Growing in Wisdom - Lakeland Match

 Video

Varsity Recap
Rain came in the late part of the school day, but with much squeegeeing and an ever present leaf blower, the Bruins got the courts clear and ready to play. To open the season, we welcomed the Lakers of Lakeland High School. 

Announcing lineups and the new team cheer got the Bruins off to a high energy and encouraging start, and that carried right into the varsity matches. We moved well early in the match and played with a lot of confidence from warmups right on through.

One place that this could be seen was the way we dominated the net. More on this below in another section, but all of the team seemed ready to push to the net and gain an advantage. We found angles and played with great touch. Ethan and Judah especially showed nice instincts for when to push to the net, and #2D could frequently be seen getting both players to the net. This pressure paid off, as the Lakers made either tentative errors or aggressive errors in trying to hit over and around us.

Also, this match started with our team serving really well. Especially across the singles courts, unreturned serves were the most common way for us to win points on serve. This allowed us to jump out to big leads in all the singles sets, and eventually close them out with relative ease.

It might seem like the Bruins were all offense tonight, but that wasn't really true. We actually were just doing a fantastic job of turning our defense into offense. The defense could be seen in full out sprints to retrieve drop shots, split step and quick shuffles to return overheads, and great returning were the hallmarks that set up our attacking all night long.

The matches all began ending around the same time, with the singles coming off the courts first - all with great wins. It was great to see #2D's follow, to the raucous cheers of their cheering section. That left  Malachi and Isaya to finish off. Their match was the closest of the night, as the Laker players had some big serves, and were serving well to force us into timid shots. In the end, it was our service games that carried us. We were able to avoid double faults and put in first serves when it mattered. Especially Isaya stepped it up late in a tight match, serving awesome to help set up the finishing volley from Malachi. So the Bruins swept to a 5-0 win.

JV Recap

The JV began with 9th grader Elias getting his first chance on the high school courts, and he started with a  victory. He moved quickly though his match, with solid serving and simple groundstrokes. His consistency is often the difference, but I loved to see him practicing what Coach Daniel taught last week about ripping second serves and using them to attack. Lucas Bateman did the same at #2SJV, especially on his forehand. Silas and Jordan put the finishing touches on a JV sweep, with strong serves and groundstrokes. I was impressed by the quality of our JV players.

Our JV is going to be really good this year, as I've often said we have a number of JV players who would play varsity in any other season. This is especially true because of the consistency with which we can get the ball back. The main ingredient to better play is to get more balls in the court, and we do that well.

It was also good to see our guys who didn't get a Lakeland match play a super competitive match against one another, before settling in together to eat some haystacks on the court. A great start!

WE CAN BE HUMBLE, BECAUSE WE BELONG: Moments of Belonging

Eating Together

It always makes me so grateful each season when we circle up on the court to eat our team meal together. Each person has a place in the circle, and it's a reminder about what tennis really is - an opportunity to deepen our relationships and have a group who knows us and loves us. Tonight there was laughter and joy, other nights there might be silence and sorrow, but the circle will be there. We will be there.

Singing Together

With a victory comes the song. I reflect on how this simple tune with nonsensical words (Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret-set-set) can become a place of joy. On the bus ride home from a mid-season match 20 years ago, a 10th grader burst out with this 9th grade choir song, and everyone spontaneously joined in. Now two decades later, we won't end a match that we've won without the song. Just one moment of joy, shared with others, has spawned countless others. I love that! We got to pass the song on to some of our new 9th graders tonight :-)

WHEN WE ARE WISE: Wisdom is Playing the Percentages

Getting to the Net

We've learned from our drills and games - like Middle-Middle, Doubles Passing, and Running Doubles - that getting two players to the net is a high percentage play in doubles tennis. We know that in singles taking the mid-court ball and approaching puts us in a good place to win points at the net. So it was encouraging to see the whole varsity team make the net a priority. I think this was best seen at #2D. If you watch the highlights, Dom and Aaron are always looking to get on the front foot and get forward. But really, we liked seeing that throughout the lineup!

