I was very proud to watch us play strong tonight and defeat South Pointe 6-1 to push us to 2-0 in region play. I could tell on the busride over that we seemed to have focus and that was evident in the first few matches off.
Jeff Zimmermanserved strong again and hit some great lines to score our first win 6-0, 6-2. Seth Russell was impressive at line 2 as well defeating his opponent 6-0, 6-1. Our 2 doubles team of Eric Sabin & Brian Fitzpatrick finished up next with a double bagel win 6-0, 6-0.
The remaining matches were close and I am glad that we pulled away in two of the three. Alex Atzberger had some difficulties in the beginning, but ended up cruising to a 6-3, 6-2 win at line 3. Zach Beaver played an aggressive opponent at line 4 that made every chance to charge the net against Zach. Zach took advantage of lobbing and continued to send the opponent back to the baseline. With Zach's speed & endurance and the well thought out lobs, he also secured a 6-3, 6-2 win at line 4.
The heartbreaker of the night was line 5. Drayton pulled out a nail-biter first set 7-5 before dropping the second set 6-4. In the 10 point tiebreak, he fell behind early 1-5 and eventually faced match point at 9-6. Drayton fought off three straight match points, 2 while serving and 1 on the return, to knot it up at 9 all. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be as the tie-breaker set went to South Pointe 12-10.
The match being decided, I re-paired the 1 doubles line and cut Jeff loose to attend his Clemson acceptance dinner. Seth & Alex performed well together as a doubles team and captured the line 8-2. Most of all, I liked that points were being won with volleys & overheads by us instead of solely relying on baseline groundstrokes and opponent unforced errors. I keep preaching that doubles matches are won by the team that gets to the net first and I think it may be sinking in a little.
All in all there was a lot be proud of. We are off to a good start in region play at 2-0 & are now above .500 for the first time this season at 3-2. Doubles continues to be a strength for us at both lines as we are now 9-1 overall for the year at our doubles lines. We'll continue to practice hard tomorrow, Saturday (optional) and Monday to prepare ourselves for next Tuesday's home match against Nation Ford and road contest at York High.
Go Trojans!
Box Score:
1S: Zimmerman (N) def Cooke (S) 6-0, 6-2
2S: Russell (N) def Carter (S) 6-0, 6-1
3S: Atzberger (N) def Jolly (S) 6-3, 6-2
4S: Z Beaver (N) def Williamson (S) 6-3, 6-2
5S: Sanford (S) def Wade (N) 5-7, 6-4, 12-10
1D: Russell/Atzberger (N) def Cooke/Carter (S) 8-2
2D: Sabin/Fitzpatrick (N) def Clamp/Nguyen (S) 6-0, 6-0
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Northwestern defeats Lancaster
Tonight's match against Lancaster provided us with a win to open up play in Region 3-AAAA. In fairly dominating fashion, we took the wind right out of Lancaster's sails with a 6-1 victory. With the win, we are now 2-2 overall and 1-0 in region play tied for first place (I don't know results of the other region matches, but at 1-0 we have to be in first!). We swept all 5 singles lines and were well on our way to a 1st doubles win when the match was decided and doubles cut to an 8-game proset.
The first match to clear the court was Jeff Zimmerman at 1st singles. Zimmerman made quick work of his Lancaster opponent 6-1, 6-1 behind strong serving and well thought out groundstrokes. At 2 singles, Seth Russell was the second match off after battling out some good rallies to claim a victory 6-2, 6-2. Drayton Wade overcame some serving difficulties and was third to finish today with a 6-2, 6-4 win at 5 singles.
The fourth match to finish was Alex Atzberger at 3rd singles. After dropping the first set 4-6, Alex bounced back to claim the second set 6-2 and force a 3rd set tiebreaker. After falling behind 1-5 Alex staged a come back, starting with 4 straight points off the changeover, to win the decisive 10-point tiebreak 11-9 clinching the victory for us.
4 singles featured Zach Beaver going against an opponent that seemed to be able to rally with him. In the end Zach brought the thunder, and to no surprise of the Northwestern faithful, outlasted his opponent with rallies that Drayton claims reached 100 shots (I counted one at 98). The final score was 6-4, 6-3.
