Tuesday, June 7, 2011

6/9 Matches

The 5.0 matches (that count) conclude Thursday with a Sectionals berth on the line. Lakeside has a lead but has left the door slightly ajar, and I'm sure Willowfork will put their best lineup out there Thursday in an attempt to win by a nose at the finish line. I will be interested to see what kind of lineup David Toney is able to muster as the Met travels to Willowfork. We've already seen that some Met players are reluctant to travel, and the team has very little incentive to win. As previously noted, WF can not drop a set and must hold the Met to fewer than 31 games if my calculations are correct. With just three lines contested in 5.0, the games number is well within reach. I give Willowfork a decent chance to sneak into Sectionals.

In 4.5, there are several good ones this Week. The Blast come in 5-0 (they've not yet reported the results of their walkover (Sweetwater) last week), but still have not clinched anything. They've dropped only 5 lines, so they should be in good shape in the event of a three way tie, but can sew things up this week with a win. I saw Pete Taylor hitting in the 102 degree heat on Sunday afternoon and he looked in fine form. Erik Kiser and Mike Giordanelli have given the Blast a reliable doubles line, and may be the key to this week's match.

As noted, Copperfield and the Deucebags will contest round two this week. Copperfield dominated the first battle. They'll have to put a dent in Copperfield's singles. Newcomer Alejandro Nazario was a disappointment in his first outing, so the D-bags may be in for some rough sledding against Kudrick and company. Both teams look to be in good shape for the playoffs, however.

The Katy Coaches must mount their best effort of the year. It's again do-or-die for Burford's crew as they take on Lakeside. Lakeside has gotten little attention this year. The perception is that they lost Hai Vu and Greg Zachary from a middle of the pack playoff team (13 lines won, 12 lost) and haven't added a really significant player to replace them. Thus, there's little buzz around the team, but they could surprise.

Finally, you're gonna' laugh, but the Big Bangers vs. Clambakes is actually a match with possible playoff implications. The Bangers lost to GTAC (allegedly) last week, so it may actually be the Clambakes who bear watching for the playoffs. They've already played the Hurricanes twice, so a sweep of the remaining matches may get them in. The Clambakes have perhaps one or two legitimate 4.5 playoff caliber players, but can put themselves in the hunt with a win this week. Do the Clambakes have anyone who can beat Alleverdian? Will Mitchell or Shermer be in the Bangers lineup? I'll take the Bangers 4-1.

Finally, 4.0 is a dead zone this week. There are a few matches with some wildcard implications, but nothing remotely interesting.

121 comments:

  1. stop posting rios, its getting annoying

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  2. Lakeside will have their work cut out with the Coaches. Should come down to doubles as Hess and Bui are tough.

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  3. No way Taylor gets three strikes after that second set tank last week.

    It's time to look closer at this guy's 4.5 rating. Can a regular guy file a protest if he is not captain?

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  4. I thought that Clambakes were put together to tank back to 4.0. If that division so bad that a tanking team is likely to come in second?

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  5. Anyone know that the lines score was for the GTAC/Bangers match? I heard GTAC won, but was wondering about tiebreaker details.

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  6. Ask the League Committee Chair. He is a shining example for all of us!

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  7. GTAC sucks. How did the Bangers lose?

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  8. Freddie must have played.

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  9. if bangers lost to gtac, then they are out of contention. they will lose twice to the canes and that would make their record 5-3.

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  10. Unless Freeman tanks and wants Bangers in the playoff.

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  11. Yet another reason why teams from the same division should not be in the same pool in the playoffs. Otherwise there would be regular season tanking done to help your playoff chances.

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  12. A Freeman team that tanks? I've never heard of such a thing.

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  13. it should be just like prof sports and the divisions should be geographic only... that way we don't have to drive to BFE to play a match... who cares if you end up in a weak division... it just means you better win it all and make it to city.

    this way less controversy and conspiracy theories..

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  14. Who else thinks Freeman and Red have the same physique? How do you say… they use same trainer… no?

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  15. 1:30 Why...you checking them out?

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  16. The Clambakes still have a shot at the playoffs while Sugarcreek and Chancellors face elimination. Nope, nothing wrong with the division at all.

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  17. what the hell is a clambakes?

