My favorite players in the game of high school tennis come from Bethany. I have deep respect for all of you who play or have played for me, or carried the tradition before I started coaching. But every now and then, a player comes along from another school who earns my respect and admiration as well. Often, I don't get to see them play more than one or two matches, but in those matches they show me something. Of course, it's about their tennis games, and not their character in life, but still, it can teach me a lot about what it takes to be successful in tennis. Today I'm going to write about something I learned from an opponent.
In the 2008 season, we were supposed to play in an awesome tournament at Warsaw. Included in that tournament were the 3rd ranked school in the state (Park Tudor), the 17th ranked team (Canterbury), and other challenging opponents such as Warsaw, South Bend Adams, and more. I remember being angry at God as it rained and rained the morning we were supposed to play this event.
But it provided for us to play in a new tournament. Concord quickly put together a little tourney that involved us, them, Westview, and Lakeland. Westview was another team projected to compete for their Sectional title, as was Concord. Lakeland wasn't as good that season.
We smoked Lakeland, 5-0. Then we got to play Westview. They had a all-district #1 doubles team who were about the best we saw that season. They also had a very solid #1 singles and #2 singles. I felt that we held the advantage at the other two positions.
Things played out pretty much as I thought. #1 doubles put up a really good fight, but eventually fell. Jonny Shenk breezed through his match at #3 singles, and the same could be said for Daniel Buschert and Mikey Kelly at #2 doubles. Surprisingly, Jared Schwartzentruber lost the first set to plucky sophomore Steve Blinco. He won the second set dominantly, but fell in a tense 10-point tiebreak.
The match came down to two seniors, Luke Hostetter and Westview's Steffen Good. Good had been part of Westview's dominance for a while. Playing #3 singles the year before, he had helped the team dominate northern Indiana and pull off a bid in the Semi-State. The team had fallen one match short of the State Finals. But Good had won just about every match he played (actually, I'm pretty sure that he was undefeated, but I don't have their statistics).
Now, Good stood against Luke at #1 singles with the match on the line. The first set went into a tiebreak, Luke unfortunately couldn't get anything going. In the second set, Luke played great tennis. He really ramped up his groundstroke game and took the set 6-3. This forced one of the dreaded 10-point tiebreaks.
In the tiebreak, the lead of the match went back and forth. No one ever led by more than a point. Luke was still playing his stellar ground game, and it forced Good to do what you should in a high pressure situation. Attack. Good attacked the net point after point. He would win with a volley. He would get lobbed over and lose. He would force Luke into a passing shot error. He would watch Luke pass him down the line. But he was going for it.
Luke was too. He wasn't holding back on any of his baseline shots. He rattled a couple of passing shots so hard I thought for sure they would be errant. But they weren't. The score just kept going back and forth, ramping up the pressure.
With the score 7-8 in favor of Good, he was serving. He missed on his first serve, just wide or long or something. For his second serve, he does a massive topspin kick serve. It requires the server to swing hard to get the proper amount of kick. He swung hard, and missed the sweet spot of the racquet. In fact, he hit the frame and the second serve flew over the fence and down onto the band field below the Concord courts.
I was shocked, but excited. Now Luke would win. My figuring was that the only way Good was staying in the match was by being aggressive. Making such an aggressive error on a big point would make him embarrassed and timid. Luke should be able to win.
But it was as if Good forgot the error completely. On the next point, he continued to attack. On the final point, he hit a huge forehand forcing Luke off the court and attacked the net. He put his error, even as embarrassing as it was, behind him and continued to play aggressive.
This match still breaks my heart. I think we were better than Westview during the 2008 season. I think we probably should have had a more impressive record on the year, like 19-2 instead of 15-5. I hate the fact that Luke played so good and so hard and yet lost. It is disappointing in the worst way.
But I did have a deep respect for Steffen Good. He had looked embarrassment in the eye, and continued to be aggressive. That's what I wanted for my team. That's what I want from my players.
And we learned. Look at Mikey and Daniel in the Fairfield match. Johnny and Jeremy in the Sectional Final. And Luke in the Sectional Final. We need to have this attitude this season.