The 2011 Spring Finals are Set

The tournament has served its purpose of finding the top two competitors ready for a showdown this Thursday.  The tournament has given us two faces to be immortalized on the finals poster, one of whom will hold the coveted Crystal Trophy high over his head and will be named the champion.  We began with 21 and are now down to 2.

This is the story of how we got here.

Well, the story of how we got from 7 down to 2 anyway.  We began the evening with the final three matches before the semifinals.  The number 1 seed, Christopher Zack, already made it into the semifinals with his dramatic 3-1 victory over former champ Jimmy Kang last time.

The 8th seed, Paul “no flash” Macres led off the night against the scrappy 14th seed Ben Lash “LaRue.”

In what was LaRue’s first actual match of this tournament (he got a freebie against Sean Case), he came out swinging against the light-sensitive Macres.  Perhaps it was due to a certain sportswriter’s image-capturing equipment, but the 8th seed dropped the first set decisively.  After settling down, Macres turned it around and stormed back to take the next three sets and the match.

In the second quarterfinal match of the night, 6th seed Greg “Kobe” Cardi stood against the 19th seed John “Cinderella Story” Winstead.

The crowd gathered in hushed anticipation to once again see the man who knocked off the two-time runner-up, the 4th seed Radu Paponiu just a couple weeks ago.  Would Cardi also fall on Winstead’s climb through the competition?  Would this be the second-largest upset in CTTA history, a 19th seed over a 6?  Not if Cardi would have anything to say about it.  Winstead’s backspin-heavy shots that were Paponiu’s downfall were nothing more than cannon fodder for Cardi’s slams as he rolled to an easy 11-3 first set win.  The next two sets were more of the same as Cardi was clean, calm, and on his game.  Cardi advanced to his second-straight semifinal appearance.

The final quarterfinal match of the tournament was the night’s previous winner, the 8th seed Paul Macres versus the 2 seed, Jeremy “Steamroller” Berry.

This was a civil war at its best.  Friend against friend.  Roommate against roommate.  String player against another string player who plays on considerably bigger strings.  Macres, with his last win’s momentum, tried to put Berry against the ropes early, but cracking the one-time Grand Champion’s defense proved much too difficult.  There were several great, exciting rallies spread out in there, but on the whole, Berry stomped through to the semis 3-0.

The first semifinal match of the tournament had the champ, 1st seed Christopher Zack, take on the aggressive 3rd seed Nigel Armstrong.

Looking at the numbers, you’d probably think that this was an even match.  With no disrespect to Armstrong, who this sportswriter has loved to write about and is sad to see leaving the CTTA after this season, Zack was the clear favorite entering this match.  With an almost robotic perfection in his game, Zack streaked out to a 2-0 set lead.  Armstrong, with his back against the wall, came out in the third with his trademark terrier style.

On several points he stretched the champ to the limit and landed slam winners to the cheers of the crowd.  The champ wouldn’t be denied, however, as he held off Armstrong’s attacks.  Zack calmly gave up the points and won the points he had to to grind out the third set and match victory.  With that, the champ goes to the finals for the second straight tournament.

Our second semifinal match pitted 2nd seed Jeremy Berry against 6th seed Greg Cardi.

Cardi, one of the newest young guns on the CTTA, looked to gain that second spot in the finals over the former champ.  Surprisingly, Cardi’s game is very similar to Berry’s.  They both have clean, smooth swings and rely on top-spin heavy shots and slams.  To beat Berry at his own game, he would simply have to be able to overpower Berry.

Looking at Berry’s play history, his only two match losses (yes, TWO losses) came from Yun Tang in the fall 2008 finals and in the last finals to current champ Christopher Zack.  Both Tang and Zack are very adept at putting heavy amounts of spin on the ball to force plenty of errors before crushing the ball with a deadly slam.  No one yet has been able to beat Berry with nothing but quick slams, so Cardi would have to bring something else to the table.  Cardi’s X-factor, however, is the feverish pace he’s able to put on the play.  If he could come out and rush Berry into making early mistakes, he might be able to gain control of the match.  As we got underway, however, Berry did what we’ve seen him do so many times before:  he simply dominated with his cool, error-free play.  Cardi looked a bit off-balance as Berry rolled through in three straight set-victories to earn his record 6th straight finals appearance.

And so it is again.  Berry vs. Zack in the final round of Championship Table Tennis at the Colburn School.  A storied rivalry with one chapter so far written, and another to be written in a few short days.  Can Berry re-claim the top spot he held for so long, or will Zack continue his run to become the second Grand Champion in school history?

We will all see on Thursday, April 21st at 11:30.  Be prepared to witness greatness.

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