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???
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ReplyDeleteThat was a great weekend full of fun!
ReplyDeleteExcept in Joe's and Holger's second match when Joe started disbelieving in tennis and fairness. The referee called two foot faults. Then the referee overruled a service from our opponent to be in that was clearly next to the line from 25 yards away. Joe tried his negotiation skills, looked her in the eyes, made another comment and compliments? and ... we lost the point.
Then our opponents called two game points out that were on the line. By that time the referee was on another court and I tried to find dramamine to calm my partner down.
Lessons learnt? The referee may have had a bad orthodontist in the past?!
On another court Ken and Guy pulled the stunt: They gave the other team a comforting 9:8 lead in the super tie breaker before finishing them of 11:9. That is confidence!
Lessons learnt: A smart strategy can work!
On another court I witnessed a flying racquet from a known calm player of ours. If the fence wouldn't have stopped the flying object then Rocket man and Joe could have been hit at a nearby lake while making out with each other.
Lessons learnt: Never have Holger string your racquets!
PS: I explained to Mike Schmidt what it means to have Bobby Fegan living with him in Germany if he is not coming for sectionals free of will.
Princeton - here we come!!!!