Finally, a break in the weather gave us the chance to play at least part of a dual match on the outdoor courts of Ambler Tennis Stadium. We came in somewhat banged up for our last regular season home match of the year. Torsten is still nursing his knee injury, Kiril wasn’t able to play after falling on his wrist yesterday against Boston College, and Reid had to fight through an seriously aching back to get through doubles and singles.
We started off decently in the doubles, with a pretty unfamiliar set of teams at two and three, Reid and I being the only intact team from our previous matches. We started off well, with Reid and I getting off to a very good start, and Carp and Al also getting off to a quick start. But things started deteriorating rather quickly, with Al and Carp trying to stave off their Terrapin adversaries, and Holland and Pinsky having to pull through some tight games to finally clinch it and put us up 1-0 heading into singles.
Singles wasn’t all too simple an affair either. We had a couple fast starts with Reid and I taking quick first sets, but Maryland kept at us until the very end. I was able to put my match away before the rain forced us inside, but then a serious concern arose when Reid seemed to have even more seriously injured his back when he was up a set and 4-1. After getting some treatment from the trainer he toughed it out indoors to run off two more games for a 6-0, 6-2 victory, though not without a few grimaces of pain. We then dropped our first singles match, putting the score at 3-1 with three matches still on court. It got particularly tense when I looked at the scoreboard and we were losing on one of the courts of the three courts, and at the start of a third set on the other two…
Fortunately things worked out, but it wasn’t easy. Luke got yet another consecutive victory, and Holland gutted out a tight third setter to bring the overall score to 5-2. It was good that we got the win, but it didn’t come without some hiccups and few things we need to get better with. With UNC on our plate Tuesday, we’ll need to be all there in every possible way. But hey, we got the W, and at the end of the day, that’s what counts. You still learn when you win in spite of a sub-optimum performance, but it’s a lot less painful and less sleep inhibiting. But credit also goes to Maryland, as they gave us all we could handle and they deserve recognition for it. UNC, then UVA, then Virginia Tech…It’s going to be a long week ahead, but hopefully a very gratifying one as well. Thanks for reading, and thanks for all your support, we hope to have some great news to write about after this week.
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