Seth Russell Named to Region 3-AAAA All-Region Team

The Region 3-AAAA coaches meeting was tonight to select all region team, coach of the year and set order for nominations to the SC AAAA / AAA State Singles Championships.

Seth Russell was unanimously selected to the All-Region team by the coaches. Seth had an overall record of 8-6 and was 5-5 in region matches playing all year at number 1 singles for the Trojans. Seth also had a 2-5 doubles record.

Seth was also nominated as the fifth seed from the region towards the SC State Singles Tournament. The 16 top seeds from each region are automatically selected to the field and 16 others are selected at large by the SC High School League's Tennis Committee.

2009 3-AAAA All Region Team:

*Chase Altieri - Clover

*Robby Davis - Fort Mill

*Kyle Orsburn - Fort Mill

*Nick Deahl - Clover

*Seth Russell - Northwestern

Madison Ott - Nation Ford

Daniel Proctor - Fort Mill

Tyler Davis - Fort Mill

Will Decker - Clover

Ken Long - Clover

Danny Randar - Nation Ford

Tyler Morris - Nation Ford

*State Singles Nominee

Player of the Year:

Chase Altieri - Clover

Coach of the Year:
Phil Wingard - Clover

Spring Valley Too Good for Trojans Tonight

We beat the rain and got in our first round match tonight at Spring Valley High School. The 4th ranked Vikings proved to be every bit as strong as their state rank indicated and we were shut out tonight. We end the season with a record of 6-9.

I hope that we took away something from this match. Is Spring Valley good? Yes, they are. Can we be as good as Spring Valley in the future? Yes, we can. Will it be easy to raise our tennis to that level? No, it will not. It will take a lot of court time as well as dedication to conditioning, speed, and strength training. It will take a large sacrifice from each player returning next year to put in the work that it will take.

Our season has now come to an end as the playoffs will continue on without us. I wouldn't be surprised to see Spring Valley playing 2 weekends from now in Lexington for the state championship. I plan on being there for the finals to witness it.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Spring Valley HS
Result: Spring Valley 7, Northwestern 0

1s: Ashkon Babaee def Seth Russell 6-0, 6-0
2s: Brent Lett def Drayton Wade 6-0, 6-0
3s: Kenan Sakarcan def Hunter Love 6-0, 6-1
4s: Hampton Drake def Jonathan Clark 6-0, 6-0
5s: Connor Burke def Jordan Beaver 6-1, 6-0

1d: Joe Cunningham/Trey Finch def Brian Fitzpatrick/Duncan Foy 6-0, 6-2
2d: Nick Nishnic/Sean Dunnigan def Alex Antezana/Collins Mauldin 8-1

State Playoff Brackets Released

The South Carolina made the official announcement today of the 2009 Boys Tennis pairings in AAAA. The Northwestern Trojans, as expected, will travel to Spring Valley HS in the first round: http://www.schsl.org/2008-Brackets/bte%20aaaa.html

Spring Valley is located at: 120 Sparkleberry Rd, Columbia SC 29229

Should we defeat Spring Valley, we would play Thursday at the winner of Dorman vs. Easley.

I mentioned to the boys at practice that I'd be willing to hit around on Sunday evening at the courts for anyone who is around. The time I mentioned will not be possible for me though due to an unforeseen conflict. Therefore, I'll be out at the courts from 5-6:30 to turn on the ball machine and run through some drills with the varsity team.

Go Trojans!

Tonight is What High School Tennis is All About

We traveled up I-77 to battle Nation Ford in our final region and regular season match of the spring. It was an unbelievable spectacle to watch all 5 singles lines feature come from behind 3rd set tiebreaks to decide this match. We end the season with a record of 6-8 and a region record of 4-6. Neither record does justice for how far we have come as a team this season.

Jonathan Clark jumped out to an early lead on his opponent and claimed the first set 6-1 at 4 singles tonight. Jonathan hit some bumps in the road and struggled to finish off points in the second set. Nation Ford took set two 6-0 to force a tiebreaker. Jonathan was unable to regain his first set form as he dropped the tiebreak 5-10. Nation Ford lead 1-0 overall at this point.

Duncan Foy played 5 singles for us tonight and started strong with a 6-3 first set. Nation Ford made some key adjustments and forced the tempo of the match in the second to square it up after a second set score of 6-2. Nation Ford continued strong play at 5 and Duncan was unable to make a comeback after falling behind 8-3 and finally dropped a 10-7 decision. Nation Ford lead 2-0 at this point.

Hunter Love played 3 singles tonight and had his opponent baffled all night with his mix up of drop shots and lobs. After dropping the first set 5-7, Hunter stormed back in the second set to claim a 6-4 win in that set. The tiebreak was decided in Hunter's favor 10-5 to bring us back to a 2-1 deficit.

