After a bye week and a weather postponement, the Tigers once again hit the courts, this time traveling up to Charlottesville to take on the same MSA squad that they had played in 2017. With limited courts and a time constraint, 8-game matches were agreed upon. The team match essentially went in 3 waves: #1-4 singles; #5 and #6 singles and #3 doubles; and then #1 and #2 doubles. Four matches were very close, determined by the minimum margin of two games or tie-breaker.
At #1 Singles, Tiger Tyler Morris (Sophomore – New Bern, NC) struggled to get his powerful groundstrokes and first serve under control. Maverick Martin Hu stayed in the match, coming up to 6-5 before Morris held and broke serve to close out the match 8-5. At #2 singles, Youssef Abouzied (Senior, Giza, Egypt) went about business with his usual intensity, taking down in opponent 8-0. At #3. David Kiesnowski (Sophomore, Appleton, WI) found himself in a tight match against Swarter Fong, with neither player willing to give up or able to definitively close out a game despite good point development. The second half of the match found Kiesnowski on the wrong side of a 1 game deficit after being broken in game 1. At 6-7, he broke Fang’s serve to tie at 7-7. Fang held serve through another protracted deuce to go up 7-8. With Kiesnowski serving, the game went through 3 deuce points before Fang persevered 7-9. Evan Troast (Grade 8, Lighthouse Point, FL) was in a similarly protracted battle despite the lopsided final 8-2 at #4 singles.
With the first round of play completed, the Tigers were up 3-1, but it was clear that the #5 and #6 singles matches were going to be a battle. Sebastian Richardson (Sophomore, Charlotte, NC) was happily competitive and up 3-2 when his racket strings broke. Moving to an unfamiliar backup, he pulled ahead to 6-3. But confidence is a slippery beast as Maverick Tim Zhao refused to give up and kept the ball in play, matching Richardson’s smooth movements around the court. First points then games started to fall against Richardson. Richardson reached 7-6 with victory within reach. Zhou held serve and broke to bring the match to a close in an emotional finish. 7-9 MSA. At #6, Aidan Steinbach (Junior, Durham, NC) started with a 1-game deficit that he tied up at 4-4 and then took a 5-4 lead. He and Lee traded games before Steinbach made it 7-5. In another Tiger match of the day with over a dozen games that went to deuce, Steinbach was able to finish out singles play 8-6. At #3 doubles, Walter Thompson (Freshman, Chatham, VA) and Maddox McCluer (8th grader, Hickory, NC) struggled against a re-energized Li (working to make-up for his singles loss) and Carlos Chen. Unable to establish a service game, the #3 doubles team went down 1-8. The team match score was now 4-3.
The #1 doubles match was certainly going to be tight. Both Morris and Kiesnowski needed to both learn from their respective challenges in singles, but also had to not let those frustrations blunt their focus as a doubles team. Maverick Zhou was certainly fired up after his lopsided loss and Fang was understandably exhilarated from his narrow victory against Kiesnowski. The first set of services resulted in a 2-2 score. The Tigers dropped a game 2-3 before taking two to go to 4-3. MSA came back to make it 5-6. The Tigers held and broke serve to make it 7-6. MSA tied it up 7-7. The Tigers broke to make it 8-7. With the possibility of closing out the match, the Tigers had the serve, but a netted smash and double fault found them down love-30. But they continued to grind and as both teams worked to set up plays resulting in winners, the match drew up to deuce. With the game falling to the Mavericks, the 12-point tie-breaker was set up. At 3-3, with the change of sides, the Tigers clicked for the final 3 points behind a Morris ace, Kiesnowski capitalized on a short return, and then a forced error. With that win and the falling light, the team match was decided with the Tiger’s 5th team point. At #2 doubles, with the due of Abouzied and Troast were quietly working on a back-up victory if #1 doubles had fallen. But again, it was clear that MSA wasn’t willing to quietly fold as the competition neared the second hour of play after all the players had participated in singles matches. The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but were only able to open it up to 6-2 when the match was called due to the falling light and time.
The next match will be in Harrisonburg, VA on the campus of Eastern Mennonite University against Eastern Mennonite High School on Monday, April 30 at 4:30. It is unclear as to whether the final regular season match will be at home or away against Blue Ridge School on Tuesday, May 1.
The Tigers currently have a record of 5-3 (2-3 in the VIC).
Individual Match Scores:
Singles
#1 – Tyler Morris v Martin Hu 8-5
#2 – Youssef Abouzied v Jerry Xhou 8-0
#3 – David Kiesnowski v Swarter Fang 7-9
#4 – Evan Troast v Jason Li 8-2
#5 – Sebastian Richardson v Tim Zhau 7-9
#6 – Aidan Steinbach v Shawn Lee 8-6
Doubles
#1 – Morris and Kiesnowksi v Xhou and Fang 9-8 (7-3)
#2 – Abouzied and Troast v Hu and Zhau 6-2*
#3 – Walter Thompson and Maddox McCluer v Li and Carlos Chen 1-8
*match stopped due to team score and time.
