We're less than 2 weeks from the open of the WPRO season and what an incredible draw this one is shaping up to be. 6 of the 7 Women who have captured the Women's Pro event at the US OPEN are in the draw in Dallas. 27 Other ladies as of this writing are also in the draw trying to bring the title home.
Check out the tournament site at:
http://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=5685
This one was billed as Rhonda’s Athleticism versus Cheryl’s Focus and this one definitely lived up to all the hype.
Cheryl came out strong shooting extremely well and Rhonda seemed to come out a little slower, but her great athletic talent kept her right there with her. Both players traded side outs early in the first game trading serves at 1-1 and 2-2 for several serves. Rhonda then started to click and built her lead to 5-2 before Cheryl could regain the all important serve. However, once back in the service box Rhonda would go on the run that would get her to the brink of the first game. Cheryl would fight back to 6, but would go no further as Rhonda closed out the first game and gave a quick fist pump.
In the second game, Rhonda started to catch fire as she jumped to a 4-1 lead. Cheryl is a true champion and she wasn’t about to give this one away, so it surprised nobody in the house when she closed the score to 4-5. Rhonda could sense the momentum changing and as she stepped into the service box, she took a quick, deep breath to get ready for the moment. It certainly worked as she went on a run to 9-4 playing her usual aggressive style. Cheryl as able to add one more point before the end, but Rhonda looked to be on a mission and she finished the second game 11-5 for the 2 game lead.
The third game would prove to be a great test of both players’ nerves. Rhonda was clearly fired up and was looking to go for the kill and the sweep. As such, she sprinted to a 3-0 lead. Cheryl came into the service box and hit one of the best drive serves to the right side that I’ve seen in a while and totally sent Rhonda the wrong way. That brought big momentum back to Cheryl, and she used it to tie the game at 3. They would then go point for point right up to the pivotal moment of the match. Rhonda serving 7-6, good rally, Rhonda set up on the side wall glass both players playing very close. Rhonda hit Cheryl on her backswing and continued to hit a very close pinch shot. The referee called the shot good instead of calling the avoidable. Also, something happened to Rhonda at that moment. I cannot tell you exactly what that was, she either hit Cheryl’s body, Cheryl’s racquet, the side wall, or her own racquet with her nose. Any way you look at it, she was seriously bloodied and needed an injury timeout. When all was said and done Cheryl was serving and Rhonda was not happy. Cheryl used that to her advantage and strung together some very tough shots to grab the third game 11-8.
The crowd was starting the sense that this one might go five, but Rhonda had other ideas. Cheryl did manage to take a 2-0 lead, but Rhonda wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip away that easily. She came into the box and built her own 4-2 lead. Both ladies could somehow feel that this game probably meant the title and Cheryl used that knowledge to come back for a 7-4 lead. Once again, Rhonda refused to give in. The crowd could clearly see that she was hurting, but she just kept plugging away, and with her amazing athletic ability to make impossible shots seem routine, she built her lead to match point. Cheryl refused to give in, as always, and came back one last time to 9-10, but serving for match for the third time, Rhonda finally ended things with a well placed backhand down the left side out of Cheryl’s reach. Cheryl was only able to look at the shot and nod knowing that the match was over. 11-9 to the 12th Choice Hotels US OPEN Racquetball Champion and now 2 time winner Rhonda Rajsich.
I have to admit, by the end of each racquetball season, which for me is Junior Nationals, I am fairly burned out and look forward to a break from racquetball for the summer.
This was especially true this year. Junior Nationals was a great tournament with more 11-10 tiebreaker matches than I could ever recall at one tournament, but at the same time, I've spent so much time working with kids that I feel like I need some time for myself.
For the month of July, I've spent every weekend up in the CO Rocky Mountains hiking up the many mountains that summit above 14,000 feet. It's doing wonders for my conditioning, but then again, I haven't played a tournament since National Singles in 2005. So my question to everyone out there is this...Have you ever suffered from racquetball burnout, and if so, how did you overcome it?
