EK can’t get past Great Valley

The weather at 8am Saturday was beautiful – the beginnings of an 80 degree day.  The playoff picture was seemingly “in the air” as we warmed up.  There were several spectators including Mitch Reading , Joe (a.k.a. Joey Zaza) Sassa, Brandon Dinh, Rob Attman, Bobby Fagen, Joe Virgulti, Ron’s daughter and Mrs. Hap, as well as a few others.

Great Valley defeated Easy Killer 3-2 on this peaceful Saturday morning (May 23^rd) at Great Valley High School.  Four of the five matches were straight sets and one was split sets.  We didn’t have our absolute best (shocker!) but we had a respectable lineup to face the toughest team in our flight…  I will take it a step further – the toughest team in our District.  I play a little in the Central and in the Delaware districts and there is much parity.  I can’t conceive of comparing teams section wide as there are too many variables to make much of a valid conclusion.  My conclusion for this match however is: very tough singles and too much Greg Heck.

At #1 singles, Canh Ho defeated Michael J. Schmidt.  I’ll let you guess at the “J” for his middle name.  Canh won 4&4 in this battle of heavyweights (thought you’d like that Canh).  Both Canh and Michael are extremely capable of winning at 4.0 Men’s Nationals and we are fortunate to have Canh on our side as there is no better teammate and tennis player than Canh.  Canh is instrumental in making things happen and he is undoubtedly going to be a great Dad in the next few months.  Any wagers on when the baby gets its very own tennis racket?

At #2 singles, Tom McAvoy lost in split sets to Brett Siegfried.  Brett is kind of our very own EK killer like the Atlanta Braves’ Brian McCann, notorious Phillies’ killer.  Brett is top notch (top notch!) He defeated a very capable Tom McAvoy this time, he topped current 4.5 Jesse Brown last year and in 2002 he beat Jeff Tang (current 5.0).  And, now that I’m thinking about it, our non-District advancing team from last had 4 players get bumped to 4.5 – Bill Carpenter, Chris Kyper, Jesse Brown and Bob Cohen.  How many guys did District advancing GV lose?  Zero, but I digress.

At #1 dubs, Ron Rubenstein and yours truly lost to Richard Trach and Greg Heck.  Speaking boldly, I thought I played OK and served well.  I also thought the score could have been a little closer.  Then again we lost in straight sets.  Greg Heck is the best player in the Philadelphia districts with a 4.0 rating.  The really frustrating thing about this is that Greg is great guy too.   Rich is a solid player who has done an amazing job converting from singles to doubles.  Greg, Rich – hmm, I have no shot to take – great playing gentlemen.

At #2 doubles, our CPD team of Jeff Garby and Mel Navea lost to Holger Mackenthun and Tom Mead.  Jeff and Mel play a similar style to Tom and the matchup was not a good one for us.  This was a court we needed to win if we are going to get passed GV.  Tom Mead has been a nice pickup for GV and added strength at doubles could be just the ticket for them to advance past districts.  Holger and Tom have  excellent chemistry and they have already become a formidable team.

At #3 doubles, long time Blokhead Eric Markowitz teamed with Hap Phouthavongsa for a straight set victory.  Hap is our Delaware connection and we are happy to have him.  Nice straight set win guys despite the 2-5 start to the first set!

So what does the rest of the season have for us?  Good question.  We play Kinetix this weekend.  Then we have a double header with the Drunken Fools during the weekend of 6/6.  We play the West Chester Aces and then Healthplex before we finish up with a season ending match vs. GV 6/23.   We have 2 losses and GV has none.  We do not control our own destiny.  The question is can we hold our heads high and start winning the close matches.  If so, we can at least improve from where we are today.  Steady improvement over time is what it’s all about.

It’s been an interesting year in the 4.0 PATD.  A quick glance at the other 3 flights makes me think that this is a good year to make Districts.  The “Blue” flight is the only flight that looks right to me.  Despite a nice record by the Borg, the Bucks Broncs seem to have things firmly in control and will advance to Districts.  They are there every year and they made Sectionals once recently.  This is the level of consistency we strive for ourselves.   In the “Green” flight, perennial District representative Logan finds themselves behind Logan 2 after a 0-5 loss to them on opening day 4/25.  Logan lost some needed singles help (Ben Isser, Omar Benitez & Judd Davis).  Personally, I think the week one upset is a case of Logan not getting their players out but FCTC-Green beat Logan and Logan 2 so this flight is up in the air.  I predict that FCTC will advance but that prediction is worth exactly what you paid for it.  In the “Yellow” flight there is a 4 way log jam with each team tied with a 4-1 record.  The Reservoir Dogs have traditionally been the team to beat.  They have stronger doubles than singles.  The Pirates are the opposite and have better singles than doubles.  The Bad Boys have a great record but their 0-5 loss to the R Dogs is not indicative of a flight winner.   Lakeside has some nice players and they are my sleeper pick for this flight but I can’t discount the vast experience of the Reservoir Dogs.

In conclusion, congrats to Great Valley.  To our team – if this setback doesn’t motivate us – nothing will.   I am enjoying the French Open and isn’t Tennis Channel wonderful?!?!  Coverage starts at 5am and between ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel; it’s non-stop entertainment.   A few trivia tidbits, Roland Garros was a French WW1 pilot and the main stadium is named after him.  The French Open and Roland Garros are synonyms.   In 1912, the French tournament was held with a different surface (at the time all tennis played was lawn tennis), a red clay (“terre battue”), made up from the crushed wastes of red brick overtop of crushed limestone overtop of iron ore overtop of gravel.  Water and rolling keep the clay from becoming dust and also keep it flat.  The person with the most French Open wins?  Chris Evert with seven.