The much-anticipated battle between Kingwood and Hangovers lived up to its billing, with a few surprises along the way. When Raymond Santiago joined the Kingwood roster, it seemed like he would be nothing more than a filler. Last summer playing for Rice he was 3-4 playing mediocre competition (with mediocre partners). Santiago had been quite a player many years ago, but he seemingly had regressed. Last night he and Adam Paschal pulled off a stunner as they straight setted the mighty duo of Green-Morton. The other doubles went according to form: Li/Huffman fairly easily over Ullrich/G. Stevens and Hurlbert/Pekar over Bobo/Burkhart.
It all came down to the singles. David Guy pulled out a somewhat surprising routine victory over Phi Huynh, four and three. Thus, with the match all square, it came down to Armstrong and Deluca. On a cool night, fitness was not a huge factor. The key, clutch points went Armstrong's way, as he sandwiched two tiebreak victories around a lackluster second set and secured the win for Kingwood.
Assuming that the Yutts took out MIB and that the Kingwood appeal is denied, we now have a four way tie for first in this division.
In Division I, Ssshhhwing again put out a very weak singles lineup but managed to hold on to all three doubles lines to secure a harder than expected 3-2 victory over Lost Forest (who apparently WILL field a team). If Ssshhhwing could just borrow Rice's singles players they'd be in good shape (they're not doing RICE any good!). It looks like a 3-way battle for the two playoff spots between Jedi Knights (who should win division), Shwing and No Way Out.
In Division III, Rice fielded a doubles lineup riddled with 4.0 players and wasted the singles wins of Magid and Kudva. Sugar Creek appears to have moved John Day into singles this year (where's Cooney been?), but he didn't have enough to really test Magid. Not many in this league do.
The Black Sheep moved to 2-0 with an easy win over the Ball Busters. The Black Sheep also have a doubles lineup riddled with 4.0 players. That will catch up with them in the long run.
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The YUTTS took out MIB. Alain Tran and Richard Boehck took down Dave Motzny and Tony Huber in straight sets on Line 1 dubs. YUTTS had to default Line 2 dubs as Bjorn Crosby was hurt and didn't make it, and their Line 3 squeaked out an 11-9 3rd set tiebreaker.
ReplyDeleteThe big surprise was MIB's Alex Montes on Line 1 Singles; he lost 12-10 to Tor Krosby after splitting the first 2 sets 6-4, 3-6. A great match and confidence builder for young "A-Mon". Miguel Morales won Line 2 singles against Chad Piper 7-6, 6-1. Great first set but Miguel was too strong afterwards.
Aha, so MIB still has not won a match except through default. We reap what we sow.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, congrats to Alex Montes on the strong showing. On paper, Tor was a heavy favorite.
I look forward to playing MIB next week. If their reputation is undeserved, I will definitely give them props.
Funny. Actually, we won Line 2 singles last week even if it wasn't a default. Considering most of our guys are playing up and we've been close in most matches, I'm not disappointed. We'll take our lumps this year.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why enforcing the rules would give us a bad reputation, but so be it. Sometimes you have to consider the source. We're really great guys :).
Excerpts from email from HTA this afternoon:
ReplyDeleteTeam Captains, Please remember that all players must be HTA & USTA members to participate in any of the evening leagues that HTA administers. This is not a new rule.
Players must be 2007 HTA members to be considered legal players. If you, as team captain, do not verify your players, your opposing team captain can and will and does notify HTA of any discrepancies. The HTA Discipline and Grievance Committee will uphold the HTA rule that all player participating in our leagues must be HTA members.
The problem as I see it is that in past years this rule has never been enforced. Warning emails were always sent out to captains and they consequently asked their players to sign up for HTA.
ReplyDeleteDid the MIB captain search the HTA database looking for players to default? That seems to go well beyond the spirit of the leagues. I'm not taking sides. I fully agree with the fact that Kingwood should be punished for being late. Those lines were correctly defaulted, in my opinion.