When they let Kevin Joyce go.
The board doesn't seem to understand that if you don't focus some energy on Junior Racquetball, the sport cannot grow. Their current focus on the respective Pro tours is going to be a downfall.
With most of the Junior National Team spots earned, play began bright and early Sunday morning at the 34th USA Racquetball Junior Olympic National Championships presented by Penn Racquet Sports.
In the Girl's 18 Singles, Defending National and World Champion Michelle Key of Arizona successfully defended the first title and has now earned a shot at defending the second in December by virtue of her 15-8,15-6 victory over Indiana's Sharon Jackson. Michelle was clearly pumped up for this one and seemed in control from the outset. Sharon gave it everything she had, but Michelle was clearly on a mission in this one. Both young ladies will be in Cochabamba, Bolivia this December and both will certainly be in the hunt for the World Championship.
In the Girl's 18 Doubles, Michelle started Sunday morning with the final match of the Round Robin competition with her partner, Iowa's Gabrielle Schnurman, against the defending champions Kara Mazur of Connecticut and Samantha McGuffey of Ohio. Michelle and Gabrielle started off on fire in this one and grabbed a quick 11-0 lead, but Kara and Samantha chipped away with each service rotation. They weren't quite able to finish the comeback, but that did set the stage for the remainder of the match as they fought through a tough 10-15, 15-8, 11-4 win to officially win the National Championship.
In the Girl's 16s, Sheryl Lotts of Ohio had already claimed the National Championship on Sat. after her victory over Arizona's Danielle Key.
In the Girl's 14 Singles, California's Aubrey O'Brien completed her mission of a National Championship and return appointment to the Junior National Team with a dominating performance over fellow Californian Devon Pimentelli. I have to give a great deal of credit to Aubrey as she just refused to allow Devon to get comfortable in this match. You can see that she is already pointing towards a possible rematch with current world champion, Veronica Sotomayer of Ecuador. For those of you that read my updates from Junior Worlds, you know that was one of the matches of the tournament.
In the Girl's 14 Doubles, Aubrey completed a perfect tournament with a hard fought win with partner, Lily Berry of Ohio over Devon Pimentelli and her partner Courtney Chisholm of Massachusetts. Scores were 12-15, 15-4, 11-4. So Aubrey will be playing both singles and doubles at the Junior Worlds and she is really looking forward to the challenge.
In the Girl's 12 Singles, Virginia's Kelani Bailey completed her surprise run through the draw in her Junior Nationals debut to bring home the National Championship with a straight games win over California's Sabrina Viscuso.
In the Girl's 10 Singles, Colorado's Elizabeth Vargas claimed the Gold Medal that had eluded her in 2 previous attempts in this division with a straight game victory over Team Colorado teammate Erika Manilla, who is still a candidate for my player of the tournament designation, for whatever that's worth.
In the Girl's 8 Singles, Erika rebounded nicely to claim this national championship with a hard fought win over Florida's Jordan Cooperrider. These two will probably end up playing doubles together starting next season, which is a good thing as they are already good friends. This title brings Erika's count to 5 National Titles to go along with 3 runners up finishes. Not bad for a girl who turned 9 this past February. For those of you wondering how a 9 year old could win the 8 and Under National Championship, in the sport of racquetball at the junior level a player is considered to be whatever age they are on January 1st of any given year. This year, Erika was still 8 on January 1.
In the Boy's 18 Singles, Jose Rojas of California was looking to claim the title in this division as well as the 16 Singles arguably the two toughest divisions in the tournament. He got things going in the right direction with a straight games victory over his close friend and former doubles partner, Ishmael Aldana also of California. It looked as though Saturday's battles had taken their toll on Ishmael as he had 3 of the most grueling matches anyone could remember winning two. The only loss was the Mixed 18 Doubles Final which I will talk about at the end of this article.
