Clear your schedules, This one is gonna take a while.
First off I'd like to say that it was a great season. We were able to compete and beat every team but one. That one team is the one that gets to take our place in fourth. Fitting and Upsetting at the same time.
All season we were battling scheduling conflicts, injuries, surgeries, day care, antique shopping, work, wives, lost keys, and more vacations than state employees get in a lifetime. But somehow we were able to position ourselves for a playoff birth. With only one week left (a make up week at that). We needed a team win to play in May. But you know what? Playing in May, indoors. Sucks!! And somehow that seemed to translate to the match.
This week being like a majority of the weeks this year, saw us having to improvise with the lineups. Unlike the past though it didn't work. Playing a split-time schedule didn't help us either.
Not having a legit 9:30 #1 team, Todd and a "Michael Scott Gps guided" Eric, drove their "Sherman" over to Lynnfield to lose first position. The good news in that loss is that they did get free Bagels for Breakfast.
Playing at the normal 11am time, This years rookie(?) of the Year Arnie and his new partner Courtney cruised to the only victory we saw this week winning in straights on court 2.
Now things got really funky. The $ team of Chad and Mike saw their first loss ever outside of position #1. I mean really their first loss. They have never lost outside of first position. EVER! Vegas had them at 200 to 1. Big guys named Pauly and Sal with bats are looking for them right now.I lost a mortgage payment on that match.
Tony and George? Yeah they got to eat Brunch for free. Seriously! Twice. Luckily I didn't buy a lottery ticket this week. This never happens. Tony has played insanely good this year. George coming off of Hip surgery has been just lights out. I saw it, but I don't believe it.
Pretty much our only Set Team of the whole year was Mickey and Frank. Playing at the Anchor position for the majority of the year. They are the reason we were as close to the playoffs as we were. Posting a win % of 70+ this season they won Matches for us and really made my life easier on Tuesday and Saturdays. What they lacked in Youth they made up for in experience and Skill. Having a perpensity for late match dramatics I thought that they had won the 3rd. I swear they got that last point. But of course since we were having one of those weird end of the Year days they lost it by only a break at 6-4 or 7-5. I didn't get the score sheet. I'm gonna kinda pull a "I don't really remember" type of a thing.
So That's how we lost 4-1 on a week where we could have gotten to that elusive 4th position at the end of the year. This is the Third year that we finish in 5th place*. *(Last year we skipped our final match cause we were 7 points out of 4th, but only 1 point out of 5th. so I assume we could've gotten 1 point.)
I'd like to Thank everyone for not giving me to much crap. Seriously, I know that some of the lineups were weird and maybe I stuck you to low or put you to high in the lineup. Made you play with me. But week in and week out I tried to put a team on the court that could pull out a match win. It almost worked out. Hey We spooked Newburyport to the point they didn't want to play us in the playoffs. I'd like to say that next year is our year but after 3 years of 5th place...... Well you know......
Remember.. If you need someone to play just let me know!!!! Let's keep playing thru the summer.. but I'm not setting it up. I'm on Vacation. 8-)
4/19/2009
4/18/2009
4/12/2009
3 More Points ! ! !
Ok Saturday went just the way we needed it to. Not only did we get 5 points (4 wins). But The Willows, for the 2nd week in a row. Only managed to get 1 point. I hadn't figured on them collapsing in the final 2 weeks. They have finished the season with 82 points. We now have 80 points and one more Match! 2 points will not do it, we need 3!
On Court one Adam and Evan had the toughest match. They lost by one game down 3-2 in the third on serve. It was a very close match, with Adam saying that "they just made to many mistakes at the wrong time".
The comeback win of the week award goes to Mickey and Frank. Playing on Court 5 they got down early and by alot. Losing the first set at Bagel. They regained focus and won the second set. Now at one set apiece they got down 4-1 in the third. Then started clawing their way back to 4-3 when Mickey hit a second serve Ace on break point to put the momentum finally in their favor and close it out 6-4 in the third.
