Things have heated up.

There was a lot going on last night. I was out at Sugar Creek to see the much-anticipated rematch between the Mob Squad and JAM. Sugar Creek took the Mob to the woodshed, winning 5-0. I've seen Sydney Jim play much better, but he was able to break through the rust/nerves against a tough opponent to win a first set tiebreaker and cruised in the second.

Sugar Creek has got to be in the discussion of teams with a legitimate chance to make it to Nationals. Mario Hornsby is allegedly their top doubles player, and he and Simon Jim looked dangerous last night when they got it rolling. Add in the always solid Burrmann/Day combo and you've got three legitimate Sectionals quality lines. The question marks will be that second singles line and the third doubles line. Tim Marco is playing with renewed vigor, and he and Stephen Coyle convincingly won a match where I thought they were slight underdogs last night. Kevin Lotz at line two singles doesn't appear as fit as last year. We'll see if eventually that costs them. They do have other options there (Baer, Cooney, Coyle et al.).

A couple of new players made their debuts last night in 4.5.  I'd heard good things about Robert Baker and wondered if he would be able to get the Good-er Guys over the hump against the Blast last night. He and Ward Jannuzzi were unable to take down Eric Kiser and Craig Richardson last night, falling in straight sets, despite Baker's huge serve. I was told before the season started that Kiser and Richardson would not lose this year. I was doubtful. Looks like I may have been wrong.

California import Cy MacKinnon was the other new face last night, putting a big scare into always solid Ryan Cooper before falling in the super breaker. The Blast appear to have added some firepower that will make them a player in citywides. I REALLY hope Houston gets a wild card in 4.5 this year. If you assume, as I do, that JAM will win in 4.5, that would leave a really exciting fight for a second spot. The Black Sheep, Copperfield, Blast and maybe the Hurricanes all appear to have really strong teams. And JAM is by no means a shoe-in to beat any of them.

The huge battle in 4.0 was not a disappointment last night. I had received some texts which seemed to indicate that the Warriors were cruising early against the Mob Squad. It looked like they had two lines in hand early. But things can change quickly, and the Mob came storming back to take a 3-2 win, with not too much drama, as all matches were straight setters. Nice to see Joseph Mai making a huge contribution in the victory. Cuong Truong absolutely destroyed Terry Hobbs, who had beaten him the first time the two teams met.

The only other 4.0 news I heard was that Andrew Nguyen had yet again put up another double bagel. Apparently the score managing memo never reached the Good Guys. More power to 'em. There was a lot of discussion years ago about whether 6-0, 6-0 matches are used in computer ratings calculations. The theory was that many captains inadvertently enter defaults as 6-0, 6-0, so the computer throws them out when it calculates its DNTRPs. Whether that's true or not is anybody's guess, but it's got to be the only thing that might save Nguyen from a DQ. The kid must be a damn good player.