USTA is making a big push to crack down on rules violations. Ask some club pros about the communications they're getting lately.
ReplyDeleteUSTA is even trying to eliminate the 15-minute time limit. I'm sure HTA is feeling some heat to make sure everyone is complying.
Look, no one wants to win by default. The match last week had a series of events and issues that took place at Memorial Park, so it wasn't the HTA thing. That was just the straw that broke the camel's back after all the other crap that happened that night.
I'm sure we've played people in the past who weren't signed up; I doubt our captain is keeping a spreadsheet on who is registered with HTA and who isn't. Or maybe he is, I don't know :).
Rumor has it that the MIB Captain was also defaulting matches on the HTA membership that MIB had no involvement in.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem for MIB Captain looking out for his team, that what Captain's should do. But looking at 2 completely different team's matches to cause a default or influence a match is out of bounds. Too much win at all costs to me.
Regardless, this was just a rumor. I should probably just ask Cheryl, but I don't care that much.
I just look forward to playing them next week. And if they are a bunch of nice guys, then it should be fun tennis.
Even I haven't heard of that one, so it could be just a rumor. I agree though, that would be a little much.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have fun next week, win or lose. All the guys are nice people and just want to play some good tennis.
It seems to me that if the HTA was going to enforce a rule that was not strictly enforced in the past, all teams should have received a warning notification well in advance of the first match and not after the 2nd match is finished. Enforcing a rule by making an example of a team or in reaction to a chain of events is not an ideal method for getting the message across. Most of us play team tennis because we enjoy the fellowship and competition. In this instance, it seems the thirst for victory and the insensitivity to events outside of the player's control has somewhat overshadowed the intent and spirit of team tennis. At this point, I don't think there is team out there that will not have every member signed up before the first match next year regardless if the defaults are upheld or not - I think a slap on the hand with a warning is sufficient to get everyone's attention.
ReplyDeletebilly jean,
ReplyDeleteAs one club pro said to me tonight, if you don't want to play by the rules, play recreational tennis.
The 2007 rules emailed to captains before the season started stated 5 TIMES you MUST be an HTA member BEFORE you play. It didn't say anything about warnings.
End of story.
And the fact that everyone will be signed up before they play is a good thing and is exactly what HTA and USTA wants.
ReplyDeleteThe rules were sent out previous years as well, but not enforced giving players an opportunity to sign up afterwards. That was changed without warning. In previous statements, it's clear the captain raised a stink about the HTA memberships only after he was upset by a series of events before the match started. We all want to follow the rules, but sometimes things happen. It's a tennis league for heaven's sake. Again, the result of everyone following the rule going forward will be accomplished regardless if the defaults are upheld or not. So the question is why continue with the defaults other than to give the opposing tean the win. All these statements about following the rules are only valid if the objective of following the rule is achieved, which it is. So why the default? The only thing I see is the win for the captain raising the stink.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to forget that other violations occurred first, like not having the lines there on time and changing lines after exchanging them.
ReplyDeleteGee, I guess we should have just let them do whatever they wanted to. Screw any rules at all.
Smacker,
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't that Krosby-Montes match listed in the scoresheet? Was there some more shady stuff going on? It's entered as a default win for MIB. Email me at houstonleaguetennis@gmail.com if you want to keep it private.
Hacker,
ReplyDeleteYou've got mail.
You mean MIB defaulted Krosby in that match too. So MIB has 5 individual wins listed - all defaults.
ReplyDeleteGreat job MIB...keep the defaults rolling. At this rate you might make the playoffs. No respect/dignity...but maybe a playoff berth.
FYI anonymous (how convenient),
ReplyDelete1 of the YUTTS players was hurt and didn't show up. The other didn't sign up on HTA and Cheryl insisted we enter the scores yesterday. So what choice did we have?
You should get your facts straight before you open your big mouth.