Great Valley sent every healthy, available body that could swing a tennis racquet to the 2009 Middle States Sectionals at Mercer County Park, NJ this past weekend - unfortunately, it wasn't enough to advance further as the squad went 1-4 over the long weekend of tennis.
Already stretched thin by injury and location issues (2 of our best players were in Germany and Florida, respectively), the roster took two more hits during the weekend as Tom Mead decided that New Jersey was too far to drive for 8-game pro sets and Kenny's lower body came unhinged during a point in Saturday afternoon's match. With Jim Shinehouse leaving the country after his Sunday morning match, we literally had only 8 players available on our entire roster to take the courts against CPD in the afternoon tilt. A pretty amazing turn of events for the 2-time PATD champs.
Individually, Brett Seigfried had a nice weekend, going 3-2 in singles action. After getting drubbed 8-2 by Delaware (old nemesis Cahn Ho) and Jersey, Brett regrouped and pulled out his next three matches. Our other 4 court wins came from different sources - Rich Trach and I won our only outing together, an 8-2 smashing of our rivals Russell Chamberlin and Ron Rubenstein. I managed one singles win out of 4, an 8-2 victory over Allegheny. Holger and Joe pulled out one of their 5 matches, and Tom Cantu and Jack Legoretta prevailed over their opponents from Eastern PA.
I'll go into all of the gruesome details over the next few weeks, but the upshot I think is this - we really ran into some bad luck with roster availability this time around. Our team as constructed is a great regular season team, because we have a deep roster without any glaring weaknesses. But the top-end talent at this weekend of tennis was just too much for our depleted roster. I personally could have played better, and perhaps some of the other guys could say the same. But realistically, even with our best roster out there, I'm not that sure we get past the New Jersey squad that steamrolled to a 21-4 court record en route to a 5-0 weekend and a trip to Vegas.
So, back to the drawing board. There is absolutely no shame in being the two-time defending PATD 4.0 Champs. Now we wait to see the new ratings come out, try to do a little recruiting, and gear up for another successful campaign. See you in April, boys!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Backs Against the Wall
Just a quick update on the weekend's festivities thus far - GV finds itself up against it after two matches, dropping decisions to Delaware and Jersey for an 0-2 record halfway into Day 2. The schedules have been turned upside down because of the weekend's rain - we know that our next match today is scheduled for 4:30PM, but no word on tomorrow's schedule as of yet. Hopefully the rain will stay away so that Sunday's matches can occur outdoors, but we'll see.
More updates to follow...
More updates to follow...
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Rain Rain Go Away!
From Capt. Mike's e-mail tonight:
All matches will be moved indoors and as I suspected 8 game pro sets, 5minute warm up.
Below are the locations of the courts, some pretty far away.
Addresses below for GPS or Mapquest. Will not know who plays where until they make the determination of going indoors.
If Fri is a total wash out they will move Fri PM match to Sunday PM.
Nassau Rac Club
1800 Rte 206
Skillman, NJ 08558
908-359-8730
Hopewell Valley Tennis Club
111 Tittismill Rd
Pennington, NJ 08534
609-737-3600
Pennsbury Rac Club
375 W. Trenton Rd
Morrisville, PA 19067
215-736-1177
Brunswick Hills Rac Club
225 State Rd # 18
East Brunswick, NJ 08016
732-238-1122
Eve Kraft Community Tennis Ctr
92 Washington Rd
Princeton Junction, NJ 08550
609-520-0015
Princeton Rac Club
150 Raymond Rd
Princeton, NJ 08550
Let's try to dodge the raindrops and play outside. A true test of tennis skill. 5 matches. Leave it all on the court.
I will be able to post updates Friday and Saturday night, for all of you who read the blog but won't be in Jersey with us. All 3 of you.
11:30 in Mercer County tomorrow. Our first opponents? You may remember Cahn Ho, Russell Chamberlin and the gang from Dover, Delaware. Let's start off on the right foot and take the first step to Vegas, boys!
All matches will be moved indoors and as I suspected 8 game pro sets, 5minute warm up.
Below are the locations of the courts, some pretty far away.
Addresses below for GPS or Mapquest. Will not know who plays where until they make the determination of going indoors.
If Fri is a total wash out they will move Fri PM match to Sunday PM.
