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OCT.
12-14 — Leafs Finish Sixth At MCCs; Girma All-MCC
Goshen
secures two points at singles; Girma's play earns first
award |
Fort Wayne, IN — With howling winds and bitter temperatures outdoors,
the 2006 Mid-Central Conference Tournament was moved indoors
to Fort Wayne’s
Wildwood Country Club and Pine Ridge Racket Club. That didn’t seem
to bother Goshen, as the team took two points en route to a
sixth-place finish, with number one singles junior Beakal
Girma taking All-MCC honors as a result.
For head coach Stan King, it was a reflection of the regular
season, where Goshen (6-5, 2-5) improved vastly in league competition.
“Our finish in this weekend’s tournament was about as expected,
though it’s easy to look back and see where we could have won a few
other matches,” King said. “However, sixth place felt like a
significant improvement over our eighth-place finishes in both 2004 and 2005.
We were
just a lot more competitive as a team in conference play this
year than we were last year, and last year was an improvement over the year
before that.”
Goshen entered the conference tournament with two seeded singles
positions and two seeded doubles positions — the first time Goshen
sent seeded players into MCC Tournament action since the 2003 season. With
the top four players / doubles groups receiving seeds in each flight, it
was hopeful that Goshen would capture at least four points in the weekend
event.
The Leafs’ doubles teams did not come away with their best tennis,
however as third-seeded Girma and sophomore Shyam Sabanathan
dropped a tournament-opening match to Bethel College’s Kiko Cortes
and Jered Shriner by an 8-6 score. The same went for seniors JD Windhorst
and Tim Yoder at the number three
doubles slot — they were seeded third in the flight — in an 8-0
loss to Taylor University’s Jorge Burmicky and Dave Smith.
Goshen’s unseeded, number two doubles team of freshmen Aaron Sutter
and Joel King fell by an 8-5 score to Indiana Wesleyan’s second seeded
tandem.
“The outcome of our doubles play was disappointing,” Stan King
said. “As
a team we thought we should be able to win some matches based
on how well doubles had gone for us during the regular season. But, we weren’t
able to salvage a team point, as all three doubles teams lost
in the first round of play. In all three matches, we couldn’t seem
to play at a high enough level to win, while our opponents were able to rise
to the occasion.
“Girma and Sabanathan lost to Bethel’s strong team who subsequently
lost in the next round to the eventual number one doubles
tournament winners, Matt Lantz and Jordan Hoy of Spring Arbor
(University),” King
continued. “In
the regular season, Girma and Sabanathan were thrashed 8-0 by
Bethel’s
number one team early in the year, but in that match and for
all of the regular season Cortes had been paired with Joel Dendiu,
who was unavailable for the
tournament. Hence, Bethel’s regular number one doubles team, which
would have been seeded had Dendiu been available, was not eligible
for seeding. Girma and Sabanathan played well at times, but their
game did not have the
consistency needed to win this match.”
Goshen’s Joel King and Sutter fell to Wesleyan’s number two tandem, while Windhorst and Yoder fell to
Taylor’s number two doubles team comprised of two very talented singles
players for the Trojans.
“Windhorst and Yoder lost to Taylor’s unseeded team of Jorge
Burmicky and Dave Smith,” Stan King said. “Burmicky and Smith
held singles positions of number one and three for the Taylor team and were
undefeated
at number three doubles during the regular season. However, since
they had only played together as a team for two matches (one of these an
8-1 win over
Goshen’s Windhorst and Yoder) they did not qualify for seeding. Eventual
winners were Marian’s unseeded duo of Clay Schneider and Clint Brand
who defeated the number one seeded duo, Wesleyan’s Carson Vandenbossche
and Jered Ringerbury, in the championship match.”
With Goshen’s doubles teams
out, it was up to the Leafs’ six
singles positions for chances at team points. Those came from
Goshen’s
top two players — unseeded Girma in the top singles flight and fourth-seeded
Sutter in the number two singles slot. Each recorded opening
wins.
“Beakal Girma defeated Taylor’s Jorge Burmicky in a very well-played
match,” Stan King said. “After losing the first set 2-6, Girma
found himself down 2-5 and two match points in the second set,
before going on to win the game and the set by a 7-5 score. Girma lost numerous
points
on his touch game during the first set and through much of the
second before everything started clicking for him. The third and final set
was another
close one with Girma taking it in a tiebreaker by a 7-6(4) score.
