The start of the season always feels like it's light years away. There is so much hard work and preparation that goes into getting ready for the first match. Everyone remembers the brutal 7am morning workouts, the countless number of balls that are hit during the fall and off-season, and lastly, the stressful challenge matches. The first match of the season is payoff of all the hard work.
This past weekend I scheduled three very talented teams. I was excited but definitely a little apprehensive scheduling this type of competition at the start of the season. After the weekend, I was happy with our boys effort, and despite the scores, it showed me that if were are mentally focused, we can compete with any team.
Our first match was against Dalton State, an NAIA team that had recently knocked off number 2 Auburn Montgomery. We have never played Dalton State so I had no idea what to expect from them. I was very curious to see how we would compete in doubles. Our number 1 doubles team of sophomore Scott Rubinstein and freshman James Spaulding got off to a quick start securing an early break and eventually getting us a point. At number 2 doubles the team of Senior Captain, Rafe Mosetick, and freshman Jonathan Jemison came out with energy and dominated there opponents for point number 2. At three doubles, the team of junior Aman Manji and sophomore David Omsky, got off to a slow start but staged a great comeback. Unfortunately, they could not hold off DSU and ended up losing. We went into singles with a 2-1 lead.
We got off to a good start in singles securing a point at 1 and 3 singles. With point left on the board to obtain, DSU staged a comeback. They earned at points at 4 and 5 singles. At 2 singles, Jonathan, was in a very difficult match with a player that number 4 ranked player in NAIA. There was no guarantee that Jonathan would be able to secure the last point. Junior Josh Goodman, at 6 singles had the burden of securing the last point. The pressure was definitely building, but, Josh locked in and dominated his opponent to give us the 5th point. Meanwhile at 2 singles, Jonathan, found himself in a 3rd set tiebreak. The match was 3 sets of physical tennis and by the tiebreaker, both players were beat up. Jonathan, mentally, stayed focused and ended up grinding out an 11-9, 3rd set tiebreak win. It was nice to start with a 6-3 win.
We turned around the next day to face to 2 very good opponents. The morning match I rested some of the starters against Georgia Gwinett College which has won the NAIA national championship the past two seasons. There team is one of the most talented teams we have ever played and could be a very competitive Division I team if given the opportunity. We lost all 3 doubles matches but had some good performances at 1 and 3 doubles. We definitely had an uphill battle in singles, but our guys competed and did not back down from the level of competition. Sophomore transfer, Andrew Harrington, was able to secure a point a 6 singles.
We turned around after a 3 hour rest to play Division 1 Georgia State. We got down an early break at 1 dubs and 2 dubs. At 3 dubs, we put a new team of Omsky and Harrington together. They had never played together but came and with great energy and secured and early break. 1 dubs broke back and played a very good match but ended up losing the point. 2 dubs could not find the energy they had the first day and ended up losing. 3 dubs battled the entire match and secured us a very important point.
We end up losing 7-2 but the match was much closer than the score. At 1 singles, Rafe, played an opponent who had just beat Alabama's number 1 player. He was a very disciplined player and ended up beating Rafe in straight sets, but, Rafe had opportunities in the first and proved that he can play at this level. At 3 singles, Aman Manji, played a strong match losing in 3 sets. Andrew Harrington lost in 3 sets at six singles. Our singles point came from freshman Jonathan Jemison at 2 singles.
The Georgia State match proved to me that we can hang with good teams as long as we keep working hard and focus on getting better.
Off to Indoors!!!
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