Nassau Rac Club
1800 Rte 206
Skillman, NJ 08558
908-359-8730
Hopewell Valley Tennis Club
111 Tittismill Rd
Pennington, NJ 08534
609-737-3600
Pennsbury Rac Club
375 W. Trenton Rd
Morrisville, PA 19067
215-736-1177
Brunswick Hills Rac Club
225 State Rd # 18
East Brunswick, NJ 08016
732-238-1122
Eve Kraft Community Tennis Ctr
92 Washington Rd
Princeton Junction, NJ 08550
609-520-0015
Princeton Rac Club
150 Raymond Rd
Princeton, NJ 08550
Let's try to dodge the raindrops and play outside. A true test of tennis skill. 5 matches. Leave it all on the court.
I will be able to post updates Friday and Saturday night, for all of you who read the blog but won't be in Jersey with us. All 3 of you.
11:30 in Mercer County tomorrow. Our first opponents? You may remember Cahn Ho, Russell Chamberlin and the gang from Dover, Delaware. Let's start off on the right foot and take the first step to Vegas, boys!
Sorry So Lazy!
Sorry I didn't get to the match reviews from Districts. I'll still do them, I swear. I need something to do to kill the 8 month off-season... :-)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
District Match #1 Review
PATD 4.0 Men’s Districts Review – Match 1, Great Valley vs. Pirates, 8:30AM Saturday July 18th
It’s never easy to figure out which squad is going to be the “toughest” match-up when it comes to District playoffs. After all, your team has to be pretty good to survive the gauntlet that is the regular season. One thing we did know about the Pirates, however, was that their top 2 singles players were supposed to be so good that their final regular season opponent defaulted the entire match as a team protest against guys that they felt were underrated. Not only did Lakeside default the match, it was a match that could have decided a berth in Districts!
Knowing that, Capt. Mike flip-flopped the lineup a few times, considering the possibility of loading up doubles by teaming Brett and I together…but eventually decided to play things straight up. Things seemed a little dicey – but thanks to fantastic performances by our 3 doubles pairings, Great Valley managed to pull out the win and start the weekend 1-0.
1st Singles – Greg Heck v. Kent Lane, 6-4, 2-6, 0-1
Kent had a phenomenal season in 2009. In his first 3 singles matches, he lost no more than 5 games each match. After a straight set doubles win, he had a couple of 3-set wins where he lost the first set and then won the next two sets pretty easily. Hmmm…overall he was 5-0 in singles, 1-0 in doubles and 1 win by default. I was also riding a perfect season into Districts, albeit mostly in doubles, primarily with Rich Trach. Rich and I went 6-0 – I also added a doubles win with Holger, and 2 singles wins. So either Kent or I were going to taste defeat for the first time on this beautiful July morning.
During the first set, I managed to stay aggressive and take advantage of Kent’s struggling serve. He had trouble finding any consistency, and I felt good about stealing the first. In the second, we played a marathon 5th game at 2-all. I blew several chances to break serve and put myself in position to win the match…and then my game just caved in. Kent started serving better and was pounding his forehand all over the court, keeping me well behind the baseline. I don’t find myself well behind the baseline very often, and I didn’t handle it well. I didn’t put up much of a fight in the tiebreak and left the court with a disappointing loss. Fortunately the rest of the team picked me up…
2nd Singles – Brett Seigfried v. Donald Swantko, 6-7, 2-6
I’m guessing that Donald is the reason that Lakeside chose to default their match with the Pirates to send a message to Sally Baird. Donald played varsity tennis at Millersville University this season as a freshman, and was named All-PSAC by the conference coaches. Interestingly, he was only 1-1 in singles in the 4.0 regular season, with both matches going 3 sets, not including his default win. He also played 4 doubles matches at 4.5, winning 2 and losing 2. He squared off against Brett, who was 8-0 in 4.0 singles play this year between the PATD and CPTD. I was lucky enough to be playing right next to these guys, and they were absolutely blasting the ball back and forth. Donald jumped to an early lead, but Brett fought back to take a lead before they reached the first set tiebreak. Swantko held Brett off, stole the momentum and swiftly took the second set 6-2. Of course, I say swiftly, but my 3-set match was over well before these guys were done…they were playing some long points! Brett’s was the last match complete, and he was so sure that we had lost that he was wishing his opponent good luck at Sectionals. Silly Brett…
1st Doubles – Werkiser/Van Alstine d. Ganley/Grodecki, 6-1, 2-6, 1-0
We flipped our doubles pairings, putting our “weakest” team at 1st and our “best” team at 3rd. Well, the Pirates did the same thing. I didn’t see any of this match (or any of the doubles matches, for that matter) so I’ll tell you about the records, but I don’t have much else to add. Except to note that our boys were down 9-8 in the super-tiebreak…and no matter what happened the rest of the weekend, our fate could have been decided right there – and Kenny and Guy turned it around and took the match.
