Monday, June 30, 2008

4.5 Playoff matchups

So this seems like a good time for the 4.5 teams to have their time until Wednesday when the pairings come out for 3.5 and 4.0. 4.5 is set for the QT weekend on July 11-13.

Here are the matchups. Racer X and AR Hacker we would appreciate your thoughts and you too Corey even though you might be a bit biased on one side of the bracket.

Flight A
Pretty sure since OC/Branch won the flight there will now just be a four team round robin at the DCC which will include TBar M and the winners of the flight QT weekend.

Hackberry (5-3) v. Royal Oaks (5-3)
On paper Royal Oaks should win easy but they have shown they are the a mysterious team in getting out their best lineup and playing their best tennis. The first meeting went 4-1 for Royal Oaks but they have lost their last two matches of the season and Hackberry has not lost since they played Royal Oaks. Could be a good one.

Winner of above match plays OC/Feldman.

If Royal Oaks wins they have a shot to take out the OC team since they had a pretty close match the first time around. I would like to watch this match I think it would be very exciting.

If Hackberry scores the upset win over Royal Oaks I expect and easy win for OC. If they somehow muster enough for the win on Saturday I don’t see a carryover into Sunday.

Flight B

High Point (5-2) v. Brookhaven (5-2)
I know the result was BH 5-0 the first time around but it was close. It will hurt that four solid players will be playing on the 4.0 team and Uhlig didn't qualify but Gilson and Yoshida could do some damage at singles and the Phams are tough. I like HP in a close one.

Winner plays Village/Noel
Not sure if I think the winner of the first match which will be dog fight can bring enough heat the following day to challenge the Village. I think if HP or BH wins easy they will cause Corey's team some problems. I know fitness won't be an issue but even though this format is shorter I think knowing you are in an elimination match can take something out of you so I like Corey's team to make it out of the QT.

24 comments:

  1. DTA RESPONDS TO BLOGGERS CONCERNS
    1)Yes, we use a secretive, closed door process to arbitrarliy place teams into flights. We know an open, random draw would be more fair for everyone. But tough crap!
    2)We know most players want to play 9 or 10 matches not 6 or 7. But our plan is to go to 5 matches next year and 3 the year after. Long term our goal is to not schedule any matches but to still take your money.
    3)We know the 4.0 guys want a round robin playoff. We changed that this year for no good reason. If you do not like it, write your congressman.
    4) Of course it is crazy for the fall winner to have no incentive whatsoever to win any matches or lines. But we have done it this way a long time and we have a strict rule against making any positive change.

    Finally we do NOT feel any responsibility to communicate with our players. So this will be our last correspondence.

    If you have any other issues or concerns, please feel free to call us at 1-800-e-a-t-s-h-i-t

    - Dallas League Committee

    ReplyDelete
  2. COREY "NANCY" NOEL
    Do you ever wonder why Corey "Nancy" Noel always has his nose up the asses of the Garland 3.5 players? He has several "boy friends" on that team!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The topic is 4.5 playoffs and it gets two(now 3) responses having absoutely nothing to do with the original thread. This is the kind of crap that needs to be deleted.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Do TWO Dallas 4.5 teams make Sectionals or only one???

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anybody think that OC/Branch can be upset this year?

    ReplyDelete
  6. No!! OC Branch beat OC Feldman without some of their top players. Morrison and Peters did get beat but that doesn't happen much.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Our team is unbeatable, we're truly beyond belief! Can't touch this.

    Rusty

    ReplyDelete
  8. yep have any of the levels heard about wild cards to sectionals. I know this isn't always a guarantee but as many teams as we put forth here in Dallas I would think we earned those extra spots.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yeah, the Garland guys are my boyfriends. It sounds like you are jealous.

    Back to intelligent conversation, I expect Royal Oaks to dominate Hackberry in the first match and I expect a very tight match on Sunday.
    In our flight, unfortunately I think Brookhaven will beat High Point pretty easily and then we will have a close match on Sunday. We were lucky to beat Brookhaven 4-1 last season.

    Cary, Brian Modic has not yet found out about wild cards for sectionals. He actually told me there is even a chance that three teams from Dallas could go to Sectionals. But he expects at least two teams to go at every level.

    ReplyDelete
  10. sounds like 4.5 Sectionals could be interesting with Teams from NOHO and the Valley making a return. The Qualifier is being held the 11-13 in Abilene w/ Lubbock, Abilene, Midland, NETX I believe.
    Houston will be strong, SA looks very good, CC always surprises plus they have a major ringer that I hope gets popped before Sectionals (if the captains are smart). FTW will be good and of course Austin Wild just rebuilt and will be strong again.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It sure would be nice to know BEFORE the City Championship exactly how many 4.5 teams from Dallas will make Sectionals. I guess those decisions will be made by someone in Austin.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Dallas and Houston both got in 2 4.0 and 2 4.5 teams into sectionals.

    ReplyDelete
  13. AR,

    are you talking about A. Maingot from CC, he does have three strong results and those open tourney wins. He does lose in the super champ tourneys against kids his age, what is he like 19 barely to get into the league?

