Won One

Ok I was waiting for the Bailout to come to some sort of agreement before I posted the Horror of Saturday's matches.

Let's just get this out of the way as quick as possible. Chad and Tony won in 3rd position playing against a hung-over college kid who got lost going to a club he has played at before. ;-) I'm not really bitter

The rest of us Lost to people who went to bed early , ate well,warmed up for an hour before the match and had professional coaching between sets. Adam and Courtney (Loss), Todd and Dave(loss), Bob and Don(loss), Frank and Mickey(loss).

Ok it wasn't really like that, but that sounds better to 8 of us.

That was the bad news.. The good news is that it's early in the season, and how many weeks in a row can we play last years playoff teams? Next week we take on Westford at that ungodly time of 9:30. I've been told that the sun is up at that time and you won't need to use your headlights to get there.

Anyone have any lineup suggestions?? We are going with the same 10 people as of now.

Deja-Vu

Well week one didn't exactly go as planned. But what does? This year we started our first week off the same way we started last year. With a 3-2 loss at the hands of Newburyport. Not to bad considering that Newburyport is projected to be this years a1 division champs, After losing in the finals last year 3-2 to the insanely good Manchester team.

So what happened this week? Well let us take a look.

Starting things off at the ungodly time of 9:30am. Positions 1 and 2 faced some tough competition. On court 1 Adam and Courtney picked the wrong side of the court to start the match on. Seeing as how anyone on the north side of the court couldn't miss and everyone on the south side looked as if they hadn't ever held a racquet before. They lost in the streaky (6-1,1-6,6-1) kind of way. On Court 2 Chad and Tony didn't have much luck either as they started out slow. Once they got it together they were in a position to push the match to 3 sets but ended up losing the 5 point tie breaker.(6-1,7-6)

Now for the teams that got to eat brunch. We almost stunned em. But didn't. On court 3, Dave and Todd needed a 3rd set to put away a veteran team.(6-3,2-6,6-2). Court 4 saw the match of the day as Mike and Eric facing certain defeat, down 2 breaks in the 2nd set, and after losing the 1st set. Came back and won the 2nd set and continued their momentum to pull to a big lead in the 3rd. Winning the match by one game.(3-6,7-5,5-3) On court 5 Mickey and Frank had some bad luck having to play a team that was just playing great. (6-4,6-3)

Last year we started off the same way, Ended the first half 1 point behind this team for first place. This year lets end the 1st half 1 point or more ahead of them. Next up is one of the Willows teams. Dave says the willows are push-overs. So lets beat em.

Season 3.. Coming Soon

And by soon I mean less than 2 weeks. Get ready because you are going to play. This year we are looking to improve on our 5th place finish from last year. We have drafted well this year and haven't lost many veterans to free agency. We have 4 less matches this year and we don't have to drive to Winchester 3 times. Also if I forget to add your name to the e-mail, that I will send out after the Men's final on monday night, then e-mail me. (i'm getting forgetful in my old age).

There is always next year.

Well It's done. Not officially, but done none the less. See there is this little matter of a make-up match against the 1-24 Winchester team. But we won't worry about that.

Finishing up the Season this week we were able to take 4 out of 5 from a Lynnfield team that looked like they had already packed it in for the season. Defaulting positions 4 and 5 they had a tough task ahead of them trying to sweep our top 3 positions. Which they couldn't do. They loaded up their 1st position and won a close match in 1 against Jason and Courtney. Thus ending their season high, 3 match Win Streak. Then over on 2 they tried again and almost pulled out another improbable win. But Tony and Don pulled out a dramatic Match tie-break in overtime to finish up their season with a win. On 3 Lynnfield tried once more to get one last victory in their season. But they really had no chance against Dean and George.

With this weeks win our season totals are pretty much set. We will finish in 5th place!!! With only 25 of 26 matches played we own 5th. Our season Match wins are 17-8... Better than 2 to 1, and our individual matches put us at 72-53. Not to shabby, we will finish with 90 points and after taking into account the 6 points we won't get for the 26th match we will only miss the playoffs by about 4-5 points.