High Serve Percentage

We're a really good team when the point gets started well, and it was very encouraging to see a match at the beginning of the season with such a high serve percentage. Players hit good serves, but paired them with consistency - sometimes even choosing a second serve style shot as their first serve. This really kept the pressure on the returners. Especially in doubles, it was good to see Isaya and Aaron choose this strategy at times to put Malachi and Dominic in good positions to pounce on the returns. Especially in the close-out game at #1D, it was impressive to watch Isaya's high percentage serving!

Patience, Young Padawan

Matches, especially varsity matches, are long events. They have twists and turns of momentum, focus, and ways of play. As such, we have to be gentle with ourselves when we go through patches of mistakes. Sometimes we can call this "Robot Mode" as Daniel described to Judah last year, or we can "Be a goldfish" and forget the previous points to focus on the current one. Tonight, we made the mistakes of a first match. We had inconsistent play, sometimes made poor choices, or just felt rusty. But we can have patience with ourselves. I thought we did a good job of staying calm and performing in the big moments... the deuces, the ads, or the close out games. 

THEN WE ARE STRONG: Exceptional Outcomes

Sprinting to the Net
In Judah's match, his opponent had a decent forehand, but would sometimes frame things in odd ways that created unexpected bounces and angles. In the second set, a highly sliced forehand trickled from the Laker racket and landed for a perfect drop shot. Judah was caught at the baseline but took off in a sprint when he realized what happened. Playing good tennis, the Lakeland #2 moved forward to try to pick off the rising shot Judah would eventually flick over the net and put it away for a simple winner. But Judah's effort paid off, getting to the ball before it was basically on the court. He was able to poke a line drive passing flick across the court, surprising the Laker player with it's power. It bounced inside the right hand sideline for a sweet winner and a testament to hustle.

Big Time Defense

In Isaya and Malachi's match, offense was basically winning the day. The team with big serves or crunching net play was winning a high percentage of the points. But little moments of great defense were a huge difference. One came near the end of the first set. First, a hard serve drove Isaya back but he met it out in front and drove his return cross court. The Laker server then crushed a forehand, taking Isaya far off the court to his right hand side. Isaya dug and reached and popped a lob, unfortunately to the Laker net player. With time and open court, the Laker player slammed it to the open left baseline. But Malachi - would had shaded to the middle of the court when Isaya was drawn off of it - Malachi appeared out of nowhere, getting a racket on the ball easily and lifting another lob. This one was slightly deeper, and the Laker players were frustrated at not having already won the point. Their second overhead was drilled into the net and the scramble gave the Bruins the game. 

Prayer

God, we are asking for eyes to see ourselves like You do this season. To experience Your love through this sport and our teammates. Tonight was a beautiful answer to prayer, as we got to experience many gifts as the rain subsided and the weather cleared. Thanks for the wonderful night and help us to continue to see You in the year. Amen.

Scores

Varsity
#1S - Gideon Miller - 6-0, 6-0 - Mason Miller (11)

#2S - Judah Miller - 6-0, 6-0 - Matthew Miller (9)

#3D - Ethan Claassen - 6-0, 6-0 - Maxwell Mishler (11)

#1D - Malachi Yoder/Isaya Magatti - 6-3, 6-4 - Will Hofer (11)/Logan Curtis (11)

#2D - Dominic Ramer/Aaron Hochstetler - 6-0, 6-0 - Caleb Hahn (10)/Bradley Miller (9)

Junior Varsity

#1SJV - Elias Magatti - 6-0 - William Berrick (10)

#2SJV - Lucas Bateman - 6-0 - Atreyu Ramachandron (9)

#1DJV - Silas Martin/Jordan Hochstedler - 6-0 - William Berrick (10)/Atreyu Ramachandron (9)

Monday Morning Match Memories

MMMM #7: Bethany Christian vs. Lakeland, 2004

Not all memories are good memories. And that is unfortunate. That is also "life." This falls under the category of a not-so-good memory.

Each year we played the Lakeland tournament the weekend after we played the Concord tournament. And so, traditionally, we came into the tournament needing to win it in order to reach the .500 mark on our season record, because Northridge, Concord, and Jimtown piled up the losses on us at the beginning of the year. Once we got to the Lakeland tournament, we generally did win it, defeating Churubusco in the first round and then always facing Lakeland in the final.

