For me, Saturday’s match against VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) brought back some old memories and familiarly good feelings afterwards. As a team we posted a very solid and overwhelming performance, bettering the VCU Rams by a score of 6-1. And why was I feeling nostalgic? Probably because VCU was the second team I ever played against in my collegiate dual match career almost exactly two years ago, but probably even more so because former Duke Tennis alumni Peter Rodrigues 07’, David Goulet 08’, and Alex Stone 08’ were all in attendance, all of whom I played on the team with, and all of whom drove a long distance to be there.
The doubles started off really close and with us down a break on two of the three courts. Al and Kiril we doing well keeping their opponents at the number one position, but Reid and I were struggling to find a groove and Torsten and Holland were in a close fight at line three. But we battled back well at positions two and three, most impressively with Holland and Torsten fighting off a match point to come back and win their match in a tiebreaker. Reid and I ended up losing shortly after the doubles point was clinched, though it was of no consequence to the overall outcome and we had done well to come back and stay alive for the sake of alleviating some of the pressure on the freshmen duo. Big props to them for fighting back and coming up big, and also to Al and Kiril for a really hard earned win at number one.
Our singles warm-ups were subject to a new innovation in player introductions thanks to Mike Gagnon (the invaluable Director of Clinical Operations and Planning for Surgery at the Duke Medical Center who has donated his time and energy to helping both the men’s and women’s tennis teams) who offered pro basketball intros that helped get things started and revved up the energy level. After battling back in the doubles to take a 1-0 lead in the overall score, there was no let up as we got out to first set leads on nearly every court right away. I was actually on serve throughout most of my first set, but as I glanced at the Goldstein scoreboard I saw we were dominating on almost every other court. Torsten was next to me playing well and smothering his opponent, and on the other side of me Reid was off to a fast start and it seemed improbable that his opponent would be able to successfully fight back. Kiril was playing well and providing some great fire for the rest of us, as even though I was unable to see much of his match I heard quite a few of his “Go Duke!” yells. I got off early enough to see the last few games of Pinsky’s match which he closed out confidently with some crowd pleasing shot making. Al had the upper hand on his scrappy opponent throughout most of the match until a hard fought set didn’t go his way, and then was unfortunate to have to concede to playing an always unpredictable super tiebreaker to decide the match, which he narrowly lost.
It was a great feeling afterwards and all among us were pleased, especially our coach Mr. Josh Goffi who was celebrating his 30th birthday in conjunction with our victory. Spirits were high though and the crowd was awesome, with there being an awesome attendance turn out. Among the attendees were such notables as Count Chocula, the Chicken, and if I’m not mistaken I believe the infamous Gorilla was there as well. Most crucial though were the guys not playing that were providing the noise and support that makes such an incredibly huge difference. It was a team effort between the ten of us and our famed coaching triumvirate in addition to the incredible crowd support that delivered the decisive victory. The atmosphere was great and I can’t wait for our next home match, which regrettably is not until we play a double header on March 4th before we then start up the ACC Season with N.C. State on March 18th. Thanks to everyone that came out and supported us, you all made it such an awesome atmosphere to play in and showed what an advantage it is to have a supportive and plentiful home crowd. We leave Thursday to head up to Penn State where we will play for a spot in the last sixteen of the Team National Indoor Championships on Saturday and Sunday (I’ll be really annoyed if we are scheduled so that we miss the Super Bowl).
very articulate for an athlete ;)
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