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  18. Titans will be eliminated this week. They can't field a team to take 3 lines off the Blast

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  19. That comment does put the unbalanced divisional structure in perspective. Last year's Sectional representative may be eliminated Thursday. On the other hand, a team built of 4.0 bumpups (supposedly built to tank) can make a run at the playoffs with a win Thursday. LOL

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  20. Douds should play Babu at line 1 singles, Simon at line 2 singles, and Erik and Day on line 3 doubles for the 3-2 win against the Blast.

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  21. Copperfield vs DuceBags: 4-1 Copperfield

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  22. titans vs blast
    titans should not waste anyone against taylor. if they can avoid taylor, then they will beat the blast.

    copperfield vs dbags
    no one on dbags can beat kudrick or kent, so avoid them and you have a chance, but very slim

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  23. aadrian.......... HASKERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
    MoHawk < any ground-stroke in league.

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  24. It's all about the FroHawk.

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  25. Simon Jim, if he is hot, can give taylor a run for his money. Should be interesting

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  26. Jim had Taylor beat the first time they played. He won the first set and served for the second, but cramped up and lost. Taylor is definitely beatable.

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  27. if jim cramped a month ago in 80 degrees weather, he will definitely have heat problems. my pick is taylor over jim. but i believe this time, titans will split the singles and win two doubles line. douds, dont waste playing jim against taylor if you can avoid it.

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  28. Simon taught 8 hours in 90 degree weather and than played Taylor and cramped. 10:21 you're a fuckin penis.

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  29. 10:57, sorry i upset your boyfriend. that's very nice of you for sticking up for your lover, but your boy lost and he will lose again and the titans will miss out of the playoffs. you will spend the year until next summer league wondering why your team lost to chancellors. maybe simon should have played against chancellors the first time or maybe simon should have played line2 singles cuz he's been teaching 8 hours. hmmm, who's the penis now?

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  30. Did you mean finish or penis

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  31. When you call somebody a penis, is that like calling somebody a female body part?

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  32. Simon cramped indoors. how bad is that?

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  33. Early some folks were looking for a Beer Pong tournament: http://www.houstonbeerfestival.com

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  34. I hear they are coming after Freddy & Freeman next: As predicted in World News last week, Daniel Koellerer, the controversial Austrian who received a life suspension for his part in corrupting the course of matches, has begun his attempts to legally overturn the ban.

    Koellerer received the heaviest sentence yet handed out by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) after being found guilty of three violations of the sport’s anti-corruption rules. He allegedly tried to rig the outcome of his own matches and attempted to coerce others to do the same between October 2009 and July 2010.

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  35. The Unicorns with a late roster addition: Hastings Bear (?) player Tyler Truong.

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  36. Tyler Truong is a lefty with no backhand. This news is nothing to be shocked about. Any top 4.0 can take him out.

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  37. what does it look like when somebody has all front hand and no backhand

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  38. Thanks for the heads up on the Beerfest... It's this weekend.
    Cheerio!

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  39. That would make him a bottom instead of a top. They have this arranged and can provide examples on the unicorns or Memorial Park teams. IF you are cute, they will even provide samples.

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  40. Just curious why the NOHO 5.0 teams haven't reported any scores? Is this to fix scores so a lot of players can be bumped down?

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  41. You are right im sure. they are always doing some shady stuff in that league.

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  42. Isn't that Red's shady league? Can we just refer to it as the bump down league.

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  43. Need to change the name of that league from NoHo to AllHo

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  44. Whatever happened in the match between Taylor Gypsies and Schwinng? Who was the last match awarded to?

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  45. Who gets the award for the best tank team?

    Best tank player award?

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  46. No contest: Hurricane 4.0

    If they played as well as they tanked, Nationals are already done. Greg, you play on the team. Am I right?

    Rios is the obvious player choice. Again, Greg (aka Htown Hacker) you played with him; so you can confirm.

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  47. Here are the top 4.5 singles guys
    1.Kudrick
    2.Jim
    4. Orozco
    3.Taylor
    4. Hess
    5. J. Bui
    6. Q. Bui

    What do you think?
    7.

