We traveled to York Comprehensive High School for our 4th region match and produced stellar results to remain unbeaten in region matches. With the win, Northwestern moves to 5-2 overall and 4-0 in Region 3AAAA.
Believe it or not, the first match to clear the courts tonight was Zach Beaver with a prompt 6-0, 6-1 win at line 4 singles. Zach's consistency and speed proved to be no match for his York opponent in the speedy win. As I mentioned to those in attendance, I never thought I'd see the day that Zach finished first. He might need to run some windsprints tonight to make up for the typical workout he gets.
Next to clear the court was Alex Atzberger claiming our second win of the night with a 6-2, 6-0 win at line 3 singles. I was happy to see Alex serve well and hit balls deep for his opponent to run down from side to side. Seth finished shortly after Alex at line 2 singles with our third point of the night in a 6-1, 6-1 defeat. Seth's groundstrokes and pace kept his opponent off balance all night and he won with a variety of winners and few mistakes.
Our clinching fourth point came courtesy of Drayton Wade for the second consecutive match as he teamed with Brian Fitzpatrick at 2 doubles. After a back and forth first set, Brian held serve at 6-5 to claim a 7-5 first set. Once they figured out their opponent and each other, they cruised to a second set win 6-0.
Eric Sabin played singles tonight as I altered the lineup slightly and he played good consistent tennis to claim our 5th point of the night. Eric's serving, deep shots, and some good put-a-ways at the net proved the deciding factors as he won 6-4, 6-4 in a match that Eric controlled the big points.
Jeff Zimmerman claimed our 6th point of the night at first singles. After falling behind 4-1, Jeff battled back with a lot of service winners and line shots to win an exciting first set 7-5. Jeff controlled the action and the majority of the points in the second set to storm forward to a 6-4 win in the second set. My personal favorite highlight of the match was Jeff's serve toward the crowd that he went to his opponent's backhand and aced him. Not only did the ball get stuck in the fence, but it darn near went through it and his opponent had to set his racquet down and use both hands to remove it.
With the match in hand, Jeff and Alex teamed up for first doubles and finished off our clean sweep with an 8-1 proset win.
I was proud to see us dominate the match and claim all seven lines tonight without dropping a set. I told the boys on the bus ride home, that I will buy pizzas Monday after practice to celebrate the accomplishment. We should be proud to be out to such a fast start, but need to be on our toes next week as we will play host to the two region powerhouses. Clover will come to our courts Tuesday and region co-leader and pre-season 10th ranked Fort Mill will head our way Thursday. We must play our best tennis and control points, games and sets in order to produce the line wins as we have thus far.
Go Trojans!
Box Score:
Location: York High School
Result: Northwestern wins 7-0
1S: Jeff Zimmerman (N) def Chris Suggs (Y) 7-5, 6-4
2S: Seth Russell (N) def Tyler Sloan (Y) 6-1, 6-1
3S: Alex Atzberger (N) def Mitesh Patel (Y) 6-2, 6-0
4S: Zach Beaver (N) def Rich Carver (Y) 6-0, 6-1
5S: Eric Sabin (N) def Jensen Fisk (Y) 6-4, 6-4
1D: Zimmerman/Atzberger (N) def Sloan/Patel (Y) 8-1
2D: Brian Fitzpatrick/Drayton Wade (N) def Joe Degrow/Brandon Hedrick 7-5, 6-0
NW Record: 5-2 overall, 4-0 region 4AAA
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Northwestern claims all singles matches in defeat of Nation Ford
The boys found a way to win last night against a team that I would call a future region powerhouse. The Nation Ford roster consists of no seniors, 1 junior, and a 7th grader at 1 singles. No doubt they will improve the second time around this year and I would see them being quite good in future seasons.
Jeff Zimmerman again was the first to clear the courts with a 6-0, 6-1 win at 1 singles. Alex Atzberger handled his opponent at 3 singles and finished second with a final of 6-2, 6-1. Seth Russell finished next with an identical score of 6-2, 6-1.
Things got a little trickier at that point as Nation Ford was leading in all matches remaining on the court when Seth finished. I advised Seth & Jeff that the 1 doubles point could be the decisive factor and walked between the 2 doubles & 4th & 5th singles lines.
Drayton Wade fell behind early in the line 5 match with a first set score of 1-6, but managed to gain confidence and turn around the match in his favor. He won the second set 6-4 forcing the tiebreaker. Never trailing in the tiebreak, Drayton cruised to a 10-6 win for our clinching point.
By the time Drayton finished, Zach had almost finished his first set at line 4. Assuming that his match would probably outlast doubles, I headed over to 2 doubles to find them already in a final set tiebreak. Having dropped the first set 5-7, Brian Fitzpatrick & Eric Sabin came together and took the second set 7-5. However, Nation Ford played consistent tennis in the tiebreak and got out to an insurmountable lead at 9-1. Brian & Eric fought off three of the eight match points they were behind, but dropped the tiebreak 10-4.
