In doubles we started very strong at #2 and #3. At #2 ET and Jake broke early and never looked back for a quick 8-1 victory. At #3 Justin and Dan jumped on a good Linfield team closing out the match 8-3. At #1 Quin and Christoph always seemed on the defensive. Christoph and Quin possess two of the best serves on the team. For some reason last night they really struggled with their serves: in fact, I'm pretty sure their 1st serve percentage was under 30% for the match. To their credit they kept digging themselves out of holes and broke Linfield at 5-7 putting the match back on serve. However Linfield was able to break to finish out the match 8-6.
In singles we started with #1 ET, #2 Chris, #3 Jake and #4 Dan (we have 4 indoor courts). Early in the match things we were on cruise control and we were steaming ahead. In all 4 matches we broke early and had command of all the matches. Someplace along the line our cruise control broke down and we started struggling. Jake was up 3-0 in the 1st and then went down 4-6, 0-5. Dan won the first but quickly when down 0-4 in the 2nd. While Jake and Dan were struggling, ET and Chris were able to put the hammer down both winning in straight sets.
With ET and Chris's victory we were able to take a 4-1 lead. Jake mounted a mini-rally at 0-5 but ended up dropping his match 4-6, 2-4. Match score now 4-2 with Dan starting his 3rd set and #5 (Quin) and #6 (Christoph) taking the courts. With Dan locked in a major battle, both Quin and Christoph won their 1st sets 6-1. At this point the team match looked like a lock since we only need to win 1 more set to clinch the team match. Dan ended up breaking serve at 4-4 and managed to serve out the match despite the Linfield opponent fighting off 3 match points. We now have the team match in hand 5-2 and up a set and a break at #5 and #6. However once Dan clinched the team match the air went out of our sails and we ended up dropping up 5 and 6 in 3rd set match tiebreaks.
Hats off to a very tough and competitive Linfield team. They came into our place and battled tooth and nail the entire match. As I told the team in our pre-match meeting is I look forward to playing Linfield because they are always fired up and will keep coming after you no matter the score. Coach Swanson does a great job getting his players ready to play.
Even though we ended up with a 5-4 victory we all felt horrible about the way the match played out. We had a very long, and incredibly positive, team meeting after the match. Hopefully this experience help our team develop as we head into spring break.
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