In the Boy's 16 Singles, Jose successfully completed his sweep of these two singles divisions with a straight games victory over Oregon's Taylor Knoth. Jose also has a claim to my designation of player of the tournament.
In the Boy's 14 Singles, Marko Rojas of California joined his brother as a National Champion with an impressive victory over Oregon's Dylan Reid. Dylan played extremely well in this one, but Marko, like his brother, appeared to be on a mission from the beginning of this tournament.
In the Boy's 12 Singles, Louisiana's Zach Wertz completed his surprise run through the draw to claim the title in two very hard fought games over Oregon's Sam Reid. To be honest, I had been keeping my eye on Zach as I had asked Junior National Team Coach Kelley Beane who had made an impression at the recent Rumble Camp right before Junior Nationals and she mentioned that she was expecting great things from Zach. He definitely delivered.
In the Boy's 10 Singles, Ohio's Spencer Shoemaker claimed the National Title with a win over Minnesota's Sam Bredenbeck. These two had faced off the day before for the doubles championship and Spencer managed to get the sweep this year.
In the Boy's 8 Singles, Jordan Barth of Minnesota defeated top seed Justus Benson of Wisconsin in 2 games for the Gold Medal. Jordan was a strong player for Team Minnesota as they crept up the rankings in the State competition.
In the State competition, I don't have the overall scores but I have heard that California did manage to retain their championship for the second year. Granted, they still have 12 more years to match the streak that Oregon put together that ended last year, but they are well on their way and they do have a lot of talent coming up through the youngest ranks in these championships. Oregon did come in second followed by Ohio.
Of course, I am extremely proud of Team Colorado for again coming home 4th overall despite having only 9 point earning players in this year's event. They squeaked out 4th this year over Minnesota with Florida and Arizona completing the top 7.
As I come to the end of this wrapup, I will do as I did at Junior Worlds and announce my Awards of the Tournament. Again this is entirely my own opinion based on what I saw at this tournament.
Point of the Tournament - Hands down the last point of the Mixed 18 Doubles Final. Kara Mazur of Connecticut and Richard Sledzik of Massachusetts against Samantha McGuffey of Ohio and Ishmael Aldana of California. This one point was an abolute dive fest with each player getting involved. I cannot really do a description justice, so I can tell you that this match was covered by racquetball online. So I would HIGHLY encourage everyone to check it out at: http://www.racquetballonline.tv It is free to watch. I'm not sure how quickly it will be available to view online, but I would definitely recommend it!
Match of the Tournament - There were so many matches to choose from as there were a lot of 11-10 tiebreaker matches, but the one that stands out for me was the Girl's 10 semifinals between Colorado's Erika Manilla and California's Ashley O'Brien. Ashley came out strong in this one to claim the 15-12 first game win, but Erika overcame the nerves and the disappointment of the first game loss to even things with a 15-5 game two win. The tiebreaker was a back and forth affair as Ashley came out strong, but Erika refused to lose and despite trailing 7-10 came back for the 11-10 win and the spot in the final.
Player of the Tournament - Again a lot of strong contenders in this one but the player that stood out to me was Kelani Bailey of Virginia. In her Junior Nationals debut, she claimed the Girl's 12 and Under National Championship and also brought home a Silver Medal in the Mixed 12 Doubles with Michigan's Sam Zeng as her partner. It's not very often that a player can make their debut in a division higher than 8s and bring home the gold, but Kelani fought through the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th seeds on her way to the title and did it with a smile on her face the entire tournament.
State Team of the Tournament - Have to give a big hand to Team Florida. These kids were always there cheering their teammates on at every match and they played their hearts out throughout the tourney, and they managed to bring home some National Championships in the Girl's 10 Doubles and Boy's 12 Doubles and Girl's 8 Multi Bounce. Kim Roy has done an outstanding job building the junior program in Florida and I can definitely see them becoming a true force to be reckoned with in the near future.
Kudos also have to go to the Event staff from USA Racquetball. Jim Hiser, Otto Dietrich, Eddie Meredith, Mary Meredith, and the rest did an outstanding job keeping the tournament running smoothly and on time.