The final match to clear the courts was 2 doubles with Northwestern's Aiken superstars Brian Fitzpatrick & Sudeep Das. In a nailbiter of a first set, the duo dropped a tiebreaker to Lancaster before dropping the second set 6-4 in a back & forth doubles match. But for a few points in this match, it could have been a clean sweep for the Tennis Trojans tonight.
The team heads to South Pointe tomorrow for our second region match of the 08 season against our cross town rival Stallions. We hope to keep the streak alive after 2 solid wins and extend ourselves to 2-0 in region play. We will be wearing white jerseys tomorrow and need to be outside the courts at 4:00 to board the bus. Paul will be taking Alex over after band practice at 4:30 to hopefully start promptly at 5:00.
Go Trojans!
Box score:
1S: Zimmerman (NW) def Catoe (L) 6-1, 6-1
2S: Russell (NW) def Deveney (L) 6-2, 6-2
3S: Atzberger (NW) def Cifialano (L) 4-6, 6-2, 11-9 TB
4S: Z Beaver (NW) def Kramer (L) 6-4, 6-3
5S: Wade (NW) def Lo (L) 6-2, 6-4
1D: Zimmerman/Russell (NW) def Catoe/Deveney (L)8-4
2D: Adams/McRedeck (L) def Fitzpatrick/Das (NW)7-6, 6-4
The first match to clear the court was Jeff Zimmerman at 1st singles. Zimmerman made quick work of his Lancaster opponent 6-1, 6-1 behind strong serving and well thought out groundstrokes. At 2 singles, Seth Russell was the second match off after battling out some good rallies to claim a victory 6-2, 6-2. Drayton Wade overcame some serving difficulties and was third to finish today with a 6-2, 6-4 win at 5 singles.
The fourth match to finish was Alex Atzberger at 3rd singles. After dropping the first set 4-6, Alex bounced back to claim the second set 6-2 and force a 3rd set tiebreaker. After falling behind 1-5 Alex staged a come back, starting with 4 straight points off the changeover, to win the decisive 10-point tiebreak 11-9 clinching the victory for us.
4 singles featured Zach Beaver going against an opponent that seemed to be able to rally with him. In the end Zach brought the thunder, and to no surprise of the Northwestern faithful, outlasted his opponent with rallies that Drayton claims reached 100 shots (I counted one at 98). The final score was 6-4, 6-3.
The final match to clear the courts was 2 doubles with Northwestern's Aiken superstars Brian Fitzpatrick & Sudeep Das. In a nailbiter of a first set, the duo dropped a tiebreaker to Lancaster before dropping the second set 6-4 in a back & forth doubles match. But for a few points in this match, it could have been a clean sweep for the Tennis Trojans tonight.
The team heads to South Pointe tomorrow for our second region match of the 08 season against our cross town rival Stallions. We hope to keep the streak alive after 2 solid wins and extend ourselves to 2-0 in region play. We will be wearing white jerseys tomorrow and need to be outside the courts at 4:00 to board the bus. Paul will be taking Alex over after band practice at 4:30 to hopefully start promptly at 5:00.
Go Trojans!
Box score:
1S: Zimmerman (NW) def Catoe (L) 6-1, 6-1
2S: Russell (NW) def Deveney (L) 6-2, 6-2
3S: Atzberger (NW) def Cifialano (L) 4-6, 6-2, 11-9 TB
4S: Z Beaver (NW) def Kramer (L) 6-4, 6-3
5S: Wade (NW) def Lo (L) 6-2, 6-4
1D: Zimmerman/Russell (NW) def Catoe/Deveney (L)8-4
2D: Adams/McRedeck (L) def Fitzpatrick/Das (NW)7-6, 6-4
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
3/4 match against Lancaster cancelled
Due to rain, our home match against Lancaster today will be re-scheduled for Wed 3/5 at 5PM at Northwestern. We will have indoor workouts in lieu of practice tonight from 4:45 - 5:45 PM.
Chance of Rain & Thunderstorms Tonight for Match vs. Lancaster
In reviewing the weather forecast, it does not look promising for a 5PM outdoor tennis match. Assuming that the forecast holds true, we will be pushing today's match back to tomorrow at Northwestern HS @ 5PM.
