BOSSES OF THE BOASTERS

Boasters League final~~

 

Last week I mentioned that the “Butter Nutz” hammered “Foss Nation” during the season by an embarrassing 20 points. I was hoping their rematch for the Boasters League final would bring the teams closer together, ideally from my perspective that it would come down to the final game of the final match… just like the winning grand slam being smacked in the World Series Game 7, bottom of the ninth, 2 out, down by 3 runs…

Alas, we didn’t have such drama, but it was closer – a lot closer. Could “Foss Nation” pull off the upset? They were up against it from the get go when they had one player requiring a sub and another falling ill the day before the matches. In a night where every point is vitally important, picking up only 12 (of 15) bonus points hurt them. “Butter Nutz” also were one player short, but their other 14 players all turned up. In other words, “Butter Nutz” had a 2 point lead even before a ball needed to be hit.

It was an evening of 3-0 results. Cathy Lysack got the ball rolling for the “Butter Nutz” early as she continues her recent excellent form taking care of “Foss Nation” captain Sean Fossee 3-0. Cathy has definitely turned herself into a contender for the 3.5 Club Champ title coming up in April.

“Foss Nation’s” Brendan Fossee then evened the tally as his speed and retrieval abilities were a little too much for Marc Lakin beating him 3-0. The “Butter Nutz” then took charge. Both JC Tibbitts and Tom Bejin picked up all 3 games and when Julie Vande Vusse turned in her 3-0 result, “Foss Nation” was looking like they were on shaky ground. But there were still plenty of matches to come and the comeback had already started.

Andrew Walawender and Nick Cinqueranelli

Mike Rock was in charge the whole way as he collected a 3-0 win over “Butter Nutz’” Doug Troszak, James Van Dyke overcame the problematic styling of Jerry Rock to pick up a much needed 3 points as well and when Andrew Walawender pulled out a suprising-ish 3-0 against Nick Cinqeranelli,”Foss Nation” had crawled out of the hole they were just one hour before in, and found themselves only a handful of points back.

Only 4 of the matches ended up 2-1. Dane Fossee (“Foss Nation”) v Bob “Pinball” Rogers was one of them – as you’d really expect between these two. The art of making the 600+ square feet of the court look like 1200+ square feet, Bob bounces of the walls like a WWE wrestler off the ropes, springing back into the arena for more punishment. Dane is no stranger to scurrying around the court either (as I am more than happy to exploit during cruel ‘Challenge the Pro’ sessions eh, Dane?) and even though the league match is only 3 games, when they walked off the court at the end, it was as if they had just completed the Hawaiian Triathlon. For the record, Dane won 2-1.

Andy Petcoff and John 'I'm The' Mann

An entertaining affair between Andy Petcoff (“Butter Nutz”) and John Mann later in the evening encouraged the most crowd involvement. Many eyes were glued to the action as the result had big implications. John really needed to win (obviously a 3-0 score line was preferable here) to keep “Foss Nation’s” hopes alive. He won the first game, but went down in the second. Losing the third would have secured the result for “Butter Nutz”, so desperate situations calls for desperate measures. John clearly has no regard for his body (!) and his frantic, furious, Tasmanian Devil-like effort proved that. In one rally, John did a full body dive for the ball – twice – managed to keep it in play only to lose the point in the end… but the crowd loved it (as did Andy no doubt!) John, though, did win the match and with that 3^rd game, “Foss Nation” could survive for a while longer.

With 2 matches to play, 4 points separated the teams. Next on court was Brian Schrage (“Butter Nutz”) and Anthony Kalorgeridis. Brian was favorite to win this match; Anthony would have to play well – and he did. But not quite well enough. He managed to get one game, but losing 2 of them was all the “Butter Nutz” needed. Now with just the final match left, “Butter Nutz” held an unassailable 5 point cushion.

That match was still played the next day – Andy Adamo (“Butter Nutz”) took Scott Adlhoch 3-0. Final score was 38-30, a great competitive effort from both teams.

Congratulations to the 2013-2014 Boasters League winners -- “Butter Nutz”!!