Week Five

The schedule, like the weather, is starting to heat up.  We've been lucky this year with no rain on Thursday nights...let's hope that continues.  

There are a few good matchups in 4.5 this week.  There has already been a lot of discussion about the Kingwood Crush matchup with Westside's No Way Out.  Maybe I'm biased, as there are six former teammates/friends on the Kingwood team, but I'd be shocked if No Way Out pulled off the upset here.  

Every week brings an intriguing matchup in 4.5 Division III.  The Deucebags will be taking on a much stronger Sugar Creek team that has its back to the wall.   Sugar Creek will be at home and should be able to get Straley, Jim and Herr in the lineup.  Look for this one to come down to the wire.  We'll see if Alain Tran stands pat or adds some talent to contend with the very tough division competition. 

The top two teams in Division I also face off as Ssshhhwings take on Copperfield.  The Shwings haven't been tested yet, and quite frankly won't get the kind of battles in Division I that some of the other teams will see during the regular season.  

In 4.0, division leader SAP will be taking on a 2-2 (I believe they lost last week) Rolido Boys team whose season is in jeopardy.  An SAP win all but assures SAP and Lost Forest trips to Citywides.

Two of the five quality teams in Division II square off as the Smokers take on a Phoenix team that experienced their first loss last week.   The Phoenix can make things interesting with an upset here.  

Finally, the Hurricanes 4.0 team has been somewhat of a disappointment thus far, and has a tough matchup with a veteran JCC squad.   Is it possible that Freeman's bunch will be on the outside looking in come playoff time? 

Results

I've been too busy watching the gutty Rockets  to get much of an update about tonight's matches. 

I did hear that Kingwood won 3-2 in the big battle with the Black Sheep.  I believe Don Rios and Raymond Santiago/Bao Vo Dinh surrendured the two lines for the Crush.  The other Westside team won 4-1 and is in the hunt for that second playoff spot.  

Lakeside beat the Phoenix 4-1 and kept their season alive, silencing the naysayers.  Roscoe Trujillo is an impressive player for the Phoenix and won his singles match comfortably over Omel Ruiz.  

In 5.0 Copperfield dominated the Met and all but officially wrapped things up.  Jason Pieters handled Amit Garg pretty easily.  

FYI

The NCAA tennis championships are being held at Texas A&M, starting Thursday.  The women and men's championships are now held at the same site.  Both the Aggies and Longhorns will be competing. 

For those interested in attending or following the action, the Texas College Tennis Blog does a great job of covering college tennis.  

In other non-league related news, the Austin Tennis Academy has been named the third USTA regional training center.

This week's slate

It's been a slow couple of weeks, but hopefully the matchups this week will be a bit more intriguing.  

Discussion has already begun on the Sienna/Hurricanes 4.5 matchup. (Oops...Should have checked that...Sienna plays Sugar Creek)  Still wanna' see Costilla versus Straley or Jim... 

The Black Sheep are smarting from last week's shocker, but still appear to be in no jeopardy of missing the playoffs in their two-tiered division.  I'm sure they will bring all of their big guns this week and Kingwood will get their first test.  I'm curious to see how Kingwood will line up...still no Juan Lopez or Minh Phan (nursing a wrist injury) on the roster.  I hope Steve Phan gets out there...he's too talented a player to be sitting on the sidelines but I'm sure he's pretty rusty.  

Intriguing matchup in 4.0 as the West Side Phoenix, unmentioned in this space yet sporting a perfect record thus far, take on the grizzled Lakeside team.  Omel Ruiz has an accurate and dangerous forehand but a vulnerable backhand...will the Phoenix singles player be able to exploit him?   It's do or die for Lakeside this week...with 5 solid teams in that division two losses early would be almost fatal. 

Also, the Rolido boys have their backs to the wall and take on undefeated Lost Forest Hackers. With a solid SAP team also in their division, this one is crucial for the Rolido Boys. 

In 5.0 the prohibitive favorites, the Hurricanes, have a bit of a test, taking on the 2-1 Met team captained by David Toney.  Expect to see Amit Garg or Arun Nanjappa at singles for the Met, who appear to be outmanned at every line.   