This season was a Tale of Two Halves.. In the First half we had set teams almost every week and everyone was available to play. We rolled through a 10 week win streak and put ourselves in 2nd place, 1 point behind 1st at the Break.

We should've made the playoffs but then the 2nd half was Brutal. We lost a bunch of key players in the 2nd half. The Schedule did not help us out any either. It seemed that every week was an away match that was 100 miles away. Set teams weren't able to play together and New players were thrown into the fire without any opportunity to practice with us.

Thanks to Everyone who Played and Helped out this year. It was a long season and now we can relax play outdoors and not have to drive to Winchester and Lexington for another year!!
Like the Red Sox of Old... "We'll get em next year"

-Todd

Oh Yeah!

Congrats to whomever picked us finishing outside the top 4 in the poll to the right... The rest of us, who incandescently picked us making the playoffs. Will be waiting for you by the Dumpster to give you your Prize.

5th place and a 4-1 Victory.

Ok it looks like we are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. But we are firmly in 5th and should end the season minus one match, only 8-10 points out of the playoffs. And considering that we would probably get 5 or 6 points against the canceled match(winchester-bads) .That means we will have missed the playoffs by only 3-4 real points. Not to shabby considering the 2nd half saw our team struggle with injuries and Vacations. More on this after next weeks match..

This week we traveled to the dimly lit courts of The Willows. Where we put on our night vision goggles and took 4 out of the 5 matches. It was almost a perfect sweep. But we ran out of time on court 3. Dean and Bob took it all the way into extended overtime, losing by the way of a tiebreaker at 6-5 in the third. They got their moneys worth of court time this weekend.

Court one saw Courtney and Jason extended their win streak up to 3, with a straight set victory. Court 2 had Todd and Andy playing a let-down set and winning in 3. Court 4 had Don and George pull out a good win. And over on 5 Mickey and Frank are looking to strong for their opponents lately with another win in straight sets.

We have just one match left!! We actually have a make up match for a "snow out" but I think we can cancel that one since neither team has any chance of the playoffs. Plus who wants to go to Winchester again??? Not me.

Vacation Over.

I'm Back! Thank the Lord.. Because I don't think I could have taken one more day of abuse. I mean how many 80 degree and sunny days can you stand. How many drop shots can you run down on the clay before you say, enough is enough I'm going home. How many times can you fire in a big serve only to have it lobbed back over your head. How many times do you have to scramble all over the court to make a few gets in a row, only to watch your partner laughing so hard he can't hit the next ball. (Yeah Paul I'm talking to you) I'll tell you one thing. Clay is evil, and slow. But it wasn't all fun and games. We went to the Sony Ericson Tournament where I did my best to recruit some new blood for the team. Unfortunately Cedardale doesn't pay enough for any of them to sign with us. Although I did steal their souls in the form of some pictures so maybe we can have a voodoo practice and get better. and thanks to Mr. GPS we didn't get lost in the bad section of town.

I know all you really care about is what happened in the matches.. Well I wasn't here so I don't really know. All I know is that somehow we lost to Westford. Westford.. I mean they are like the furthest team out on 495. It was a bad week. We lost 4-1. 4-1 can you believe it? Mike D got his first win against a cedardale team ever. But it wasn't all bad news. Jason got his first win of the season. When asked about Jason's first win Chad had this to say "Usually we all win and Jason loses, but this week he won and we lost".

Not to let Winning get him down Jason, came back earlier this week and Won again. This time his teammates also won. Beating a road weary Willows team at home 4-1. Making it a .500 win loss record during my vacation. We didn't lose ground and we didn't make up ground. With 2 scheduled weeks left in the season and one more if we need it, It's looking like we might have to buy tickets to watch the playoffs. But like Dean said earlier in the week "We are shooting for 5th place. The best place you can be in and not have to play in May"

Quick update

Ok, Here are the results. Yes these are from this week. In fact they are from just a little over 2 hours ago. Really I'm not kidding. Ok here we go.

