Boys Tennis

Rotation 1:
Singles went 2-1. Zach Lewis played 1s first rotation and pulled out to a 6-0, 1-0 lead after 30 minutes with no warm up (Mr. Annakin, don’t get any ideas). Grant Millman stretched his 2s lead to 5-2 at the buzzer after hitting the ball deep and attacking short balls. Ethan Pratt was down 3-4 as time was called.
Doubles went 0-2-1 first rotation. Zurawski & Stonner were down 4-5 as time was called. Would really like to see these two be more aggressive with their angles and two-up net play. Annakin & Duncan were tied 4-4, playing well, communication and movement could improve. Dietrick & Konvolinka got their freshman baptism with a pretty one-sided 2-6 deficit at time. Quit hitting long-to-short!

This was against a line up that had 7 seniors and 2 juniors in it, most of which were returning varsity players from last year. To note, we don’t have that experience this year but will build on those underclassmen as they come up through the ranks!

In a heartbreaking defeat, the Trojans fell to Lawrence Central on their home courts 2-3. Victorious was coach Steve Gretencord, who was a pleasure to coach against in a match that was a year in the making. Winning courts for the Trojans were #1s Zach Lewis 6-0, 7-5 and #2d Sam Annakin & James Duncan 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. Grant Millman at #2s was the story line tonight. Grant went up 6-3 in the first set, but found the match back at even when his sophomore opponent tied it up 3-6. Grant fought off approximately 15 match points as the match was held in the balance before finally succumbing 5-7 in a third. What a mental test in a high pressure scenario for Grant, one that will drive his character and will to succeed forward!

Zach Lewis has won as many matches at #1s this year as have the past two years of #1s players combined. He’s having a good playing season in the toughest spot for us.

Zach Lewis took down a freshman from the Giants 6-0, 6-0 at 1s. Christner from Ben Davis came to play, but just couldn’t match the consistency of Lewis. Grant Millman debuted at 2s with a 6-0, 6-1 dominant performance while Ethan Pratt made his debut at 3s. Ethan experienced a little bit of nerves in the first set getting down 2-5. He found his footing and limited self-inflicted mistakes to earn a two-hour 7-5, 6-2 win. Jacob Zurawski and Luke Stonner cruised against the Giants at 1d with a 6-0, 6-1 win. Sam Annakin and James Duncan also bested the Giants by the same score, 6-0, 6-1 at 2d.

Against #10 Park Tudor, the Trojans fought valiantly. We simply faced down a top ten team that hit the ball with more pace, more confidence, more direction, and with less errors. #1s Zach Lewis fell 1-6, 0-6 in a well contested match. Zach came to play and made Liebross think about it. #2s Grant Millman had an uphill battle, but fell 1-6, 4-6 in what again a match that made the Panthers prove they could earn it. #3s Ethan Pratt was able to contest his match 1-6, 0-6, as he fell to the more consistent senior Hargett. Sam Annakin/James Duncan at #2d played the closest and longest match of the evening. These two went back and forth with Park Tudor 3-6, 2-6 as strong net play kept them in it. They were able to hold serve, but became too careless with their first serve percentage to take a bite of the Panthers.

Against a Guerin team that saw themselves fall out of the state rankings, they relied on a heavy lineup switch-a-roo to edge out the Trojans 2-3. Zach Lewis pummeled his #1s opponent 6-0, 6-0 (Metzger was playing #1d). #3s James Duncan won an up and down match 7-5, 7-6(4). James was down 0-3 in the first set & got down 1-4 second set, before climbing back to contend for the win. Persistence pays off against a frustrated opponent! Sam Annakin/Jacob Zurawski played the best tennis on any court tonight against the best two players on their roster (the other being Harrington). These two not only hung around, but were holding serve and breaking serve to hold on in a 3-6, 3-6 loss. I hope these guys hold their heads high, because that was high quality tennis against some very strong opponents. #2s Grant Millman found himself as the last court on tonight once again, after playing a 90 minute first set that saw him fall 6-7(2). As the match was in the balance again, Grant worked on good PPR and picked himself up despite falling 3-6 in the second. Gotta keep developing some true grit in this young grasshopper!

Hey, hey, whadda ya say! The Trojans got it done tonight. We foresaw this match was going to take some grittiness out of our guys; they had to show it meant more to go the distance and I think Pike ran out of steam (yay fitness!) . We also introduced PPR (positive physical response) and developed this into our strategy for the night. Pike was fresh off a 3-2 win (straight singles sweep) against LC, who just last week we had lost to 2-3. AND some freshman heard about the 1st game of the second set!
Trojans won 4-1 in a gritty match vs Pike. BCHS went up 1-0 with the first win coming from Stonner/Pratt at #2d. #2s Grant Millman fell to an undefeated senior at #2s, evening the team score up 1-1. The next three matches each took a full third set to go the distance. Zach Lewis was the clinching third point against a heck of a sophomore. James Duncan was the prove it point where we reached four! Trojans went 3 for 3 in the third to take a tough one! #1s Zach Lewis: 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 (make him hit one more!) #3s James Duncan 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 (low risk, low reward tennis got the job done, few self-inflicted wounds!) #1d Zurawski / Annakin (be net dominant) got their act together and showed they were the best two players on the court 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

#1s Zach Lewis played some good tennis tonight, but I think his opponent just played better. He fell 2-6, 4-6. #2s Grant Millman will get through this tough stretch of tennis and be an example on the team for where a little perseverance and a good mental attitude can take your potential — not quite there yet tonight though, falling 4-6, 4-6. #3s James Duncan came up short in his mental test 4-6, 2-6 letting his guy rattle the cage a little too much to dig out. The doubles were the silver lining tonight. We showed good mental fortitude when challenged and took care of business when most needed. #1d Sam Annakin/Jacob Zurawski came out ahead 6-4, 6-4 and found a way to keep strong net play by their opponents from taking them down the wrong path. #2d Luke Stonner/Ethan Pratt found their way 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. Can you guess a similar story line to the rest of these guys…when we doubt our confidence we fall behind. When we play true north, we set sail!