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  48. 7. Rios ..... of course

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  49. 9:45, u must be new to the league, so it must rios writing this crap. jim #2, cant beat hess, j.bui, q.bui, but can beat orozco. orozco is playing good, but he cant beat taylor, j.bui or q.bui. rios is not even top #20 singles.
    here's a few other names that he would lose to in singles:
    lakeside:wright,perdomo,wooten,connell,morris,huynh, tellez, pastrana
    lakeside estates: lagarde
    coaches: cooper, lozano,layman
    nwo: westin
    blacksheep: lacy, delacolina, hale, waithe, morgan,
    gysies: pancheco, regent, li, muhala, kniffen
    swhings: lindloff, martin, patterson, callaway, kim
    big bangers: allahveridan
    canes: coyle, narajos, jones, foster, jannuzzi, pumma, merhi, morton, pham
    gtac: sanblom, barboza
    gossip man: knutson, inting
    clambakes: dahse, grego
    ball busters: talosig, stephens, huynh, brumfield
    dbags: dugas, tran, chavarria, bishop, morales, schlensker, goldberg, henagan, schmucker,
    lobster: kelly, d.kent, mcmullan, martinez, a.kent,
    chancellors: hung, huy, charles, johnathan, diep
    titans: day

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  50. if i was captaining the blast, i would tell rios to "shut the fuck up". everyone knows div5 is overall weak. the only reason they are even mentioned is all the hype with titans and chancellors and those two teams will probably miss the playoffs. this is the fact in the playoffs, taylor will lose twice, rios will lose all his singles match. blast will end up 5th or 6th place

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  51. LOL. Someone doesn't have a sense of humor.

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  52. Yeah, that's the truth. Division V is so bad that Sienna will probably make the playoffs. I'm surprised that Freddie didn't put the Bangers in V.

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  53. oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that freddie from the big bangers could beat rios

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  54. Wait, I thought Freddie was the only person that Rios could actually beat?

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  55. Hey, Freddie is good and can beat everyone, but Rios is Gooder and can beat Freddie and everyone, Got that?

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  56. Rios should always be numero uno on the list 5.0, 4.5, 4.0 everyone talks about him, he is the Man, the star and without him this blog would be boooooring.

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  57. Rios has about the same scores no matter what level he plays. If he was bright, he would turn pro...wait he plays for Freeman...

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  58. rios play for freeman's 4.0 in doubles, because he's not the top 3 on freeman's team. rios didnt make the cut on freeman's 4.5 team, cuz everyone on that team can beat rios

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  59. Warning to Freddie. If you do not report all of your scored now I will destroy your team. I am serious.

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  60. Freddie, I think that Jason is serious! Report those scores.

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  61. why play up when you can play down?!?!?!!? if your rated 4.0 then your a 4.0... maybe some of you whiners need to ask to be bumped down a notch b/c obviously you can't hang w/ the 'Canes !!!!

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  62. Who cares about Freddie's scores, other Capts will keep him honest. Just get them in, or other Capt's should do it.

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  63. Yeah, if the Big Bangers lost why didn't the GTAC captain input the scores?

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  64. so who's gonna be the Hurricane's ace singles for playoffs?

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  65. big bangers are out of playoff contention. the best they can be is 5-3. one lost to gtac and will lose two to canes. they are a none factor. clambakes can make playoffs if they beat big bangers twice to end up 6-2

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  66. with the way the WCs are being distributed this year... a 5-3 team can make the playoffs over a 6-2 team.

    https://www.houstontennis.org/Content-Public/Page-Edit/Page.asp?iID=-690059270

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  67. Leave it to HTA to get it wrong. Three good teams tie at 6-2 so we'll boot one and take a sucky team from another division that is 5-3, like .... say ... the Big Bangers.

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  68. 1:05/1:15

    You're right it's a strange way of calculating seeds and wild card teams. On the other hand, it is sort of a way to fight back against teams that purposely tank lines/sets. If you tank your team may get the win but the win % is not so great.

    It's not a perfect answer, but unless they start having inter-division play there's really no perfect answer.

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  69. Or HTA had shown some sense and settled on 4 divisions of 6 teams with top two qualifying.

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  70. Here's the average games lost for the top teams in 4.0 (should be similar to winning %) . Looks like this new rule helps out Freddy's RPM team the most (surprise!). They were possibly eliminated before, but with the new rule they're up there. Of course they still have to play the good guys. It really ruins teams like Sienna and makes every game count a lot! Assuming they use this for seeding, it also sets up an early matchup of Unicorns vs Hurricanes in the playoffs. With all the sandwich talk on the board that could be a good one.

