 Hello and welcome into the Evan Clifton show. I'm Joe Wombo, joined now with Evan Clifton, head coach of the tennis teams. And coach, you guys had a pretty important week with Hood this week. And the men were able to pull it out and earn their spot in the playoffs. Yeah. Yeah, it was big. The Hood match was certainly closer than we would have liked. We started off pretty hot at one doubles, as we typically have. And two and three doubles, we didn't play quite so well. And we came up short at a 2-1 deficit in that match. But we're able to bring it back in singles. We had a real nice match at one singles. We won. And then Warned and Lye was able to clinch the match for us against Hood. So it was big. It was big, a nice win. That gave us a playoff berth guaranteed. And then the women played Hood the next day, which we won 9-0. And that was a nice confidence-building win for those top three girls. And the guys played Elizabeth Town the following day. But a little bit better team than Hood. And they gave us some trouble. Certainly, we weren't able to pull that match out. But we got a nice win at one doubles. And we're able to sort of see some things in the singles matches that we knew we needed to correct comes Saturday or come Sunday, since the rain. And so against Arcadia, we really were able to make some of those adjustments in our singles matches, play really loose. One doubles did well again. Got another win. Brian, on senior day, just played lights out in doubles. I mean, just really took over and dominated. As he's done a lot this year. And that was great to see. Again, two and three doubles not so well. We had a lead, a little bit three doubles, and just weren't able to build on it and coast it through. So again, went down into singles down to one, knowing we had some work left to do. And seniors Kevin Sleitner and Tony Beers came up huge for us. I mean, very, very impressive. Very lopsided wins at five and six singles to give us the lead back. Yeah, it was huge. Warnon Lye played phenomenal. Yesterday, straight sets win against a very good player who was first, second team all conference last year. And Warnon beat him in straight sets to give us the 4-2 lead. Brian had a really tough match against the player who's been playing really hot the last few weeks. Was able to force the third set, but couldn't quite pull it out. Doug Vaughn played really well again against a pretty evenly matched opponent. He was up a set, got taken to a third set tie break, and went back and forth and lost the tie break 11-9. So as we've been in this position once or twice before already this year, it's a 4-4 match, and it comes down to Peter Rapia at four singles, and again, he's down a set and I think 3-0, or certainly down a break in the second set. And as he's done before, came up clutch for us. Came up one the second set and took the third set tie break. After he was down the third set tie break I think 7-5 too and really turned it on. It's just been nice to see him come up clutch for us again and we certainly have needed it. You certainly have. It's been nice to be able to lean on him. You don't necessarily want to lean on him as much as you've had to, but he comes up in big spots. Yeah, he does, and that's, I think certain players can thrive in that situation because they see the match situation, they know it might come down to them and that their team needs them to win. And despite how well or poorly they may have been playing in that situation, you don't worry about that. All that matters is winning or losing. And so when certain players get in that situation or able to embrace that and able to thrive in that pressure situation, I mean, it's just got to give you confidence. And that's really, as a coach, it's great to see and you need to have at least a couple of those players in your lineup, so it's huge for us. Hopefully that confidence will exude to the other players, especially as you guys head into a very large match, heavy weighted match against Lebanon Valley coming up this week. Yeah, so we're tied with them currently for the second seed. They're a good team. They gave us a tough match last year. They're even better this year. So we expect, I mean, every single doubles match, every single singles match is gonna be pretty tightly contested and everyone's gonna have to play, bring their A game that day. If we're not, if we don't play quite well in doubles or singles, if we don't have both our games going today or going that day, it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough for us to win. We really wanna win and get that second seed so we can host them the semifinal. I was gonna say, are you either gonna go to them and play them in the semifinals or host them? Either you have the target on your back or you're aiming to get some retribution out of it. Yeah, I mean, either way, there are next two opponents. That's for sure. Hopefully after this next match, we'll play the second one at home and in front of our fans on our courts. That's definitely what we're hoping for. That'll be a very exciting match to go and watch and enjoy. Now let's talk a little bit about the women's side. Unfortunately, they've been eliminated from the playoff contention with going into the two-to-one deficit after those doubles matches. But I mean, as their seasons progress, you've got a lot of optimism as far as what they've been able to learn this season and being able just to progress with their mentality and what they've been able to do on their courts. Sure, yeah, I mean, there's certainly bright spots. Absolutely, I mean, and the whole team has a pretty bright future. We're very young, as we've said all year. It's mostly freshmen and sophomores. And we've held our own against everybody. We took Messiah 5-4, the defending conference chance, Lycoming 5-4, who's a playoff team. So we're right there. I mean, even in the Arcadia match, our number one player, Jenna, who's a freshman. Jenna Scove won two-and-one or two-and-two and she beat their number one player fairly easily. We won at one doubles running away. So we know we can hang with anybody. Two singles against Arcadia was, I think, three sets of two singles. Three singles was four-and-three. Four singles was one break, five-and-four, I think. So again, we've got to get a little bit better. If we can get a little bit stronger, a little bit quicker, a little bit better, we can have a really good match with the current top seed, Lebanon Valley for the women's side. But if we can have success there and the regular season on a high note, carry that momentum into our work in the off-season. Next year, it'll be us. That'll be top of the conference looking down for sure. Yeah, you guys have always been there in these matches, but just a couple of break points will send you into a victory. It's tough to have that what's going to happen at this break point, but as they get older and more progressed and more seasoned, they'll know that they can do it. Sure. Getting that experience, being in those situations with where games are on the line sets, matches, team matches are on the line. The more we get in those situations, and even though we've came up short a few times this spring, just the more having that experience will be a calming influence for the next year when you're in that situation. So I certainly am very encouraged by a lot of us have played and how the team has done. And we're going to keep getting better for sure. That's going to be crucial. That's certainly our only choice. We're going to get better this week. We're going to get better over the summer, and we're going to come back even stronger. Well, coach, we wish you the best of luck this week. And in those big matches against Lebanon Valley, finish the season strong on the women's side and even stronger on the men's side and earn that semifinal hosting position. Thank you. He's Evan Clifton. I'm Joe Wamba, and this has been the Evan Clifton Show.