Monday, May 11, 2009

This week's slate

It's been a slow couple of weeks, but hopefully the matchups this week will be a bit more intriguing.  

Discussion has already begun on the Sienna/Hurricanes 4.5 matchup. (Oops...Should have checked that...Sienna plays Sugar Creek)  Still wanna' see Costilla versus Straley or Jim... 

The Black Sheep are smarting from last week's shocker, but still appear to be in no jeopardy of missing the playoffs in their two-tiered division.  I'm sure they will bring all of their big guns this week and Kingwood will get their first test.  I'm curious to see how Kingwood will line up...still no Juan Lopez or Minh Phan (nursing a wrist injury) on the roster.  I hope Steve Phan gets out there...he's too talented a player to be sitting on the sidelines but I'm sure he's pretty rusty.  

Intriguing matchup in 4.0 as the West Side Phoenix, unmentioned in this space yet sporting a perfect record thus far, take on the grizzled Lakeside team.  Omel Ruiz has an accurate and dangerous forehand but a vulnerable backhand...will the Phoenix singles player be able to exploit him?   It's do or die for Lakeside this week...with 5 solid teams in that division two losses early would be almost fatal. 

Also, the Rolido boys have their backs to the wall and take on undefeated Lost Forest Hackers. With a solid SAP team also in their division, this one is crucial for the Rolido Boys. 

In 5.0 the prohibitive favorites, the Hurricanes, have a bit of a test, taking on the 2-1 Met team captained by David Toney.  Expect to see Amit Garg or Arun Nanjappa at singles for the Met, who appear to be outmanned at every line.   

Plenty of other ok matchups this week....Discuss.




72 comments:

  1. bradley vs. rios?
    bradley vs. phan?
    kingwood 3-2 over blacksheep.

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  2. Really early predictions for Sienna 4.5 since we play Sugar Creek this week.

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  3. Rios couldn't even beat Narajos. Bradley killed Narajos. Bradley will eat Rioses ugly backhand for dinner.

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  4. Bradley may win in singles but Kingwood Crush will get the team Win. Isn't league about the team winning not individual wins???

    Early Predictions Sugar Creek squeeks by Sienna 3-2 and Crush beat Black Sheep 4-1.

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  5. 4-1 kingwood over BS?? No way. I have BS winning 3-2.

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  6. Westside BS is the better team and they should win.

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  7. westside bs lost to the hurricane b-team. give me a break... kingwood only lost one line and that was a 3 setter.

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  8. i don't know about that...westside didn't put out a very strong lineup against us and i'm sure they will load up against us next time...they will be ready for kingwood i bet

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  9. the real question will be if Lacy decides to show up or if he can keep his head in the match...also, where has berge been?

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  10. the bs might regret losing to the hurricanes, because the other ws team can sneak by make the playoffs. should underestimate any teams

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  11. westside didn't put out a very strong lineup against us. kingwood didn't seem to put a very strong lineup either and beat the hurricane B team 4-1.

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  12. the other westside team will not sneak into the playoff because their singles players are: fernando, tim, troy, and bruce... enuff said.

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  13. I have seen Costilla play and he is a lower level 4.5 league player.

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  14. Hurricane "B team" didn't play Scott Foster in singles against Kingwood. He would have beaten Quack so I wouldn't get too carried away with how Kingwood dominated that first match.

    Westside seems like they need ALL of their top players available in order to beat most teams. When they are missing key players they seem very vulnerable to upsets. The other top teams are much deeper.

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  15. Foster beat Toshi in 3 and Toshi is a dubs guy. Toshi would probably beat him the next time.

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  16. Westside has no singles besides Bradley. nuff said.

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  17. Kingwood doesn't either for the exception of Steve Pham.

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  18. Lacey did well at singles for WS last year. I would think he would be another good singles option for black sheep along with Bradley

    For a lot of the players it comes down to matchups, especially in singles

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  19. "nuff said"

    you sound like those cheesedicks on the tourney blog

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  20. Lacy beat Phi in the playoff. Every1 beats Phi though.

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  21. lacy is no good. he beat fernando like 4, 5. he needs to get his head right if he's gonna beat anyone good.

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  22. Does that mean Phi is no good?

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  23. I think Berge moved back to Norway.

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  24. "Rios couldn't even beat Narajos. Bradley killed Narajos. Bradley will eat Rioses ugly backhand for dinner."

    Rios has beaten Omon in north houston league 8-6. cut him some slack

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  25. Yes, those things come in all flavors...