    ReplyDelete
  14. my probelm with Maingot is that he has signed a LOI with TAMU-CC, which is a perennial Top 75 D-1 school, which would require an auto 5.5 if USTA follows their guidelines. He also has cruised in his league 4.5 matches and his tournament record reflects easy wins over 4.5 players as well.
    All told it should make for any easy grievance to be upheld if a Captain chooses. Personally though I think it should be filed now and not at Sectionals.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The Houston blog is saying the draws for sectionals are out. Anybody want to post them?

    ReplyDelete
  16. I looked for them but was not able to find anything on the TTA site who would be the organizers.
    Modic should have the list of Districts and number of teams, Sounds like 16 teams this year for the 4.5s with Houston and Dallas getting 2 teams.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I know if you go on the USTA tennis link site and search thru the championship area you can get to the teams that are already qualified. It is not completely up to date and not all the flights are assigned by any means. I doubt there could be a schedule yet but who knows. I know when we were at the DCC last year the sectional schedule was out about a week before that weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  18. probably expect it out around the time DCC, also of note the ESR's will be put out on July 15th!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I know we will find out how many teams will go to Sectionals before the playoffs, which is all that matters. It might change the strategy for a lot of teams to know.

    ReplyDelete
  20. 4.5A
    First match- Royal Oaks v. Hackberry (?!?!) First of all, really. Hackberry made this thing. I would lost money on this at the start of the season. Woulda gone with Greenhill (woulda looked really good after they beat OC Feldman too) or even Springpark (they played OC Branch to a 3-2). How did Hackberry get here. Guess it helps to have that 4 match win streak. Second longest win streak in 4.5. Too bad it ends here. Prediction: Royal Oaks brings out just enough club pros to beat Hackberry. I'm going 5-0 even.

    4.5A QT finals: OC Feldman v. Royal Oaks- This match will probably end up being the match to decide who will ultimately get the Dallas wild card entry in to sectionals. A close 3-2 victory in the early part of the season for OC Feldman but RO played without Molina and a couple of others. Can RO's get out all their pros? Even with that, I still go with a close 3-2 victory for OC Feldman. They have the experience and enough really good people to win.

    4.5B
    First Match- High Point v. Brookhaven. After winning just one match in the fall, who woulda guessed High Point would be in this position. They actually took out the 1st place Tbar and the 2nd place Village this season. They had a goofy lose to Collin Co. too. Which team shows up? I hear they relied on 4.0s to help getting them this far and those players will not be available. Doesn't matter. Bring all the 4.0s and 4.5s off that team and Brookhaven will win this one. Going with 4-1 on this match for Brookhaven. Brookhaven is an experienced team with just enough players to make a good go of it for another appearance at the DCC.

    4.5B QT Finals
    Village v. Brookhaven- gotta give a huge shout out to the Village People (I hear they've been working out at the YMCA to get ready for these playoffs. Corey- which character from the group are you this week? The cowboy or the cop? If you dress as the cowboy, please leave the assless chaps at home. Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself. I just knew I could work assless chaps into this blog. Anyway, enough about the Village People. Lets get back to the tennis. Village v. Brookhaven. This is interesting. Maybe a coin flip. Village opened the can of ass woop the first go around. If they play the same way, I see it happening again. Might be an easy 3-2.

    Both finals will be great tennis. With a couple of pretty good teams getting left out of the DCC. What I'd really like to see is if they changed the format. Switch it up so the winner of the 3 v. 4 match plays the #2 seed from the opposite bracket. I'd love to see RO's play Village and Brookhaven play OCF play Brookhaven.

    Good luck to all.

    ReplyDelete
  21. It's great that we can play our match at Northwood. We practice there every week so I feel like we have home-court advantage. That's a big surprise because I expected us to play at Brookhaven vs. Brookhaven.

    One question though: I thought they only had 8 outdoor courts? I know they were redoing a couple but I didn't think they were done. If they are putting two matches indoors those are the fastest courts I've played on in my life.

    ReplyDelete
  22. How many gay references to me will there be in this section? Just kidding racer X. I agree that they should have switched it up and let us play teams from the other flight. That would even out the differences between the flights where the two best teams would go no matter what. I know we are going to have a tough match but I look forward to it.

    Like all season, it will be interesting to see who shows up for Royal Oaks. It's hard for me to see pros giving up weekend lessons two weeks in a row for the playoffs, although I'm doing it.

    ReplyDelete
  23. corey,

    definitely two dallas teams going to sectionals at 4.5 from looking at the tenative pools.

    There are three flights and they all look tough. Although one Dallas team will have the qualifying tourney team in their flight but also have FW and one of the Houston reps. The other Dallas group has Waco, Houston and CC.

    ReplyDelete
  24. wow sounds like the 3rd group could be the group of death with Austin, SA, Valley, and NOHO
    That will not be easy. The team who gets in with the Lubbock/NETX/Abilene winner, FW, and Houston (wild) would be better but still no cakewalk as always.

    ReplyDelete