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

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

Northwestern completes sweep of Nation Ford

If one were to scroll through my previous match post, I actually foresaw what happened tonight - Nation Ford improved dramatically in pretty much all areas. I feel we have improved too, but I was impressed with how far along they have come, especially at doubles and the lower singles lines. With our team win, we improve to 8-6 overall and 7-4 in region matches. This keeps us in 4th place in the region and still in the playoff hunt.

Jeff Zimmerman made similar work at 1 singles as he had previously by overpowering his opponent to a 6-0, 6-2 victory. Seth was also successful at 2 singles in a closer match this time around by score of 6-4, 6-2. Zach Beaver played a long match, but was dominant with a 6-0, 6-2 win at 3 singles.

Alex Atzberger won his first set 6-2, but hit a wall in the second set and dropped it 3-6. In the decisive tiebreak, Alex was successful at 4 singles to clinch our win with the decisive 4th point.

Paul Sabisch took on double duty tonight by playing a hard fought match at 5 singles that was dropped by score of 3-6, 3-6 before teaming with Seth at 1 doubles when the match was in hand. Our 2 doubles line of Brian Fitzpatrick & Drayton Wade that had been successful in recent matches never seemed to get in full stride and dropped the line by a close score of 4-6, 5-7 in a back and forth match.

The most impressive match of the night was played by Seth and Paul at 1 doubles. The match held little meaning as far as the end result, but these two played as hard as if it were a state championship clincher. They fell behind 2-7 in the 8-game proset and I honestly started looking around to clean up all our stuff to get on the bus. They went on a tear at that point to win 5 straight games and then trading off at the end to a tie score of 8-8. A tiebreaker was needed to decide the point which they unfortunately dropped 7-3. Regardless, I liked the teamwork they displayed and the competitiveness they played with.

The match that we were expecting to have last night with Rock Hill is rescheduled for Monday 4/21 at 5 PM. I still have not confirmed exactly everything that happened, but we are making this match up and hopefully will improve our region standing then.

Box Score:
Location: Nation Ford HS
Result: Northwestern wins 4-3

1S: Jeff Zimmerman (NW) defeated Madison Ott (NF) 6-0, 6-2
2S: Seth Russell (NW) def Michael Little (NF) 6-4, 6-2
3S: Zach Beaver (NW) def Danny Randar (NF) 6-0, 6-2
4S: Alex Atzberger (NW) def Alex Mcelland (NF) 6-2, 3-6, 10-7
5S: Paul Hoberek (NF) def Paul Sabisch (NW) 6-3, 6-3

1D: Little/Randar (NF) def Russell/Sabisch (NW) 9-8
2D: Tyler Morris/Brendan McGlohon (NF) def Drayton Wade/Brian Fitzpatrick (NW) 6-4, 7-5

Rock Hill match last night - I don't know

I really am confused as to why Rock Hill High did not show last night. I am working to get a new date set up to play them, but with next week being the last of season it is going to be tough. I have proposed Monday evening after 5:30 PM due to some of our boys conflicts. I'll update the boys and the site tonight once I know more.

Trojans suffer loss at hands of #9 Fort Mill

We traveled up I 77 to take on the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets for the second time in region play. Though we came up short, I must say that I was pleased with the effort that all the boys displayed. The defeat drops our overall record to 7-6 overall and 6-4 in region.

Zach Beaver's match at 5 singles was nearly a win for the Trojans. After dropping the first set 3-6, Zach came back to take a 6-1 second set win and force the 10-point tiebreak for the match. Though he fell behind early and founf himself down 3-9, Zach fought off three match points before dropping the tiebreak 6-10.

What I am most pleased with is that we improved greatly from the last math's result against Fort Mill. They are recognized as the #9 team in the state for a reason and their players work hard year round and started at early ages to develop their games. For us to be competitive with them at nearly every line, with two players in the lineup that had never played tennis until this year (Zach & Drayton) is a testament to how hard we have worked this year and how much potential we have.

