Video Highlights
We started the day against Marion, and there wasn't much stress in the air. The guys were focused and ready to play, but they weren't wound tight. Confident, but not cocky. Focused and enjoying the day.
And then they went out and took care of business. We won all five courts pretty comfortably, dropping just six games across the entire match.
But that's not really the interesting part. What was great was what we were able to do with those matches.
At #2D, Lucas and Jordan worked on using their serves to draw weaker shots and then finding ways to finish those points at the net. Judah worked on patience. Ethan and Malachi worked on recognizing those little dips in their focus and figuring out how to deal with them themselves, without needing a coach to draw them back in. Aaron worked on making his first serve more of a weapon at #3S, while Elias was working on changing each shot of his points with depth and width.
That's a pretty good way to spend a first round - getting the win, but also find things to work on.
Pretty quickly after that first round, we turned around and played Wabash. They're a young team, but a solid one. They came in at 7-10 on the season, and they had just beaten Marion 5-0 as well. It looked like they would provide a challenge in certain spots, especially to our focus.
That started at #1S, where their ninth grade #1 had some really good strokes, hitting with good power and placement. But Judah was just relentless. He kept making balls and making balls. Judah kept changing the spin and the point of attack. And the fun part was that Judah was also playing with some serious power. He was absolutely crushing passing shots and even hitting some baseline winners. That's not always his game, but apparently it can be.
The rest of the lineup was pretty comfortable, too. The scores were lopsided, but the tennis was good. In fact, we dropped an identical amount of games as a team in our match versus Wabash as we did against Marion. And I think sometimes we don't quite realize what we're doing when we win matches like this.Wabash is a team more toward the middle of the pack in the state. They're also closer to our school size than some of the teams we see. So these matches give us a chance to see what we look like against teams that are more like us. We looked pretty good.
And then came the trophy poses, pictures around the shining orange trophy we'd secured.
We got the group photos, and then I just loved watching the seniors gather around it for a senior class pose. Then the juniors, smiling and laughing. Then the sophomores, including Sam. Sam had come along as a fan, but ended up playing a JV match, so obviously he needed to get in on the trophy picture, too.
That's one of my favorite things about this team.
It's not just the guys who happen to be playing varsity.
It's all of them.
We've spent a lot of time this season talking about what we're building together. About being brothers. About working hard. About joy. About enjoying the process instead of always looking ahead to the next thing.
And Saturday felt like one of those days where we got to enjoy it.
The weather was beautiful. The tennis was good. We got a trophy. We took some pictures. We laughed.And then we headed home to get ready for Sectional. Because, yeah, there's still some work to do.
But Saturday wasn't really about the work. It was about enjoying some of what that work has produced.
It was a day of joy in the season.
Moments of Wise Play
Aaron decided he wanted to work on something in the first round: a bigger first serve. So he started going after it. And then he started finding it. A few serves went down the T with some serious pace, and suddenly we had a couple of aces. I love moments like that because the point isn't really the ace. The point is Aaron deciding, I'm going to try this. Then trusting it enough to actually hit it. That's the confidence we've been building.
Who Can Have Joy for the Season?
Moments for Celebration
Malachi hit an overhead with so much force that it didn't just land past his opponent. It bounced into the pine trees beyond the court. That brought back a memory from a few years ago, when Malachi was on JV and managed to break the sign by our court with an overhead. Apparently, we haven't completely solved the problem of Malachi and excessive overhead velocity. But it's pretty fun to watch how far his game has come since those JV days.
Hustle: Aaron
Dig Deep: Ethan and Malachi
Over All This is Christ's Love for Us
Moment of Prayer
God, thanks for the glorious weather, the safe bus ride, the stress free day. Thanks for all that You've built into us this season. May we move forward with confidence. May we overflow with the fruit of Your Spirit. May we grow and glorify You. Amen.
Scores
Bethany Christian v. Marion
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