It was all because the NorthWood Panthers were without a JV last year. And with that unfortunate reality, an opportunity opened up for our team. Would we be willing to fill their spot in what amounted to a Northern Lakes Conference JV Tournament? Certainly.On what was about the nicest Saturday of the tennis season, pleasant temperatures and lots of sun, Ben Mast and I drove over to Wawasee High School after a morning varsity practice to take in the JV tournament. Andrew Lanctot was the head coach at the tournament for us, and with the matches being spread over 10 courts, I knew it was going to be difficult to do any in-depth coaching.
The night before the tournament, I had announced to the team our lineup telling them that we had decided to go with a strong doubles lineup. That was true. We took our 3 seniors who were unable to crack the varsity and put them in 3 of the 4 doubles spots. So it was to my surprise as I arrived that all three singles positions had advanced to the second round, and that both doubles teams had lost!
Of course, as I gathered information, I found that #1 doubles (Misha Rebec and Claude Stickler) had lost to the eventual champions at #1 doubles. In fact, they played them closer than any of the subsequent opponents would. And Jake Gerig and Evan Grimes had lost in a tiebreak, so even these matches had been competitive.
But their was Ike Lehman, little freshman that could, entering the second round matchup against the favorite Warsaw Tigers. Before he went onto the court for his second match, Ike was worried because Gavin McGrath, his Tiger opponent, was obviously better than him. I told him he had two options against a better opponent. One, get everything back and hope he gets frustrated. Two, go for power and winners and hope you are on your game. Ike looked confused, but then chose option one. And after an hour of play in his match, he was tied at 4-4. It was one of the matches I was most proud about throughout the season. He tired a bit in the end and couldn't keep up the consistency, eventually losing 8-5. But, what I love was his ability to listen to his coach, make a decision, and give his full effort behind that.
Then there was Matt Ebersole, who played a very up-and-down tournament. First round, Matt scalded a very good player from Plymouth High School. Second round, Matt played Goshen. Now, Matt was playing #2 singles, but when we played Goshen in the season, he had played #1 singles and had won. Today, he lost the match at #2 singles. In the 3rd place game, Matt smoked Concord's #2. So, two good matches, one bad equals 3rd place. Still, another lesson learned. Consistency in level of play is as important as anything else in tennis.
And then Blake Shetler. Playing the #1 singles spot, Blake came up against Goshen in the first round and won 8-2. Then he took on Plymouth's Lane Singleton. Singleton had just taken out Northridge's AJ Thielking 8-1, and so was playing well. And Blake was too. In a great back and forth match, they traded deuces, advantages, games, and eventually Blake was able to pull out a 8-6 win. But the how was what encouraged me the most. When Blake was under pressure, he attacked! He came to the net, he upped his level of aggressiveness and actually was able to win the match with an overhead.
What is even more remarkable? He had missed an overhead for match point earlier in the game. While attacking, while being aggressive, he had an overhead to kill off the match and missed. Still, he didn't let that get him down. He asserted himself to continue doing the right thing, and it paid off with a victory.
He lost in the final to an extremely consistent player from Warsaw. But I was still glad with everyone's effort. #1 doubles ended up in 5th, and #2 doubles in 7th. All in all, we took 3rd place, behind Warsaw and Northridge. But we finished in front of Concord, Elkhart Memorial, Goshen, Plymouth and Wawasee! Nice...
And we learned lessons:
1. Listen to your coach, make a decision, and give your full effort behind that.
2. Consistency in level of play is as important as anything else in tennis.
3. Under pressure, attack!
4. When you make mistakes, keep at it