match. We brought our best and so we can have peace in that!

Awards

Cheerleader: All of our JV
Hustle: Aaron
Dig Deep: All of the JV!

Over All This is Christ's Love for Us
Moment of Prayer

God, thanks for the opportunities to play these intense matches. Thanks for the opportunity to grow and change. Be with us as we seek to end the season with Your joy and peace. Do not let us be anxious about anything, but by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, may we present our requests to You. Protect us, help us focus, have peace, and rejoice! Through the name of Jesus, amen.

Scores
Varsity

#1S - Judah Miller - 3-6, 0-6 - Drew Beachy (12)

#2S - Elias Magatti - 0-6, 2-6 - Ben Penrose (12)

#3S - Aaron Hochstetler - 6-3, 4-6, 3-6 - Justus Herbert (10)

#1D - Ethan Claassen/Malachi Yoder - 7-5, 6-3 - Adler Bender (12)/Zach Mehlberg (12)

#2D - Lucas Bateman/Jordan Hochstedler - 1-6, 2-6 - Easton Garber (11)/Jacob Mast (11)

Junior Varsity

#1SJV - Isaya Magatti - 1-4, 4-1, 8-10 - Austin Lehman (10)

#2SJV - Josiah Aguilar Clark - 3-4 (7), 2-4 - Liam Fowler (11)

#3SJV - Sam Brenneman - 1-4, 4-3 (8), 7-10 - Alex Ustavlev (12)

#4SJV - Ayden Lehman - 2-4, 2-4 - Cooper Garber (9)

#5SJV - Josiah Shue - 3-4 (5), 4-3 (5), 5-10 - Darren Moore (11)

#1DJV - Silas Martin/Ender Finnigan - 4-1, 2-4, 10-8 - Brady Troyer (9)/Brady Hefferman (9)

#2DJV - James Weaver/Leo Schlabach - 1-4, 4-1, 8-10 - Liam Clem (10)/Ean Shoopman (10)

#3DJV - Eli Steiner/Ethan Miller - 2-4, 4-0, 11-9 - Weston Pressler (9)/Simon Koch (9)

#4DJV - Eli Steiner/Ethan Miller - 0-4, 3-4 (4) - Mason Penelli (9)/Jackson Kleindenst (9)