With perfect paddle weather reaching the Philadelphia Region, 3 teams remained in a quest to keep their undefeated streak, while 1 team continues its quest for a single point.
Two of the unbeaten titans Waynesborough and Wallingford battled it out in Wallingford to a virtual tie with three matches completed. Waynesbrough was up by a single game and needed the third set on court 4 to shut out Wallingford. But this night belonged to Wallingford, as Ken Crowther and Ray Johnston came back from being down 5-3 in the third set to win in a tie-breaker over Scott Bassett and Paul Yeakel and earn Wallingford the victory by a single game. Based on their performances on the courts, this will not be the last time these two meet on the courts this season. After the match, Captain Tom Safford was quoted,
I am not impressed (with Wallingford), WCC was down Oberly, Beers, and McAvoy and we still came two points away from a victory, bring them on.
Another of this week’s featured matches had last year’s undefeated team of Aronimink and against this year’s surprising undefeated team of Greenville. The local Greenville crowd gathered in the palatial hut to witness a remarkable win on Court 1, where Simon Peppiatt and Todd Marvin defeated Andrew Sorrentino and Pete Pijawka. Aronimink roared back taking courts 2, 3, and 4 to seal the victory and end Greenville’s run on top of the D1 standings.
The Nolan’s created a huge scare as they dropped the first set to Vic Mead’s Justin Poletti and Michael Ashley 6-4, only to wake up and take the next two sets losing only three games. The Nowlan’s appear to be now challenging themselves by spotting the opposing team the first set to make the matches more interesting to them. Unfortunately for Vic Mead, that was the only set that they would win for the evening, once again eluding them of that first single point. Vic Mead battles it out next week with the ¼ mile rivals Greenville in the hopes of getting off the shneid.
Overbrook suffers it third straight defeat, this week to the hands of Martins-2. Steve Hall and Andrew Tomson pulled off a huge victory over Captain Dan Greenwood and Aiden Busch in a nail biting 3 setter. Unfortunately for Overbrook, they failed to win another set on Courts 2 – 4, averaging under 2 games a set. This team is going to need a Knute Rokcne type speech if they want to run with the big dogs next season.
Martins 1 defeated Merion 7 sets to 5 in a match that featured two very competitive matches and two very lopsided matches. On Court 1, Scott Falatek and Gregg Frigerio teamed to win in straight sets over Greg Eger and Chip Morrow. On Court 2, Jeffy Lyon and Chas Burkhart dropped a mere 2 games to Dan Wheeler and Skip LaSpina. The match was ultimately decided on Court 4, where Greg Donches (who won on court 1 last week) teamed up with Jamie Stein and dropped only 3 games to Tim Kent and Tucker Boynton. Merion won court 3 but dropped the first set to earn the point for their squad.
Kennett appears to be gaining some momentum, as they won their 2nd match in three weeks, this week defeating P-Cricket by 3 games. P-Cricket took courts 1 and 2, while P-Cricket took courts 3 & 4. If the season ended right now, Kennett would be in a tie for the Top 6 and appear to be playing some good paddle early in the season. Everyone knows that MAPTA paddle is more of a marathon than a sprint, and depth plays a major role in D1 as injuries and travel schedules get in the way of paddle throughout the season.
