1

Perzel Jonathan Perzel Hour 3 6/3/13

Southwest Varsity Tennis Culture

I am part of the tennis culture and specifically the Southwest Varsity Tennis culture. My teammates and I enjoy being around each other and we have fun together at practice. At matches we keep each other upbeat by giving compliments or words of encouragement. I play first doubles with the senior captain, Evan Mair. I enjoy playing doubles with Evan because when he hits his 100 mph serve the opponent is only able to deflect the ball barely over the net, except when you are playing Souths two-time state doubles champions or Edinas first doubles team, which means I receive an easy volley to put away. On May 14, 2013 the weather is forecasted to be 94 degrees by 3:30 P.M, which is just in time for the Southwest versus Benilde-St. Margarets tennis match. I am playing my usual, first doubles, with Evan Mair. I leave Ms. Ritlers geography class at 2:45 to meet the rest of the team and our coach at door 13 so we can leave for our match. On the bus going to Benildes courts, we are all laughing at the newest stupid thing that Evan has said and giving scouting reports about the players on Benildes team. After driving to their school, we found out that their courts are not there but at Aquila Park which is half an hour away. While we are on our way to the park our coach jokingly says, Just think what the practice attendance rate would be if our courts were half an hour away from school We all laugh and agree that Vince Puzak, a senior who is goin g to Dartmouth next year, would be the only frequent teammate to be at practice. Finally, we reach the courts and teammate Carl Vaughn gives me a dissolvable electrolyte tablet to put in my water since it is scorching hot outside and you sweat off a lot of electrolytes in hot weather.

Perzel I should have known that this match was going to be interesting when I forgot my tennis

uniform and shoes at home. Therefore, I was prepared to play tennis in cargo shorts and Converse shoes. While the team and I were walking to court 1 to do the lineup introductions, my teammates teased me saying, Benilde is going to think we needed an extra player so we picked a random boy off the street and gave him a racquet and told him you are playing first doubles. Thankfully, during the warm-ups, my mom came to the match with my uniform and shoes. Before the match started I was able to change behind a pine tree outside the fence. After quickly changing I ran back onto the court and say, I am ready. Evan again gives me a hard time for forgetting my uniform and even the opponents are chuckling a little bit. Evan and I won the racquet spin and we choose to serve first. As we are walking to the baseline, Evan remarks that he feels that the temperature has increased since we arrived. I give the sign with my hand behind my back to serve the ball out wide and that I am going to switch. Pow!, Evan hits a mammoth serve out wide and the opponent weakly returns the ball high and cross-court. I come across and hit an overhead in which the ball hits the ground hard and then bounces over the fence. I meet up with Evan before the next point and tell him that I could not resist bouncing it over the fence. He laughingly replies, You can not resist every single time you get an overhead. It is my turn to serve and the game score is 2-0 in our favor. On my first serve I hit a powerful ace serve. As I am walking to the other side to serve again, I realize that I am having trouble breathing. It felt like my lungs are filled with cotton balls. I take a couple deep breaths and then serve. The opponent hits a cross-court return to my backhand. As I bend my knees to hit a backhand, I feel my thighs tightening up like a knotted shoelace. When I make contact with the ball, it goes directly into the net. As I am walking back to the baseline for the third point, I think

Perzel

to myself, Is the heat really affecting me this much? I never have had trouble playing tennis in heat before. The weather gods must have been laughing that I thought this heat was bad because as I was standing there to serve, I felt the heat turn up a notch. Just standing there, sweat began to run down my face and onto my lips where I could taste the bitterness of the salt. We lost that game after they won the point on the third Ad-Out. Before the next game, I regrouped myself and did some quick stretches making the heat stroke symptoms dissipate. Evan and I went on to handily win the next two games. We are now up 4-1 and it is now the opponents turn to serve. When Evan is back to return and I am up at the net, I began to have trouble breathing again and my legs become wobbly. Evan returns the serve and the server hits it back making the ball come towards me. I lift up my racquet to hit an angle volley but instead the ball hits the frame of my racquet and goes into the net. Sadly, we go on to lose the next three games. After losing three games, it is time to switch sides. Our coach walks over to talk to us. I tell him that I do not feel well and he inquires if I can still play. I reply that I can still go on. Evan and I agree to take a little longer break than usual to catch our breath. I take a large gulp of my water which has the dissolved electrolyte tablet in it. The tart sweetness of the electrolyteenhanced water tastes amazing in my parched mouth. As I am waiting for Evan to serve and as I am staring at the opponent across from me, the ground below my opponent begins to tilt back and forth. Luckily, Evans serve is an ace and I do not have to do anything because at that moment I was in no shape to run. At the next point, my stomach begins to ache and burn and I can tell I am close to throwing up. Again Evan hits a clean ace and I did not have to move. We won that game due to Evans strong serving. When I walk up to Evan I tell him, Nice serves. I like not having to do anything especially because this heat is really getting to me. Now comes the hard part. I need to return a serve when my world is tilting and spinning. Before starting this