    Division champs:
    Lakeside (26.1)
    Good Guys (27.3)
    Cinco (28.3)
    Unicorns (31.4)
    Hurricanes (40.6)
    Copperfield (41.7)

    2nd place:
    RPM (32.6)
    Chancellors (38.6)
    mason creek (43.5)
    west side (43.6)
    GTAC (44.3)
    Sienna (45.7)

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  71. How does the rule help RPM and hurt Sienna?

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  72. The HTA is broken, the scheduling should be done by a separate commitee. Why the change in the wildcard criteria? And all of this hate on Freddie, does anyone know any of the players on the Big Bangers?

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  73. The reasoning that I heard was that the wild cards at Sectionals are calculated in this fashion and the HTA is trying to keep in step with how things are done up in Dallas. I have no problem with it. I'm surprised it wasn't noticed by anyone before now.

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  74. 1:15, this means div1 teams like coaches and nwo will still have a chance with 5-3 record
    also div3 with big bangers and clambakes with 5-3 records

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  75. Does the HTA ever tell us anything? Except when it's a propaganda poster hanging at LeClear or Memorial.

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  76. I'm starting to sound like an HTA apologist, I know. But honestly, they posted it on their (shitty) website. What more could they do really?

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  77. I'm probably not the only one but I never visit their site. It's poor designed, not maintained and doesn't always have the info.

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  78. Why didn't HTA send an email to captains asking for comments on tiebreaking procedures? They managed to solicit our input for the number of wildcards.

    If they'd asked me (I'm a 4.5 captain), I would have pointed out that this rule arbitrarily favors (sometimes in a substantial way) teams that happen to receive multiple defaults.

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  79. I don't believe defaults count. Diana will probably have to hand calculate all of the matches that were actually played.

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  80. This absolutely smacks of cronyism. The advancement rules differ from previous years, are set late in the season and clearly favor those who helped set them (Freddie).

    BTW, I seriously doubt that Sectional Wildcards are chosen this way due to the problem of defaults and small local leagues.

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  81. What about that beast musa salihu, and Chris guerrini who hasn't lost a match, and who says Freddy isn't telling his a&m club players to tank, you know how good a&m club players are...look at the dibuas

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  82. Ok Hacker, what about a team like Chancellors that received two defaults from Sweetwater? If defaults aren't counted, they get screwed because they could have probably swept both of those matches in something like 6-2, 6-2.

    Either way using total games is stupid since it emphasizes the details of meaningless matches and is open to trivial manipulation. You want a really good example?

    The Deucebags should just default all five lines to Copperfield tonight. The Deucebags are clearly going to come in second in their division and they will probably get smoked by Copperfield in total games for their match tonight. Since total lines is not part of the wildcard criteria, defaulting all 5 lines is meaningless and they avoid getting a bad result on percentage of games won.

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  83. ROFL. Awesome suggestion! Come on Dugas, you know you want to do it.

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  84. LOLOLOL. Let's encourage the Gossip Men to default their last match against th Big Bangers so only their results against GTAC, the Hurricanes and the Clambakes are counted.

    Would serve him right.

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  85. you guys are smart, always finding a loophole. does this also apply to 5.0? if the met forfeits all three lines, then does willowfork win overall and make it to sectionals, with the fewest "games lost"

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  86. I have to agree with 4:03. Percentage of games won is a terrible statistic. My team is in contention for the playoffs, but shorthanded some times. From now on, if I don't have all of my best guys, I'll just default rather than play a scrub and take a bad beating. Stupid, stupid, stupid rule.

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  87. To 4:20. No, because USTA National rules mandate a SANE way to break ties for league champions. The tiebreaker rules are team win/loss, lines won/loss, sets won/loss and games won/loss.

    Unfortunately, the problem is that USTA National rules don't force local areas to use sane rules for wildcard selection.

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  88. don't you morons know that if you default an entire match it dq's u from the playoffs? nice try.

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  89. Nah, I wouldn't default the entire match. I'd just default the lines that I know I'm going to lose.

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  90. And the cool thing is that you can still do it after the lineups are exchanged.

