Panama Beach

The weather was pretty incredible, just not the incredible I would prefer. Arrived late Friday to rain and lots of wind. Saturday was no different and they decided to cancel the entire day and play a single elimination tourney on Sunday. On Sunday I woke up and looked outside to a nice sunny day. There was some wind but not nearly as bad as the day before. I walked outside in my shorts and T-shirt and immediately walked back up to my hotel room. It was freezing!!! The day before had been stormy but pretty warm. Sunday it was at least a 20 or 30 degree difference. It warmed up a little bit throughout the day but not what I am accustomed to in Florida.

We had a bye first round and then played Jeff Carlucci and Mike Placek. Carlucci has been around for awhile and kind of came through the ranks with Rosy about 10 or so years ago. Placek just came on the scene last year and has made his way into the main draw. He used to be a tennis player and played at UCSB for Marty Davis. I was actually coaching when Placek was playing at UCSB although I didn't know him at the time. There was a very good side and a very bad side thanks to the wind. They started on the good side and were up 4-3. We got a bunch when we went to the good side and continued scoring the rest of that game. I think it was 21-13. The second game was much closer they were actually up 17-16 from the bad side but I sided out and then got an ace on Carlucci to switch 18-17 up. They sided out but we did as well and then scored 3 straight points to win the match 21-18.

In our second game we played Jeff Nygaard and John Mayer. The first game was close. We had a 20-17 lead but they were on the good side. They sided out and then John scooped me and put it away to make the score 20-19. I was able to side out the next ball for game. In the second game we were on a roll. The final score was about 21-9. In the semifinal game we played Nick and Brad. We played pretty well and they were not at their best. The scores were 21-12 and 10.

The finals were played with the sun going down. We probably finished about 15 minutes before the sun went down over the water. Very pretty setting although it was getting a bit brisk. In the first game Rosy and Jake played great. Rosy was scooping all kinds of balls and Jake was siding out to perfection. They took a 3 point lead and held it to the end. The score ended up being 21-19 in the first. In the second they continued their great play. They were up 13-10 and looking really good when the momentum suddenly changed. No particular play, but all of a sudden we were up 15-13 after a sideout and 4 points. We continued our good play and won 21-18. In the third we scored the first point but then they outscored us 6-2 to take a 6-3 lead. Then we went to the good side and took an 8-6 lead. Next thing you know it was 12-8 and then 14-8. Made some good defensive plays and Phil had a big block on Rosy. Final score was 15-9 for our first win of the season.