Back to court 4 I travelled to find Zach finished with his first set, dropping it 5-7. I pulled Zach aside and we determined that there was no way his opponent could keep up the rallies as he was making attempts to come to net that Zach was easily lobbing over him causing him to do little more than run back & forth repeatedly. I advised Zach to make sure that he gives no points away and to run his opponent from side to side on every shot and to just wear him out. The strategy was simple and effective as Zach cruised to a 6-0 second set and a tiebreak clincher at 10-6. After the match, the Nation Ford player said "I feel like I just ran a marathon." Imagine if we played out dueces and/or played a full third set!
Seth and Jeff were into their 1 doubles match by this point which was shortened to an 8-game pro-set. They had some early difficulties, but ended up pulling it together and pulling away for an 8-3 victory.
With the win, we improve to 3-0 in region and 4-2 overall. We travel to York on Thursday for another region match. The bus will be at school at 4 PM and I would like us all to board as soon as possible. York's coach advised that they have a chorus performance at Winthrop tomorrow night so he'd like to start as soon as possible.
Go Trojans!
Box Score
1S Zimmerman (NW) def Ott (NF) 6-0, 6-1
2S Russell (NW) def Little (NF) 6-2, 6-1
3S Atzberger (NW) def McLelland (NF) 6-2, 6-1
4S Z Beaver (NW) def Randar (NF) 5-7, 6-0, 10-6
5S Wade (NW) def Hoberek (NF) 1-6, 6-4, 10-6
1D Zimmerman/Russell (NW) def Ott/McLelland (NF) 8-3
2D Morris/McGlohon (NF) def Fitzpatrick/Sabin (NW) 7-5, 5-7, 10-4
Jeff Zimmerman again was the first to clear the courts with a 6-0, 6-1 win at 1 singles. Alex Atzberger handled his opponent at 3 singles and finished second with a final of 6-2, 6-1. Seth Russell finished next with an identical score of 6-2, 6-1.
Things got a little trickier at that point as Nation Ford was leading in all matches remaining on the court when Seth finished. I advised Seth & Jeff that the 1 doubles point could be the decisive factor and walked between the 2 doubles & 4th & 5th singles lines.
Drayton Wade fell behind early in the line 5 match with a first set score of 1-6, but managed to gain confidence and turn around the match in his favor. He won the second set 6-4 forcing the tiebreaker. Never trailing in the tiebreak, Drayton cruised to a 10-6 win for our clinching point.
By the time Drayton finished, Zach had almost finished his first set at line 4. Assuming that his match would probably outlast doubles, I headed over to 2 doubles to find them already in a final set tiebreak. Having dropped the first set 5-7, Brian Fitzpatrick & Eric Sabin came together and took the second set 7-5. However, Nation Ford played consistent tennis in the tiebreak and got out to an insurmountable lead at 9-1. Brian & Eric fought off three of the eight match points they were behind, but dropped the tiebreak 10-4.
Back to court 4 I travelled to find Zach finished with his first set, dropping it 5-7. I pulled Zach aside and we determined that there was no way his opponent could keep up the rallies as he was making attempts to come to net that Zach was easily lobbing over him causing him to do little more than run back & forth repeatedly. I advised Zach to make sure that he gives no points away and to run his opponent from side to side on every shot and to just wear him out. The strategy was simple and effective as Zach cruised to a 6-0 second set and a tiebreak clincher at 10-6. After the match, the Nation Ford player said "I feel like I just ran a marathon." Imagine if we played out dueces and/or played a full third set!
Seth and Jeff were into their 1 doubles match by this point which was shortened to an 8-game pro-set. They had some early difficulties, but ended up pulling it together and pulling away for an 8-3 victory.
With the win, we improve to 3-0 in region and 4-2 overall. We travel to York on Thursday for another region match. The bus will be at school at 4 PM and I would like us all to board as soon as possible. York's coach advised that they have a chorus performance at Winthrop tomorrow night so he'd like to start as soon as possible.
Go Trojans!
Box Score
1S Zimmerman (NW) def Ott (NF) 6-0, 6-1
2S Russell (NW) def Little (NF) 6-2, 6-1
3S Atzberger (NW) def McLelland (NF) 6-2, 6-1
4S Z Beaver (NW) def Randar (NF) 5-7, 6-0, 10-6
5S Wade (NW) def Hoberek (NF) 1-6, 6-4, 10-6
1D Zimmerman/Russell (NW) def Ott/McLelland (NF) 8-3
2D Morris/McGlohon (NF) def Fitzpatrick/Sabin (NW) 7-5, 5-7, 10-4
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