Drayton Wade played 2 singles tonight and stormed out to an early 5-2 lead in the first set. After a few errors Nation Ford pulled closer, but Drayton finished off the first set 6-4. The second set went Nation Ford's way as Drayton battled himself more than his opponent and dropped the set 1-6. The tiebreak was dead even all the way to the end until Nation Ford proved too much in the end and took the tiebreak 10-8 and the match lead widened back to 3-1.

The match laid on Seth Russell's shoulders at this point. If Seth were to collapse after dropping the first set 6-3, the match would have been claimed by Nation Ford with their decisive point. Seth trailed by a margin of 2-5, before mounting a massive comeback and forcing a set tiebreak. A close set tiebreak played out 8-6 in our favor and forced a 5th straight match tiebreak as we stayed alive. Seth continued to manage points and control the pace of the match and eventually claimed the match 10-8 and again narrowed Nation Ford's lead to 3-2.

As if that wasn't enough, it was on to doubles where we hedged ourselves to provide 2 strong lines. We paired up our top player, Seth, with our 6th player, Jordan, to play out doubles. Drayton, our 2, teamed up with Brian, our 4, to battle it out at #1 doubles. Nation Ford had similar pairings and it provided for some great doubles action.

The match was decided at line 2 as Nation Ford proved too much for us and claimed their fourth point. That match was decided 1-6, 2-6 and the #1 doubles line had us trailing 2-6, 1-4 when the match ended. Drayton and Brian may not have been excited to have their match stopped, but in the end it goes down as a no decision at 1 doubles.

Regardless of the loss tonight, I have never been so proud of a Northwestern team. We came ready to play a big match and absolutely played our guts out. Never have I been a part of a match with so much drama and so many comebacks as I saw tonight. This, gentlemen, is what it means to compete. Congratulations to you all!

Go Trojans!

Location: Nation Ford HS
Result: Nation Ford 4, Northwestern 2
1s: Seth Russell (NW) def Madison Ott 3-6, 7-6(6), 10-8
2s: Danny Randar (NF) def Drayton Wade 4-6, 6-1, 10-8
3s: Hunter Love (NW) def Brandon McGlohon 5-7, 6-4, 10-5
4s: Tyler Morris (NF) def Jonathan Clark 1-6, 6-0, 10-5
5s: Michael Little (NF) def Duncan Foy 3-6, 6-2, 10-7

1d: Danny Randar/Alex Mclelland (NF) lead Drayton Wade/Brian Fitzpatrick 6-2, 4-1 (unfinished)
2d: Madison Ott/Paul Hoberek (NF) def Seth Russell/Jordan Beaver 6-1, 6-2

Trojans Drop a Thrilla in Rock Hilla

Rock Hill high made the cross town trip tonight for an inter city rematch of our match last week. We played very strong tonight at most lines, but dropped the closest match I have been involved in as a high school coach. The defeat drops us to 6-7 overall, but we still are in 4th place in our region.

The first match in the books was line 4 with Brian Fitzpatrick. The winds played havoc on Brian's game against a solid #4 player for Rock Hill. If these two were to square off again I have no doubt the score would be much different. Tonight, it was Rock Hill's night at 4 and Brian dropped the match 0-6, 3-6.

The second match in the book was our 2 doubles line of Duncan Foy and Jordan Beaver. The boys dominated from beginning to end and closed out a 6-1, 6-1 victory to tie the match back up at 1-1.

Seth Russell cleared the courts next at 1 singles. Seth lead early, but was unable to hold off the Rock Hill #1 who came back to win the first set 4-6. Seth lost momentum at that point and lost control of the match, dropping the second set 1-6. Rock Hill now held a 2-1 lead in the match.

Drayton Wade played a much better match tonight against a good #2 player from Rock Hill that had defeated him soundly last week. Drayton played two back and forth sets that each resulted in a 6-4 finish. Unfortunately, neither set was our advantage as Rock Hill now cedged ahead 3-1.

Jonathan Clark at 5 and Hunter Love at 3 remained on the court at this point. Both players had dropped their first sets 5-7 and 4-6 respectively. However, both players staged strong comebacks in the second set to force match tiebreaks.

Jonathan lead his tiebreak from beginning to end and claimed a win at 5 singles by score of 5-7, 6-3, 10-7. This edged us back into the match as we trailed 2-3 to the Bearcats at this point.

Hunter played perhaps the longest match in Northwestern tennis history. Two totally contrasting styles, Hunter the chip & placer vs. Rock Hill's net rusher was an odd match from the get go. The players played even and had multiple lead changes through 4 changeovers. Hunter had 2 match points and fought off 3 match points before finally the match was decided by a Rock Hill volley won the line 18-16.

