Chapter 28

Watching Sophia and Ashley’s match showed Dan a lot of things he’d realized he’d never noticed before. It also made him appreciate even more what Peter had been telling him about experience when it came to tennis. Sure, you could practice and perfect a skill, but being able to implement it in a match, in a variety of situations, was the deciding factor between victory and defeat.

At first, Dan had been certain Sophia and Ashely were going to win their match. They’d already been up when they arrived, and they’d secured the second game of the first set without problem. Watching them play through the whole first set, they’d seemed to be setting the pace, and working quiet well with each other.

On the court, they seemed to have an unspoken level of communication that allowed them to support each other without fail. If a ball went over Sophia’s head, Ashely was there to get it, and Sophia would switch to covering Ashley’s side of the court. Furthermore, Dan could tell there was some level of understanding between the two, on which tactics they would use. Sometimes, depending on how the tennis ball was returned, the girl on the baseline would rush forward, putting both of them at the service line, in a much more aggressive manner. Other times, one would stay up, while the other stayed back at the baseline, in a more neutral form.

Peter would occasionally explain the reasoning for such movements, stating it depended on the pace of the match, how they were feeling in their skills, and whether or not the shot that had been hit was an offensive, aggressive shot, a neutral shot, or a defensive shot. Those types of shots, those plays, helped dictate the pace of the match, and the girls on both sides of the court would adjust their positioning in response.

Everything went well the first set for Sophia and Ashley. They’d seemed to have better teamwork, in Dan’s eyes, and they seemed to really have the upper hand skill wise. Watching the two play, Sophia and Ashely seemed to showcase a wider variety of shots, using techniques that gave the ball not just top spin, but back spin. These slice shots caused the balls to skip in a strange way, and kept them low to the ground. A practically wicked slice by Sophia actually just barely cleared the net, and practically dropped dead on the other side of the court, making it impossible for the other team to return it. That type of a shot, according to Peter, was a drop shot.

However, after the first set, which Sophia and Ashely had won 6-2, everything seemed to change. From the get-go, the speed of the serves, the power of the serves from the other team, seemed to intensify. Not only that, while previously Dan had only seen them using flat serves, in the second set the two girls Peter had been flirting with began adding in the slice serves Peter had talked about.

Those serves, Dan quickly recognized, were brutal, especially depending on where they were placed. When used from the deuce side, or right hand side of the court, the slice seemed especially nasty. At least, to Dan’s eyes. This was because the ball would bounce sharply to the left of the server. Meaning if they landed the slice in the left-hand side of the service box, it would bounce even further to the left. What really made this a nasty combination, was he noticed the girls had changed up where they were serving from.

Originally, the opposing team had been serving near the tic mark that denoted the middle of the court on the baseline. Now though, they were standing near the line that denotated the start of doubles alley, or the normal boundary line for a singles court. With that, they were able to serve with more of a sharp angle. Combined with the slice serve, this meant most of the serves from that side drew Ashley, who always received the serve on the deuce, aka forehand side, to have to run far to the side of the court, which left a lot of open court for Sophia to cover.

And that tactic, Dan noticed, had begun the downfall of his school’s duo in the second set. Ashley was struggling to return those shots well, which started to put a lot of pressure on Sophia. Even if Ashely returned the serve, she usually lacked a good amount of force in her shot, or her placement just didn’t’ seem right. More often than not, the opposing player near the net reacted almost instantly, moving rapidly to return Ashley’s shot down the wide-open middle of the court.

Even worse, the more this happened, the more frustrated Ashely seemed to get. Dan could tell Sophia was doing her best to console her teammate, but the strain was evident. Their teamwork began to crumble, and they both began to wear down. It became evident in the second set, that their opponents had found a weakness of theirs, and they were merciless in exploiting it.

It was painful for Dan to watch as the two struggled. They made good plays, and Sophia was adapting to their opponents’ techniques, and seemed to be really doing her best to try and cover for Ashely as best she could. However, Ashely just seemed to continue to crumble. The longer the match went on, the more exhausted she seemed to become, and Dan couldn’t help but notice the wild look in her eyes as she glanced about. Every time she looked up at him and Peter, Dan felt like another bit of her chipped away. Ashely, was crumbling. Peter had explained tennis was as much a mental game as it was a physical one, and this match was bringing that into clarity for Dan.