Jim Ganley plays a lot of USTA league tennis. This tennis season alone, he is 8-2 in Senior Mixed Doubles (one of his losses was to GV team member Tom Mead), 2-0 in Senior 4.0 Doubles (one win by default), 2-3 for the Pirates in 4.0 play, 4-3 in various Mixed Doubles levels, and 5-0 in Tri-Level doubles as a 4.0. Phew. That’s a lot of tennis. I wonder if he goes to practice, too? Notably, only one of his matches came with his partner for this match, a 3-set win back in early May. Wlodzimierz Grodecki is not nearly as prolific – though also a Seniors players, he’s played only 1 seniors doubles match (a loss) to go along with his 4-0 doubles record for the Pirates, one of which was by default. Ganley and Grodecki were unable to best our Super-Seniors, as Kenny improved his 2-1 season record and Guy posted his first victory after 3 season losses. Couldn’t have come at a better time!!!
2nd Doubles – Mackenthun/Virgulti d. Remillard/Siggs, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0
With all of the consternation surrounding our personnel losses (Schmidt, Gionta, Mead, Edson, et al), it was kind of easy to forget that we were adding a huge piece – Joe Virgulti. Talk about your wild cards…Joe had played a grand total of 4 league matches over the past 2 seasons due to injuries. And this year, he and Jim Dare double-bageled two patsies from Healthplex that thought they coming out for a badminton match, and Joe was credited with 2 default victories. That’s it. He was to be paired with Holger Mackenthun for the weekend, and who better to be matched with? All Holger has done all year is win, with about 26 different partners. So what would happen? Well, after figuring each other out for the first set, Joe and Holger got the job done in an easy 3rd set super-tiebreak.
Their opponents – Dan Remillard didn’t play a whole lot this season, going 2-1 in doubles for the 4.0 year, not including the last match default. And he had never played with his partner on this day, Ronald Siggs – Siggs was 3-2 in the 4.0 regular season, with mixed records in other pursuits such as Senior 4.0 Doubles, Mixed Doubles and Senior Mixed Doubles. In the end, Remillard and Siggs we’re enough on this day.
3rd Doubles – Trach/Umbach d. Ryle/Munoz, 6-4, 6-2
What more can you say about these guys? Trach and Umbach reprised their dominant 2008 performance for these District playoffs, and were untouchable once again. Rich Trach has had a phenomenal season – 9-0 in the 4.0 regular season, 3-0 thus far in his 4.0 Senior season…and 3-0 at Districts. Rich, do you remember what it’s like to lose a match? Hopefully, you won’t remember at Princeton…meanwhile, Dave Umbach has only one blemish on his 2009 record, and that was the infamous 1st singles match against 4.0 computer rated wunderkind Cameron O’Donnell of Easy Killer. After winning all 3 of their District matches in the 3rd set super-tiebreak in 2008, Rich and Dave decided to just take care of business in 2 sets this year. Helps keep the blood pressure a little lower, you know?
Their opponents played together all season, to a 4-1 record. Munoz played an additional two matches with Wlodzimierz Grodecki, and won them both. They were clearly outclassed by Rich and Dave, however…but won their other two District matches in straight sets. The lesson – don’t mess with Rich and Dave.
Hopefully, I’ll have the other two match reviews over the next few days. Be patient! It’s four and a half weeks to Princeton!
It’s never easy to figure out which squad is going to be the “toughest” match-up when it comes to District playoffs. After all, your team has to be pretty good to survive the gauntlet that is the regular season. One thing we did know about the Pirates, however, was that their top 2 singles players were supposed to be so good that their final regular season opponent defaulted the entire match as a team protest against guys that they felt were underrated. Not only did Lakeside default the match, it was a match that could have decided a berth in Districts!
Knowing that, Capt. Mike flip-flopped the lineup a few times, considering the possibility of loading up doubles by teaming Brett and I together…but eventually decided to play things straight up. Things seemed a little dicey – but thanks to fantastic performances by our 3 doubles pairings, Great Valley managed to pull out the win and start the weekend 1-0.
1st Singles – Greg Heck v. Kent Lane, 6-4, 2-6, 0-1
Kent had a phenomenal season in 2009. In his first 3 singles matches, he lost no more than 5 games each match. After a straight set doubles win, he had a couple of 3-set wins where he lost the first set and then won the next two sets pretty easily. Hmmm…overall he was 5-0 in singles, 1-0 in doubles and 1 win by default. I was also riding a perfect season into Districts, albeit mostly in doubles, primarily with Rich Trach. Rich and I went 6-0 – I also added a doubles win with Holger, and 2 singles wins. So either Kent or I were going to taste defeat for the first time on this beautiful July morning.