Also great job to the Local Organizing Committee led by Frank Taddonio.
That's all for now, I do hope you've enjoyed these updates
An incredibly emotional day here at the 34th USA Racquetball Junior Olympic National Championships presented by Penn Racquet Sports on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.
Today, I will start with the Doubles divisions as they held their finals in order to determine the National Team appointments for the next year and the announcement at the banquet earlier this evening.
In the Girl's 18 Doubles, it looks as though Kara Mazur of Connecticut and Samantha McGuffey of Ohio will defend their title in this Round Robin event after they beat Holly Hettesheimer of Ohio and Sharon Jackson of Indiana in a tough up and down three game battle. Scores were 15-4, 6-15,11-4. They still have to defeat Michelle Key of Arizona and Gabrielle Schnurman of Iowa in a match tomorrow to officially earn the spot, but I believe that the tiebreakers do favor them in case of defeat. Later on at the banquet, Samantha received the Junior World Cup Age Athlete of the Year award. A truly well earned award!
In the Girl's 18 Singles, The defending champions from the 18s and 16s will square off for the gold tomorrow as Defending 18s National and World Champion Michelle Key of Arizona will take on Indiana's Sharon Jackson in a match that will definitely be exciting. Both of these young ladies hit the ball very hard and very low so this promises to be a true war.
In the Girl's 16 Doubles, Danielle Key of Arizona and Sheryl Lotts of Ohio breezed to the title with a straight games win over Brianna Ho and Jessica Munoz of Washington by identical 15-2 scores. This has earned them each two spots on the Junior National Team as they were also the leaders in the girl's singles round robin.
In the Girl's 16 Singles, Sheryl beat Danielle in two games of 15-10,15-2. It appeared that Danielle might have tweaked something in her shoulder during that 1st game, but she toughed it out determined to try and bring home the gold this year. While she came up a little short in that effort, she still had a great tournament and is excited about the prospect of traveling to Bolivia in December for the Junior World Championships.
In the Girl's 14 Doubles, the championship and the spots on the Junior National Team will be determined tomorrow in the matchup between Lily Berry of Ohio and Aubrey O'Brien of California against Courtney Chisholm of Massachusetts and Devon Pimentelli of California. Lily and Aubrey ended Jackie and Samantha Rosado's hopes of getting onto the team by virtue of their impressive 15-3,15-3 victory today but will have to bring their best tomorrow in their match with Courtney and Devon as these two have been playing extremely well all week too.
In the Girl's 14 Singles, Aubrey O'Brien and Devon Pimentelli will spend a lot of time on court together tomorrow and both times on opposite sides in the battle as they will square off for the singles gold. Aubrey defeated Courtney Chisholm today while Devon got past Samantha Rosado in a rematch of last year's Girl's 12 final. The result remained the same.
In the Girl's 12 Doubles, Hollee Hungerford of Ohio and Sabrina Viscuso of California earned their spot on the Junior National Espirit Cup team with a straight games win over Abbey Lavely of Ohio and Elizabeth Vargas of Colorado. Scores were 15-10,15-6. Later on today, Abbey was named the Espirit Female Athlete of the Year at the Banquet in celebration of her many national titles that she has been collecting since the age of 6, with many more still ahead in her future. She looks forward to trying to win the 12s next year.
In the Girl's 12 Singles, Before I arrived for this tournament I had thought that Mercedes Arias would win my unofficial player of the tournament, and she did play extremely well throughout this event. But once I arrived and the tournament began I see now that in the Girl's 12s Kelani Bailey deserves a great deal of recognition. I was talking with a totally impartial observer after the banquet this evening, and granted he did look a lot like her father, Jim, but this person did say that he was so totally impressed with how Kelani has come through this tournament in her Junior Nationals debut she has taken out the second seed Abbey Lavely and now she has also defeated the third seed Mercedes Arias. Both matches were very similar as Kelani used her impressive retrieval skills to frustrate both opponents into mistakes and take a very hard fought win in a tiebreaker today's scores being 15-12,12-15,11-7. In her debut event she has reached the final in singles and also the Mixed Doubles where she fell a little short today.