Curious, as Ashely struggled, Dan pulled up her information. Partially because he was curious, and partially because he was starting to really feel for them, and wanted and excuse to look away. The second set was at 5-0, and Dan had little hope for Sophia and Ashely to turn it around. And with how the second set was going, Dan had a feeling they would lose the third set as well, if something didn’t change. The entire momentum of the match had shifted, and not in their favor.

Ashley VanCamp

Age- 16

Relation- Classmate/Rival

Occupation- Student/Tennis Player

Dan blinked a few moments at the relation. Rival? That was a thing? He made a mental note to check that out a little later, and skipped through her data to find what he was looking for.

Mental Traits

Mental Health – Poor

Intelligence – Average

Wisdom – Average

Aptitude – Average

Mental Fortitude- Poor

Thanks to Dan’s enhanced skill, he was able to see a little more detailed information Ashley, and he couldn’t help but wince as he looked over her mental traits. Ashley, was not doing well mentally. Her mental health was poor, meaning it was anywhere between a 21 and a 40 right now. And that stat, Dan knew from his own experience, was similar to his stamina or health. Meaning the lower it got, the higher likelihood a debuff would be applied. At least, in his case.

For normal people, he assumed a ‘debuff’ was more like a natural reaction. Say a mental breakdown could be imminent. It definitely explained her increased rate of errors, as well as the wild look in her eyes. And the fact her mental fortitude was in the poor range, said it was just a matter of time, before she completely shut down on this match. Granted, her mental fortitude level brought a lot of things into clarity for Dan. Ashely, just wasn’t good about dealing with situations and stress. Which, he felt, was probably a bad trait for a tennis player to have. But he wasn’t one to judge. He did have to wonder though, if this was part of why Peter claimed Ashley was bringing Sophia down. It was definitely clear, from watching this match, that Sophia was the better of the two. Dan didn’t even need to compare their stats to see that much.

“You know,” Peter said as they lost the set. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ashley break this hard.” He looked at Dan, and for a second, it seemed like Peter was concerned for her. Which was strange because the senior usually just mocked her and goaded her. “Pretty sure she’s about to have a breakdown,” he stretched his arms, and started walking towards the fence. “And for some reason, I’m just not in the mood to watch a breakdown happen today.” He grinned at Dan. “Considering how good my day has been going.

“So what are you going to do?” Dan asked. The senior was already walking over to the fence, whistling easily as he did. “Isn’t this a tournament match?”

Peter grinned at Dan and shook his head. “Nah, this was a special match I set up.” He chuckled. “The team they were supposed to play couldn’t’ make it today. One of them came down with Mono…naughty girl.” Peter laughed some more. “But I wanted you to get the chance to watch them, so I set this match up.”

“Oh.” Dan really wasn’t sure he liked how much Peter seemed to be shifting things all in Dan’s favor. None of this really seemed normal.

“Yup. But I’ve seen enough. It really wasn’t fair for our girls anyways. Well, I mean, it was good practice for them, but I definitely didn’t set them up for success.”

“What do you mean?” They’d gotten to the gate leading into the court by now. All four of the girls were currently still grabbing drinks of their water, and wiping themselves down with their towels. Both sides were sweating, though Ashley and Sophia were clearly more worn down.

“Those two,” Peter pointed at their opponents, the one’s he’d gotten the numbers from earlier, “are Seniors, and have made it decently far at Nationals the last two years. They’re more skilled than our girls, and have more experience than them.”

“But they lost the first set.” Dan said. It had seemed like Sophia and Ashely were controlling the first set.

“Mhmm,” Peter laughed, “they were trying to see all of the skills Sophia and Ashley had. Losing the first set wasn’t a problem to them, because they were confident they could win the next two. That first set, they were just seeing how good Sophia and Ashley were, while they got themselves used to their play style.” Peter chuckled. “Those two are probably meaner, mentally, to their opponents on court than I am. It’s one thing to just blow people away with skill, it’s another to toy with them and make them think they have a chance.”

Dan, highly doubted that fact. Peter purposefully messed with players and took their racquets from them. What those two were doing, didn’t seem all that mean compared to how Peter talked about his matches and the times he played against people. Then again, Dan still hadn’t actually seen Peter in a singles match…so he didn’t know what the Senior really was like on the court. Maybe he had a point? Maybe it was better being beat 6-0 over and over, rather than having someone give you the feeling you had a chance, and then yanked it away from you? Dan, wasn’t quite sure which position he’d rather be in.

“Any who,” they were on the court, and Peter was waving at the girls, grabbing their attention. “Time for me to save the day.” He winked at Dan, “It’s good being king.”