On the good news side, our team shorts have finally arrived. Adidas never ended up getting around to us & kept telling us that their shorts were back-ordered. I ended up changing to a different short of better material (and higher cost that the screen printing company ate the cost for). The shorts will be distributed tonight at practice/match for the boys to wear during matches.
And several boys asked me about ordering additional sweats and tee-shirts. I have advised them to discuss with parents and let me know today in writing what items they would like to purchase. I will have to get a new quote that will be higher than the original since it is in lesser quantities. However, if I get a written request, it is a commitment to buying these items as I will be placing the order Wednesday.
Go Trojans!
On the good news side, our team shorts have finally arrived. Adidas never ended up getting around to us & kept telling us that their shorts were back-ordered. I ended up changing to a different short of better material (and higher cost that the screen printing company ate the cost for). The shorts will be distributed tonight at practice/match for the boys to wear during matches.
And several boys asked me about ordering additional sweats and tee-shirts. I have advised them to discuss with parents and let me know today in writing what items they would like to purchase. I will have to get a new quote that will be higher than the original since it is in lesser quantities. However, if I get a written request, it is a commitment to buying these items as I will be placing the order Wednesday.
Go Trojans!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Update from Aiken Day 2
Greetings back from Rock Hill!
I am back from the South Aiken High School Invitational after a good
weekend of tennis with fantastic weather and wonderful facilities. I
stuck around to watch the final between South Aiken A and Spartanburg
in which Spartanburg won the tournament with a 4-3 victory clinched by
a 6-2,6-4 1st doubles win.
An interesting nugget about Spartanburg is that their #1 player has a
severe shoulder muscle pull and was unable to serve overhand or hit any
overheads. He went undefeated in both singles and doubles all weekend
with his underhand-spin serve and didn't drop a set or even get forced
into a tiebreaker. In the three matches of his that I witnessed he had
no double faults either while serving underhand. He's a pretty
impressive player.
The team and attending parents along with myself enjoyed a delicious
BBQ dinner at Woodside Plantation Country Club last night. The dining
room was second to none in presentation (table napkins in school colors
was my favorite touch) and the food was right up there too.
We met back at the hotel after dinner and had a meeting to go over the
details for Saturday. Then we had a competitive game of Cranium with
the teams of Zimmerman/Fitzpatrick/Sabin/Sabisch taking on
Beaver/Das/Russell/Wade. The latter took home the crown as current
team Cranium champions.
We arose early this morning to get a good hotel breakfast and departed
to take on Blythewood High in our first match. Blythewood is a strong
team that had been defeated by a very good South Aiken A team in a
tight match the night before.
We lost the overall match 2-4. Winning individual matches were Zach
"Thunder" Beaver at 4 singles in a runaway 6-0,6-2. Also, our 2nd
Doubles team of Brian Fitzpatrick & Sudeep Das won a close one. Their
first set could have gone either way and they scrapped out a 7-5 win
and finished very strong in the second set 6-2. Blythewood has
extremely strong, experienced 1, 2, and 3 singles players and they made
fairly quick work of us in those positions. Paul Sabisch filled in at
5 singles to play left-handed and fell, in a
closer-than-the-score-shows, 0-6,2-6.
Our last match of the day was for 7th place in the tournament after
suffering back to back defeats. We faced the South Aiken High B Team
who had been brought in as filler due to a last minute back out of the
tournament by Spring Valley. We decided to play with our lineup a
little bit since we had nothing to lose in this match. Our lineup for
this match got all 8 traveling players in the match and ended up being
just enough to win in the end.
Zimmerman made quick work at 1 singles with a 6-0,6-3 victory featuring
strong service games and quick rallies ending in a lot of winners for
him. "Thunder" Beaver faced a streaky South Aiken player, who probably
would be on their A team with better consistency on his serve, and fell
3-6, 2-6 at 2 singles. Sabisch played a nail biter first set to a
score of 5-7, but then his opponent's eyes were unfocused from the
bright orange cast on Paul's right arm and pulled away 2-6.
