Hey Tennis Friends!
As I previously reported, the tri-level team that I was on this past summer, made it to sectionals. It’s called tri-level because of the three different levels at which you need to field a team. Our team competed at the 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 levels.
The 2009 Southern California Tri-Level Sectional Championships format is a round robin format. The match scoring is the best of three sets, with a super-tiebreak (first to 10 points by 2) for each tiebreak, and in lieu of a third set.
Because of the seriousness of these games, I was reluctant to bring my MacBook on court to record the actual gameplay. Within our league area, most people are aware of my site, and do not have a problem with the laptop being hidden away in a corner of the court. At this level, I certainly didn’t want this to become any kind of distraction to any of the players who weren’t familiar.
The match that Gus and I played was a second round match in the round robin format. Since our other team member’s matches had already split (1 win, 1 loss), ours was the pivotal match for the round. As a result, for our tiebreaker (in lieu of a third set), we had most of the team members from each team cheering us, or our opponents on.
It was definitely a high pressure situation, but kind of exciting at the same time. It may have been a small crowd, but they were certainly vocal!
Fortunately we were able to hold it together as the opponents were coming back from our 7-2 lead. Match point ended up being on my racket, from the ad court, at 9-8. I let my partner know (communication!) that I was going to mix it up a little and serve down the middle. I put so much energy into it, that the serve was just long and about a foot wide of the “T”.
My second serve was a straight shot deep in the middle of the box, and the opponent couldn’t get his strings on it, as it careened off his frame and WAY out of bounds, giving us the win!
Unfortunately, our team didn’t make it into the final rounds, but it was a great experience anyway. I won’t soon forget the camaraderie of our team members, and the friendliness of the competitive game.
I’ll see you next time, with more tennis, . . . outside the lines!
– Marcus Tennis
