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
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Northwestern downs South Pointe to stay unbeaten in region play
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
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
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.
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