Hermosa Recap

Hermosa Beach was probably the single best tournament that Phil and I have played in our relatively short time together. We won 6 matches in two days and did not lose a game. We had never done that before as Phil pointed out in the media tent after the final.

We started off at 9am on Saturday morning against the qualifier team of Dane Pearson and Sam Haghighi and won 21-11 and 21-9. I was later told by the down referee that we sided out every single time we had a chance to sideout. Not to shabby. Dane is a guy that I have been playing against for awhile now and Sam is a solid qualifier guy. It was good to see Dane on the other side of the net again. Not that we are good buddies, but it is good to see guys you grew up playing against when I first came out to AAA tourneys and AVP events. A couple of weeks ago in Huntington Beach I saw Richard Boldt who I had not seen in years.

In our second match on Saturday we played Ryan Mariano and Brent Doble. Seem to be seeing a lot of Brent Doble in tourneys and always in the second round. This is the same team that we played in the Huntington Beach finals a year ago and they are a very good team. We played well in winning 21-16 and 21-14. We again sided out really well and only gave up a few points on some bombs for serves by Ryan.

In the quarters of the winners we played Sean Scott, my old partner, and Matty Furbs. First game they came out really sluggish. They missed their first 3 serves and really did not play very well as we won 21-16. The second game was totally different. Matt blocked me a couple of times, Sean scooped my line shot a couple of times and I hit a few balls out. We were fortunate to pull out the second game 22-20. I had a sideout for game at 20-19 but Matty stuffed my line. We sided out and then Phil stuffed Sean for game. The experiment continues and is still up and down but I think they are getting better. Will update more on that in My Take.

On Sunday morning everyone had to get up early and play at 8am in the morning. Our matchup in the winners semifinals was against Jason Ring and Matt Olsen. Last weekend in AZ we battled these guys twice as they lost to us in the winners quarters and crossover semis. This time was no different. The first game they were really good. They were siding out well and Jason was blocking me very effectively. I know at the timeout in the middle of the game I mentioned to Phil that I needed to pick up my sideout game as I think I had sided out all of 3 times without either Jason or Matt touching the ball. At 18-17 they sided out and then Jason stuffed me. The next play Matt scooped me but was unable to put the ball away and hit it in the net. The next two points were ours and we won the first 21-19. In the second game I was a much better sideout player and they struggled to sideout. Jason got in a bit of a rut and we took advantage of it to win the game and the match 21-11.

In the crossover semis we played Dax and Jeff. They had lost to Ring and Olsen in the winners quarters and made their way through the losers bracket by defeating Gibb/Rosy. They might have been a bit tired and combined with the fact that Phil and I were on our game, well it wasn't overly pretty. We won the match 21-11 and 21-12. Still a nice finish for Dax and Jeff and I expect more of that as the season progresses.

In the finals we had a rematch with Ring and Olsen. Phil and I felt good going into the match and I think for the most part it showed. We felt that Olsen might be a bit nervous for his first final and we tested him a couple of times in the beginning of the game. We scored a couple of points right away on a scoop/put away and an error. Matt quickly steadied out and we found ourselves in a battle. I got in a rut midway through the first game when we were up by 4 or so points and they made a mini comeback with a couple of blocks and scoops. I think the score was 17-15 at one point and then we pulled away to win 21-17. In the second the score was 10-7 in our favor when Phil decided to take over from the service line. He scored 8 straight points on his serve. Only one was an ace but he was bombing his serve and they were struggling to make a good pass. After that it was 18-8 and we just had to side out a couple of times. The end score was 21-12.

All in all a very good tourney for Phil and I. Hopefully we can continue to build on these successes and increase our confindence going forwards.