Today in tennis I had my first match against varsity team members. Up to this point, I've been practicing with my junior varsity teammates. However, after our first JV match, the coach told me that he would be interested in having me practice with the more skilled players. This was a terrifying challenge for me to undertake. Even though they are my classmates and I know that they won't mock my inexperience, I still am a novice at tennis.
I was paired with Chris Fink for this first match, and we were playing against Aidan and Murylo. I had seen all of them play before, and I felt that I was nowhere near their level of tennis skills. No matter, I decided to try my hardest in the match and just hit the ball back when it came to me. That was my only strategy.
For my first "real" match, I did pretty well. It was certainly very intense, but I think I held my own. I certainly wasn't a star on the court, but I did get a fair amount of points and I even did as well as Chris in a few of the games. We lost 3-1, but the one game we did win, I felt that I contributed a lot. We didn't win the game that I served, but we played deuce to advantage at least ten times before the result was finally decided. I only erred a few times, and to be honest I think I did better against these players than the weaker ones. I think it had to do with the pace of the game; when the match is fast like this one, I don't have time to over think my hit and subsequently mess it up. Instead, I just return the ball with strength and relative precision. Not bad.
One unfortunate thing is that even though the coach has considered me for varsity, I will be unable to participate at this level. I recently took on a job, which occupies a lot of my time after school. I feel like I am letting the coach down, but I need money at the moment, and so I hope that I don't regret this decision and that I might have a chance to play varsity if I do tennis next year.
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