In 2003 we had won easily, but in 2004 Lakeland had some new faces playing for them. The Winans twins had decided that tennis was a sport they could also excel at, being stars in both basketball and golf already. So they joined the team as seniors and provided some extra firepower for the Lakers. Joining them were 3 other senior players, making an experienced squad.

We came in with an interesting group. In the early season we had only beaten Mishawaka, and in the morning round we took out Churubusco. But we had lost all our matches at the Concord Invite, so going into the championship match we were 2-5. The season looked bleak already.

Except, we kept on winning positions in each of our matches. Even though we would lose the team match, we'd win a random position. Much of the time, that position was number one doubles. Seth Troyer and Evan Stahley, pictured at the top of the report, had defeated Northridge and Fremont, two teams that had swept the rest of our positions. Seth had the confidence having advanced with Jordan Mumaw to the Individual Regional in 2003, so was feeling like a fairly accomplished player. Evan was a senior playing his first year of varsity, but was good friends with Seth.

So this match was interesting. I figured that if we could win one of the three singles matches, we would win the match. Our two doubles team had been starting to come together real well in the previous matches, and number ones had won the difficult matches so, the pattern should continue here. Both matches started out really close, and so I was tensely trying to fight these guys through their matches. Meanwhile, the singles matches progressed quickly and what we needed to do began to take shape.

At number one singles, Joel was handling his business very well. Taking his role as team leader and team motivator to heart, he was cruising past a talented opponent and letting out shouts with every passing shot and winner. I can remember his opponent getting upset and trying to mock his calls of "Let's go Joel," but it didn't really work, because Joel won quickly in two sets. But just as quickly, Jordan Kauffman got down on himself as he played a fast, consistent player. Jordan couldn't hit anything past his opponent, who would run it down and literally tap it back to Jordan's side. After a rash of errors and somewhat of a mental letdown, Jordan lost in straight sets.

At #2 singles was Casey Diener. After this match, I switched our lineups and Casey went on to have a very successful season at #3 singles, defeating many of our sectional opponents and rivals. However, he was a little above his head at #2 singles, and didn't really have much of a shot. He lost, also in straight sets. Little side note: It's interesting about this year's team that when we were asked to play out of normal position, we actually did it pretty well (Ben against Northridge, Jonny against Fairfield, Matthew against Fairfield, Mikey against Goshen and Rochester, Seth against Northridge and Goshen, etc.) I think that is another mark of a great team, that they are actually playing a position lower than they could handle. That was not true of the 2004 team.

That brought it all down to doubles, with Bethany being down 2-1. The first sets of the doubles matches were intense, and Joel's yelling and screaming had migrated to the doubles courts as well. Except, on the doubles court it seemed to be a bit more mean spirited. What I mean by that is that Joel often did a good job of getting pumped either on big points or when he hit big shots. Our doubles teams were up and down with every point, maybe like the third set of Johnny and Jeremy versus NorthWood during the regular season this year.

Both first sets came down to tiebreaks. Ben Shenk and Michael Steury were playing #2 doubles and they were able to come out and win the crucial points, with Michael stalking the net and Ben patrolling the baseline. They were gifted several errors, and were able to pull the tiebreaker out 9-7. On the other court, Seth and Evan battled back and forth, battling their own return errors against the good shots of Lakeland's players. In the end, they lost the tiebreak 10-8.

Then the matches flip-flopped. Instead of carrying their momentum to the second set, Michael and Ben came out flat and not aggressive and lost the second set. Seth and Evan were motivated by their first set loss, and turned up the intensity to win the second set 6-2. So it all came down to the third sets.

I told Michael and Ben to turn up the attacking pressure. Oh my goodness, it's awesome when advice works like a charm. They didn't drop a game and quickly cruised to tie the match 2-2.

Seth and Evan had it all down to them, and the pressure was easily noticed. Soon, the match became like a Sectional match, where both teams were close to the fence cheering and encouraging on every point. Parents were showing lack of self-control and applauding loudly with every opponents double-fault. Lakeland quickly took the lead and the situation began to get to our players. They grew frustrated, irritable, and it was obvious there was no way back into the match.

