When Cameron moved up to #1 varsity singles on the Bruins tennis team after playing #1 junior varsity last year, we knew that it would be challenging. There would definitely be more loses than wins and we would all have to adjust our expectations. Doug, Cameron and I had done very well with the change until the last couple of matches. Cameron had started off the season against several stated ranked #1 singles players. We knew that in those matches, it would just be an accomplishment to win a game and not be the first one off of the court. He had succeeded in those goals, but recently the expectations had changed. Cameron had played against teams such as Prairie Heights and Triton. Those teams had veteran #1 singles players, but they weren't the level of Goshen, Northridge, Westview or Fremont. Cameron was close to winning a set in both of those matches, but just couldn't pull out the win. Thus, he was putting even more pressure on himself to perform well tonight against Northwood. Their undefeated team of two years ago had all graduated and Cameron knew that his opponent was beatable.
The pressure that Cameron had put on himself to win definitely got to him at the beginning of the match. Before he knew it, he was down 0-3 to a Northwood player that was nowhere near his talent level. To make matters worse, Cameron could not get his first serve in to save his life, which made the pressure on his second serve even more intense. Matt talked to him at the change over. I could tell from the conversation between the two of them that it was a little more intense than normal. I had hoped whatever his coach had told him would help him in the match, but Cameron continued his losing streak and soon was down 0-5 looking at a first set loss.
At the next change over that something inside of Cameron changed. To start, he slowed down his first serve and his double faults decreased dramatically. Getting his first serve in put more pressure on his opponent and soon the unforced errors started to accumulate on the Northwood side. I was extremely happy that Cameron was able to hold serve and soon found the match to be a much more competitive one at 3-5. At that point, I knew that it was pretty unlikely that Cameron would be able to recover from a 0-5 start, but I remained hopeful that a first set win was within reach. Soon it became even more feasible as Cameron won another 3 games to go ahead with a score of 6-5. The last game of the first set was a close one and the Northwood player had several chances to win his serve, but in the end Cameron broke him and won the first set 7-5. We couldn't believe it and were incredibly happy for him.
The next set started off with Cameron jumping out to a 3-0 lead and we hoped that it would be an easy win for him. Cameron became nervous, however, and started to struggle with his serve again and had a few more unforced errors. Soon the score was tied at 4-4 with Cameron serving. Thankfully, he calmed down, held his serve and went on to play an awesome last game to win his first ever #1 varsity singles match. He was so incredibly proud of himself and spent the next few minutes celebrating with his teammates and coaches. It was so much fun to watch. There was a lot of highlights from today's match especially knowing that Cameron was not the only winner on the night as all five varsity courts brought home the W as well. My favorite moment of the evening, however, was when Cameron yelled, "Let's Go Mom!" Let's Go!
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