MBA JS Tennis Outlasts USN 3-2

This week saw a new personal best for the JS Tennis No Mercy Squad: three separate matches in a row across three consecutive days. Tuesday we played Harpeth Hall; Wednesday Woodland Middle School; Thursday USN.

Short version: the Squad remains unbeaten.

Long version: Tuesday’s match with Harpeth Hall was more of a “mixer” match, really, as we merged the two teams to create ten or so mixed doubles pairs. So, both schools came out winners as every pair represented both schools simultaneously. Highlight of the afternoon: Cole ‘Ice Cole’ Anderson (eighth grade), seeded in fourth pair, was coincidentally paired with his own sister, Kate ‘Super Server’ Anderson (sixth grade) from Harpeth Hall. This was genuinely unplanned by the coaches and was one of those fun coincidences that will hopefully be a nice memory for the two siblings, even though they eventually lost their match to the pairing of Will ‘Walloper’ Harris (eighth grade) and Emory ‘Last Warning’ Warner (sixth grade), 2-6. Mrs Jessica Anderson - mother of Cole and Kate - (who also generously provided match teas this week alongside the Nord and Reynolds families), was wearing both a Harpeth Hall hat and an MBA shirt to support the two teams at once (pic attached).

Wednesday’s match against Woodland Middle School was also a thrill: Alp ‘Tweener’ Weitkamp, fresh off being elected Team Captain by his squadmates, and closely supported by his Number Two, Rob ‘Robohob’ Hobart who himself was fresh off being named ‘JS Athlete of the Week’, led the team to an epic final score of MBA 9 - Woodland 1. Jude ‘Bonzai’ Bonvissuto and Christopher ‘Top Drawer’ Topping played an epic bout which lasted 77 minutes, and which they finally won on a tiebreak: 9-8 (7-5). Riveting stuff! Men of the Match has to go to Will ‘Diceman’ Harris and Armaan ‘Arm-Amazin’’ Singhvi who sliced and diced their way back from a perilous-looking 0-4 down to level it back at 5-5. They got themselves into a fresh rhythm of pushing their opponents back with deep ground strokes and then finishing them off with sharp-angled, ninja-like volleys, and won out at a juicy 8-6.

Thursday’s match against USN ended up as MBA 8 - USN 2. Highlight was the nail-biting spectacle put on by ace doubles pair Cole ‘Ice Cole’ Anderson and Ricky ‘Relentless’ Reynolds who looked down-and-out at 3-5 down but somehow managed to regroup, pull up their socks and come back to win the next four straight games, and finally won out at 8-6. Man of the Match goes to Shaun ‘Silent But Deadly’ Xu for a no-nonsense 8-0 deconstruction of his bewildered singles opponent.

Thanks to Coach Bromfield for another great week of tennis, and to the No Mercy Squad’s team mascot, Tobias (pic attached) who is always happy to chew up the dead balls just to make sure they are definitely dead.

Three matches in three days is a record for these lads. They are so fit and athletic that they’d probably love to compete seven days in a row if they were allowed. Not me though, I’m pooped.

Roll bed.

 

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 Dr. J. Farhoumand, Ph.D.
 Montgomery Bell Academy