Winning courts were #1d Felts & Konvolinka 8-6, #3d Sanders & Pruitt 8-7(5), and Konvolinka & Dietrick 8-2. A good night for our 1 Sr, 1 Jr, 1 Soph, & 6 Frosh vs. 11 Irish seniors.

Tried a little line up switch-a-roo tonight and I think we overpowered our #2d court. We cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win here at #2d with Millman/Stonner, while #2s Pratt fell 3-6, 2-6. Nothing says we would’ve had five points without the switch, but still need to evaluate where our strengths are and see how we move forward. #1s Lewis played a good Ritter opponent (asst. coaches son) and a mini version of himself as noted by @IndyCornrows winning 6-3, 6-1…could’ve had white balls! James Duncan comes out ahead 6-1, 6-4 at #3s and #1d Annakin/Zurawski edge the Raiders 6-0, 6-1.

Southport is always a very athletic and scrappy team. Add fast to that list fast and you have the 2019 Cardinals. Zach Lewis took care of business at #1s 6-2, 6-0 in about the only lopsided match of the day. #2s Ethan Pratt fell 7-5, 2-6, 5-10 in an up and down match that saw the Trojans give away 5 points for every 1 point the Cardinals had to win. James Duncan fell 4-6, 6-2, 5-10 and our opponent didn’t come off too tired because we hit lots of balls right to the guy. Doubles were key here, where we have a beefed up doubles lineup with #1d Zurawski/Annakin winning 6-4, 6-2 and taking charge at the net. #2d Stonner/Millman 6-3, 6-4 won in a very close match that was ultimately the last point to fall Bishop Chatard’s way. Would still like to see these guys aggression and angles improve.

These guys are really pretty good. #1s Zach Lewis matched his guy best he could making him run down every extra ball plus one more. His THN opponent was better from the baseline and that’s where we just couldn’t run him out of his comfort zone. #2s Ethan Pratt took one on the nose to THN’s best position on their lineup 0-6, 1-6. Really hoping Pratt can get his improve his serve percentage and minimize freebies, that was the story today on the #2s court. William Dietrick stepped in at #3s for his first varsity match and couldn’t be more proud of this kid. The THN guy was a bigger/stronger/faster player with harder groundstrokes and a heck of an approach game, but William hung in there. He just kept making his guy miss. He eventually fell 2-6, 6-2, 1-6 but what a great experience for this freshman playing the best opponent he has faced this season and drawing him to a three setter. Doubles has improved their net game and hopefully understand how dominant net play wins the day. #1d Annakin/Zurawski fell 3-6, 2-6 against a heck of a serving pair coupled with strong net games. #2d Stonner/Millman fell 3-6, 3-6 but again, saw their net game improve. We just couldn’t close out the shots we needed to and let THN hang around. Ultimately we would make a mistake or THN found a way to close the net before us. Finish forward gentleman and find an angle! We did make a stop at Marvins on DePauw’s campus afterward. They open at 5pm, so if we keep going late in the day, this could be a fun little tradition!

It wasn’t an easy 4-1, and at #1d had the darnest thing going, we likely fall to a #2 seed with that loss. Our execution in tiebreaks and third sets are not where they need to be considering how much we practice them.

Things got a little dicey at #2s when we called a 10pt tiebreak due to daylight at #2s. Pratt did edge out a 10-8 3rd set tiebreak, but across the board our mental fortitude needs to be upgraded and fine-tuned. Patrick Felts made a varsity appearance getting a 6-1 6-0 win alongside partner James Duncan.

Good team, probably a top 10 team, but their guys are under-performing in big matches which has them in top 15. Did not see evidence of that up-and-down tonight. We won only two games across our three singles courts. Things went a little better for doubles as we hung in there, but can’t say we quite ruffled any of the Braves’ feathers. Things got a little chippy at #1d per our opponents, but, we kept our cool for the most part. Nice touch of them to include our seniors on their senior night, will try to replicate coming up here!

We played preventative defense on court and tried not to lose rather than playing the aggressive offense that got us in a winning position in the first place! This is definitely a mental mindset shift we must make if we expect to perform at our best the remaining matches of the season. With two very even dual matches, that has to iron itself out. Looking forward to Wednesdays’ practice! Also, they had six seniors and one freshman on Varsity. Kinda eerily similar to us last year, but worse in terms of replacement. We clip the Tigers next year and sure won’t miss their top-heavy experience in the lineup!

Wheeewwwi! This was a class BCHS vs. HCHS match. A 3-2 win for the Trojans that came down to us being just a few strokes better. Grant Millman earned the clinching point, 6-3, 7-6(9) at #2s. He netted his best win of the year against the best person he has beaten. Go home smiling, Grant! We fell victim to our minds again though, and found a way to let four leads slip away from us on three courts. We have to and will get better in that regard, because we can’t let 3-0 (#1d–2nd set), 4-1 (#2s–2nd set), 4-2 (#3s–2nd set), and 6-3 tiebreak leads (#2s–2nd set) end up with us fighting for our lives. Be the HONEY BADGER! Booker graduates from #1s so move everyone up one, but same goes for us. Their doubles will remain a little thorn in our side next year as the three juniors match our three juniors. We took the advantage tonight, but were tested in the process.