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  26. looks like the hurricane-b team is making excuses for being in last place. they barely pulled a 3 setter against kingwood to win one line and winning their 3 lines against the BS in all 3rd set tie-breakers. now they are talking smack. lacey, alzate, and phi, can beat anyone on any given day in singles and doubles. since the previous posters are dogging rios, quack, phi, lacy, alzate, and toshi, if narajos and foster wants to play them, i'm pretty sure that can be arranged. who's going to make the playoffs??? that's right, kingwood and BS.

    nuff said...

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  27. Holy crap. Sienna added another player to their team.

    Clearly either Durand needs to change his address or someone in that division needs to protest his 2 wins. He lives in Magnolia and plays out of Sienna.

    That is more than 50miles boys....

    Come on Freeman, protest that dude and get your win back from the first week!

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  28. You're allowed one player from outside 50 miles (see 2009 Operating Procedures for the USTA Texas Section Tennis Leagues, article 15).

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  29. No protests from me, at least not for any Houston teams. Darnell is a solid player and has some nice wins so far. I like having good players in our division.

    I don't think anyone on the 4.5 Hurricane 2 team is talking smack but if they are that is kind of funny considering we only won 5 lines out 15 with 4 of those being 3rd set breakers. I'm not surprised we picked up a 3-2 win over a better team because we were taken lightly (as we should have been) and we got lucky (3 breakers). I hope it happens again but it probably won't. Kingwood and Black Sheep will be playing in July.

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  30. Towle should have known that your allowed 1 50 mile out of towner. He's a tool for not knowing the simplest of rules. Towle needs to work on his game more and blog less before he opens his mouth!!

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  31. Forgot about the 1 person thing.

    My bad.

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  32. I doubt very seriously that any Black Sheep or Crush are the ones running smack. It's most likely other guys who are trying to stir the pot. The Crush guys are some of my favorite players to play and hang with after. Im sure we will have some good matches and afterwards drink some beers and watch some B-Ball. As far as our loss to the Hurricanes, they simply played better than us and won. Tip your hat to them and go on. It cracks me up how so many of you try to say this guy or team is better than someone else. Reality is, on any given Thursday night anyone can win in this league.

    Later
    Ristau

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  33. Don't worry Freeman, Red will protest for you.

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  34. I wish I was good enough for someone to post that I suck.

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  35. There is noone in Houston to protest.

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  36. "I wish I was good enough for someone to post that I suck."

    You suck.

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  37. The old thread has Bobo talking of how Costilla is one of his old students and is playing on a Super 18 team this weekend at Sectionals. Seems Costilla is becoming a snake the same as Bobo. If you are on a sectionals junior team, prepare for college and do not get caught up in this adult 4.5 league crap. Someone give this kid some better direction then Bobo.

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  38. Week 4 Predictions:

    4.0:
    Lakeside over Westside 4-1
    Lost Forest over Rolido Boys 3-2
    Bear Creek over Willowfork 5-0

    4.5:
    Black Sheep over Kingwood 3-2
    Sienna over Sugar Creek 3-2

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  39. I don't think Bobo put this kid on the Sienna team. Sienna is getting more and more shady each year.

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  40. The only prediction you got right was Bear Creek's win. No way Sienna beats Sugar Creek. Sugar Creek is in great position to get the second place spot in Division III (they are deeper and better than the Deucebags) - Douds will start coming up with some Ws.

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  41. The final 4 of 4.5s
    Wayne vs David M.

    rematch of
    Herb M. vs Brian G

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  42. 4.5 semis:
    Morgan v Martinez
    Chambert v Schmucker

    4.0 semis:
    Nguyen v Intimg
    Rice v Hui

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  43. Semi's of what?

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  44. Freeman,

    School is done and I am back in the game. Are we winning? Can I make a line-up someday?

    TG

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  45. Why not, the team is relatively strong so we can afford to give up 1 line :)

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  46. Tim you finally got your GED?

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  47. Morgan and Martinez are on the same team???

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  48. Yes, we call them M&M

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  49. big match in 4.5 DIV 2 tomorrow. kingwood vs. wstc bs. if bs loses, then they will be 1-2. also hurricane b-team vs. wstc nwo, if the nwo wins, they will be 2-1, and that gives them a semi-confortable #2 spot. however, for nwo to secure #2, they will have to beat bs once. any thoughts on wstc nwo vs. hurricane b-team? kinwood vd. wstc bs?

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  50. If Knutson and Wood play their an automatic loss. Those guys are terrible. Should be an easy win for NWO

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  51. NWO will be down 0-2 after singles Najaros and Foster play again for Hurricanes. Then they would have to sweep the doubles for that "easy win." Could happen though as they have some good doubles depth.