We won this weeks match 3-2 with the swing match coming on court 2. Courts 1 and 5 lost this week in straights. Jason and Courtney had a tough match losing by a break in each set(7-5,6-4). While Mickey playing with a sub Tom lost (6-2,6-2).

The middle of the lineup did the damage this week. George and Frank playing in 4. pulled out a first set tie break and then rolled in the second(7-6,6-2). Todd and Chad in 3 cruised to a straight setter(6-1,6-2). And the Swing match was won by Don and Tony in 2. Playing a tough fought battle, they were able to win by time. After losing the first and then winning the second they took a commanding 4 game lead with no time left(6-7,7-5,3-0).

Next week we are away again!! In Westford this time for a 9:30 drubbing.. I mean match victory.

What Blog?

Ok let's see.. Where was I.. Oh yeah I remember, I was ready to jump off the mast, when we turned the ship around and won our last two matches.. 3 weeks ago we pulled off a 3-2 victory over the Bass River team. Then we had a snow out over the defaulting winchester team. And just 3 days ago we Beat one of the other Winchester teams 3-2 to continue our 2nd half win streak.

Now it's onto a mega roadtrip.. This week we travel to Lexington, Just like the Minutemen we are going there to kick some A$$. Then in the following week we are going to Westford. We are not in a playoff spot yet. But a couple of more weeks in the W column and we should be right there. Let's not be the only mens team to not make the playoffs this year..

2 for 1

Ok this week you get a two for one update. Not because your special but because I'm lazy. Here we go.

Last week we played our third match of the second half against Winchester. It didn't go the way we wanted. We lost another close 3-2 match against another top 4 team. The quick wrap-up. The wins came on courts 3 and 4. Todd and Andy pulled out a great 3 setter and Don and Tony won two very tight sets, with the second in a tie break. The losses started on court one where Double J, Jeff and Jason lost by a game running out of time in the third set. Court 2 saw Dan and Bob have a rare loss. And over on 5 Mickey and New east coast transplant Frank lost in 3 sets, running out of gas having to play the young guys.

Fast forward to this week and we lost again. This time against a Weak Northeast team. This makes 4 in a row. This is not the streak we were trying for. We lost 3-2 again and Had a default. If not for the default we probably would have won 3-2. On to the results.... In first, Jason and Bob lost by two games with no time left on the clock. They just weren't able to pull ahead in the third set. On court 2 Adam and Todd pulled out a straight set win with Todd carrying Adam for most of the first set. ed: "That might not be acurate" Over on court 3 Don and Tony continued their great season winning a decisive match 1 and 1. At court 4 Mickey and Dean had a close 3 setter, with their opponents picking up the level at the right time in the end. Court 5 saw a Default, which would've been a very winnable match.

Oh well hopefully next week we can stop the bleeding with a Home match against Bass river.

1 point Again :-(

Well that didn't work out the way we would've liked it this week. For the Third week in a row we came away with a team loss. It's been a tough start to the 2nd half so far. We are 0 for 3. We have played 3 of the 4 other top teams in the top 5. Next week we play the other top 5 team. We are sliding fast.

This week we got a solo victory from Dean and Mickey. Playing in the 5 spot they took out the rest of the teams frustrations on their opponents winning easily 6-1,6-2.

Then it went a little different on the other courts. Court one saw Bob and Todd lose 6-3,6-3. Mike and Chad on two had their unbeaten streak broken losing 6-2,6-4. Over on 3 Don and Tony also lost in straights 6-2,6-3. Court 4 saw our only set taken in the top 4 with Gary and George losing 6-2,0-6,6-1.

We are not out of it yet though. We are only 2 points behind our point total from the first half. So that basically means if we kick some butts for the next 10 matches we should make the top 4.

Ouch

This week we hit a big speed bump in the road to the playoffs. Facing our 2nd top 5 team in two weeks we weren't able to field a team with set partners and paid the price. Our list of Injuries and Vacations were to large to overcome against a strong Willows team. It's not going to get easier next week either. We host Manchester who is in 2nd place and swept us in late september 6-0. It's not all bad news though. We can even our point total from the first 3 weeks with at least 3 points this weekend.