Runners up for that Award were Chad and Tony in 4 who lost a close fought first set 7-6 on a 4-4 point in the breaker. But then they just cranked it up and blew through the next set and a half giving up only 3 games and winning the match by 4 games on time.
Court 3 saw the Pairing of Todd and Courtney again. This one picked up where the last one ended with neither player remembering which side they played last time. But it didn't matter as they won in straights with Courtney making about 15+ "just sick volleys. " And Todd's biggest mistake (aside from serving) was trying to volley in front of Courtney. 6-3,6-4
Dan got his first official A1 start of the season on court 2 with Arnie this week. And it took a little bit of time to get the rust off. After winning the first set 6-3 they decided that they would serve a little breakfast to the guys from lynnfield, and offered them a Bagel for the second set. They accepted and we got our 4th win of the day!
Now next week we travel to Lynnfield to play them again. I'm sure they are going to want a little revenge for this week. But we can't let them have it. As of right now we need to win 3 positions to make the playoffs. I'll be sending out some inspiring e-mails soon and to psych you up Watch this!
Yes Elisabeth Shue will be watching our next match.
On Court one Adam and Evan had the toughest match. They lost by one game down 3-2 in the third on serve. It was a very close match, with Adam saying that "they just made to many mistakes at the wrong time".
The comeback win of the week award goes to Mickey and Frank. Playing on Court 5 they got down early and by alot. Losing the first set at Bagel. They regained focus and won the second set. Now at one set apiece they got down 4-1 in the third. Then started clawing their way back to 4-3 when Mickey hit a second serve Ace on break point to put the momentum finally in their favor and close it out 6-4 in the third.
Runners up for that Award were Chad and Tony in 4 who lost a close fought first set 7-6 on a 4-4 point in the breaker. But then they just cranked it up and blew through the next set and a half giving up only 3 games and winning the match by 4 games on time.
Court 3 saw the Pairing of Todd and Courtney again. This one picked up where the last one ended with neither player remembering which side they played last time. But it didn't matter as they won in straights with Courtney making about 15+ "just sick volleys. " And Todd's biggest mistake (aside from serving) was trying to volley in front of Courtney. 6-3,6-4
Dan got his first official A1 start of the season on court 2 with Arnie this week. And it took a little bit of time to get the rust off. After winning the first set 6-3 they decided that they would serve a little breakfast to the guys from lynnfield, and offered them a Bagel for the second set. They accepted and we got our 4th win of the day!
Now next week we travel to Lynnfield to play them again. I'm sure they are going to want a little revenge for this week. But we can't let them have it. As of right now we need to win 3 positions to make the playoffs. I'll be sending out some inspiring e-mails soon and to psych you up Watch this!
Yes Elisabeth Shue will be watching our next match.
4/04/2009
5 More Points.
That's right it's final four time. And right now we still are not in the final four. Today pushed us closer to a playoff spot. Right now we are 7 points behind Westford. More about the scenarios after this weeks updates. But be ready... We need to put out our strongest lineups of the year for the next 2 weeks if we want to make the playoffs. It's been a long season and it's going to come right down to wire. 1 or 2 points will be the difference in us either going to the playoffs or you guys taking me out for beers and barbeque.
With only 3 matches left in the Season we traveled to the willows. Needing every point we can get, the matches were pressure packed. We managed to win 4 out of the 5 matches and pick up 5 points this week. 6 would've been better but 5 is pretty good considering how tough the matches were.
Court 1 saw the only loss of the day with Chad and Mike loosing by just 1 game late in the third set. They lost the first set in a tie-breaker and then stormed out quick and took the second set. With only 15 minutes left in the match they were up 3 games. But their opponents seized the momentum and stormed to a 5-1 lead in the third when the buzzer buzzed. The curse of Court 1 still haunts Chad and Mike. Someone get them a Horseshoe.
Court 2 saw a very tough and tight match. Dave and Arnie lost a close first set and then won the second set. The third was a back and forth affair until time ran out and they had to play a tie-breaker for the match. In the breaker Dave and Arnie got down 0-3 which is not good when it's first to 5. But with some great volleys and clutch serving they battled back to win the match 5-3. A very important win.
