It seemed like the rain was going to chase us from another chance to play, but it stayed away and we had another beautiful night of tennis. A night to bring our varsity record over the .500 mark, hopefully to stay that way for the rest of the season!
After the extremely long bus ride, we tried to shake off the rust and get ourselves going in this match. The Eagles ran out a lineup that was much changed from the weekend tournament that they played. A new #1 singles player was eligible, having just moved into the district from Las Vegas. At the same time, their previous #1 singles player and #2 singles player joined forces to play #1 doubles, creating a powerful team at that spot. The changes made me a bit nervous, because I always like being prepared.
But as soon as the match started, my nerves calmed a bit. That was mostly due to the way that Mikey and Seth started their singles matches. Playing #2 and #3 singles, both players started confidently. Seth's match was moving quickly along as he was positioning himself well in the court to make approach shots, and then moving his opponent, sophomore Matt Hoff, side to side with crisp volleys. He quickly moved to a 3-0 lead, then 5-0, then took the first set without dropping a game.
Meanwhile, Mikey had to deal with a freshman, Tyler Jenkins, who had only played four weeks of tennis but had already developed a massive forehand. While consistency was an issue for the young Jenkins, when he found the court the forehand was about as much of a weapon as any other player on the team. But Mikey was playing a great match as well. The way Mikey moved smoothly to the ball and hit his increasingly well placed and struck forehand were things of beauty. Mikey began to pile on the winners and watch balls sail into the net and beyond the boundaries. Soon, despite some uncomfortable wardrobe problems... Mikey won the first set, 6-0.
Seth and Mikey followed their first sets with similarly smooth second sets. Seth dropped a game when leading 4-1, but Mikey was able to close out the match without dropping a game. This match showed the type of beautiful tennis that these two singles players can play.
But not only them. Ben Mast took on a formidable opponent of his own in junior Joe Stackhouse. Recently moved into the Fremont area, Stackhouse had all around solid strokes. To begin his match against Ben he worked these strokes with great consistency, moving Ben up and back and around the baseline. They traded the first 2 games of what looked like a long and intense match. Ben took a long game to lead 2-1, and I talked to him about staying consistent, and that it was to his advantage to have long rallies. Soon, the Ben I know and love appeared. What was so beautiful was the way that Ben controlled the rallies, moving Stackhouse around the baseline with deep shots, short angles, and consistency. Then Ben would come for the short ball and put it away, simply demoralizing Stackhouse. And soon, it was easy to see that Stackhouse was losing patience and feeling defeated. After splitting the first two games, Ben controlled the match and won 11 straight games to end the match.
The power match of the day, despite the singles beauty, was the #1 doubles match. Kyle Miller and Austin Loucks found themselves up the booming serves of seniors Ryan Palmerton and Mason Hallman. Both had experience, having played #1 doubles last year as well. And they hit their serves really hard. In fact, when they got their serves in, it was difficult to win a point. But they didn't get them in all the time. So Austin and Kyle had to figure out how to manage the rest of their game to take advantage. In the first set, they found themselves overswinging and trying to hit too big of shots themselves. In the second set, they began to find their rhythm. Holding serve and attacking the net, Kyle and Austin turned a 2-6 first set loss into a 6-2 second set win. The third set started well for Kyle and Austin, but then Palmerton and Hallman got their serves going. In the third set the Eagles had about three games that Kyle and Austin could do nothing about, because they hit their serves so well. Despite started the set up 2-0, #1 doubles found themselves trailing 5-4 late in the match. But then Austin held with a great service game, and then Palmerton lost his serve and Kyle took advantage. He knew they were a bit nervous so took some power off of his serves, and watched the Eagles hit three of four returns into the net, giving the Bruins the victory.
At #2 doubles, Russell Klassen and Nick Rebec breezed through a first set where their opponents gave them lots of errors. The Eagles had a hard time at the net and Russell and Nick attacked this weakness. But the Eagles made a good battle of the second set, as Nick and Russell seemed to lose some aggressiveness and fight. Despite struggling with serves throughout the match, Russell and Nick were able to close the match out on Russell's serve, as Nick cut several balls off at the net and Russell hit a big serve up the middle to end the match.
In the JV matches, the singles players also played particularly well. Misha Rebec and Claude Stickler made fairly quick work of their opponents, while Blake Shetler let a 6-1 lead evaporate when his opponent changed styles and began to lob ball him. However, in impressive fashion, he closed out the victory in a tiebreak, despite letting his opponent come all the way back in the match.
At the JV doubles positions, Evan Grimes and Matt Ebersole lacked the consistency to finish off their match in a tiebreaker, as forehands went wide and long and serves couldn't find the box. Despite their adept skills at the net, the pair fell at #1 doubles. #2 doubles wasn't that close of a match, though Jake did get several aces and Ike played quite well. They won with an easy scoreline of 8-0.
Overall, this match was a place for our team to show some improvement. And we did. Mikey has been working hard on his forehands, and it showed today in his match. Ben has been trying to find his style of match, and I think today he got closer to finding the right mix. Seth has been working on approaches, and he got those going fairly well. Kyle and Austin needed a match against experienced doubles players in which they prevailed, and they did. Russell and Nick needed to be pushed a bit, and the second set did that a bit.
Their were also weaknesses revealed that need to be corrected, and strengths that aren't quite strong enough yet. We need to get better with our volleys, finishing at the net and being quick in our feet. But that is what we will practice on. The goal is too keep improving and compete for the Sectional, and we have about 5 more weeks to get there.
Varsity: Definitely a thing of beauty to watch Mikey play so well in his singles matches, with forehands being swing into the corner and groundstrokes looking so solid. The double bagel is beautiful once again. Another beautiful moment though, goes to Ben Mast. One point in particular stands out to me. Ben controlled a rally deep to Stackhouse's backhand for about 3 strokes or so. Then he got a short ball and ripped a forehand crosscourt that Stackhouse stretched for and got back in the court. Unfortunately for the Eagles player, Ben let the ball drop and then ripped it to the opposite corner. Stackhouse could only watch. The way that Ben worked the point smaggressively, well, it brought a tear to my eye.
JV: There were a couple of points that I considered for this, but I decided to go with the point that made me most excited for the rest of the season. In their #1 doubles match, Evan Grimes and Matt Ebersole made several common mistakes. They struggled with groundstrokes and serves, BUT they did some awesome doubles things. Like my favorite point of the whole match, where Evan stepped to the center of the net during a rally and put away a forehand volley. It was beautiful in its simplicity and its correctness. So here's to Evan's volley!
Scores
Varsity:
#1S - Ben Mast - 6-1, 6-0 - Joe Stackhouse (11)
#2S - Seth Krabill - 6-0, 6-1 - Matt Hoff (10)
#3S - Mikey Kelly - 6-0, 6-0 - Tyler Jenkins (9)
#1D - Kyle Miller/Austin Loucks - 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 - Ryan Palmerton (12)/Mason Hallman (12)
#2D - Russell Klassen/Nick Rebec - 6-1, 6-4 - Matt Wilcox (10)/Adam Stukey (12)
Junior Varsity:
#1S - Misha Rebec - 8-3 - Jacob Bryant (9)
#2S - Blake Shetler - 8-7 - Brandon Miller (9)
#3S - Claude Stickler - 8-0 - Alec Trine (10)
#1D - Matt Ebersole/Evan Grimes - 7-8 - Brandin Ross (11)/Glen McClain (9)
#2D - Jake Gerig/Ike Lehman - 8-0 - Brant Arnos (10)/Dylan Clark (9)