We traveled to Clover today to play in a match that decided the final region standings. With a win, we could have forced a three-way tie for second place. However, we were defeated in a match with a lot of close results at the individual line. Their coach even agreed that we were a better team than we were earlier in the year even though the overall score reflects a 0-7 loss as all the matches played closer than he remembered.
With the loss we finished in fourth place, regardless of the Rock Hill outcome against Fort Mill tonight. The region champion is Fort Mill (assuming win 14-0), followed by second place Clover (11-3), then Rock Hill (assuming loss 10-4), and then us (9-5).
Thankfully, I discussed the playoff dates with the Clover coach as I assumed that our first match would be played on Thursday May 1 as per the information I received from the SCHSL at the initial coaches meeting (see below top link). However, we will actually play on Tuesday April 29 against the #1 seed out of Region II at their courts. I am predicting this to be against Spartanburg High School as they have been in the #3 spot in the state rankings all year and have not moved down (usually you move down with a loss, especially in region).
http://www.schsl.org/2007/2007-08%20Rules%20Section.pdf - see page 31 playoff dates
http://www.schsl.org/2007/2007-2008%20AAAA%20handbook.pdf - see page 58 playoff dates, these are the rules we are going by for playoffs
I advised the boys on the busride home that we will need to get them out of class on Tuesday around 2:45 so that we can change and hit the road by 3:15 at the latest to get to Spartanburg. If we are successful in an upset of Spartanburg, our next match would be Thursday and on the road again as we are the lower seed in our bracket. I assume that any remaining matches would be played on the road, so we need to get in Road Warrior mindsets over the weekend.
Go Trojans!
Box Score:
1S: Chase Altieri (C) def Jeff Zimmerman 7-6, 2-6, 10-6
2S: Nick Deahl (C) def Seth Russell 7-5, 6-1
3S: Ken Long (C) def Zach Beaver 6-2, 6-2
4S: Will Decker (C) def Alex Atzberger 6-0, 6-2
5S: Tucker DeLoach (C) def Drayton Wade 6-3, 2-6, 10-8
1D: Altieri/Deahl (C) def Russell/Atzberger 8-6
2D: Josh Watts/JC Dougherty (C) def Brian Fitzpatrick/Paul Sabisch 7-6, 6-4
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Northwestern Clinches playoff berth with 7-0 win over York
The Trojans were on fire tonight as we blitzed past York 7-0 to clinch a spot in the playoffs. Our overall record now stands at 10-6 with a 9-4 standing in our region matches. We saluted our seniors (and Alex) tonight after the match with some cake to thank them for their dedication. I again want to express my sincere thanks to our seniors Jeff Zimmerman, Paul Sabisch, Zach Beaver, Eric Sabin, and Sudeep Das for their hard work this year and for all their years of competing on behalf of Northwestern. And thanks to Alex, for coming to Rock Hill via foreign exchange and participating with us this year. You are all intregal pieces of our team!
Our first win of the night came courtesy of Zach Beaver with a 6-0, 6-0 win at 3 singles. Closely following Zach was Alex Atzberger with a win of 6-0, 6-1. Seth Russell finished next after playing good tennis at line 2 to come away with a 6-0, 6-1 win as well.
Drayton Wade provided our clinching win at 5 singles by taking a first set by score of 6-0 and playing a fairly even second set of 6-4.
We played both doubles lines at the same time again tonight as a courtesy to York who wanted to get the match played quickly for academic reasons. Our 1 doubles line was comprised of Paul Sabisch and Eric Sabin. Paul had asked me earlier in the season to play the two of them together and I obliged on this occasion. The fact that Paul left out of this request (and informed me of after their match) was that they hadn't ever won together. Well tonight was their first win together as they defeated the 1 doubles line from York 6-3, 6-4.
Sudeep Das and Brian Fitzpatrick teamed up to play our 2 doubles line against York. After a strong start and first set win of 6-0, they dropped the second set by score of 6-7 and were pushed to a decisive 10-point tiebreak. They never trailed in the tiebreak, although it got interesting near the end, and clinched the line with a score of 10-6.
York's number 1 gave Jeff some trouble last time around and today was no different. Jeff trailed in both sets 1-4 and staged a comeback in each to win by score of 7-6, 6-4 and went through 2 sets of racket strings in the process.