On court 3 Todd and George didn't give their opposition any chance to make it close. Falling behind a couple of games at the beginning because Todd got broke again! only woke em up to take the match 6-3,6-2. Props go out to the creator of George's new hip because he is moving like a 20 year old. I think I'm going to get one of those in the off season.
Tony and Eric over on court 4 had the match in the bag. They won the first set 6-4 and were up 5-2 in the 2nd. Then it all went bad. They lost the 2nd set in a tie break and then battled to keep it even in the 3rd before the time ran out and they took the win by 1 game! kinda balances out the first position loss by a game. They called it an "ugly win" I say it's only ugly if it's a loss. We need the point!
Frank and Mickey on court 5 put in a lunch pail kind of a day. Nothing flashy or gimmicky. Just a good tough effort to take the match in straight sets. (6-4,6-4) That's the kind of no drama win we like to see.
Ok here are the scenarios:
We have 2 matches left against the 7th place lynnfield team. Westford has one match against the #1 newburyport team. Right now we are either 7 or 8 points behind Westford.
If we continue to get 5 points in each match, we will need Westford to lose 3-2 or worse against Newburyport to make the playoffs. If we get 12 points then Westford will have to become only the 3rd team this year to beat Newburyport. The other 2? Us and Winchester. I will know more about exactly what we have to do in the final 2 matches once I find out how Westford did against lynnfield this week. But be ready... We are going to need all the bullets in the gun for the final 2 weeks.
With only 3 matches left in the Season we traveled to the willows. Needing every point we can get, the matches were pressure packed. We managed to win 4 out of the 5 matches and pick up 5 points this week. 6 would've been better but 5 is pretty good considering how tough the matches were.
Court 1 saw the only loss of the day with Chad and Mike loosing by just 1 game late in the third set. They lost the first set in a tie-breaker and then stormed out quick and took the second set. With only 15 minutes left in the match they were up 3 games. But their opponents seized the momentum and stormed to a 5-1 lead in the third when the buzzer buzzed. The curse of Court 1 still haunts Chad and Mike. Someone get them a Horseshoe.
Court 2 saw a very tough and tight match. Dave and Arnie lost a close first set and then won the second set. The third was a back and forth affair until time ran out and they had to play a tie-breaker for the match. In the breaker Dave and Arnie got down 0-3 which is not good when it's first to 5. But with some great volleys and clutch serving they battled back to win the match 5-3. A very important win.
On court 3 Todd and George didn't give their opposition any chance to make it close. Falling behind a couple of games at the beginning because Todd got broke again! only woke em up to take the match 6-3,6-2. Props go out to the creator of George's new hip because he is moving like a 20 year old. I think I'm going to get one of those in the off season.
Tony and Eric over on court 4 had the match in the bag. They won the first set 6-4 and were up 5-2 in the 2nd. Then it all went bad. They lost the 2nd set in a tie break and then battled to keep it even in the 3rd before the time ran out and they took the win by 1 game! kinda balances out the first position loss by a game. They called it an "ugly win" I say it's only ugly if it's a loss. We need the point!
Frank and Mickey on court 5 put in a lunch pail kind of a day. Nothing flashy or gimmicky. Just a good tough effort to take the match in straight sets. (6-4,6-4) That's the kind of no drama win we like to see.
Ok here are the scenarios:
We have 2 matches left against the 7th place lynnfield team. Westford has one match against the #1 newburyport team. Right now we are either 7 or 8 points behind Westford.
If we continue to get 5 points in each match, we will need Westford to lose 3-2 or worse against Newburyport to make the playoffs. If we get 12 points then Westford will have to become only the 3rd team this year to beat Newburyport. The other 2? Us and Winchester. I will know more about exactly what we have to do in the final 2 matches once I find out how Westford did against lynnfield this week. But be ready... We are going to need all the bullets in the gun for the final 2 weeks.
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