Playoff picture is set for this weekend 5-19/20-2012. The seeding is out and so are the draws. Let's do a little breakdown of the first round matches and beyond.
Round #1, Boerne 4.0 vs Sontera Rojo winner to play Fair Oaks Raiders
Boerne has options in singles with Ron Tope, Derek Clow, Larry Gromley and Dennis DeCreny. The question is which of these 4 player with play against Rojo. The line you would expect to see on Saturday would likely be Larry and Dennis singles, Jack Clow/Tope, Shoemaker/Olmstead, and Mahler/D. Clow. Why? This line up that crushed Sontera Select in their only loss of the season. This may come down to how the captains play their lineup. Both sides need to be creative to win.
Sontera Rojo's singles players are David Trang, Buddy Lomax, Stephen Ison and Michael Latimer. What line up should you expect to see are Trang and Ison in singles, Doubles combo Scott/Tilley, Seale/Ross and Restrepo/Fields. Rojo made it to the finals in the fall, can they get there again??
Winner - 3-2 Rojo. No, maybe Boerne. It is going to be a fun match to watch but whoever wins will NOT have the depth or fire power to compete against the Fair Oaks Raiders!! Again, this is for fun right??
Fair Oak Raider's potential singles Greg Mabrito, Jason Granato, Orlando Pares, Eric Davis, and Jared Thomas. Potential line up are Mabrito and Davis. Doubles Thomas/Stone, Thompson/C Lowry and Coker/Clarkson. The truth is they could use any combination that we might not have seen before. Again, this team has a deep roster.
Fair Oaks Raiders win in semi-finals 5-0.
Round #1, Sontera Select Vs Oak Hills Clubbers winner will play Blossom Borg. Sorry, THE BORG.
Sontera Select's singles player are deep with Christian Beyer, Jorge Cosio, Jose Lopez amd Christopher Bingham. Potential Line up are Beyer and Lopez at singles. Doubles would be Bingham/Arellano, Ableman/Gayler and Gallaspy/Connolly. This team is singles heavy and will depend on them to get through to the next round. Wild card is Cosio because he plays both singles and doubles.
Oak Hill's Clubber's singles guys are Clayton Swann, Scott Kablesh, Ariel Navarro, Ricky Nunez, Raunaq Niekani and one more with Omar Gonzales. My money on seeing this weekend are Kablesh and Nunez to even compete against Sontera in singles. Doubles line up for this weekend you should expect to see Gonzales Brothers, Weintein/Bullard and Padua/Studevos. Now the opposite is true for this team that will lean of doubles to get them past their first round.
Winner - Potential #1 seed goes down. Sontera Select goes down 3-2 due to unfavorable doubles matchups and they will likely split the singles.
The Borg - Blossom's singles players are Ronnie Valle, Luis Ortega, Brady Harrison, Kris Workman and Adrian Santillan. Favorable singles line ups are Kris and Luis. Doubles are Beltran/Montante, Leatherman/Bradshaw, and Maxey/Cuellar. This team must rely on their doubles as they have multiple players who have outclassed competitors state wide in the recent major zone tournaments. Their singles guys are good but I would not expect them to be able to compete with the 4.5 bump downs that are on other teams. Since the singles guys do not play many tournaments, it is hard to gauge their ability to win when the pressure is on.
The Borg wins semi-finals 3-2 sweeping the doubles. Will be lucky to win a set in singles.
Now let's see how close I was to my predictions this weekend. Do you see anything playing out differently??
Lob Master
Sontera Select will win and make all the way to the finals. They have a much better team than the credit they are given. The Borg are overrated!!
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Losing to The Borg 5-0 proves that the Borg is completely over rated.
DeleteIf Select can get past Oak Hills then they will get some credit but losing to Rojo in the Fall lost respect for that team. Notice the Borg had the toughest flight this Spring. The Fall finalist and champion was in their flight.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about availability and match-ups.
DeleteWatch out for Jose Sifuentes on Select... something's up with him.
ReplyDeleteSuch as?
DeleteHe's a young Singles player but only has played one match (suspicious loss) and one default win. I've seen him play - wait to you see what he does to Blossom Borg.
DeleteNever heard of him. No record of him playing juniors. May need to check ID's this weekend. Considering the past of this captain.
DeleteOkay everyone, let's just wait and see tomorrow before all the name calling gets started. Oh and before Select gets to The Borg, let's see them get passed Oak Hills. It should be a good match either way.
ReplyDeleteThe Borg - Time has come to ASSIMILATE!!
No let the name calling begin ASAP.
ReplyDeleteEveryone looks to be playing to 2nd place. Fair Oaks Raiders are the team to beat. Some teams are strong in singles and some in doubles, but they seem to be strong in both. It seems they put a team to finally be able to compete in sectionals. Good luck to everyone this weekend.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad the Borg played for 2nd place. You're right, the Fair Oaks Raiders were the team to beat. With a 4-1 victory, I think the Borg proved the Raiders were strong in both singles and doubles. I hope the Borg can be able to compete in sectionals as good as the Raiders could.
DeleteThe Borg look to be the real thing!! Frair Oaks is in for some competition. I'm not so confident Fair Oaks Raiders will have an easy walk though. Thinking The Borg might pull an upset.
ReplyDeleteLob Master
4-1 an upset? Boy please.
DeleteBased on what I saw yesterday, Fair Oaks Raiders is the tallest team I have ever seen in the ACTT league before.
ReplyDeleteCan we drink Bloody Mary's while watching the match?
This is for fun right?
Congrats to ROJO for making it to the top 4.
They were very tall but our team is very short and well rounded, except for Kris Workman. :-)
DeleteCongrats to all teams that advanced to the playoffs. Hopefully we can get a Wildcard spot for sectionals that will allow Fair Oaks to go as well. As for the Borg we have now revealed that our singles players are also able to dominate. Other cities are blogging about the Borg and are acknowledging the strength of San Antonio men's tennis. Well done!!
ReplyDeleteWildcard spot would go to Fall winner, no?
DeleteFair Oaks would love to play the Greentree for the wildcard. The fall teams don't even compare to the spring teams. 4.5 vs 4.0.
DeleteCongrats to The Borg - Hopefully your full team will be available for Sectionals.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Borg. Strong team, deserving champs!
DeleteHey David, everyone on the team had to sign a commitment letter before they were allowed to sign up for The Borg. We all had to be available for the playoffs and sectionals if needed. We put together a great group of guys that like to have FUN and play some tennis as well
DeleteThe Borg
Where is my sign on bonus as outlined in my commitment letter?
DeleteChecks in the mail
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteChecks? I was told it would be beer.
DeleteI want to thank all my players for a great season. We still have one more match against Greentree to think about sectionals. They won the fall season for a reason. I also want to thank everyone for your support throughout the season as well.
ReplyDeleteThe Borg Collective
Can anyone confirm that Greentree is intact and will definitely play the playoff and Sectionals if a bid is offered?
ReplyDeleteGreen tree has a team and we are scheduled to play in two weeks. I don't think they lost many players to year end ratings.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Delete