3rd in Atlanta

A struggle it certainly was. Every single one of our matches seemed extremely difficult. Against Tramblie and Morrison we should have gone to 3 games. We won in 2 but both were by 2 points. That was Friday night.

Saturday we played Olson and Wong and it was the hottest I have played in this year. Humid as well. Center court had very little air moving around it. The outside courts had a nice breeze keeping it a little cooler. Again we won in 2 games but it should have gone 3. We won both games by 2 points. I was pretty hot and tired and my legs felt very heavy. The last play of the game we served Kevin. Phil was blocking angle and I started to slide to the line when I saw Kevin take a peak at me. I switched to run behind the block but Kevin saw that as well and poked it line. I stopped and layed it out to pick up the pokey just off the sand. Olsen scooped my angle bang and then poked it line over Phil. I picked that one up too and put everything in to another angle bang and hit it off of Olsen. I was cooked after that play though and it was a good thing we finished it there.

That night we played Hyden and Keenan. The first game was anything but good for me. We lost by a lot. The second game they were terrible. The third game was a better game but they made a couple of plays in the end and won 15-11 I think. The next morning we played Baxter and Prosser. We were struggling and they were playing well. Bax scooping balls and Prosser siding out. We served Bax and were able to get some points and won the first game 21-19. Another 2 point game. The next game we actually played well and won by 6 or 7 points.

In the crossover semis we played Anthony and Fred and they lived up to their team moniker of team jump serve. They created havoc with their serves. The first game they literally served us off the court. I think we lost by about 6. They were really beating it down Phil's line and must have had at least 4 clean aces down the line. They had one in my angle as well. In the second game we didn't give up the aces and it was knotted up at 18 all. We were still struggling to pass their serves but we were at least giving ourselves a chance by keeping it in play. At 19-18 with them up Fred banged another serve down Phil's line that jumped off the tape and Phil couldn't handle it. Then Anthony sided out for game to make 21-19. Congrats to both of them especially Anthony who made his first final.

Out of the winners circle but managed to score a 3rd at least. Looking forward to having only a drive to get to the next tourney in Hermosa. Then again, the following Monday we fly to Berlin so not that much of a reprieve.