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  52. Hurrican B will win if they put Knutson and Najaros/Foster in singles. That will give them 2 wins in single and put Najaros/Foster in dubs giving them a strong lineup and a chance to beat NWO. I have a feeling Freeman is not going to do that and give them a chance to win.

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  53. freeman's b team will not make it to the playoffs, but they can create some chaos. foster plays on his 4.0 team, so he might not play. what makes you think narajos or foster can walkover alvares? i pick wstc nwo 3-2. one line from #2 singles and one line doubles from goldberg/tranpark.

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  54. Fernando would beat Knutson easy and probably Foster too. Might have trouble with Narajos.

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  55. GB has priapism.

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  56. Sienna recruited Andre... USTA Rules allows him to play because he will soon turn 19. There are many Supers playing across the state of Texas. Adrian Hasker was one that turned 19 last year and started playing. Andre has some big shots, but most kids his age still lack the mental toughness that you guys have. Last time I checked, Tennis was still a competitive sport. If you can't hang or don't want to compete, then don't sign up, especially in the summer when all teams load up. USTA Summer League Tennis has the same issues at every level, not just 4.5... Craig Bobo

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  57. For the record... I think the Freeman/Green Team is the team to beat this year in Houston 4.5. They have a lot of talent, and a lot of depth.
    -And they are seasoned Captains. There are some other interesting teams to watch though. Kingwood Crush is totally re-vamped, but Hai, Chantz, and Phi have put together a solid roster. Westside's BS Team will get stronger as the season goes on. Sugar Creek may be a sleeper if Douds can add another talented player or two. -And Alain Train's Team has improved quite a bit too. It's too bad that the Hurricanes, Deucebags, and Titans are all in the same division, because all 3 are talented enough to be playing in the City Playoffs. Prediction: Hurricanes win it all and go to Dallas. Hurricanes are probably one ringer away from going to Nationals,and I think they can do it. Craig Bobo

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  58. Bobo...thanks for the kind words about the team.

    TG

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  59. Knutson beat Alvares before and he's their third best singles player after Najaros/Foster. Hurricane B will go 2-0 in singles.

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  60. Craig your correct, the Hurricane are 1 ringer away from going to Nationals. Hey, maybe you can get Wanja back to 4.5 and make him the ringer again.

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  61. No, how finding a couple of soon to be 19 year-old super champs to add. Then the old men can sit on the sidelines and drink beer and talk about how great their team is doing.

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  62. Great ideas guys... I am working on them. Anyone one of you out there would have taken Wanja or Heim or your team if the opportunity presented itself. I didn't rate them. They had already played 4.5 for a few years and both had improved drastically since coming into the league. That's why they are both at 5.0 now, and may be 5.5 by next season. Any team that wants to be competitive in summer USTA just learns to work within the system. Sit on the sidelines... As my buddy, David Hall put it in a thread last year, "I rather be playing a competitive match and get my butt whipped by these youngsters than sitting on the sidelines. Come on guys... Put your helmets on, pull your jocks... and get into the game. Craig Bobo

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  63. Keep trying to justify your bullshit to yourself Craig. You had Division I 20-something kids playing on your otherwise average 4.5 team. I don't care what rating they came in with or what rating the computer gave them, it's not right and YOU know it.

    Congrats!!! You made it to nationals with 2 unbeatable players playing out of level. You should be very proud of that.

    Just because you say it, don't make it so.

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  64. Wow!! Nice words. Easy to hide behind a computer screen. It's a USTA problem they need to solve. -And obviously you have never made it to Sectionals to play any of the San Antonio, Dallas, or Austin Teams... the Valley too!! Best of luck. Craig Bobo

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  65. Anyways, I am with CB on this one. Don't hate the player hate the game.

    Any news from tonight? It looks like in 4.0 Rolido Boys took their 2nd loss against a steady Lost Forest crew.

    Any other updates off the wire?

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  66. GB has priapism.

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  67. Smokers beat Pecan Grove 5-0
    Lakeside beat WS-Phoenix 4-1
    Hurricanes beat Nights 4-1
    SAP beat Breakers 4-1
    JCC beat Ball Hawks 3-2

    Kingwood beat WS-Black Sheep 3-2

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  68. I am with Bobo. This is an adult league, we play all out with what we are given, within the rules. To bad Houston beats up on it's own. We should focus more on the ways other cities are building superteams. Let's represent Houston with our best efforts.

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  69. Houston will be just fine, Tim. You heard it here first: all three Hurricane teams will be at Nationals this year.

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