His next opponent was the number one seed, Luke Helm of Wesleyan, who has
been MCC’s
top singles player for the past two years. After getting blanked
the first set 6-0, Girma was able to get his game together for an exciting
6-4 second
set win. However, Helm pulled out all the stops for a 6-1 third
set win and the match by combining powerful baseline strokes with aggressive
net play.
These matches that attracted the attention of many tournament
participants and onlookers probably represented the best tennis of Girma’s
career at GC.”
League coaches took notice of Girma’s play, awarding him to the 12-man
All-Mid-Central Conference team as a result. It was the first
time since the 2003 season that Goshen posted an all-conference
performer, the last
being 2004 graduate Andrew Lanctot.
“Aaron Sutter, seeded at number four, came through with a nice
7-5, 7-5 first round win over Huntington’s Mitchell McDonald,” Stan
King said. “This was a sweet win for Sutter who had lost handily (6-3,
6-2) to McDonald during the regular season. In his next match,
Sutter probably played even better tennis but was no match for the number
one seed, Spring
Arbor’s season-long undefeated Jordan Hoy. Hoy capitalized on his powerful
ground strokes to win 6-0, 6-1. Hoy was the number two singles
champion, losing a total of only four tournament games against his three
opponents.”
Goshen’s two team points landed the team in sixth place, ahead of both
Huntington (1 point) and Grace College (no points). Indiana Wesleyan, Marian
College and Spring Arbor all collected 14 points at the top, all advancing
to NAIA Regional competition in May.
The Leafs have nowhere to look but up, however, as Yoder, Windhorst
and Sabanathan depart in the spring. In addition to Girma and
Sutter’s
performance at the MCC Tournament, Stan King has solid young
performers in Joel King — who sported a 6-4 regular-season record at
number three singles — and Sutter, who combined with King for
a 7-4 regular-season record at number two doubles.
“I am hoping our 2007 team will be a stronger one with our returnees
improving their games between now and next fall and the addition
of a number of skilled recruits,” Stan King said. “Unfortunately,
we will be losing three from this year’s team who have been significant
contributors in recent years: JD Windhorst and Tim Yoder are expected to
graduate next
spring and Shyam Sabanathan is planning to transfer to an engineering
school at mid-year. However, we are fortunate to have a core of good players
returning:
Beakal Girma who for the last two years has held the number one
singles and number one doubles positions on the team will be in his last
year of eligibility;
Sheldon Good who played number three and four singles and one
and two doubles during the past two fall seasons will be a junior; and Aaron
Sutter (two
singles and two doubles) and Joel King (three singles and two
doubles) are expected to return as sophomores. I have been in touch with
numerous prospective
student athletes for the fall of 2007, and I hope to recruit
four to six strong tennis players from this group, giving us a team of eight
to 10 players
for next fall.”
Check back to this website for continual off-season
updates and recruiting news. To contact head coach Stan King, call him at
(574) 535-7498 or click here to send him an email.
Final Results
Indiana Wesleyan-14
Marian-14
Spring Arbor-14
Bethel-10
Taylor-8
Goshen-2
Huntington-1
Grace-0
Singles:
#1 (unseeded ) Beakal Girma (G) def. (4 seed) Jorge Burmicky (TU): 2-6, 7-5,
7-6 (4); lost to (1 seed) Luke Helm (IWU) 6-0, 4-6, 6-1
#2 (4 seed) Aaron Sutter (G) def. Mitchell McDonald (HU): 7-5, 7-5; lost to (1
seed) Jordan Hoy (SAU) 6-0, 6-1
#3 (unseeded) Joel King(G) lost to (3 seed) Luke Wright (IWU) 6-3, 6-3
#4 (unseeded) Sheldon Good (G) lost to (2 seed) Pete Trgovich (MC): 6-2, 6-0
#5 (4 seed) Shyam Sabanathan (G) lost to (unseeded) Ryan Yoder (BC): 6-4, 6-2
#6 (unseeded) JD Windhorst (G) lost to (3 seed) Andrew Miller (TU): 6-3, 6-4
Doubles:
#1 (3 seed) Girma/Sabanathan (G) lost to Cortes/Shriner (BC): 8-6
#2 (unseeded) Sutter/King (G) lost to (2 seed) Hathaway/Wright (IWU): 8-5
#3 (3 seed) Windhorst/Yoder (G) lost to (unseeded) Burmicky/Smith (TU): 8-0
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  Junior
Beakal Girma
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