During the first set, I managed to stay aggressive and take advantage of Kent’s struggling serve. He had trouble finding any consistency, and I felt good about stealing the first. In the second, we played a marathon 5th game at 2-all. I blew several chances to break serve and put myself in position to win the match…and then my game just caved in. Kent started serving better and was pounding his forehand all over the court, keeping me well behind the baseline. I don’t find myself well behind the baseline very often, and I didn’t handle it well. I didn’t put up much of a fight in the tiebreak and left the court with a disappointing loss. Fortunately the rest of the team picked me up…
2nd Singles – Brett Seigfried v. Donald Swantko, 6-7, 2-6
I’m guessing that Donald is the reason that Lakeside chose to default their match with the Pirates to send a message to Sally Baird. Donald played varsity tennis at Millersville University this season as a freshman, and was named All-PSAC by the conference coaches. Interestingly, he was only 1-1 in singles in the 4.0 regular season, with both matches going 3 sets, not including his default win. He also played 4 doubles matches at 4.5, winning 2 and losing 2. He squared off against Brett, who was 8-0 in 4.0 singles play this year between the PATD and CPTD. I was lucky enough to be playing right next to these guys, and they were absolutely blasting the ball back and forth. Donald jumped to an early lead, but Brett fought back to take a lead before they reached the first set tiebreak. Swantko held Brett off, stole the momentum and swiftly took the second set 6-2. Of course, I say swiftly, but my 3-set match was over well before these guys were done…they were playing some long points! Brett’s was the last match complete, and he was so sure that we had lost that he was wishing his opponent good luck at Sectionals. Silly Brett…
1st Doubles – Werkiser/Van Alstine d. Ganley/Grodecki, 6-1, 2-6, 1-0
We flipped our doubles pairings, putting our “weakest” team at 1st and our “best” team at 3rd. Well, the Pirates did the same thing. I didn’t see any of this match (or any of the doubles matches, for that matter) so I’ll tell you about the records, but I don’t have much else to add. Except to note that our boys were down 9-8 in the super-tiebreak…and no matter what happened the rest of the weekend, our fate could have been decided right there – and Kenny and Guy turned it around and took the match.
Jim Ganley plays a lot of USTA league tennis. This tennis season alone, he is 8-2 in Senior Mixed Doubles (one of his losses was to GV team member Tom Mead), 2-0 in Senior 4.0 Doubles (one win by default), 2-3 for the Pirates in 4.0 play, 4-3 in various Mixed Doubles levels, and 5-0 in Tri-Level doubles as a 4.0. Phew. That’s a lot of tennis. I wonder if he goes to practice, too? Notably, only one of his matches came with his partner for this match, a 3-set win back in early May. Wlodzimierz Grodecki is not nearly as prolific – though also a Seniors players, he’s played only 1 seniors doubles match (a loss) to go along with his 4-0 doubles record for the Pirates, one of which was by default. Ganley and Grodecki were unable to best our Super-Seniors, as Kenny improved his 2-1 season record and Guy posted his first victory after 3 season losses. Couldn’t have come at a better time!!!
2nd Doubles – Mackenthun/Virgulti d. Remillard/Siggs, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0
With all of the consternation surrounding our personnel losses (Schmidt, Gionta, Mead, Edson, et al), it was kind of easy to forget that we were adding a huge piece – Joe Virgulti. Talk about your wild cards…Joe had played a grand total of 4 league matches over the past 2 seasons due to injuries. And this year, he and Jim Dare double-bageled two patsies from Healthplex that thought they coming out for a badminton match, and Joe was credited with 2 default victories. That’s it. He was to be paired with Holger Mackenthun for the weekend, and who better to be matched with? All Holger has done all year is win, with about 26 different partners. So what would happen? Well, after figuring each other out for the first set, Joe and Holger got the job done in an easy 3rd set super-tiebreak.
Their opponents – Dan Remillard didn’t play a whole lot this season, going 2-1 in doubles for the 4.0 year, not including the last match default. And he had never played with his partner on this day, Ronald Siggs – Siggs was 3-2 in the 4.0 regular season, with mixed records in other pursuits such as Senior 4.0 Doubles, Mixed Doubles and Senior Mixed Doubles. In the end, Remillard and Siggs we’re enough on this day.