Fitzpatrick won in quick fashion at 4 singles by a score of 6-0,6-2 and
had enough energy left over to win a pro-set against another South
Aiken reserve after his match. Eric Sabin dropped a close straight set
match at 5 singles with a 4-6,4-6 result. Our 2 doubles team featured
our unique combination of Seth Russell and Das who extinguished their
opponents 6-2,6-4.
It all came down to 1 doubles with the score tied at 3 matches a piece. Zimmerman and Drayton Wade teamed up to take on the South Aiken B's 1
& 2 players. Behind strong serving from both Jeff and Drayton as well
as good strategy, they clinched the 4-3 victory for us by a score of
6-4,6-2.
Recapping the weekend's results, individual records were:
Zimmerman 1-2 singles, 2-0 doubles
Russell 0-2 singles, 2-0 doubles
Wade 0-2 singles, 1-0 doubles
Beaver 2-1 singles
Sabin 1-1 singles
Sabisch 0-2 singles
Das 3-0 doubles
Fitzpatrick 1-0 singles, 2-0 doubles
match results were:
Aiken High defeated Northwestern 3-4
Blythewood defeated Northwestern 2-4
Northwestern defeated South Aiken B 4-3
I would have to say that I was extremely pleased with the three wins at
2 doubles and 2 wins at 1 doubles. We haven't spent an incredible
amount of time on doubles strategy up to this point in practice, so
going undefeated in our doubles matches was something to be excited
about. Also, "Thunder" Beaver got some big wins in singles with his
unique "I can out-rally a wall" style of play. He faced opponents all
weekend that were probably more skilled tennis-wise, but they were
unable to keep the ball in play for 20-30 swings per rally like Zach
could and he wore them all down point by point. Fitzpatrick & Das were
a good combo together and apart as both went undefeated for the
weekend.
That all being said, I look forward to getting back to practice Monday
and addressing some areas of opportunity. We open the region schedule
against Lancaster on Tuesday at home. We have to focus on every
individual match in region to make sure we capitalize on as many as we
can.
Go Trojans!
Oh, and in case you were wondering how I got the nickname "Thunder" for
Zach it was from the most comical moment of the weekend for me
personally. Zach was facing match point from his opponent from South
Aiken down 0-6, 2-5. I was walking back from the 2 doubles court when
I saw Zach laughing and talking to the players that were watching his
match. He assumed his service return position & his opponent smacked a
hard first serve at his forehand. As Zach wound up to take his hardest
swing of the weekend, he let out a yell of "THUNDER!" before ripping
the return shot that sailed out to the left. Even his opponent
couldn't stop from laughing.
I am back from the South Aiken High School Invitational after a good
weekend of tennis with fantastic weather and wonderful facilities. I
stuck around to watch the final between South Aiken A and Spartanburg
in which Spartanburg won the tournament with a 4-3 victory clinched by
a 6-2,6-4 1st doubles win.
An interesting nugget about Spartanburg is that their #1 player has a
severe shoulder muscle pull and was unable to serve overhand or hit any
overheads. He went undefeated in both singles and doubles all weekend
with his underhand-spin serve and didn't drop a set or even get forced
into a tiebreaker. In the three matches of his that I witnessed he had
no double faults either while serving underhand. He's a pretty
impressive player.
The team and attending parents along with myself enjoyed a delicious
BBQ dinner at Woodside Plantation Country Club last night. The dining
room was second to none in presentation (table napkins in school colors
was my favorite touch) and the food was right up there too.
We met back at the hotel after dinner and had a meeting to go over the
details for Saturday. Then we had a competitive game of Cranium with
the teams of Zimmerman/Fitzpatrick/Sabin/Sabisch taking on
Beaver/Das/Russell/Wade. The latter took home the crown as current
team Cranium champions.
We arose early this morning to get a good hotel breakfast and departed
to take on Blythewood High in our first match. Blythewood is a strong
team that had been defeated by a very good South Aiken A team in a
tight match the night before.
We lost the overall match 2-4. Winning individual matches were Zach
"Thunder" Beaver at 4 singles in a runaway 6-0,6-2. Also, our 2nd
Doubles team of Brian Fitzpatrick & Sudeep Das won a close one. Their
first set could have gone either way and they scrapped out a 7-5 win
and finished very strong in the second set 6-2. Blythewood has
extremely strong, experienced 1, 2, and 3 singles players and they made
fairly quick work of us in those positions. Paul Sabisch filled in at
5 singles to play left-handed and fell, in a
closer-than-the-score-shows, 0-6,2-6.