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  91. @4:31 Can you cite 1 example of a team dq'ed from the playoffs for a default?

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  92. read the rules.

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  93. Its amazing as to how stupid most of you are. The rules aren't kept in a secret vault, try reading them.

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  94. we are too lazy to read the rules thats why we come to the blog!

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  95. Rule #1 - Never trust what you hear in the blog

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  96. plus we are not lawyers like freeeman and not an expert of the law.

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  97. Deucebags win 3-2 at Copperfield....

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  98. both teams will end up 7-1. welcome to the playoffs, copperfield and dbags. that means only two wild spots left

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  99. Sugarcreek over JCC Blast 5-0. Babu was awesome!

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  100. had a feeling sugarcreek won. havent heard any bragging from rios. if blast loses against chancellors, it will be a three way 6-2

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  101. Titans wrong league good luck at 4.0 next season

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  102. In 5.0 Willowfork won 2-1 against the Met. So the Lakeside Team advances to Sectionals by 1 match & 3 sets making the 5.0 Div the closest finish in years.

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  103. Top 2 Teams in 4.0s in my opinion and not necessarily in this order;
    Hurricanes
    Unicorns

    All three teams are tanking players.
    Hurricanes look all around strong singles and doubles.

    Unicorns need help in their Singles from what I have seen, I think the sandwich blaster tanked against Aces though. But they also Have Yang who is an excellent singles Player

    THE TANKING MUST COME TO AN END!

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  104. Blast over sugarcreek 4-1. Day over medford in singles in tight 3 setter.

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  105. To shed some light on previous posts re: defaults. USTA Rules state if a team defaults a majority of their lines in one match, then they have to do so in all their matches, thus disqualifying them from the post season.

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  106. No one tanks!!! Hurricanes just always have off nights... U know it's pretty hard to play down...

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  107. Sorry, Craig. I think you are quoting rule 2.03L from the 2011 USTA League Regulations for team defaults. If you look carefully, section 2.03 is only for Area, Sectional and National CHAMPIONSHIPS. There is nothing in the USTA League Regulations concerning team defaults in local league play.

    So, I read the rules. You guys are wrong. Defaulting an entire match in local league play is perfectly fine and does not disqualify you from the area playoffs. If you think I'm wrong, please cite the governing rule.

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  108. Glad to see the Met didn't lay down last night in 5.0. To much of that goes on in 4.5 with backroom deals.

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  109. Tell us about these "backroom deals". Are happy endings involved?

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  110. Anonymous. Good find. All I can tell you is that we encountered that situation back in '08 with my 4.5 team that was finishing local summer play enroute to Sectionals & eventually nationals we were informed that rule applied locally too. Now we did play out of Noho. Maybe at that time Noho was governed differently than HTA. I'm just sharing from my experience.

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  111. It's 3:11. I'm not ragging on you, Craig. It's just the case that the USTA to some extent and HTA to a large extent fly by the seat of their pants on most questions of league rules and procedures. (See the current % of games won as a wildcard tie-breaker for an example.)

    Nothing is written down in a publicaly available form so that a captain (even if they are so inclined) could figure out and follow the rules without talking to some random USTA/HTA official who themselves don't know the rules.

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  112. Tanking builds character and promotes life long skills. When I have kids I will teach them this valuable lesson.

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  113. Craig,

    You are correct. If a team defaults a majority of their lines in a single match then all of their lines for all matches in that round robin will not be used in determining the division winner. This applies in local and championship matches.

    It took me 2 minutes to find the local rule on the HTA website.

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  114. FAIL. HTA rules don't apply to summer USTA league. If you'd talked to HTA, you would have known that.

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  115. 10:10, sorry but you are incorrect and 9:27 is right.

    While the recently published "2011 HTA League Rules" do not apply to USTA leagues, the "2011 USTA Adult Evening HTA Regulations" do apply to USTA league matches. These rules clearly address the team default scenario as posted by 9:27.

    10:10, go ahead and default 3 lines of a 5 line match - show us all just how smart and knowledgeable you are - wait, you've already done that - FAIL.

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  116. 1:58 is correct. Of course, HTA only posted this information in the last couple of weeks after the Schwinggg-Taylor HS light situation a couple of weeks ago. Better late than never.

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