[Young Drachma]

Week is almost over. We have this JV match that we promoted to varsity, but I might demote it unless they win because none of my varsity regulars are actually playing in it and it won't help anything. I'm keeping the carrot of "it's a varsity match" to create a bit of tension/pride for the 4 Varsity 2 kids who are going to be carrying the JV players in this one, in the hopes that they'll feel pride at keeping the win streak up.

Another coach told me that two of the players seemed to have tennis experience, but the rest weren't very good which makes me feel a bit better about the setup. All 4 singles players and half of 1st doubles are all kids who have played at least 1 varsity match (and haven't lost by once among them) so I'm not truly worried. If this team was good enough to play varsity, they would've.

As for the rest of our schedule this week, we swept our other two matches. We won 7-1 (96-29) on Wednesday on Senior Day, all of the seniors one. I went against my better judgement and paired my two 9th graders together and they kind of get in their own heads, but it'll be a learning experience. (And one of them played yesterday and won in a 3-setter so..it's already paid dividends.)

Yesterday, because of "senior skip day" I didn't have any seniors to play for us, but that team is usually short players and so I assumed we'd be able to manage without. Their coach told me they'd have a full team, but then I got there and we went from assuming we'd be forfeiting the 2 bottom doubles spots to instead being up a match because they only have 7 kids and we had 8.

We swept the 5 matches we played and save for the three-setter, it was pretty anti-climatic.

Next week, we have three matches -- Monday, Tuesday and Friday -- but hoping it rains Monday because it's a trek to Salem for a match that we'll win. But if we do play it, it'll be my chance to give kids who aren't playing in districts one last chance to play varsity because I'm going to try to roll with my districts lineup in the last two matches.

As for districts, it'll be interesting. Things have lined up mostly how I hoped though we'll see how seeding goes. Unlike last year, where the distance between us and our rival and only other dominant team in the league was really close, we've beat them 15-1 in our two meetings. So there won't be any real debate.

Also, the online reporting system we use now will also make things easier because the stats are at our fingertips and we're able to compare H2H stats, league stats and go from there.

Getting my 1-2 singles players seeded is a virtual certainty. I'm going to make a feeble case for seeding 3rd best singles player, who mostly played 2 singles this year, occasionally plays 1 and was a district quarterfinalist last year. She'll have a harder road to semis this year than she did last year, but also played #1 singles all last year and was undefeated.

Even if she doesn't get seeded, given she'll be on the seed line for either one of the players that aren't ours, I think she can make it through. Her making state would be most ideal though, as I'd like 3 singles players instead of 2.

On the doubles end, my #1 doubles team just beat the #1 doubles team from our rivals and so they should be the top seed. I'll make the case for my #2 team as well as they've been the most consistent pairing all season and have beaten the #2s from the opposing team both team they've played them, but we'll see if someone can make a case that their top doubles teams deserve it over them.

With 6 players seeded, they just have to do what they've done all year and we'll have sewed up the district title and 4 bids to state by the end of next Monday.

Getting that additional singles player into the mix would be epic, she's a wild card because she's never played a 3-set match in her high school career, nor lost...so I have no idea what to expect she plays someone who pushes her to the limit and whether she will grind or fold.

Our school record (for girls) most players to state is 6, so I'd love to get 7 this year. Also with 7 players at state and several seeds, we'd have a good pathway to winning the whole thing.

Oh also that 6A school i wrote about playing us wrote me last night on a whim to see if we'd be able to play today last minute. I couldn't get enough girls available to make it happen, which was a bummer.

But honestly, I didn't want to attempt it unless we had our whole roster. I suspect we'll be able to schedule them next year, but unless we get some solid reinforcements, I'm not sure what that match will look like for us.

Anyway, we're one of 2 girls teams statewide at 11-0, next week would be 14-0 which for sure is a school record for most wins in a season. Not that anyone keeps records on this stuff, because it's tennis at a 3A school.