This week we Had a lone victory in 2nd. Chad and Mike continued their unbeaten ever streak, winning a well played 2 setter against a veteran team. Every one else lost in straights. Andy and Jason in one had a tough one. Todd and Richie in 3 had a tough one. Tony and George in 4 had a tough one. And Mickey and Dean in 5 had an easy one! Only kidding theirs was tough also. This was not our week. The stars were not aligned plus they were all on vacation or other things.

Time to start our 2nd half win streak. We won the last 10 matches of the first half. Let's win the last 11 in the 2nd Half.

The Streak is Over!

Ok the streak is over. We lost this week to the still #1 team of Newburyport. It was a close contest with the home team losing 3-2. This week was almost a mirror image of our week one loss to Newburport.

This week The teams of Mike and Chad, and Don and Tony were our only points. Playing in 3 Mike and Chad cruised to a quick 2 set win. On 4 Don and Tony had it a little closer winning by a couple of games as time ran out. That was the good news..

The Bad news was that positions 1,2&5 put up a loss. Position 1 saw the New guy Jason, and his partner Evan fall behind in the third set for the loss. Court 2 Saw Dan and Bob have an off day losing in 2 sets, And way down on five saw Todd and Mickey lose a winnable match. They just didn't execute when they needed to.

Not all is lost though. This is the same way we started the first half. We are only 3 points back from first and next week we Travel to the Willows for an away match. 11:00 to 12:30.

Halftime!

The first half of the season is over. We wrapped it up with a 5-0 win over the Ritzy club in Lynnfield. The Streak continues! It is now up to 10 straight team wins.

We shook off the rust without dropping a match. Just a Few sets.

The Only team playing at 9:00AM was Dan and Bob. After losing the First set they bounced back to win the match in 3 sets by time.

A funny thing happened to the court 2 team of Andy and Courtney. They showed up for 9AM when they weren't playing till 10:30. Congratulations to Those guys for showing up early to support their fellow teammates. Just kidding I screwed up and didn't read a change of Time e-mail correctly. Anyways it just gave them more time to come up with a plan to win. Which they did after dropping the first set, before taking the next two sets 2 and 2. Over on court 3 Don and Tony were the only team to wrap up a victory in straight sets. (where was the rust?). On court 4 Todd and Chad used every second and then some to blow leads in the first and third sets. Thus leading to a 9 point tiebreaker to decide things. Luck prevailed as our opponents said and we won. Now on court 5 Mickey and Dean decided that they would like to copy the team in 2nd position by also losing the first set and then ramping it up and winning the next two for the victory. Although it might have just been a little rust in the first set.

That gives us 54 points for the first half. Not to shabby. It should put us in second place only a maximum of 6 points behind the #1 team of Newburyport. And guess who we play next week? The #1 team Newburyport. So let's keep the streak going and close the gap!

"Keep the Streak in 08 Tour"

Coming to a Tennis club near you

Ok last year is History. The poll has closed and it looks like most of the votes were for us to finish inside the top 4 with only 1 vote putting us outside of a playoff spot. We have 14 matches scheduled for the first half of 2008. That means alot of playing. Get ready because I hear that some people on our team actually take vacations. Also don't forget usta season is also coming up in just 4 short months. SuperTeam? Anyone?

The Streak lives till 2008

The streak just keeps going. We are now up to 9 wins in a row. Bringing our total to 10-2 as we go into the Holiday break. This week we battled the strongest of the Willows teams and pulled out a 3-2 victory.

Dan and Bob pulled out a time based win on court one. Pulling out the one game victory at the digital click of 12:30. Then Chad and Mike cruised in their win, giving up just 2 games. And way over on court 4 Don and Tony lost the first set, got mad and Won the next two.

As an early Xmas present I can't remember who lost this week or what happened.

We have a few weeks off now with our next match not coming till 2008. Not a bad way to end the year with a 9 match win streak. Now all we have to do is keep the streak alive till 09.