Perzel

game that I hoped would be the final game to win the first set, I confide to Evan and tell him that he is going to have to be on his A-game because I am really struggling today. Evan replies that he has my back. When it is my turn to return, I am not only sweating from the heat but from nervousness as well. I am nervous that I am going to miss all my shots and we are going to have to go to a tiebreaker which I do not have the mental or physical strength for. When I am returning the opponents serve, the blurred vision that I have reminds me of when I was in fifth grade and I tried on goggles that simulated being intoxicated. This game was long and was fought hard by both sides. Fortunately, Evan and I pulled out this game to win the first set. This is when I realized that I had to win another whole set to win the match. I went to the restroom during the break between sets and even though it was an outdoor bathroom it was easily 20 degrees cooler. I splashed refreshing and piercing cold water on my face and immediately felt better. I was serving first to start the second set. I was excited because the heat stroke symptoms were gone. I was ready to play at a high level again. Evan and I won two games in a row and it seemed as if we were back to our usual form. However, after the fourth game the symptoms came sprinting back. This time they were even more intense than the previous two times. By this time all the other matches were finished and the whole team was seated on the court next to us cheering for Evan and I. Once we had lost the next two games in a row, I looked over to my teammates and could tell that they were confused. They were used to seeing me try to cover the whole court rather than watching me drag my feet in pure exhaustion. Evan and I and the Benilde team won on our respective serves. So, the set was tied at 5-5. At this time I was feeling the worst I had felt throughout the whole match. I came up to Evan and said that if this set goes to a tiebreaker or if we lose the set, we are forfeiting. He replied with a grin on his face, Then we will just have to win these next two games. My only goal was to get the

Perzel

ball in and nothing else. I had no strategy; I was focused only on getting the ball in. We won the next game making the score 6-5. We need to win this next game to win the set. When I was back waiting to return the serve, I blocked out everything except the server. I forced myself to forget about the excruciating pain in my stomach and legs and to push through the dizziness. Not even the blinding sun was affecting my focus. My grip on my tennis racquet was deadly. I hit every return in and then let Evan take command of the net. Our opponents pushed the game to deuce but Evans solid forehand won the deuce point. It was now Ad-In and match point. In retrospect, I was so out of it and only focused on getting the ball in that I did not know it was match point. I hit my return in and the opponent hit a poor shot back to Evan. He responds with a volley winner. The two and half hour long battle was finally over and we were victors. After shaking hands with our opponents and congratulating my partner, I made a beeline to the bench and collapsed onto it. One of my teammates came over to me with a bottle of Vitamin Water. I could not have been more grateful for something soothing to drink and to not be standing. As I walked with my teammates to where our bags were, my teammates empathetically ask how I am feeling. I replied sarcastically, I just have a stomachache, blurred vision, and cramped legs. Knowing that I may be sick but still had a sense of humor, they moved on from their uniform jokes to teasing me about not drinking enough water before the match. I felt honored to be a part of a group of people that was looking out for me and enjoyed having fun with me. When I arrived at my house, I looked in the mirror and saw that my face was flaming red from the sun. Also, I remembered that I still needed to do homework. However, sunburn and homework were not on my mind. A nap was the only thing I wanted. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought of the Southwest Varsity Tennis team and how happy I am to represent them with a victory over Benilde-St. Margarets.