Mullet beats Mullet at State tennis tournament
But Mullet will always be listed in the record books as the first boys player from, not only Hiland, but the entirety of Holmes County, to reach the State tourney.
"I was thinking about that as I was walking through the parking lot," said Mullet prior to taking the court for his opening round match against a Panthers player making his return trip to State after being ousted in round one as a sophomore in 2010. "It's definitely a great feeling, just being here and seeing all of these great players – most of whom are better than me – but we'll see."
No, we won't.
Unfortunately, nobody will have a chance to see exactly how the Hawks senior's talents really stack up against the rest of the State competition as Mullet was out of sorts right from the opening serve, uncharacteristically shanking shots off the side of his racquet, returning shots long, and continuously firing both forehands and backhands into the net, while being served up a bagel by Linden in the opening set.
"He had 12 (unforced errors) in the first set, which works out to two per game," explained eighth-year Hiland head coach Tom Lee who watched Mullet surrender the final point of the last three games on unforced errors, hitting a backhand long to drop game four and pounding the ball into the net on the final point in both games five and six. "That's too many to give away at this level. You can't take anything away from (Linden), but Brad did have a few too many unforced errors."
"I think it was a combination of him being a good player and I couldn't get into any rhythm," explained Mullet after falling behind 0-3 in the second set, smacking another ball into the net on the first game-point, then getting beaten to his backhand side on a crosscourt shot by Linden on the decisive point of game two, and getting caught moving to his right on game-point number three as Linden charged the net and drove the winner to his left. "I didn't go out on the court with my best game. I didn't have my game to start out and I didn't really get any long points because he either won it or I messed up right away.
"At 0-3 in the first set, we talked and we thought he might be weaker when he came to the net, but then he started coming to the net and just completely winning all the points, so that strategy didn't work out."
But Linden's strategy did.
"I tried to hit crosscourt and tried to stay in my patterns so he (Mullet) would try to go for a ball too early, and I thought it worked out pretty well," explained the St. Mary Central Catholic junior who would fall in three sets during the quarterfinal round against Cincinnati Country Day freshman Patrick Wildman. "I tried to hit to his forehand because it seemed like he was missing more of those, and just keep it crosscourt. I thought he'd miss it if I did that and I tried to stay patient because I knew I could win points off of (unforced errors)."
However, in game three, Linden finally proved to be human as well, committing three unforced errors of his own, including on game-point when he found the net with his forehand, making the score 1-3.
But he bounced back in game five, beating Mullet with another crosscourt winner on the decisive point to put Mullet deeper into the hole at 1-4.
"I don't think there's anything Brad could have done differently other than cut down on errors," said Lee after watching Mullet take a 40-30 lead in game six before hitting a backhand into the net to bring up deuce point, following that with a forehand into the net to make it advantage Linden, and ultimately dropping the set after three more deuce points when he found the net again with another backhand. "I'm not disappointed at all."
If not disappointing, the final game of the second set proved to be a microcosm of the entire match as Mullet went up 0-15 when Linden hit a shot long. It moved to 15-15 as Mullet hit a shot wide to the left on the second point, then 30-15 when the Hiland senior hit a backhand into the net off of Linden's next serve. Linden then went up 40-15 as he charged the net and buried a forehand winner to Mullet's left, winning the match when Mullet drove one last forehand into the net on match point.
"If I played him again, I would just try to keep the ball in play more," explained Mullet afterward. "He wasn't a perfect player, he messed up. If I would have been a little more consistent I definitely could have competed a little better. I'm not all that disappointed, just a little bit in that I wanted to play well today. Other than that, I'm just happy to be here. It's been a great year."
"Brad's done something no other Hiland tennis player's ever done and he's laid the groundwork for other players to be here in the future, so there's nothing to be disappointed about," added Lee, who may already have the next Hiland State qualifier on his team in Mullet's cousin Braxton Mullet, who made it to the District tournament this year as a freshman.
"He definitely has a lot of potential," said Brad Mullet, talking about his cousin. "I think he's better than I was as a freshman. If he sticks with it and takes lessons in the winter and does things in the offseason, he'll definitely be up there where I am, if not higher."
Because that's the thing about Hawks... sometimes they lay eggs, but they always try to fly a little higher.