Tri-level Preview - Mission Impossible 1 - Not Everyone Get's Out Alive

I'm still trying to figure out Sisk's lineups.

Evidently someone told Sisk/Kanchi that all tri-level matches for the weekend would be played simultaneously because they have signed up 500 guys on the roster.  Don’t know if it’s good news or bad news guys, but they actually play the matches one at a time.  With only five teams total I’d expect they will play a round robin format, so each team will get four matches.  And wouldn’t you know it, that still isn’t enough matches to get the NINE 4.5s all qualified for any post-Dallas play.  Mission Impossible indeed.


Not sure about you, but I noticed someone posted that Red Benzon moved to San Antonio last weekend.  At least he moved on tennislink.  He’s also playing on a Dallas team and a San Antonio team for tri-level.  Since I don’t captain I’m not as up on all the rules as some of you but help me out.  Does Dallas still have a rule where you can’t play tri-level in Dallas and another city?  Because Kanchi is playing in Dallas and San Antonio too.  Inquiring minds want to know.  But let’s move on.


20) Team Sisk/Kanchi wins this on sheer bulk.  I’m like the college professor who takes all the papers to the top of the stair well and tosses them.  The heaviest papers hit the bottom first and get the A.   This team is definitely the heaviest.  Twenty guys, wow, I still can’t wrap my head around that.   The ultimate in participation awards.  Let’s at least hope the tri-level T-shirts are nice this year because that’s about all some of these guys are going to take away from this.  That being said, I still think they win.  And hey, maybe they know something the rest of us don’t.  As you can see below, picking the order of finish by the size of the team isn’t the worst way to go this year. 


(15) Team Kingsley is always a contender and accounted itself pretty well last year.  Let’s not get into the whole lineup snafu again.  Too painful.  More interesting this year is how a guy who has done this several years seems to have forgotten that high tri doesn’t allow self rates.  Again, maybe I’m not up on the rules but its looks to me like both Hunter Foster and Chris Hill are self rates.  That still leaves him with four other 4.5s but I don’t follow what’s going on here.  This team has all it needs to finish second and watch for the wildcard again. 


(12) Next is Team Jeung with a very sensible twelve guys.  Everyone can play twice if they want.  Somabut can sign up and not play if he wants.  It’s not so many people that Bearden can’t handle the team beer needs.  And to keep it interesting they brought a 3.0 along.  They seem to have all their bases covered.  This team wins the boy scout award for preparedness.  If I was going to join a tri-level team (yeah, yeah, I have to be asked first) I’d join this one.  It looks like the most fun.


(10) Team Mayer rolls in with ten guys.  Again, fairly sensible but they don’t come close to the strategic preparedness of Team Jeung.  More importantly, this is a Fort Worth captain with several FW guys.  Evidently they decided FW was too difficult this year and came to Dallas to steal one of our sectionals invites.  That’s horrible; who would ever do that?  Oh wait, this just in.  Evidently Mayer and Shawn Arcaria got their RSVPs switched and Mayer went to the Dallas party while Arcaria RSVP’d for the FW party.  So confusing, happens all the time.


(8) Coming in lean and mean is Team Myers with eight total guys.  Won’t they be intimidated when the team busses pull up and Sisk/Kanchi unload an army.  At least you won’t have to wonder a lot about what their lineup is going to look like.  I’d guess Dendy and LaMoy play a lot.


So, your mission, should you choose to accept it: 1) Can self rates play in high tri-level now, 2) can you play in Dallas tri-level and still play in another city’s tri-level event, and 3) where does Red Benzon live?


And, as always, this message will self destruct in five seconds.  Well, at least the Sisk/Kanchi team may self destruct at sectionals when people start getting really pissed about playing time.  From some of the stories I heard from last year’s sectionals win you’d have thought Team Sisk lost.  Those guys won the national title, only had twelve players on the team, and there were still at least four guys not named Rigney that were pissed they didn’t play more.  You won nationals.  Don’t you think the captain might have played the right people?


With any luck they will make nationals again and have to cut this team in half.  With some of the egos on that team it would be fun to watch.  As always, good luck to all. 


Final thought: I really miss there not being an Alzuro team this year.  It’s a shameless plug, but I thought the tri-level blog post that featured his team prominently was one of my highlights.  Every great artist needs an inspiration.