With the off week last week due to rain, the D1 boys gathered to make their final push into the play-offs.
What happens when you match up the National Pickleball Champion against the current PA State Champion? You get a complete miss-match with Dan “The Pickleball King” Wheeler and his trusty steed Greg Donches got two goose eggs in the first two sets against Vlatko and his unbeaten 2012 partner Paul Ridder. Martins-1 dropped its second match in a row in the upper division even though the team of Falatek and Frigerio took all three sets off of HOF’er Tim McAvoy and Hank Oberly. Unfortunately for MD2, that would be the only sets they could close for the remainder of the evening as WCC makes a clean sweep of courts 2-4.
Wallingford almost had a clean sweep over at Greenville as they took the first three courts sealing the victory. Dana and Mike Fleming teamed up together on the fourth court to avoid the Greenville O’fer the night with their victory over Jay Peichel and Doug Lewis. The victory keeps Wallingford within 3 points of WCC with three weeks remaining in the season.
Aronimink ends P-Country’s 5 game winning streak in a tie breaker of sets and placing them in a tie with 17 points each in third place. Both teams are not mathematically out of the race for the season championships and they both have a shot at WCC over the remaining 3 weeks. On Court 1, it looked like an upset in the making as Andrew Sorrentino and Pete Pijawka took the first set off the Nowlans in a tie-breaker. The Nowlans battled back to take sets 2 and 3 to win the court but that first set proved to be the difference as Aronimink won 7 sets to 5.
Standings in Top Six after 13 Weeks (3 Weeks to go)
Wanesborough – 24 Points (P-Country next week)
Wallingford – 21 Points (Martins-1 next week)
P-Country – 17 Points (Waynesborough next week)
Aronimink – 17 Points (Greenville – next week)
Martins-1 – 16 Points (Wallingford next week)
Greenville – 16 Points (Aronimink next week)
The bottom 6 is getting very interesting after the results of this weeks matches. With the possibility (depending upon the weather) of the Top 2 teams earning a shot in the play-offs, we have four teams that are within 1 point of each other.
Overbrook defeated Merion by a score of three courts to 1 as Tom Burt and Steve Hall teamed up to complete a mild upset of Jeff Lyon and Chas Burkhart. On Court 2, Eger and Morrow took the first two sets before dropping the third to Andrew Tomson and Rich Devine. Merion still maintains a slight 1 point lead over Overbrook, P-Cricket and, MD2 for the final spots for the potential playoff berth.
Vic Mead makes it a deuce as they take courts 1-3 and earn their second victory of the season over Martins-2. Captain Dan was speechless this week as the loss puts them dangerously close to the relegation line for next season. Vic Mead is now the odds on favorite in next weeks match up with Kennett which could move them out of sole possession of the cellar for the first time this season.
P-Cricket makes it two in the row against bottom six opponents this week taking down Kennett who has now lost six in a row. P-Cricket seems to be firing on all cylinders right now and the only thing that is going to stop them from earning one of the last spots in the play-offs is mother nature. Rumour has it that P-Cricket has hired a team of meteorogists and NASA to defend against any bad weather for the remaining three weeks of the season.
Standing for the Bottom Six (Three Weeks to Go)
Merion 14 pts
P-Cricket 13 pts
Overbrook 13 pts
Martins-2 13 pts
Kennett 9 pts
Vic Mead 7 pts
Where where they last year after 13 weeks
Club Last Year’s pts vs. this year’s pts.
Mink 26 pts vs 17pts (-9pts)
P-Country 17 vs 21 (+4pts)
WCC 19 vs 24 (+5pts)
Wallingford 17 vs 21 (+4 pts)
Martins-1 19.5 vs 16 (-3.5)
Greenville 14.5 vs 16 (+1.5)
For those fans of summer paddle or those looking to continue the paddle season, MAPTA is going to try an informal league this year where individuals will sign up and be placed on teams. All levels of play are eligible. Stay tuned for more details.
