11-0

Last night Meg had a match against Triton.  They came into Bethany undefeated.  Meg knew several of their players from the Warsaw Racquet Club.  She knew they were decent players, but she felt good about her chances with their number two singles player.  Meg played very well and made short work of her opponent.  As number one singles and doubles had both lost and number two doubles won, the match came down to the number three singles players.  It originally looked as though it would be over quickly, but the Bethany player rallied to make it a close second set.  As the day was a beautiful one I decided to stay and watch for awhile. The girls rallied back and forth and in the end Meg's teammate tied the sets at one a piece sending it into a third set.  At that point I decided not to stay.  It was close to seven and I was tired from my field trip.  Meg arrived home about an hour after I did, happy to announce that the Bruins won, giving Triton their first loss.  We were impressed.

Tonight's match was entirely different than last night's.  It was at Lakeland and I arrived just ahead of the bus.  Meg came over as soon as she got off.  She looked like she felt terrible.  She said that the bus ride over made her sick.  The heat didn't help matters.  She had taken Ibuprofen before they left Bethany, but it didn't help much.  I gave her Tylenol and she went out to practice with her team.

Since the bus was late the match didn't start until well past 5 p.m.  It was extremely windy when they started and I wondered how it would affect the match.  It didn't take long to find out.  The ball was blown all over the court tonight.  Drop shots that would normally fall in hit the net.  Serves that looked good to start sailed long.  The wind seemed to change Meg's shots, but didn't affect her mental game.  Her opponent, on the other hand, struggled to stay positive.  She became extremely frustrated and it showed on her face and in her body language.  Meg easily won the first 4 games.

At some point in the fifth game, the heat and physical exhaustion of playing seven games in nine days caught up with Meg.  She struggled to see and started to show wear.  Before too long the match that looked like a blow out became an intense showdown.  Meg asked me to find her coach.  Both of them came over to talk to her and I noticed that Meg had tears in her eyes.  They said that she couldn't shaker her headache and it was making it hard for her to focus on the ball.  I ran and got her one more Ibuprofen and a Cliff Bar.  She only took the food and headed back out.  The break was what Meg needed and she finished her opponent off quickly winning the first set 6-4.  The second set saw Meg take a quick lead again.  She wavered a little, but once her teammates came by to cheer her on, Meg was able to regroup and finish with a 6-3 victory in the second.  Not only did the win give her team a 3-2 victory bumping them to an 8-3 record, it also put Meg's individual record at 11-0.  What an awesome achievement!