Cardiac Kids

(one week late!)

KINETIX SPORTS CLUB – Saturday June 20th – Great Valley needed to keep winning to keep their lead over Easy Killer at two games coming into their Week 9 matchup with Kinetix. Kinetix had dropped two out of their last three, with the lone win being a 4-1 romp over Healthplex. They did take 2 courts from Easy Killer in Week 6, and knocked off the West Chester Aces in Week 5, so they could not be overlooked. Let’s get to the match review.
Right off the bat, GV benefitted from a big break, as one of the courts was a forfeit win due to a late cancellation by a Kinetix player. All GV needed to do was pick up a split of the remaining 4 courts.

1st Singles – Michael Schmidt (3-1 singles, 1-0 doubles) d. Kali Woodward (0-1 singles), 6-2, 5-7, 6-1. This lively match took place on the far court at Kinetix, court #4. Watching Kali warm up, to say that he looked “casual” out there would be an understatement. And watching the match was no different…Woodward just kind of loped around the court, and then unleashed crackling groundstrokes into the corners of the court like they were nobody’s business. Mike Schmidt was clearly rattled in the early going, but regained his composure and outlasted the former teaching pro. Those of us in the peanut gallery were VERY concerned about this match, as it could’ve been the deciding tilt. No worries, though!

2nd Singles – Greg Heck (2-0 singles, 5-0 doubles) d. Jim Vesci Jr. (0-2 singles, 1-3 doubles), 6-1, 6-1. I had played Jim in doubles a few weeks back, and knew what he brought to the table – solid serves, erratic but powerful groundstrokes, decent net game. And, of course, a striking resemblance to Vince Vaughn with his hat on. During warm-ups, he was hitting the ball very well. Once the match started and he missed a few gimmes set up by his big serve, his strokes deserted him. He got very tentative and that led to a quick match. Jim told me during one of the changeovers that he is completely revamping his game through lessons – I give him a lot of credit. I can’t imagine rebuilding things at this point in my tennis career. But on this week, it didn’t help him much.

1st Doubles – Trach (8-0 doubles)/Mackenthun (6-0 doubles) d. Jamieson (3-4 doubles)/Flippen (2-3 doubles), 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Larry “Foot Fault” Jamieson and Tom Flippen gave our doubles specialists Trach and Mackenthun all they could handle on Court 1, but in the end our guys fought them off and managed to secure the victory. We watched Jamieson bombing serves from the peanut gallery, and let me tell you – serving is MUCH easier when you’re 6 foot plus and stepping 5 feet into the court before unleashing those rockets. If he ever makes it to Sectionals, I sure hope he doesn’t run into any 75-year old female referees with nothing better to do than spot foot faults from three courts away. But I digress…

2nd Doubles – Mead (3-1 doubles)/Dare (1-4 doubles) v. Keefrider (1-0 singles, 1-3 doubles)/Pillutla (3-3 doubles), 3-6, 3-6. Tom and Jimmy never really got in synch in this match on Court 2. Tom and Holger knocked off the same opponents in Week 4, but Keefrider and Pillutla had command of this one from the get-go. Jim Dare’s had a tough year – in watching this match, he would make several solid shots in a row, be in the right position, and then dump one into the net once our guys got the advantage. Seems like he’s just a small adjustment away from winning some big matches.

And that’s it. 3rd Doubles was a forfeit. We go into the big match against Easy Killer with a chance to put them away and not have to worry about a make-up match with the West Chester Aces. If we can’t close them out? Well, we still control our own destiny. But things get a little dicier…