There are four matches in 4.0 on Thursday night. With two round robin brackets of four teams each, the 4.0's must play 3 round robin matches while their 4.5 counterparts have just two.
The first match on the docket is Lakeside against Cinco Ranch Comets. The Comets are a very poor team with only 4 players rated 4.0 on their roster. It will be a blowout.
There's a nice matchup between the JCC Dudes and Rice. Rice is not nearly the team they were last year, and just barely snuck into the playoffs. The JCC Dudes were 9-1 on the season, but won fewer lines than second place Chancellor's. The Dudes have been relying on their singles and then taking a doubles line here and there. David Trevas is 8-1 on the year at #1 singles. Jeff Johnson played singles just once but beat a very good player in Jerry Pham on that occasion. Will he be used in singles or doubles on Thursday? He and John Blumenthal have been money at #1 doubles as well. I think the Dudes will stick with Paul Summers at 2 singles (his only loss is to Pham) and keep their top doubles team intact. Rice will go with Karel and Bui in singles. Expect a three setter or two in the singles matchups. I think Rice will have the edge at 2 and 3 doubles, but this matchup should be very tight. Too close for me to call.
The Hurricanes will take on Chancellor's. I expect the Hurricanes will have some of their out of towners here to make sure nothing goes awry in this tough first match. Some of the Chancellor's insiders are very confident in the abilities of Dimitri Ang, who has recently joined their squad. Despite having some quality players, I really can't see Chancellor's pulling off the upset. They will make the Hurricanes sweat at a couple of lines, but just don't have enough strenght throughout the lineup to be a real contender.
The last matchup features first place Sienna Plantation and runner up Lost Forest Hackers. Sienna has skated through a ridiculously easy group in the regular season and I suspect they will be overmatched in this one.
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I had read earlier in this blog that there will be a 2nd 4.0 team going to Sectionals and that they are going to choose this team based on winning percentage of lines at city playoffs. Is this true?
ReplyDeleteIf this is the case, I'm going to predict that the loser of the Chancellors/Hurricanes will be a shoo-in for Sectionals. Given the weakness of the other two teams in their pool, I could see the runnerup in this division finishing 12-3 or 11-4 in pool play. On the other hand, I can't see the winner of the other pool being much better than 10-5.
So, the optimal strategy for the Hurricanes and Chancellors is probably to lose 3-2 in their first match. That way they can lock up a spot with a good record and avoid the chance of getting beat 4-1 or 5-0 in the finals and spoiling their winning percentage based on lines.
LOL
It's interesting bc it seems like Rice actually has a very good and young lineup that has been playing second fiddle to the older veterans. It's likely that if these guys were to have been playing through the season they would be able to carry them very far. I'm guessing that they have skills, but not enough matchplay and toughness?
ReplyDeleteThe two teams that make it to the finals will represent Houston in Sectionals regardless of winning percentage. The winner will be Houston and the runner-up will be Houston Wild. The same goes for the 3.5s and 4.5s.
ReplyDeleteits hot out there.... lets just play best of 3 ten point tie breakers
ReplyDeleteRice has not played their best line-up to date and I doubt they will. Last year the younger guys took the front stage while the older guys road their coat tails to a disappointing sectional semi-final finish (that would not be disappointing to most teams). If they are really interested in advancing in the playoffs they need to put out smarter line-ups.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Hurricanes are having trouble bringing in the out-of-towners for a weekday match.
Prediction - Lakeside will quitely roll into the city championship final and hand the Hurricanes a convincing defeat.
What possible lineup could Chancellors come up with to beat the Hurricanes, even without all non-Htown people or SA? I still give the edge to the Hurricanes.
ReplyDeleteChancellors has some nice doubles players and solid singles players. I guess they would need at least 1 upset in singles and 1 upset in doubles to pull off a 3-2 win. Their doubles and singles players are so much alike that I'm not even sure they could have a successful stack.
my prediction - Hurricanes over Rice in the final 4-1
I think Rice could give the Hurricanes (and anyone really) a run for their money if they played their best (and smartest) lines. They've got some guys that really are good, if they'd just step up and play like they're capable of.
ReplyDeleteWho is Rice's best lineup? Their team doesn't look that good to me.
ReplyDeleteYeah they've got some guys that slide under the radar as far as their skill goes. Plus they're young. I've seen some of them hit and it seems like some have 4.5 strokes and serves. But I guess they're not as good as they are hitting?
ReplyDeleteWatch out for Richard Perreras next year in 4.0 singles. Just a hit for whoever wants to pick up a player.
ReplyDeleteRice's top players that are counted on to win each time out (or at least in big matches) are Quack Bui (not a solid line 1 player but is a VERY solid line 2 player), Peter Strasser and John Swartley (best 2 players on the team), Matt Evelt (big serve). Lemus, Karel, Nguyen, Tran and Young are nice role players. I would think their best line-up to give them a shot at winning all 5 lines woudl be:
ReplyDeleteStrasser
Bui
Swartley / Evelt
Young / Lemus
Nguyen / Tran
The first 3 lines are high quality 4.0 tennis lines.
The day has come. Judgement day. Let the matches begin. Good luck to all and may the best team win.
ReplyDeleteThe Hurricanes beat Chancelors 4-1 and Rice best JCC 4-1. What happened in the other 4.0 and 3.5 matches?
ReplyDeleteany thoughts on 3.5 land??!!
ReplyDelete