Our last match of the day was for 7th place in the tournament after
suffering back to back defeats. We faced the South Aiken High B Team
who had been brought in as filler due to a last minute back out of the
tournament by Spring Valley. We decided to play with our lineup a
little bit since we had nothing to lose in this match. Our lineup for
this match got all 8 traveling players in the match and ended up being
just enough to win in the end.
Zimmerman made quick work at 1 singles with a 6-0,6-3 victory featuring
strong service games and quick rallies ending in a lot of winners for
him. "Thunder" Beaver faced a streaky South Aiken player, who probably
would be on their A team with better consistency on his serve, and fell
3-6, 2-6 at 2 singles. Sabisch played a nail biter first set to a
score of 5-7, but then his opponent's eyes were unfocused from the
bright orange cast on Paul's right arm and pulled away 2-6.
Fitzpatrick won in quick fashion at 4 singles by a score of 6-0,6-2 and
had enough energy left over to win a pro-set against another South
Aiken reserve after his match. Eric Sabin dropped a close straight set
match at 5 singles with a 4-6,4-6 result. Our 2 doubles team featured
our unique combination of Seth Russell and Das who extinguished their
opponents 6-2,6-4.
It all came down to 1 doubles with the score tied at 3 matches a piece. Zimmerman and Drayton Wade teamed up to take on the South Aiken B's 1
& 2 players. Behind strong serving from both Jeff and Drayton as well
as good strategy, they clinched the 4-3 victory for us by a score of
6-4,6-2.
Recapping the weekend's results, individual records were:
Zimmerman 1-2 singles, 2-0 doubles
Russell 0-2 singles, 2-0 doubles
Wade 0-2 singles, 1-0 doubles
Beaver 2-1 singles
Sabin 1-1 singles
Sabisch 0-2 singles
Das 3-0 doubles
Fitzpatrick 1-0 singles, 2-0 doubles
match results were:
Aiken High defeated Northwestern 3-4
Blythewood defeated Northwestern 2-4
Northwestern defeated South Aiken B 4-3
I would have to say that I was extremely pleased with the three wins at
2 doubles and 2 wins at 1 doubles. We haven't spent an incredible
amount of time on doubles strategy up to this point in practice, so
going undefeated in our doubles matches was something to be excited
about. Also, "Thunder" Beaver got some big wins in singles with his
unique "I can out-rally a wall" style of play. He faced opponents all
weekend that were probably more skilled tennis-wise, but they were
unable to keep the ball in play for 20-30 swings per rally like Zach
could and he wore them all down point by point. Fitzpatrick & Das were
a good combo together and apart as both went undefeated for the
weekend.
That all being said, I look forward to getting back to practice Monday
and addressing some areas of opportunity. We open the region schedule
against Lancaster on Tuesday at home. We have to focus on every
individual match in region to make sure we capitalize on as many as we
can.
Go Trojans!
Oh, and in case you were wondering how I got the nickname "Thunder" for
Zach it was from the most comical moment of the weekend for me
personally. Zach was facing match point from his opponent from South
Aiken down 0-6, 2-5. I was walking back from the 2 doubles court when
I saw Zach laughing and talking to the players that were watching his
match. He assumed his service return position & his opponent smacked a
hard first serve at his forehand. As Zach wound up to take his hardest
swing of the weekend, he let out a yell of "THUNDER!" before ripping
the return shot that sailed out to the left. Even his opponent
couldn't stop from laughing.
Update from Aiken Day 1
Greetings from the South Aiken High Invitational!
We are through our first round match in Aiken. So far, the best news for me is that we have free internet in our rooms at the Sleep Inn in Aiken so I can update you all on today's action. I will update tomorrow's matches when we return from Rock Hill as we are checking out early tomorrow morning and I won't have access until I return home.