Plenty of other ok matchups this week....Discuss.

Quick Update

The Hurricane 4.5 team took down Sugar Creek 4-1 tonight.  Odion Dibua beat Simon Jim in a tight and at times contentious match.  Ted Pumma waltzed past Samir Chiali.  David Herr made his league debut a successful one, teaming with Nick Hiemstra to take down solid veterans Burrmann and Day in three sets.  Omon Dibua and Ricardo Martinez took out Jason Cooney and new self-rate Luis Hernandez and David Lombardi and Wayne Morgan won their line very quickly and easily.

Ken Douds is doing everything in his power to improve his roster, and has made some really nice additions.  Assuming that neither team takes down the Hurricanes or stumbles against Sienna, Sugar Creek will have to sweep their remaining two matches against the Deucebags to make the City playoffs.  

Sugar Creek v. Hurricanes

Sugar Creek travels to the 4.5 Hurricanes in this Thursday's most intriguing match.  It's a short drive up 59 for Ken Douds' crew, and hopefully he will get all of his stars to make the trip.  With Straley, Herr, Jim, Chiali, Cooney and some of the other veterans, he can field an imposing lineup. Finding the right combination will be a challenge.  I'm sure the Hurricanes will have most of their big guns there.  A loss to Sugar Creek will make things interesting...I wonder if the Deucebags are rooting for Freeman/Benzon's boys or so they still have their sights set on winning the division?

It's early, but my impression is that the other "teams to watch" (besides the three already mentioned) in 4.5 are the Crush, Black Sheep, and Ssshhhwings, with perhaps Copperfield and Jedi Knights also in the playoff mix.  None of those teams have particularly difficult matchups this week.

Likewise, in 4.0, the teams I have on my radar so far are Sienna, the Hurricanes, SAP, Rolido Boys, Chancellor's, the Smokers, Lakeside, Copperheads and Bear Creek.  Certainly other teams may emerge as the season progresses, but on paper all of these teams should breeze through this week as well.  

I'm curious to see how some of the newer roster additions play out this week.  David Herr has been mentioned.  Sienna's 4.5 team added a 19 yr. old superchamp in Andre Costilla.  I'm sure we will see more talent being added to some of the heavyweights as the season progresses.  

Not much news

I was playing out at Memorial Park last night and it was definitely pretty dead out there compared to your typical Thursday night.  

There were only two matches last night which interested me.  The Deucebags were again at the center of things.  Coming into the week, it looked to be a cakewalk for Alain Tran's bunch, but veteran captain Ken Douds had some tricks up his sleeve and had four last minute roster additions to make his team formidable.  It was a nice move, perhaps designed to catch the Deucebags by surprise if they brought in a mediocre lineup.   Sugar Creek added Sean Straley, Nick Hiemstra, Jason Cooney and a player who is unknown to me:  David Herr.  

I only have third hand information on the match last night, but I understand that the Deucebags took the match 3-2.  Aadrian Hasker again had a tough matchup (and a toothache).  Last year he was stuck in an easy division and was untested during the regular season.  Simon Jim gave him a tough battle in the first set last night, but Hasker pulled it out and cruised in the second.  The Deucebags also took line 2 singles as Douds used Straley and Cooney in doubles, where they both won their matches.  

The Deucebags as a team have made great strides and are a close-knit group.  They have weekly team practices on Wednesday nights and recently had a team tournament at Seven Lakes high school.  Some emerging 4.0 stars like Rafah Ahmed also practice with the team as Tran looks to groom players for the future.  

I've not heard any news from the other "big" match of the week where the Sienna 4.0 team hosted JCC.  Sienna usually reports scores promptly...makes me wonder if there might have been an upset?  

At MPTC last night, the 4.0 Hurricanes cruised over the Acers and I believe the Breakers pulled out a 3-2 win in 4.0 over Double Trouble with recently married Allan Chiu manning the number one singles slot for the Breakers.