The clouds threatened all morning but we put our thumbs to our nose and threw all caution out the door! We have pickleball to play!
Week 4 saw three teams walk away with 4 points each, however, it was not all a cake walk as we had 9 out of 30 games go to OT, including an epic game decided by a score of 30-28. Who needs the pro MLP league!
Ball Crushers v Dinkin’ Donuts: The Donuts dunked another team today, downing the Ball Crushers 8-1 in games played. The Crushers squad of Lucy Gambescia, Brenda Glenn, Kevin Faust, and Rob Schultz played tightly in their Women’s and Men’s doubles, but went down in straight sets to the the Donuts Vickie Ostrander, Marcie Sullivan, Scott Shore, and Keith Buchman (23-21 and 21-12 for the Women’s, 21-19 and 21-17 for the Men’s). Lucy and Rob gave pause to Marcie and Scott with a tight 21-23 loss but couldn’t keep pace in the second game, 14-21. In the other Mixed doubles, Tony Chiravolo (subbing for Keith) and Vickie gave Brenda and Kevin a glimmer of hope when they dropped the first game 10-21 but that dashed what remaining hope the Crushers had but taking the next two games, 21-18 and 21-11.
Stragglers v Slice is Right: The Stragglers Diane Tortorice, Kim Hedden, Ron Rivas, and Jason Powell made a valiant showing against the Slices Marla Kilfoyle, JoJo Koscheski, Brian Owens, and Oliver Sun. Team Air Force (Marla and JoJo) felt a need for speed and scorched the Stragglers Diane and Kim, 21-13 and 21-14, but that was the only ‘easy’ set as each of the doubles needed all 3 games to be played. Every game of the Men’s Doubles could have gone either way but luck favored the Slice is Right (Brian and Oliver) over the Stragglers (Ron and Jason), 21-19, 18-21 and 23-21. That set the tone for Mixed 1 Doubles with Marla and Brian getting by Diane and Ron, 21-23, 21-19 and 21-16 and Mixed 2 Doubles JoJo and Oliver defeating Kim and Jason, 16-21, 21-15 and 21-17.
Oz Squad v Dirty Deeds: In the featured matchup of the day, there were 5 OT games, including the aforementioned 30-28 barn burner, completed in the opening Women’s doubles with Vicki Babbe and Linda Piatt outlasting Suzanne Buchman and Jackie Bain. Vicki and Linda then routed Suzanne and Jackie, 21-11, to take game 2. Over on the Men’s doubles, the Squads Bob Moeykens and Steve Oursler also had to complete a monster OT against Dirty Scott Hudnall and Dave Berg. In the opening game, Scott and Dave got a 22-20 OT win and Bob and Steve came back to win game 2, 21-15. Neither team gave ground on the final game and it went to 27-25 with the Squad taking the W. In Mixed 1 Doubles, Steve and Linda had a safe 21-11 win in game 1 over Kevin Gardner (subbing for Scott) and Suzanne. Game 2 saw Kevin and Suzanne catch their second wind but it was too little too late as Steve and Linda pulled off the 4th OT win, 23-21. Rhonda Lakip-Ochoa (subbing for Jackie) and Dave put up a good fight to the end but Vicki and Bob outlasted them in a tight 3 game set, 18-21, 21-19 and 22-20.
Great job, everyone! Another solid performance by the Donuts leaves them alone on top of the leader board, with the Oz Squad making a leap over Dirty Deeds for second. Dirty Deeds hangs on to third with a strong showing by Slice is Right at fourth. Ball Crushers and Stragglers trail at fifth and sixth and need to string together some wins to stay in the hunt as we mover to our mid-summer break next week.
Here is the link to this week’s photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD1yq4
Here is the link to the YT playlist, including the livestream replay from court 6 and GoPro footage from court 3 and court 9: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLco9deoTqNsU
Once again, gremlins are following me around as the camera on court 3 konked out midway through the Mixed 1 Doubles, game 1.
Livestream (court 6) Stragglers v Slice is Right
- Men’s G1 (0:38:00) Oliver Sun and Brian Owens v Ron Rivas and Jason Powell
- Men’s G2 (0:55:33) Ron Rivas and Jason Powell v Oliver Sun and Brian Owens
- Men’s G3 (1:12:37) Ron Rivas and Jason Powell v Oliver Sun and Brian Owens
- Mixed 1 G1 (1:36:38) Diane Tortorice and Ron Rivas v Marla Kilfoyle and Brian Owens
- Mixed 1 G2 (1:55:41) Marla Kilfoyle and Brian Owens v Diane Tortorice and Ron Rivas
- Mixed 1 G3 (2:13:14) Diane Tortorice and Ron Rivas v Marla Kilfoyle and Brian Owens
GoPro (court 3) Ball Crushers v Dinkin’ Donuts
- Men’s G1 (0:00:00) Rob Schultz and Kevin Faust v Keith Buchman and Scott Shore
- Men’s G2 (0:19:37) Keith Buchman and Scott Shore v Rob Schultz and Kevin Faust
- Mixed 1 G1 (0:40:32) Rob Schultz and Lucy Gambescia v Marcie Sullivan and Scott Shore (aaagh! Camera quit at 8-12, Rob serving and returned by Marcie.Too bad. It was a good game that went into OT, with Marcie and Scott winning 23-21).
GoPro (court 9) Oz Squad v Dirty Deeds
- Men’s G1 (0:00:00) Scott Hudnall and Dave Berg v Bob Moeykens and Steve Oursler
- Men’s G2 (0:15:03) Bob Moeykens and Steve Oursler v Scott Hudnall and Dave Berg
- Men’s G3 (0:29:42) Scott Hudnall and Dave Berg v Bob Moeykens and Steve Oursler
- Mixed 1 G1 (0:50:16) Suzanne Buchman and Kevin Gardner v Linda Piatt and Steve Oursler
- Mixed 1 G2 (1:01:45) Linda Piatt and Steve Oursler v Suzanne Buchman and Kevin Gardner