Long last day of matches on Hilton Head. Started off by picking up group B at 7:30am (4:30 pacific time) for our morning match against Oberlin. Against the OC I decided to move Thomas and Conor up to one doubles and put a new pairing of Jasper and Quin at #2 doubles. The blustery winds didn't allow for either team to play their best tennis. Despite the wind we were able to post an 8-6 win at #1 doubles, 8-0 win at #2 doubles and David/Reid won 8-1 at #3 doubles.
In singles Jasper continued his torrential play posting a quick 6-0, 6-0 win at #2 singles. In his last 3 matches his scores has been 6-2 6-0, 8-0 and 6-0 6-0. This break has been very good for his game. Quin had a very competitive first set against the OC's #1 player. After breaking to go up 6-5 Quin only dropped 1 game for a 7-5, 6-1 victory. Thomas looked a bit bewildered in the wind but still managed to win 6-3, 6-2 at #3. Conor and David both posted routine wins at #4 and #5. Reid was especially impressive in his 6-2, 6-0 victory in the last spring break match of his career.
As we were finishing up with Oberlin, Coach Jennifer took the rest of the team to warm-up for our show down with #18 DePauw. Myself and group B was able to catch-up with the rest of the team with about half an hour left in the warm-up.
I was really looking forward to our match with DePauw. Not only is DePauw traditionally one of the best programs in DIII but they are a good group of guys and they have a very classy coach. It is nice going into a match without umpires knowing that the opposing team will be competitive, respectful and their coach will keep players in line (not that this is a problem for DePauw). This is a major contrast to a team we played earlier week.
We just can't find our groove in doubles! It's frustrating to know we are close to some of the better teams in the nation but just can't grab the lead after doubles. Obviously it is nice having the lead after the doubles, but even more important it sets the tone going into singles. Typically the team that grabs the lead is loose and plays aggressive going into singles. Its crazy but these pro-sets in doubles really have a huge influence (probably too big an influence) on the outcome of the match.
Against DePauw we got rocked at #3 doubles. Jake and Nadeem had game points in almost all the games but ended up on the short end of a 8-0 match. Somehow Dan and Justin managed to find a way to win 8-6 after being down 4-6 (DePauw serving). I didn't realize it until someone told me, but Dan and Justin haven't lost a match all year. What an effort by these two! With the doubles knotted at 1-1 the lead came down to #1 doubles. Christoph and Quin were up a break at 6-5 playing very good tennis. Unfortunately a sloppy service game let the DePauw team right back in the match. At 7-8 DePauw was able to break serve to take the match. Christoph and Quin have proved they have ability to play with the best #1 teams in the nation. Now they just need to get over the hump of learning how to close out matches.
Singles didn't get much better. The bright spot of the day was the continued strong play of Adriel. Even though the team match was decided (7-1) Adriel showed a great attitude and competitive spirit at #6. In fact, Adriel was down 3 match points in the 3rd set super breaker (6-9) before winning 5 points in a row for a 4-6, 7-6, 11-9 victory! Wow!
Great spring break trip for us. Combining our conference matches last week we went 11-2 over the past two weeks (in college tennis that is a crazy amount of matches). Plus our only losses were to two top 25 schools. Puts us 19-4 on the year and only 1 match away from another 20 win season.
1 comment:
Great week guys!! Wow, Coach you are up early:) Hope you and Jen are having a good time... guys you did follow through with your assignment from me?? Have a fun day and a safe trip back! Coach Ann
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