Cross Border Challenge~~April 20
Well, well, well. It is becoming almost an expectation. We are going to find ourselves in unfamiliar territory when the next Cross Border comes around as we’ll probably go into it as favorites. Once you acquire the sweet taste of victory, momentum carries, confidence rises and opponents start reeling. And, for a refreshing change, you begin to win close matches.
I’m going to start with the doubles matches. Usually, if we can salvage just one victory on the doubles court it would be a success, but history was made this day and let it be documented that on, Saturday, April 20, the DAC did in fact win all three doubles matches, a feat never before executed, a result the Windsor team will be picking up the pieces from for months to come.
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| Bob Burton, John Dunwoody, Herb Funkenhauser, Dave Hornby |
Starting the ball rolling, Paul Flanagan and Andrew Spohn got the jump on their lesser experienced opponents Rich Routley and James Konrad with a quick first game spanking. The Windsor pair fought back nicely in the second to square it up, but the pressure was too much as team DAC were too steady in the 3rd and 4th to take the 3-1 win. Next up were Mike Counsman and George Kordas taking on the father and son team Tom and Brian Porter. Brian was forced to use his singles racquet for the match since his doubles stick had broken strings, and maybe that was the cause of some unforced errors. But no excuse. Mike and George meshed fairly well together and the 3-1 win was a solid result. The third match was a very one-sided 5-set affair. John Dunwoody and Bob Burton were either unbeatable, or complete mush. The same could be said for their opponents Dave Hornby and Herb Funkenhauser. With score lines of 15-2’s, 15-4’s, swapping games, the DAC team won in 5. We’ll take the win of course, no matter how peculiar the match turns out!
Of the 13 singles matches played, only 4 of them were 3-0. Naturally I want to win, but it is more important to me that we have an even, competitive event. I want players coming off the court – win or lose – satisfied that they had a great match and the result could have gone the other way. Many new faces on both teams made the match-ups a little tricky, but kudos to Windsor pro Graeme Williams who was on top of things and made everything smooth sailing.
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| Kevin Prather, Grace Kim, Margi Scholtes, Marge Holman |
A lot of young DAC members stepped up to the plate. First timers Ethan Steiner, Margi Scholtes, Tom MacEachern all performed commendably. Tom blitzed through his match 3-0, Ethan scored a 3-1 win over a tricky veteran, and Margi lost 3-1 to the clever Marge Holman, who once again proved that reading the play well nullifies speed and fitness effectively!
Come back of the day goes to Josh Slominski who found himself in a deep 0-2 hole against James Konrad but managed to keep his head in tact (and his racquet!) to regain control of the match. Given, James had already played the doubles match, but as I always say, “if you’re on the court you’re fair game”, and Josh wore James down to claim the 5-set victory.
Justin Jacobs went toe-to-toe went Dan Petoran as the players exchanged games all the way to the fifth game. Fitness helped push Justin to the finishing line and he took the tough 3-2 win. Dave Devine started off his match struggling to get anything going and went down rather quickly in game one. But it is amazing what a little better length can do for your game. Dave started to hit the back corners with more regularity and the match turned immediately. He swept the next 3 games for a well played 3-1 triumph.
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| Jody Brown and Derek Aguirre |
The final match of the day featured Derek Aguirre and Jody Brown. The contest was a little bit scrappy – but certainly entertaining. Jody runs his backside off and on occasion launches himself horizontally when desperate. It can be difficult to find a comfortable rhythm when your opponent is throwing his body around and Derek grappled to find consistent tightness and was more prone to unforced errors. When somebody is continuously retrieving your “winning” shots, the tendency is to try to hit the ball even closer to the tin. With usually bad outcomes. Jody ended up a 3-2 victor.
As you can see from the scores, the contests were tough. The DAC retains the trophy 10 matches to 6. Three in a row is more a trend, is it not? We can now walk around with our heads up high, boast a little, certainly give our Windsor friends some much deserved lip, and see if they can reach the height of the bar we have clearly raised it to! The next Cross Border is scheduled for September in Windsor.