Down 5-1, Evan made an error to finish the match as a Lakeland win. Parents and players screamed from behind him. And then Evan lost control. He turned to the crowd and yelled at them, for cheering his double faults and errors. For calling him fat and ugly and cursing at him as he was serving. I had heard none of this during the match, as I had been removed from the crowd a bit in order to get a better feel for coaching. And Evan had never told me that it was going on during the whole final set. As Lakeland's players rushed the court to celebrate a tournament win, I rushed the court to calm Evan down.

I was embarrassed, fuming mad (probably the maddest I've ever been, close second's were Jared at Goshen this year, and Johnny at Sectional last year), but at the same time, I don't understand fans.

How do we expect our players to remain calm in situations where we are abusing them? Cheering as they get clearly more frustrated, encouraging after double faults, apparently even cursing at them. I want us to be excited on the court when it is appropriate, to play with emotion and fuel our games. But playing with overt emotion also invites overt emotion from the crowd and opponents. So how do you deal with it?

So that's my question for this match report, and I would love to hear what you all have to say:

When a match gets heated, emotional, tense and the crowd is into it, how do you deal with that tension in a healthy way?

Scores
Bethany ----- Score ----- Lakeland

Joel King ----- 6-2, 6-3 ----- Aaron Winans
Casey Diener ----- 1-6, 3-6 ----- Adam Winans
Jordan Kauffman ----- 2-6, 0-6 ----- Nathan Kauffman
Seth Troyer/Evan Stahley ----- 6-7 (8), 6-2, 1-6 ----- Kyle Ulrich/Lance Huth
Michael Steury/Ben Shenk ----- 7-6 (7), 4-6, 6-0 ----- Cyle Kline/Doug Bontrager

Lakeland Match Report

This match was our first of the day at Concord, in our second invitational at Concord. This team was the least challenging of the schools that were invited, and I think that it provided our team a warm-up for the rest of the tournament. We used to be in the Lakeland tournament several years ago, that consisted of Lakeland, Churubusco and Fort Wayne Elmhurst. This match showed me that if that tournament still existed, we'd have been champions by far.

There isn't too much to write about each match. Luke Hostetter was much better than his senior opponent, and Luke was able to serve and volley, approach and attack the net effectively throughout this match. Jared easily stroked his way to a 6-0, 6-0 win against an opponent who ran down every ball he could get to. Jonny breezed through the first set and ran into some trouble in the second when he tried to come to net to hastily, but was able to adjust his strategy and not lose another game. Doubles were almost complete sweeps, with one doubles falling in just one game. Everything about doubles was way too much for the Laker doubles crew. All four of our players had too big of serves, too aggressive styles of play, too much power, and the Laker's strokes couldn't hold out.

It is interesting. We often use our matches against big schools as a benchmark of how our program is growing and improving. Four years ago, at that Lakeland tournament, the Lakers defeated us 4-1. The year after that, we won, but only by a 3-2 margin with the victory coming down to two doubles. The year after that we squeaked out one more match to win 4-1. Two years later, we lost a team total of four games! It is another way to look at the progress we've made, teams we used to be close with (Fremont, Triton, Lakeland) we are absolutely blowing out of the water.

So it was a good start to the morning. Then we had to sit and wait for our Westview match...


The winner of the coveted award for the morning session must be Daniel Buschert, who early in this match set the tone by overheading a ball over the fence and into the wetlands down below. His dad went to go chase it and came back with four balls, but not the correct one. Nice job getting the ball wet Daniel, and showing your power in doing so.

Scores

Luke Hostetter - 6-0, 6-1 - Jake O'Brian (12)
Jared Schwartzentruber - 6-0, 6-0 - Shaun Kauffman (12)
Jonny Shenk - 6-0, 6-2 - Taylor Miller (10)
Johnny Kauffman/Jeremy Thomas - 6-1, 6-0 - Jon Boggs (10)/Zac Stanley (11)
Daniel Buschert/Mikey Kelly - 6-0, 6-0 - Casey Kilgore (12)/Adam Marchand (10)