This win likely has put us in a tie for third with Rock Hill if they were successful tonight over Lancaster. Clover has only 3 losses and played South Pointe tonight and I assume they were successful. We travel to Clover to try to throw a monkey wrench into the region standings on Thursday. I assume that the tie breaker between us and Rock Hill is # of lines won and they have the advantage with their 6-1 defeat of us at their place. We suffered a defeat to Clover by score of 5-2 previously as well. If we are able to even our tiebreak with Clover with a 5-2 win or better, it could be an interesting meeting with the region coordinator on Monday night.
Go Trojans!
Box Score:
1S: Jeff Zimmerman (N) def Chris Suggs 7-6, 6-4
2S: Seth Russell (N) def Tyler Sloan 6-0, 6-1
3S: Zach Beaver (N) def Mitesh Patel 6-0, 6-0
4S: Alex Atzberger (N) def Rick Carver 6-0, 6-1
5S: Drayton Wade (N) def Jensen Fisk 6-0, 6-4
1D: Paul Sabisch/Eric Sabin (N) def Joe Gegraw/Kyle Spears 6-3, 6-4
2D: Sudeep Das/Brian Fitzpatrick (N) def Nathan Patrick/Charlie Lawson 6-0, 6-7, 10-6
Our first win of the night came courtesy of Zach Beaver with a 6-0, 6-0 win at 3 singles. Closely following Zach was Alex Atzberger with a win of 6-0, 6-1. Seth Russell finished next after playing good tennis at line 2 to come away with a 6-0, 6-1 win as well.
Drayton Wade provided our clinching win at 5 singles by taking a first set by score of 6-0 and playing a fairly even second set of 6-4.
We played both doubles lines at the same time again tonight as a courtesy to York who wanted to get the match played quickly for academic reasons. Our 1 doubles line was comprised of Paul Sabisch and Eric Sabin. Paul had asked me earlier in the season to play the two of them together and I obliged on this occasion. The fact that Paul left out of this request (and informed me of after their match) was that they hadn't ever won together. Well tonight was their first win together as they defeated the 1 doubles line from York 6-3, 6-4.
Sudeep Das and Brian Fitzpatrick teamed up to play our 2 doubles line against York. After a strong start and first set win of 6-0, they dropped the second set by score of 6-7 and were pushed to a decisive 10-point tiebreak. They never trailed in the tiebreak, although it got interesting near the end, and clinched the line with a score of 10-6.
York's number 1 gave Jeff some trouble last time around and today was no different. Jeff trailed in both sets 1-4 and staged a comeback in each to win by score of 7-6, 6-4 and went through 2 sets of racket strings in the process.
This win likely has put us in a tie for third with Rock Hill if they were successful tonight over Lancaster. Clover has only 3 losses and played South Pointe tonight and I assume they were successful. We travel to Clover to try to throw a monkey wrench into the region standings on Thursday. I assume that the tie breaker between us and Rock Hill is # of lines won and they have the advantage with their 6-1 defeat of us at their place. We suffered a defeat to Clover by score of 5-2 previously as well. If we are able to even our tiebreak with Clover with a 5-2 win or better, it could be an interesting meeting with the region coordinator on Monday night.
Go Trojans!
Box Score:
1S: Jeff Zimmerman (N) def Chris Suggs 7-6, 6-4
2S: Seth Russell (N) def Tyler Sloan 6-0, 6-1
3S: Zach Beaver (N) def Mitesh Patel 6-0, 6-0
4S: Alex Atzberger (N) def Rick Carver 6-0, 6-1
5S: Drayton Wade (N) def Jensen Fisk 6-0, 6-4
1D: Paul Sabisch/Eric Sabin (N) def Joe Gegraw/Kyle Spears 6-3, 6-4
2D: Sudeep Das/Brian Fitzpatrick (N) def Nathan Patrick/Charlie Lawson 6-0, 6-7, 10-6
Monday, April 21, 2008
Northwestern wins rematch over rival Rock Hill High
The Trojans won their match tonight by score of 4-3 over arch-rival Rock Hill. With the victory, we improve to 9-6 overall and 8-4 in region.
Our first win came courtesy of Alex Atzberger at 4 singles. By score of 6-4, 6-0 Alex put us on the board first. Some errors in the first set made it close, but Alex played nearly flawless to close out the second set with a bagel.
Next to finish was Jeff Zimmerman at 1 singles. Jeff avenged his defeat earlier this season to Rock Hill by dominating from beginning to end and scored a win by score of 6-1, 6-2.