We will be at home on Thursday to take on Rock Hill High in a crucial region match. I believe that we are sitting on the #4 spot in the region standings behind Fort Mill, Clover & Rock Hill. We have the match Thursday followed up with an away match Friday at Nation Ford as a make up from the Model UN conference before spring break. Both matches will be critical to the region rankings. If we are to win out our last four (RH, NF, York, Clover), I think we can fit into 3rd place and possibly even second with some help.

Box Score:

Location: Fort Mill HS
Result: Fort Mill def Northwestern 7-0
1S: Will Reigel def Jeff Zimmerman 6-1, 6-3
2S: Robbie Davis def Seth Russell 6-0, 6-3
3S: Kyle Osburn def Alex Atzberger 6-0, 6-1
4S: Chase Lee def Paul Sabisch 6-2, 6-2
5S: Jordan Lukens def Zach Beaver 6-3, 1-6, 10-6

1D: Reigel/Davis def Zimmerman/Russell 8-0
2D: Tyler Davis/Daniel Proctor def Brian Fitzpatrick/Drayton Wade 6-2, 6-1

Trojans Get 6-1 win over South Pointe

The Trojan tennis team secured a solid win tonight to improve to 7-5 overall and 6-3 in region. The win over South Pointe keeps us in the race for the playoffs. Tonights match was played slightly unique as South Pointe's coach agreed to play all 7 lines simultaneously. Therefore, neither team played any players twice and we were able to get 9 players into the action. We were in a bit of a time crunch with all of our Model UN participants needing to get back over to Winthrop by 7 PM so this helped to expedite the conclusion of the match.

Jeff Zimmerman, Seth Russell , and Zach Beaver played fine tennis and were the first three to clear the courts tonight respectively at 1, 2, and 4 singles. All three players secured wins by identical scores of 6-1, 6-0.

Drayton Wade again secured our fourth and clinching win at 5 singles with a win of 6-3, 7-5. Closely following the finish at 5 was our 2 doubles line of Eric Sabin & Jordan Beaver who won impressively 6-2, 6-1.

Our 1 doubles line of Brian Fitzpatrick & Sudeep Das were next to finish with a win by margin of 6-3, 7-5 against a much improved doubles line from South Pointe.

The marathon match of the day was played by Paul Sabisch at 3 singles. After dropping a close first set 4-6, Paul turned it around to win the second set 6-3 and force the 10-point tiebreak. Paul lead most of the way, but couldn't hold on in the end dropping the tiebreak 9-11.

After the match, I advised the boys that we will cancel practice the rest of the week going into spring break. Over spring break, we will not have any organized practice on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. I will be on the courts on Thursday & Friday in the morning from 10AM - noon. Although these practices will not be mandatory, I would like for anyone that is in town on these dates to attend practice. Take a look at the schedule to the left of this article and you will see why I'd like this.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

1S: Jeff Zimmerman (N) def Drew Carter (S) 6-1, 6-0
2S: Seth Russell (N) def Seth Cooke (S) 6-1, 6-0
3S: Rob Jolly (S) def Paul Sabisch (N) 6-4, 3-6, 11-9
4S: Zach Beaver (N) def Tyler Williamson (S) 6-1, 6-0
5S: Drayton Wade (N) def Ian Sanford (S) 6-3, 7-5

1D: Brian Fitzpatrick/Sudeep Das (N) def Matt Clamp/Josh Nguyen (S)6-3, 7-5
2D: Eric Sabin/Jordan Beaver (N) def Sam Gibbons/Ivey Smith (S) 6-2,6-1

South Point match rescheduled - again!

Well, so much for being proactive last week!

Due to inclement weather today that is expected to continue this afternoon, we will be cancelling tonight's match against South Pointe and rescheduling it for Wednesday 4/2. South Pointe's coach and I chose to avoid tomorrow since the forecast calls for showers again tomorrow afternoon. Also, I had to decide against tomorrow as we will be without Seth, Brian, and Jordan who have band competition tomorrow. We will still be short-handed as Alex has band competition on Wednesday, but I chose the day we will have more players. Sorry Alex, you will be with us in spirit!

We will practice indoors in the mini-gym today at 4:45 til 6:30 and most likely the same for tomorrow 4/1 if the rain continues. Bring your racquet both days to practice as I will attempt to secure the foam balls again to use after our workout each day.

Go Trojans!