3rd Doubles – Trach/Umbach d. Ryle/Munoz, 6-4, 6-2
What more can you say about these guys? Trach and Umbach reprised their dominant 2008 performance for these District playoffs, and were untouchable once again. Rich Trach has had a phenomenal season – 9-0 in the 4.0 regular season, 3-0 thus far in his 4.0 Senior season…and 3-0 at Districts. Rich, do you remember what it’s like to lose a match? Hopefully, you won’t remember at Princeton…meanwhile, Dave Umbach has only one blemish on his 2009 record, and that was the infamous 1st singles match against 4.0 computer rated wunderkind Cameron O’Donnell of Easy Killer. After winning all 3 of their District matches in the 3rd set super-tiebreak in 2008, Rich and Dave decided to just take care of business in 2 sets this year. Helps keep the blood pressure a little lower, you know?
Their opponents played together all season, to a 4-1 record. Munoz played an additional two matches with Wlodzimierz Grodecki, and won them both. They were clearly outclassed by Rich and Dave, however…but won their other two District matches in straight sets. The lesson – don’t mess with Rich and Dave.
Hopefully, I’ll have the other two match reviews over the next few days. Be patient! It’s four and a half weeks to Princeton!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Oops, we did it again!!!
And so the undermanned, overmatched fellas from Great Valley walked into the PATD 4.0 District playoffs this weekend needing some fantastic performances to pull off a fairly miraculous back-to-back area championship...and they got just that. 3 straight 3-2 victories (never in doubt!) mean that we're heading to Princeton for the second consecutive year, a pretty outstanding feat considering all of the key team members that couldn't contribute this weekend (Gionta, Mead, Schmidt, Edson). The effort was anchored by our fabulous doubles pairings - Trach & Umbach went 3-0, as did Mackenthun & Virgulti. Spotted that 2-0 lead in each match, we only needed to squeeze out 1 more court...and squeeze it out we did - once each time. Kenny and Guy pulled out a 3-setter against the Pirates to provide the winning margin, Brett had a walkover against a sacrificial lamb in the Saturday afternoon match while I managed to best Marty Walker in the super-tiebreak for the second consecutive year on Sunday morning, sending us to Princeton once again.
I'll have all of the details (and a picture, perhaps) later in week, but for now - huzzah to the Great Valley 4.0 team! We found a way to get it done! Now we have to send Bobby Fagan to Germany with the following instructions - "Do not return without Michael Schmidt!". Kenny, put in for vacation for the weekend of Aug. 28th - 30th, and Capt. Mike...well, work closely with Holger on all possible lineup variations.
And finally...Russell can't be happy that Brett and I both went 1-2 for the weekend. If we're 4.5's...what on Earth are the guys we were playing???
I'll have all of the details (and a picture, perhaps) later in week, but for now - huzzah to the Great Valley 4.0 team! We found a way to get it done! Now we have to send Bobby Fagan to Germany with the following instructions - "Do not return without Michael Schmidt!". Kenny, put in for vacation for the weekend of Aug. 28th - 30th, and Capt. Mike...well, work closely with Holger on all possible lineup variations.
And finally...Russell can't be happy that Brett and I both went 1-2 for the weekend. If we're 4.5's...what on Earth are the guys we were playing???
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Playoffs???
I know I said I'd possibly do a preview of the teams we're matching up with this weekend...but frankly, I'm on vacation, and that's far too much work. So I'll just quickly remind everyone of the schedule:
8:30 AM, Saturday - Great Valley vs. Pirates @ Council Rock South High School, Holland, PA
4:00 PM, Saturday - Great Valley vs. FCTC - Green @ George School, Newtown, PA
8:30 AM, Sunday - Great Valley vs. Bucks Broncs @ George School, Newtown, PA
I don't know about everyone else, but I can't wait to twiddle my thumbs for 6 hours in between matches on Saturday. Sheesh.
Not much else to talk about. Let's go out there on Saturday and play our best - we're not going to sneak up on anyone this year, so we have to be ready for everyone's best shot.
Playoffs!
8:30 AM, Saturday - Great Valley vs. Pirates @ Council Rock South High School, Holland, PA
4:00 PM, Saturday - Great Valley vs. FCTC - Green @ George School, Newtown, PA
8:30 AM, Sunday - Great Valley vs. Bucks Broncs @ George School, Newtown, PA
I don't know about everyone else, but I can't wait to twiddle my thumbs for 6 hours in between matches on Saturday. Sheesh.
Not much else to talk about. Let's go out there on Saturday and play our best - we're not going to sneak up on anyone this year, so we have to be ready for everyone's best shot.
Playoffs!
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