The third match to clear was Seth Russell at 2 singles. After dropping the forst set 6-4 and trailing 5-2, Seth nearly came back in the second set. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be and the second set was an identical 6-4 score for Rock Hill's first point.
Fourth to finish was our 2 doubles line of Brian Fitzpatrick and Paul Sabisch. Rock Hill's doubles team played strong and took the line by score of 6-2, 6-4. We now sat even up for the match at 2-2.
Next to finish was another victory for us at 3 singles. Zach Beaver played a strong first set and won by score of 6-3. The second set played a little closer and Zach eeked out a straight set victory by score of 6-4. The Trojans now lead by score of 3-2.
At 5 singles, Drayton Wade had dropped a first set in a tiebreaker 6-7. Drayton came up with the second set by score of 6-3 and forced our clinching point into a tiebreaker for the match. Drayton lead the entire way of the tiebreak and won it 10-4 to clinch his match and the overall match with our decisive fourth point. We then proceded to drop the 1 doubles point for a final score of 4-3.
We have put ourselves in a position to lift up our overall region standing to second or third place with a lot of it on our shoulders. We first need to focus on York High tomorrow night at home and take care of business on the road at Clover on Thursday.
Go Trojans!
Box Score:
1S: Jeff Zimmerman (N) def Glen Thomason 6-2, 6-1
2S: Jared McCoy (R) def Seth Russell (N) 6-4, 6-4
3S: Zach Beaver (N) def Kevin Gaulden (R) 6-3, 6-4
4S: Alex Atzberger (N) def Nihal Patel (R) 6-4, 6-0
5S: Drayton Wade (N) def Alex Silverman (R) 6-7, 6-3, 10-4
1D: Thomason/McCoy (R) def Zimmerman/Russell (N) 8-3
2D: Mitesh Patel/Austin Shores (R) def Brian Fitzpatrick/Paul Sabisch (N) 6-2, 6-4
Order of finish: 4s, 1s, 2s, 2d, 3s, 5s
Our first win came courtesy of Alex Atzberger at 4 singles. By score of 6-4, 6-0 Alex put us on the board first. Some errors in the first set made it close, but Alex played nearly flawless to close out the second set with a bagel.
Next to finish was Jeff Zimmerman at 1 singles. Jeff avenged his defeat earlier this season to Rock Hill by dominating from beginning to end and scored a win by score of 6-1, 6-2.
The third match to clear was Seth Russell at 2 singles. After dropping the forst set 6-4 and trailing 5-2, Seth nearly came back in the second set. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be and the second set was an identical 6-4 score for Rock Hill's first point.
Fourth to finish was our 2 doubles line of Brian Fitzpatrick and Paul Sabisch. Rock Hill's doubles team played strong and took the line by score of 6-2, 6-4. We now sat even up for the match at 2-2.
Next to finish was another victory for us at 3 singles. Zach Beaver played a strong first set and won by score of 6-3. The second set played a little closer and Zach eeked out a straight set victory by score of 6-4. The Trojans now lead by score of 3-2.
At 5 singles, Drayton Wade had dropped a first set in a tiebreaker 6-7. Drayton came up with the second set by score of 6-3 and forced our clinching point into a tiebreaker for the match. Drayton lead the entire way of the tiebreak and won it 10-4 to clinch his match and the overall match with our decisive fourth point. We then proceded to drop the 1 doubles point for a final score of 4-3.
We have put ourselves in a position to lift up our overall region standing to second or third place with a lot of it on our shoulders. We first need to focus on York High tomorrow night at home and take care of business on the road at Clover on Thursday.
Go Trojans!
Box Score:
1S: Jeff Zimmerman (N) def Glen Thomason 6-2, 6-1
2S: Jared McCoy (R) def Seth Russell (N) 6-4, 6-4
3S: Zach Beaver (N) def Kevin Gaulden (R) 6-3, 6-4
4S: Alex Atzberger (N) def Nihal Patel (R) 6-4, 6-0
5S: Drayton Wade (N) def Alex Silverman (R) 6-7, 6-3, 10-4
1D: Thomason/McCoy (R) def Zimmerman/Russell (N) 8-3
2D: Mitesh Patel/Austin Shores (R) def Brian Fitzpatrick/Paul Sabisch (N) 6-2, 6-4
Order of finish: 4s, 1s, 2s, 2d, 3s, 5s
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