Another Loss 5-4...

I am certainly sorry to report that we lost another close one at Rollins Tuesday 5-4. Just as versus ERAU, there were some good things to take away from the match but the bottom line is that this is a match we should have won and one we will have to start to win as we go forward.

Our doubles, although improved, seems not quite good enough to get the points that we need to be a success. Andy and David continue to win and really dominated their match. We were not able to secure a point at either #1 or #2 though. Benas and Tamasz are improving but still struggle with the doubles concepts. We also are having difficulty stepping up to seize the big points. They have been right there in every match but seem to blink in crunch time. At #2 we certainly expect to be successful with the talent and experience that we have. This has not yet translated into any wins however. Dani and Geza lost another tiebreaker and once again had match points. We are certainly beginning to understand what can make the difference between a win and a loss and that can be just one point in any of the 9 matches. As a result, we were down 2-1 after the doubles.

I fully expected that a 4 point singles rally was within reach. I really liked our chances at 4,5, and 6 and I was not wrong as we swept the lower spots in the lineup. However, we are still struggling at the top so far this season. Benas continues to play well but has run into very tough opponents. I believe that he will develop this season as he plays the top players in the country. Andreas had a very good match at #3 that went three sets but was unable to pull it out. Andy is playing well but has just not been able get wins yet. The real surprise for me was to see Dani get soundly defeated at #2. I thought that we were starting to see the real Dani and was expecting a good effort. We didn't see that on this day and that will be something to work on. If he can produce points for us in the top half of the lineup we will be ok this year.

The good news is that we have been able to play two good matches against two very good teams. This is great experience for us and will only help us to improve going forward. As I have said quite a few times, we just need to get better every day and we will be fine in May. That being said, we have played two winnable matches, matches that we were able to win last year and in the past. Lets hope that we can build something special in the near future.

We are off to Flagler at 2:30pm today. It is another windy one but I am sure that we are all accustomed to that at this point. We will need a big response today and I will be asking for nothing but maximum statement effort. I do not expect Flagler to give us the match as they have hit some hard times recently and will be looking to bounce back themselves. We shall see.

I will try to be back on twitter today as my phone battery allows. Either way, I hope to report a win later on today.

Nuff said...