The quarterfinal proved that the regular season was no fluke for the Top 4 teams as they each fairly easily made their way into the Semi-Finals.
Wallingford had the task of taking on the second hottest team in the league with 4 straight wins. Unfortunately for Cricket, they were without a few players and had to default court 4 that gave them very little room to lose a single court and win the match. Captain Derek, seemingly taking a page from Captain Tom’s book mixed up his 1 & 2 teams, which proved to be brilliant as both team won their courts. Rumor has it that Chip has asked Derek to be his talent coordinator for the upcoming NFL Draft.
Waynesborugh had two players traveling from over 1,000 and 2,000 miles on Friday in order to defend their title on Thursday. Not even a triple homicide outside his hotel would slow down Bruce Sopko as his job was to keep Beers win streak in-tact and win court 2. After splitting 2 tough sets with Jeff Lyon and Brian Crochiere, the team of Beers and Sopko won court 2 and clinched the match in the process. What came as a complete shock the crowd on hand, after 5,000 consecutive lobs off of Mr. Crochiere’s paddle (including returns), he let go two drives for winners. Brian claims “I hold off on that drive shot because anyone can hit a drive for a winner, fewer can win matches without hitting a single drive. I have an internal counter that when it gets to around 5,000 “I unleash the hounds”.
Overbrook is making its final run at the crown as they switched up their #1 and #2 courts which also prove to work as they did not drop a set in the process and Hall and Eger only lost 2 games on court 1 against Martins-2. Overbrook has to be the cinderella story of the season, as almost no one had them finishing in the Final 4.
In the most tightly contested match of the quarters, Aronimink took down Martins-1 in a tie breaker of sets. Falatek and Korfmann finished the season winning 11 of his last 13 matches after dropping his first 4.
The match of the semi-finals should prove to be some great paddle.
Wallingford is taking on Overbrook and Waynesborough is taking on Aronimink.
In their first two contests of the season, Wallingford won both but neither of their matches featured full squads on both sides. In order for Overbrook to win this one, they will need their top 8 guys and need to win at least one of the first two courts to have a chance to compete in the finals at 8:30.
Waynesborough has not dropped a single court to Aronimink this year, although there have been a few 3 setters. These two have also not faced off with full squads this season.
The big question is who has their top 8 players available, healthy and ready to play not one but two pressure matches on Thursday, February 28th against the best teams in the Philly Area. The one that does, will have the sure advantage for the evening.
Just as a reminder, all players are invited to Waynesborough at 8PM for FREE BEER and FREE Pizza and also get a chance to end the season watching the D1 finals.
