The Drama Continues – Autumn Classic Round 2 (part 1)

How to sum up round 2?  We knew it was going to be memorable.  We knew it was going to be exciting.  We knew it was going to be a night filled with hard fought matches in a new era of Championship Table Tennis at the Colburn School.  In this era everyone fights hard.  Everyone practices and works at their game late at night, early in the morning, and any spare second in between.  Players don’t accept mediocrity, and they don’t expect success to come easy.  They know as well as anyone that this field is deep, talented, and hungry to play under the lights come Championship Thursday.

Leading off the night was the familiar 20th seed Hanbyul “OneStar” Jang against the tournament newbie 21st seed Usha Kapoor in a “play in” match to see who would meet 4th seed Emil Khudyev technically in round 1.  Kapoor began set 1 very uncontrolled and ended up dropping it badly 11-2, only to bounce back in the second set.  Doing better, she got as close as 6-8, but couldn’t hold off OneStar’s 11-7  set two win.  Early in set three, it seemed more of the same as OneStar led early 6-3 enroute to 10-7.  In what could only be described as sheer will and determination, Kapoor fought off three match points and won the next to go up 11-10.  Just needing one point to force a set 4, her momentum was spent as OneStar went on a three point run to win set and match 13-11.

Match 2 originally starred 3rd seed Greg “Kobe” Cardi against John Winstead, the man who took down two time tournament runner-up Radu Paponiu last semester in the greatest upset in CTTA history and looked to continue the streak against the 3rd seed.  Unfortunately, due to a late tournament pull out, Winstead was replaced by tournament director Allan Steele, who stepped in as the 22nd seed.  Before the match, Steele showed off some impressive moves and actually looked like he was getting in the head of the high-ranked Cardi.  Whatever the case, Cardi rolled to an 11-2 opening set victory and won set 2 also as Steele couldn’t find his rhythm.  Set 3 was full of good, strong rallies, but Cardi wouldn’t let up.  Steele pulled as close as 10-9, but Cardi sealed it with a 11-9 set 3 and match win.

Two things stuck in the mind of this sportswriter as he watched the next match.  The first happened before the match even started, as backup scorekeeper Ben Lash “LaRue” performed the opening coin toss only to miss the catch, have the quarter hit the table and fall to the ground.  Picking it up, he put it on his hand and said “call it.”  A bit of a non-regulation coin toss to get us started, which was made even worse when the next coin toss also failed to find Lash’s hand and succeeded in finding the table in a loud clank for the second consecutive time.  After the opening difficulties, the match began.  The second thing mentioned above was the level of play we got from 2 tournament newcomers.  10th seed Timmy Yu and 14th seed Tanner Menees both came out hard and swinging.  Set 1 began with 10 hard fought points to bring us to 5-5, and this interestingly was the closest this match would come.  Reading the simple numbers of this match, Yu wins with a seemingly routine straight sets 11-6, 11-5, 11-6 match victory but the numbers simply don’t tell the whole story.  When viewing matches, certain sportswriters take copious notes and this one is no different.  The first thing written at the beginning of this match is:  ”3 letters – wow.”  That sums up how this match started and as far as the action goes, sums it up well.  The match was chocked full of speed, great rallies, and winners down the line.  Silly mistakes plagued both competitors, but simply plagued Menees a bit more.  It was a highly competitive and entertaining match about which the numbers simply don’t do justice.  Yu moves on, but we’ll certainly see more of Menees in the future.

The fourth match of the night featured 5th seed Yi Zhou against 13th seed Ivan “the Terrible” Wan.  Unfortunately for our 5th seed, “the Terrible” moniker isn’t a literal representation of table tennis skills as Zhou was put to the test right away.  After 2 missed serves, Zhou found himself in an early hole, but he quickly came back 2-2 and took the lead the following point.  He would hold a slight lead the entire set that culminated in a 10-10 deuce which Zhou eventually won 13-11.  Set 2 started fast and furious but Zhou had an X-factor in this one that made it seem like he was more in control.  He pulled out a set two win only to fall behind early in set 3.  Wan held a steady lead and looked good up 8-6, but Zhou came back, forced another 10-10 deuce and persevered with a 15-13 set 3 and match victory.

And with that the night was…half over.

Stay tuned for the second installment coming soon.

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