We'll practice tomorrow to prepare for Nation Ford Wednesday. A win could force a statistical tiebreak that is dead even at this point from what I know. We are in the playoffs as the number 4 seed now, but a win gives us a chance at the 3 seed. Regardless, our first round playoff match will be Tuesday May 5 at either Spring Valley HS or Blythewood HS, both in Columbia.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Northwestern HS
Result: Rock Hill 5, Northwestern 2

1s: Alik MacLauchlin (R) def Seth Russell 6-4, 6-2
2s: Austin Lee (R) def Drayton Wade 6-4, 6-4
3s: Kevin Gaulden (R) def Hunter Love 6-4, 4-6, 18-16
4s: Alex Silverman (R) def Brian Fitzpatrick 6-0, 6-3
5s: Jonathan Clark (N) def Nick Cauthen 5-7, 6-3, 10-7

1d: MacLauchlin/Lee (R) def Russell/Wade 8-5
2d: Jordan Beaver/Duncan Foy (N) def Corey Wessinger/Michael Adams 6-1, 6-1

One Week Remaining in Regular Season, Current Ladder Rankings

Here is how our ladder sits with one week left before playoffs:

1) Seth
2) Drayton
3) Hunter
4) Brian
5) Jonathan C
6) Jordan
7) Duncan
8) Alex
9) Collins M
10) Tyler L
11) Jonathan P
12) Michael
13) Key
14) Christopher
15) Collin S
16) Matt
17) Ahmad
18) Ben
19) Tyler H
20) Jacob P
21) Phillip
22) Caleb
23) Jacob S

Trojans clinch spot in Playoffs with Season Sweep of Gaffney

A beautiful day for tennis blessed the Northwestern courts today as we played region opponent Gaffney to clinch a spot in the SC 4A playoffs. With the 7-0 sweep of Gaffney, we climb back to .500 with a 6-6 record and are 4-5 in region.

We had a little extra motivation as it was senior night and we paid tribute to Ahmad Sheffield and Tyler Hutson before and after the match as well as Coach Sally Bartelmo. I cannot say enough about these fine representatives of our school. Thank you each for all your hard work this year and for setting a great example for the younger players on our team.

Ahmad and Tyler paired up to play 2 doubles tonight. I hadn't even made my first round by the time these two had already claimed the first set 6-1. They rolled through the second set as well and posted a shutout in the second. Great job tonight seniors!

Hunter Love played a near flawless match tonight and scored a double bagel victory at line 3. Not only was Hunter his normal consistent-self, but he also placed his serve very well and methodically picked apart at his opponent's weaknesses. It was a fine performance.

Seth Russell claimed our third win of the night at 1 singles. His Gaffney opponent has improved since their last meeting and put up a better performance than anticipated. However in the end, Seth was just too much as he claimed the line 6-2, 6-1.

Jonathan Clark clinched the win for us at 5 singles. His Gaffney opponent was a tough, consistent player that hung tough. Jonathan was too good for him at the end and clinched the win 6-3, 6-3.

Drayton Wade closely followed with a win at 2 singles. Avenging an early season defeat, Drayton placed his ground strokes nicely and reduced his errors to dominate line 2 tonight. The result reflects how dominant Drayton was tonight to get the 6-2, 6-2 win.

Brian Fitzpatrick was the last man out on the courts at this point for the varsity squad. After winning a lopsided first set 6-1, Brian found himself frustrated by some consistency problems. He trailed 2-5 in the second set before rattling off a service break and hold to stand at 4-5. Gaffney claimed the next game and forced the decisive tiebreak. Brian's stroke returned to him in the tiebreak as he lead from beginning to end and claimed the win with a 10-5 tiebreak.

Hunter and Seth got their season long wish and I played them together at 1 doubles. Taking on Gaffney's 2 & 5, I was hoping for a stronger showing. The result was a win, but it wasn't a walk in the park.

We are off until Monday when we take on Rock Hill at our place. We'll have the same starting lineup tonight at singles. We then have practice Tuesday and take on Nation Ford on Wednesday. Wednesday will be the last match for all team members and I'll be collecting jerseys on Thursday before or after the Clover match from those that received them. We'll have the top 10 players dress for the trip to playoffs, but all players are asked to come.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Northwestern HS
Result: Northwestern 7, Gaffney 0

1s: Seth Russell def James Belue 6-2, 6-1
2s: Drayton Wade def Nick Parker 6-2, 6-2
3s: Hunter Love def Trenton Trauh 6-0, 6-0
4s: Brian Fitzpatrick def Mark Lovingood 6-1, 4-6, 10-5
5s: Jonathan Clark def Clayton Whitt 6-3, 6-3

1d: Love/Russell def Parker/Whitt 8-5
2d: Ahmad Sheffield/Tyler Hutson def Alex Hinchliffe/Adam Payne 6-1, 6-0