Best Match of the Year

Last night was the start of the tennis NLC tournament.  Cal played his first match against Warsaw.  It was a close match much as it was the last time he played against him.  Cal lost in a second set tiebreak in a hard fought match with all of Wawasee parents and players watching.

Tonight's tournament was to start 4:30 as well.  When I got there I realized that Cal had to play Northridge.  Since they had the longest drive his match was scheduled last.  I chuckled when I saw that.  Cal's matches always take a long time anyway.  I wondered if Warsaw knew what they were doing as they were hosting and couldn't leave until he was finished.

I spent a lot of the time waiting and watching other matches.  Cal doesn't particularly enjoy watching tennis, but I do.  He hung out with his friends sitting in the shade and peering under the windscreens to cheer his teammates on.  At 6 I thought I'd better go get a drink and a snack as he still hadn't started and we had no idea how much longer the wait would be.

Cal was finally called to his court around 6:45 p.m.  He had played Northridge before and lost in a long, close match.  This one started out much the same as there were a lot of rallies and several deuce games.  As the night wore on Cal found himself down 2-5 in the first set.  I hoped he would fight back, but he had already waited a long time to get started.  I didn't know what kind of stamina he had left.  Fight he did however, and before I knew it the lights had been turned on and he was serving to tie the set at 5-5.  Cal won almost every point in the next two games and found himself up 1-0 by 8 p.m.

By the start of the second set all of the other matches had ended.  The first three games found Cal down once again 1-2.  At that point his teammates all stopped hitting on the other courts and gathered round to help cheer Cal on.  Todd's parents started to head out as they had an early morning wakeup call, but they got their chairs back out of the car and settled down for however long this match would take.  Cal had really shaken his opponent by coming back in the first set.  Once his friends were there to yell "Let's Play Some Tennis" Cal fired up and went on to play the best match I had seen all year.

When the final ball landed out and Cal quickly called "No!" a simultaneous cheer followed.  I was so proud of Cal.  He had played well when he needed to and brought home the lone win of the two nights.  I snapped quite a few pictures as his teammates ran out onto the court to congratulate him.  I called Doug, Parce and my parents on the way home.  After that I just cried.  It did't matter to me if Cal won or lost.  I was thrilled to see him out on the court once again.  A year ago this week we were in the hospital with him wondering if he would ever be able to compete again!!  We can know say that he is officially 100% healed from the broken ankle and ready to play some tennis!