Glendale Recap

Phil and I had another good tourney. Bit of a change though as I had to do very little work and Phil really had to crank it up a notch on Sunday.

We had a first round bye to the 24 team main draw event. In the second round we played Prosser and Mayer who had defeated Loiola and Rester in the first round. The first game we grabbed the lead and never relinquished it and won 21-14 or so. In the second game they played much better. We had the lead in the end but I could not put some real point opportunities away as Prosser blocked me at least twice in transition. They came back to tie the game up at 19 all but then Mayer missed his jump serve and Phil had a net trickler for the match. Glad that didn't go three.

In our quarterfinal match we played Ring and Olsen, the 8th seed. After Miami I said this was a sick athletic team and I can only re-iterate that after playing them twice this past weekend. They served me every ball short and I had to work hard to sideout. I felt I sided out well though and we were able to take them down 21-16 and 17.

In the winner's semis we played Kevin Wong and Aaron Watchfogel. They had upset Sean Scott and Matt Furbs in the round before. They had been battling all tourney long having won 3 matches in 3 games as the 12th seed. Fortunately for all of us, the match was played at about 10pm at night under the lights. Both teams were well rested and Phil and I felt great. We won in 2 games with the scores around 18 and 16 or so. The Wonger is playing really well. Karch and Mike Rangel have rejuvenated him or something. Aaron is another young up and comer who I think will be a star in the near future. Especially once us old little guys start retiring. He will get his due eventually.

In the crossover semis on Sunday we once again played Ring and Olsen. As usual I expected to see every serve. To my surprise, I think I was served maybe all of 5 times for the match!!! It was hot and I think Olsen and Ring thought, "hey, let's serve Phil and make him sideout every ball, jump serve and then run to the net." They served him short every ball. They jumped out to a lead in the first game but we were able to crawl back in and win 25-23. In the second, Phil steadied out a bit more and we took that one 21-16 or so. It was a lesson for Phil that I am sure will be repeated at some time in the future. Look for him to be better prepared.

In the finals we once again played Jake and Rosy. They started serving me and Jake blocked me twice but other than that were not scoring points. Rosy hit a ball at 8-6 that appeared to graze the line on the way out. The ball mark was out and Phil and I requested they look at the ball mark and they overturned the call in our favor. We went on a 4 point run immediately following that. They then started serving Phil short and made a mini comeback. They got to within 2 or 3 points but then he sided out and made some big plays at the net to re-establish our 5 point spread. Final score was 15. In the second game they continued to serve Phil short and he really struggled. Jake was a blocking machine. He must have had at least 5 blocks on Phil that game. They went out big and we could never catch up. The score was 15 again but in their favor this time. In the third it was close up until the 8-7 switch. We took off from there and ended up winning 15-9.

Being one of the old men on tour, it was nice not to have to sideout every time. I think it was good strategy by Ring and Olsen and Jake and Rosy to serve Phil short and make him work. I don't know if that would work where the weather is a little bit easier to play in, we shall see at some point in time. Usually Phil is a sideout machine. Give credit though to Ring and Jake from a blocking perspective. They both blocked him really well.