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My lineup is set. We're playing a senior at No. 1 singles, she's primarily a first doubles player, but I'm trusting that she'll be cool under the conditions.
Second singles is another senior who has not lost a singles match this year, including a breezy third singles victory against our rivals.
Third singles is the sophomore who won that gritty 3-set match at 2nd singles the other night.
4th singles will be another sophomore who I thought we would not have available, she's consistent and that match shouldn't be too big for her.
In doubles, I had a team of sophomore practically beg to play together. It's going to be a stretch for them because neither is exactly super experienced and having mapped out this team's lineup, their 1st doubles team is their best pairing.
I thought originally that their coach would likely split them up to garner two wins (possible) instead of one, especially with a potential upset on the line. But then I realized that my AD did not send him the names in advance of who is attending, only the number of people. He's going to assume that we're bringing our star singles players (a fair assumption) and he'll keep the doubles team together as they seem to play a lot better together than separately.
The better one is just a converted volleyball player (like one of my sophomores) so I feel less nervous about it than I did.
2nd doubles, I have two senior captains (I just added a new one today) playing that spot, but it's an appropriate spot for them.
If he does indeed keep the 1st doubles team together, we should sweep the singles easily. We have two common opponents, our rival and a school we beat to open the year (and only gave up 15 games to total or something in 6 matches.) They beat the one Catholic school, but gave up two matches to them despite them forfeiting another two. The positions they lost? 1st and 4th singles.
Their 2nd doubles team also hasn't inspired much confidence in the short season.
We need to win 5 of the 6 to win outright. In the unlikely event of a tie, we'd have to win all our matches in straight sets and then hope the two losses are three-set matches.
I feel a lot better about our prospects after realizing they're not likely to break up the doubles team. (A smart decision in a normal season against us when we're playing our real lineup.)
In the extremely unlikely event we lose tomorrow outright, all it does is cost us our perfect season. We still get to play the rivals for the outright league title a week from Thursday and I've been telling everyone on our team we need them that day, so we should be able to bring all of our lineup (or close) to that one.
Also a possible unlikely development, there's a sophomore who'd probably be our 3rd or 4th best player (depending on the day) who has been avoiding HS tennis for the past two seasons. I talked to her mom a lot last year to get her to play, got her to commit but then we canceled the season. This year, she was opting out entirely.
But today, out of the blue her mom replied to a note I sent a few weeks ago and asked me what the rest of the schedule looked like and how our season was going. It makes me think that she must not have any tournaments coming up between now and the end of the school year, so they want her to get some live playing. Also, she's legitimately worse than my top 2 players and I suspect someone might have gotten realistic with her/them about coming out for the team.
So long as she's registered before Thursday, I can play her against the rivals and the district tournament. With that team? We'd be pretty much unbeatable in our league because it'd take the team that I've been flexing at 1st doubles and moves them to 3rd. I'd take our top player, pair her with our top doubles player and they'd win the district.
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