Wednesday, June 25, 2008

4.5 Breakdown courtesy of Racer X

4.5 update

I missed a week. I had to go on strike. Cary wasn't paying enough. Glad we worked that out.

In the last two weeks, the 4.5 world went a little nuts. A couple of huge upsets and an even bigger shocker.....OC Boverman's team won a coman breaker.

On to team rankings: In 2 the last 2 weeks, this became a mess. I may have to just start drawing names out of a hat. Quick guess. Which team has the longest win streak after OC Branch. Surprise- Hackberry is tied for 2nd with 3 wins in a row.

They should get number 4 against the Lakes this week. They are what you call hot. Making that late push for the QT.

1) OC Branch (1) (7-0)
2) Village (4) (5-2)
3) OCF (3) (5-2)
4) tbar (5) (6-1)
5) Royal Oaks (2) 5-2
6) High Point (6) 5-2
7) Brookhaven (7) 5-2
8) Hackberry (9) 4-3
9) Greenhill (8) 4-3

WTF Match Number 1:
High Point over tbar 3-2- I really, really underestimated High Point this season. High Point was 1-7 in the Fall. Great turn around here. Maybe I shouldn't consider this one a shocker. HP has now beaten the 2 teams ahead of them in the 4.5B standings. This was a tight match with the #2 singles coming down to a coman. Yoshida is the hero here.

WTF match #2
Lakes over Royal Oaks 3-2 (and coulda been 4-1).If you are Royal Oaks, how do you lose this one. The Lakes was the last winless team and they go out and beat the previously number 2 ranked team. This is one of the biggest upsets in 4.5 in a while. Either the Lakes has been playing all year for next year or Royal Oaks isn't as deep as they might need to be.

This match featured a WTF inside of a WTF. Matt Duford (0-10) this year at 4.5 takes down Greg "the club pro" Zachary in a third set coman. This singles match reminds me of a conversation I had with the wife (only 7 years here- Cary's got me beat). I yell to the wife- "what is that smell. Are you cooking something." She answers, "Just cooking up some of that chicken you like." Hmmmm, after much thought I yell, "wow, something smells fishy. Is that you or the chicken." I discovered the couch was a bit lumpy to sleep on that night.

WTF #3
Hackberry over Greenhill 4-1. Never seen this before. All 5 lines went to 3rd set Coman's. This could have gone 5-0 either way. This is where you would really like to see OC Boverman on the other side of the net. This was a tough lose for Greenhill because they clinced the playoffs with a win. Now they have to hope to win more lines against a tougher opponent than Hackberry wins next week. Not quit the penthouse to the outhouse but close.

Match of the week.OC Branch over OC Feldman 3-2. These old rivals go after it. Another close one to pin on the wall. This one included 3 3rd set Coman's. Coulda gone a lot of different directions. Probably a preview of something that will be seen at Cities.

Next week. 4.5B is done. Tbar gets the bye to city. QT has High Point playing Brookhaven with the winner going against the Village. A bigger breakdown will follow in the days leading up to the QT.

4.5A.1 biggie. OC Branch v. Royal Oaks.

Had RO's won last week this woulda pitted the 1 v. 2 match up. OC Branch can't be caught so I anticipate they empty that deep bench and who knows what RO's will do. A good solid win might bump them up to the 2 seed (doubt that happens).

And a couple of results to watch. Hackberry and Greenhill are tied for the last spot in the QT. They go in tied in record and lines won/loss. The good news for GH is they go in with a 2 set advantage. The bad news for GH is they play a slightly tougher Springpark while Hackberry plays bottom dweller the Lakes. Prediction- Hackberry says hello to QT. Of course, by just predicting HB's win, I have just cursed HB. Sorry!

12 comments:

  1. Village all the way! I have to go with Brookhaven in the first match of the QT because Kirby has too many 4.0 players who will be playing for Somabut in the playoffs.

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  2. Just curious why would the Group A team plays again, always thought it would be better to have Group A #3 versus Group B #4, Group A# 4 vs. Group B #3 then winners go on to face the #2 seeds. Seems odd to have to replay same opponents. Would make for some interesting match-ups.
    Appears Branch will be #1, Feldman #2, Royal Oaks #3, provided they win one line against Branch, then #4 probably will be Hackberry as they have an easier opponent to win matches.

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  3. Corey,
    Is there a requirement to have played in 2 matches in the regular season in order to play in the City playoffs? Just curious as I see a team added a player late and he would only have 1 match prior to the qualies.

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  4. Yes, 2 matches are needed to qualify for playoffs. 1 of the 2 can be a default though.

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  5. That is correct. Thus my jubilation over not having to see Erik Uhlig again. I think that would have made the QT more fun and would guarantee that the best teams advance. Now there could conceivably be several teams in one flight better than the team advancing in the other flight. I wouldn't have minded playing the winner of Royal Oaks and Feldman, although I think that would have been a tougher match.

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  6. Racer X mentions his wife's musty scent on the blog.

    Is this something we should bring up if we meet Mrs. Racer X or not?

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  7. Well it got a little crazy and Hackberry squeeked into the last QT spot. I discounted a scenario that came within a coman of happening. That being Springpark making the playoffs. Greenhill's shocking loss and Hackberrys barely clearing the last place Lakes with a 3-2 score. Wow!

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  8. love seeing the score management done by Branch and Feldman this weekend. They did not lose a match in Feldman's case but going 3 sets with your top players against 4.0 players is a crock. Also Branch had some interesting 3 setters particularly in the Eckel/Mast match.
    Would love to have seen the Molina/Kiron match.
    To bad Royal Oaks did not get Flores in for a second match, seems like a waste of money to play one match.

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  9. I thought the same thing. Although that was far from the A lineup for Branch I think. I'm ready for the playoff schedule to come out.

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  10. Corey:

    Have a fun one for you. How does someone go 3-0 in 5.0 league winning all matches in straight sets get a 4.5 Computer rating, yet another player goes 0-2 losing in straights both matches retains a 5.0??? Love the USTA algorithm?

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  11. The computer doesn't know what league you are playing. It knows the ratings of your opponent and partner if you are playing doubles. You could win a match against a 4.2 player and get a lower rating score for that than losing to a 4.6 player. Depends on the set scores

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  12. schedule for QT is out

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