Drama at LLTC

Omon said it best (or was it Odion?  I still can't tell the difference and usually mask my confusion with a "How's it goin', big guy?"):  "This is why we love league tennis."

Both Hurricane matches at Lee Leclear went down to the wire with a third set breaker at line 2 singles deciding things.  In 4.5 it came down to former teammates Ted Phoummarath and Aadrian Hasker.  Aadrian was rocketing bullet forehands and Ted was running and scraping balls back and mixing in the occasional passing shot and even an ace which shocked the crowd.  In the end, Pumma won an anti-climactic tie breaker as Aadrian finally ran out of shots.  

The Deucebags looked to be heavy underdogs when the lineups came out, as Miguel Morales and Rich Ryu were not present.  Captain Tran split up the Dugas brothers, and he and Trey pulled off a shocker, beating Odion and fellow Aggie Matt Sumrall.  Props should go out to Alain, who has improved as much as anyone in the league over the last five years or so and was continually hitting crisp volleys tonight.  Derrick Dugas and Bobby Trinh took down Sarosh Ahmed and David Lombardi and Omon handled James Bui at number one singles.  Line one dubs went to the Hurricanes easily as Burmann and Day continued their dominance.  

The Hurricane 4.0 team was not as fortunate.  Similarly, the line two singles match came down to the aggressor against the scrapper....maybe defense DOES win championships.  In this one, Daniel Durand came back from an early deficit to beat Phong Hau 10-8 and give Sienna the victory.   Scott Foster was dominant for the Hurricanes at line one singles, and truly looked to be playing at a different level.   Bruce Inting kept up his winning ways at line 2 doubles, but Sienna's Donn Nguyen and Ronnie Kwan dominated at line 1, and Scott Boarman and Dean Cushing pulled out a tight one in a well-played match at line 3 doubles.  

The Hurricane 4.0 team went the entire local season last year unscathed, and is already 0-1 this year.  It's pretty clear that this team is not of the same caliber as last year's team.   Freeman lost 8 guys from last year's team to the 4.5 ranks, (one of them, Roberto Narajos, was giving Don Rios all he could handle tonight and will be a high quality 4.5) and thus far it looks as though only one impact player has been added:  Inting.    Sienna has established itself as the favorite in that division, and the Hurricanes will have their hands full making it to the playoffs with JCC and the Nights both having strong rosters.