Today at the NCAA D3 tournament rain played havoc with the schedule and the players. Instead of being able to use the historic Stowe Stadium at Kalamazoo, tournament officials were forced to move men’s and women’s play to a variety of indoor courts around the area. I have to add that the officials and referee (Darren Potkey) did an amazing job rescheduling all the matches. Given how many matches were rained out it is simply incredible that the officials were able put out a smooth running schedule.
Colton’s 10am match was pushed back to 12:30. Colton had a tall order of playing NCW’s #1 player Robert Kjellberg. Kjellberg is the #6 seed but started the year off as the #2 player in the nation.
Going into the match I thought moving to the fast indoor courts would benefit Colton. I was hoping his typical penetrating groundstrokes would be even more effective on the quicker courts. However it was Kjellberg who used the quicker courts to his advantage. The #1 from NCW served incredibly well – in fact at the start of match he made 10 out of 12 huge first serves earning quick holds.
On the flip side Colton didn’t play his best tennis and made a rash of uncharacteristic errors. Several games he got into trouble by making 3-4 unforced errors while trying to unleash big forehands. Part this was certainly due to the fact that Kjellberg was playing well and making so few mistakes – Colton literally had to create something to win a point.
Colton certainly battled hard and put up a good fight but in the end he lost 6-1, 6-2. This tournament was a great experience for him and it has add fuel […]
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