“Mongoose” versus “The Underdogs”~~No one can blame ‘bonus points’ for this result. This was decided on the court with all 12 matches being completed. In fact, with a combined total of 24 bonus points available, the two teams collected 21 which virtually cancelled each other out.
It seemed that team “Mongoose” basically handled the pressure better overall than “The Underdogs”. I say this because at least 3 members of “The Underdogs” came to me after their match frustrated, not because they didn’t play well, but because they lost at least two games in their respective matches 15-14. They were a couple of 15-13 score lines thrown in as well, but the theme of the evening was like watching LeBron James and Miami Heat highlights of missing buzzer beater after buzzer beater. In the end, five “Mongoose” players won 3-0, and probably 2 or 3 of those results could have been reversed if the cookie crumbled the other way. But it didn’t, and that’s a 15 point spread to overcome. Of the other 7 matches, “The Underdogs” only won 3 of them anyway and went down fighting all the way 34-23. One of the toughest contests was John Conway’s 2-1 win over Joe Moran. These two fine gentlemen went hammer and tongs for the 3 games, covering court like they were 15 years old. Joe walked off the court looking like he had just been in a wet t-shirt contest.
“The Beamers” versus “Winky-Dinks”~~
A much closer contest between these two teams had us waiting for the final result all the way down to the last couple of matches. As the scores came in, they traded wins back and forth. A 2-1 win for “The Beamers” was quickly countered with a 2-1 win for the “Winky-Dinks”. By the time Thursday morning was here, we had 8 matches completed and each team had won exactly the same amount of games. The difference? You guessed it – bonus points. One to be precise. The “Winky-Dinks” picked up one more bonus point than “The Beamers” (8 to 7). Would this be the deciding factor? It certainly looked as if it would be when the next two results were recorded: a 2-1 win for each team. But when the third result came in – a 3-0 “Winky-Dinks” victory – it was all over. With one match left to play they had an unassailable 4 point lead making the last match irrelevant. Final score: 26-22.
And on to the semi finals we go. The “Winky-Dinks” have earned themselves a showdown with “Threepeat” and I know captain Justin Winkelman would love to knock off the reigning 2 time champions. Emotions should be high. “Mongoose” tackle the “Speed Ballers” where they lost in round 6 to them and will be looking at turning that around.
