This past weekend was our season opener against Salisbury University.
Before I start to talk about the match, here some background info on them.
Salisbury last year ended inside the top 20 in the Atlantic South Regional Rankings. Both of my coaches were part of the team during their college years. My doubles partner, who's also our team's number one singles guy, went to Salisbury last year and played for them before transferring to my school, Stevenson University.
Here's where it gets interesting, Stevenson Men's Tennis never won a single match against them in singles or doubles.
I had one goal in mind, pulling an upset against the team.
My partner and I were playing #1 doubles against Salisbury. My partner was kind of nervous since he was playing against his old school at the #1 spot for singles and doubles. I pretty much told him, "we winning this (not exactly like that because the literal translation involves a lot of profanity)."
We started off real strong, holding serve, poaching the right ball, getting volleys and overheads in, teamwork was just clicking in. Everything was pretty much working.
However, our opponents were also making a comeback. They started to gain momentum by hitting aces against us, poaching, hitting clean groundstrokes, playing aggressively up at net, and hitting the occasional winners. They even were going after me by hitting me a few times with the ball, I guess trying to intimidate me to back off a bit.
From there, the score was back and forth, 3-4, 4-5, 6-5,6-7 and all the way up to 8-7 our serve.
There was just one problem, we were down love-40.
We knew we had to step up like 8 levels in order to win this match. My partner served and forced an error on our opponent to make it 15-40. Another error was forced after a few groundstroke rallies with his opponent.
30-40, we decided to poach after my partner's serve. My partner serve a great ball, but our opponent hit an even better return. I barely touched the ball, giving them an easy floater ball to attack on. The ball went back to my partner and suddenly, I'm in trouble. They were gonna pound that ball right at me and I wasn't quick enough to prepare for the shot. Just when I thought point was over, they missed and hit the ball into the net.
40-40, deuce, and since we were playing no-ad scoring, match point.
They chose to return on the deuce side, my partner served the ball and a rally was being exchanged. Ball after ball, I was waiting for the right ball to pounce on. Finally, I had my moment, a nice slow ball coming over the net and I went after it like a rabid dog.
I mishit the ball. The one job I had and I mishit the stupid yellowish-green fuzzy ball. However, it went over and the opposing net player went after the ball.
It became a net exchange between me and our opponent, volleys, half-volleys, touch shots. The point became a game of finesse and a test of quick reaction. This point was the point that's going to decide the match mentally
I decided to pull the trigger, I hit a sharp angle, almost 180 degrees just right over the net, on the opposite side of the court. My opponent read it, he took a very big lunge towards the ball and got to the ball. He position himself to hit a clean winning volley, I knew I had to try to cover for that ball, so I begin to move, but I was too late...
He hit the ball into the net. I'm gonna repeat this again, he hit the ball into the net. Deuce point was ours, match point was ours. Game, set, match, Stevenson University, 9-7. For the first time in Stevenson history, Stevenson University Men's Tennis Team has a win against Salisbury University, a top 20 regionally ranked team.
And that's how you start your opening season.
Before I start to talk about the match, here some background info on them.
Salisbury last year ended inside the top 20 in the Atlantic South Regional Rankings. Both of my coaches were part of the team during their college years. My doubles partner, who's also our team's number one singles guy, went to Salisbury last year and played for them before transferring to my school, Stevenson University.
Here's where it gets interesting, Stevenson Men's Tennis never won a single match against them in singles or doubles.
I had one goal in mind, pulling an upset against the team.
MATCH DAY
My partner and I were playing #1 doubles against Salisbury. My partner was kind of nervous since he was playing against his old school at the #1 spot for singles and doubles. I pretty much told him, "we winning this (not exactly like that because the literal translation involves a lot of profanity)."
We started off real strong, holding serve, poaching the right ball, getting volleys and overheads in, teamwork was just clicking in. Everything was pretty much working.
However, our opponents were also making a comeback. They started to gain momentum by hitting aces against us, poaching, hitting clean groundstrokes, playing aggressively up at net, and hitting the occasional winners. They even were going after me by hitting me a few times with the ball, I guess trying to intimidate me to back off a bit.
From there, the score was back and forth, 3-4, 4-5, 6-5,6-7 and all the way up to 8-7 our serve.
There was just one problem, we were down love-40.
We knew we had to step up like 8 levels in order to win this match. My partner served and forced an error on our opponent to make it 15-40. Another error was forced after a few groundstroke rallies with his opponent.
30-40, we decided to poach after my partner's serve. My partner serve a great ball, but our opponent hit an even better return. I barely touched the ball, giving them an easy floater ball to attack on. The ball went back to my partner and suddenly, I'm in trouble. They were gonna pound that ball right at me and I wasn't quick enough to prepare for the shot. Just when I thought point was over, they missed and hit the ball into the net.
40-40, deuce, and since we were playing no-ad scoring, match point.
They chose to return on the deuce side, my partner served the ball and a rally was being exchanged. Ball after ball, I was waiting for the right ball to pounce on. Finally, I had my moment, a nice slow ball coming over the net and I went after it like a rabid dog.
I mishit the ball. The one job I had and I mishit the stupid yellowish-green fuzzy ball. However, it went over and the opposing net player went after the ball.
It became a net exchange between me and our opponent, volleys, half-volleys, touch shots. The point became a game of finesse and a test of quick reaction. This point was the point that's going to decide the match mentally
I decided to pull the trigger, I hit a sharp angle, almost 180 degrees just right over the net, on the opposite side of the court. My opponent read it, he took a very big lunge towards the ball and got to the ball. He position himself to hit a clean winning volley, I knew I had to try to cover for that ball, so I begin to move, but I was too late...
He hit the ball into the net. I'm gonna repeat this again, he hit the ball into the net. Deuce point was ours, match point was ours. Game, set, match, Stevenson University, 9-7. For the first time in Stevenson history, Stevenson University Men's Tennis Team has a win against Salisbury University, a top 20 regionally ranked team.
And that's how you start your opening season.
Excellent write up! You actually made a tennis match sound exciting for someone who doesn't know diddly about the game. Great job! And congrats to both of you on the match!
ReplyDeletethanks!
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