We had a strong showing in round 1, but came up just shy of beating Aiken High 3-4. Our first win came courtesy of Brian Fitzpatrick & Sudeep Das as they finished off their opponent at 2 Doubles in blitzing speed 6-0, 6-0. Our second win was via Eric Sabin at 5 Singles in a 3 set thriller 4-6, 6-0, 10-7 tiebreaker. Jeff Zimmerman & Seth Russell provided our third victory at 1 Doubles via an 8-game proset score of 8-2 after Aiken had clinched the match.
Our four defeats were all hard fought matches that started with Drayton Wade falling 2-6, 0-6 at 3 Singles. Our 4th singles line was almost a miraculous comeback with Zach Beaver fighting back from a 0-6 first set to win the 2nd set 6-3 and then fall in a heartbreaker tiebreaker 8-10. Jeff Zimmerman had the marathon match of the day winning the first set 7-5, before dropping the second set 6-2 and tiebreaker 6-10.
We fall into the backdraw & will face Blythewood HS who was a 2-4 loser against South Aiken High. Our match will be at 9 AM and we will play our final match at 1 PM. I personally will be sticking around to watch the final matches at 3PM and will bring back the boys that choose to stick around with me, putting me back in Rock Hill around 7:30 or 8 PM. Those that leave after our final match should be arriving back at NHS around 5:30 or 6 PM.
We are looking forward to our banquet tonight at Woodside Plantation Country Club and our BBQ dinner that our gracious hosts are providing. After dinner, we'll have a quick team meeting back at the hotel and a surprise team activity. We should be hitting the pillows around 11 PM tonight.
Another reminder for those team members who are wishing us luck from Rock Hill and may be looking for a tennis weekend activity, there are several options. The Winthrop Men's & Women's tennis teams will be hosting home matches on Saturday at 11 AM against Troy & Sunday at 1PM against USC Upstate. Also, there is a USTA sponsored tournament going on all weekend at the Rock Hill Tennis Center. Both events should offer great tennis viewing for those interested (and you can cheer onPam Zimmerman in her tournament matches!)
Go Trojans!
We are through our first round match in Aiken. So far, the best news for me is that we have free internet in our rooms at the Sleep Inn in Aiken so I can update you all on today's action. I will update tomorrow's matches when we return from Rock Hill as we are checking out early tomorrow morning and I won't have access until I return home.
We had a strong showing in round 1, but came up just shy of beating Aiken High 3-4. Our first win came courtesy of Brian Fitzpatrick & Sudeep Das as they finished off their opponent at 2 Doubles in blitzing speed 6-0, 6-0. Our second win was via Eric Sabin at 5 Singles in a 3 set thriller 4-6, 6-0, 10-7 tiebreaker. Jeff Zimmerman & Seth Russell provided our third victory at 1 Doubles via an 8-game proset score of 8-2 after Aiken had clinched the match.
Our four defeats were all hard fought matches that started with Drayton Wade falling 2-6, 0-6 at 3 Singles. Our 4th singles line was almost a miraculous comeback with Zach Beaver fighting back from a 0-6 first set to win the 2nd set 6-3 and then fall in a heartbreaker tiebreaker 8-10. Jeff Zimmerman had the marathon match of the day winning the first set 7-5, before dropping the second set 6-2 and tiebreaker 6-10.
We fall into the backdraw & will face Blythewood HS who was a 2-4 loser against South Aiken High. Our match will be at 9 AM and we will play our final match at 1 PM. I personally will be sticking around to watch the final matches at 3PM and will bring back the boys that choose to stick around with me, putting me back in Rock Hill around 7:30 or 8 PM. Those that leave after our final match should be arriving back at NHS around 5:30 or 6 PM.
We are looking forward to our banquet tonight at Woodside Plantation Country Club and our BBQ dinner that our gracious hosts are providing. After dinner, we'll have a quick team meeting back at the hotel and a surprise team activity. We should be hitting the pillows around 11 PM tonight.
Another reminder for those team members who are wishing us luck from Rock Hill and may be looking for a tennis weekend activity, there are several options. The Winthrop Men's & Women's tennis teams will be hosting home matches on Saturday at 11 AM against Troy & Sunday at 1PM against USC Upstate. Also, there is a USTA sponsored tournament going on all weekend at the Rock Hill Tennis Center. Both events should offer great tennis viewing for those interested (and you can cheer onPam Zimmerman in her tournament matches!)
Go Trojans!
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