My Top Ten Tennis State Tournament Memories#10 : DeKalb vs. Angola, 1996 : My first Sectional as a player, lost my only match and realized the intensity picks up at this time of the year.
#09 : Goshen vs. Bethany Christian, 2003 : My first Sectional as a coach, lost my first match and realized you can't win with just emotion, you have to build talent.
#08 : NorthWood vs. DeKalb, 2007 : After losing in the Sectional final to NorthWood, we went to the Regional and watched them almost beat DeKalb. That's when we knew we were an upper level program too.
#07 : Seth Troyer and Jordan Mumaw's Individual Run : Won the Individual Sectional at #1 doubles, and advanced to play LaPorte. LaPorte was 18-3 and we were 9-8, but we only lost 4-6, 4-6.
#06 : Howe Military vs. Angola, 1998 : I won 9 straight games in this first round matchup without losing a point, until I double-faulted! That's a golden set for you counting at home.
#05 : NorthWood vs. Bethany Christian, 2007 : Our first Sectional final, and a day we learned that it takes intensity and talent to win a Sectional. We fell but only 3-2.
#04 : Fairfield vs. Bethany Christian, 2008 : The match we almost choked. Take nothing for granted, we beat them 5-0 only ten days before, and were down 1-5 in a third set with a chance to lose. Thank goodness we didn't.
#03 : Goshen vs. Bethany Christian, 2007 : To reach the Sectional final, we defeated Goshen 3-2 as Johnny and Jeremy fought off three match points in a third set tiebreaker to seal our victory.
#02 : Fairfield vs. Bethany Christian, 2007 : Having lost 5-0 in the regular season, we were down 2-1 in the team match, and Jonny Shenk and Luke Hostetter were both down a set in the matches remaining on the court. Two third set comebacks later, we had defeated the Sectional favorite and won our first Sectional match.
#01 : NorthWood vs. Bethany Christian, 2008 : We caught our breath, upped our intensity and turned around the 2007 result. And we got to hold up Bethany Christian's first tennis Sectional championship, a feeling I look forward to again!