In the Girl's 10 Doubles, Florida's Abby Carter and Kaitlyn Simmons of Maryland had clinced the title yesterday and they didn't play today other than the fact that they received their gold medals today and spent a good amount of time running around the club showing them off to anyone they came in contact with.
In the Girl's 10 Singles, Team Colorado emerged from the pack to claim both spots in the final. Elizabeth Vargas fought through some nervous jitters to gain a 15-6,15-14 win over Oregon's Alecia Fladstol who played the best match that I've ever seen her play today, she is definitely one to watch in the future. In the other semifinal, Erika Manilla won an incredible tiebreaker match against California's Ashley O'Brien to set up the all Colorado final. And of course, a special kudos has to go to Erika for advancing to the Girl's 10 final in a year where she was playing up just to have a second division. As it turns out, she ended up playing 3 divisions as she was a late entrant in the Mixed 10 Doubles and has already claimed that National Title and will battle for 2 more tomorrow in the 8s and 10s.
In the Girl's 8 Singles, Erika Manilla advanced to the finals with a victory over Ohio's Christina Lavely while Jordan Cooperrider of Florida defeated Michigan's Mary Zeng in 3 very tough games to set up a final between younger sisters of a boy's 12 doubles team that you'll read about a little later in this update. On a related note Erika and Jordan may very well be a doubles team next summer at the Junior Nationals.
In the Boy's 18 Doubles, Ishmael Aldana of California and Danny Lavely of Ohio defeated Allan Crockett of Alabama and Jonathan Doyle of Ohio to bring home the gold and the appointment to the Junior National Team.
In the Boy's 18 Singles, Ishmael and Allan got to spend even more time together on the court as they met in one semifinal and like he has done every other year for quite some time now, Ishmael defeated Allan this time in a tough tiebreaker scores were 15-9,4-15,11-7. This one was a true battle and both players definitely left it all on the court. To show his heart, Allan kept Ishmael from that elusive closing point in the tiebreaker for at least 6 service attempts before Ishmael found the right shot to bring an end to Allan's bright Junior career. Allan would later be announced as the Junior World Cup age Male Athlete of theYear at the banquet. Congratulations on this very prestigious award! In the other half of the draw, Jose Rojas, who is attempting to win both the 18 and 16 Singles got to the first final after defeating Richard Sledzik of Massachusetts in two close games. Scores were 15-11,15-1 3.
In the Boy's 16 Doubles, Jake Bredenbeck of Minnesota and Taylor Knoth of Oregon brought home the gold in two tough, close games over John-Craig Chisholm of Massachusetts and Brad Kirch of New York.
In the Boy's 16 Singles, Jose Rojas of California and Taylor Knoth both breezed into the finals and will fight it out tomorrow for the national title. These two have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the field, and at this point I would even dare to suggest that Jose has separated himself from Taylor, but they will still battle it out tomorrow.
In the Boy's 14 Doubles, Joseph Lee of Louisiana and Dylan Reid of Oregon fought through another match of the day type match in their win over the California team of Marko Rojas and Jose Diaz. Marko and Jose came out shooting lights out in this one and it looked as though they were going to steamroll through this in no time. Scoring the 15-4 first game win, their confidence was sky high as they headed back onto the court for the second game. But a slight change of strategy for that second game allowed Joseph and Dylan to grab an early lead and they would hold that lead throughout the game to claim the 15-13 win and force the tiebreaker. In that breaker, each team made some truly amazing shots and had the crowd cheering wildly throughout before Joseph and Dylan could finish it off 11-9. Overall an incredible match. The funny thing about this is that these 4 players would go on to meet later in the day in the singles semifinals and during the doubles, I noticed that each side of the doubles match had both singles semifinalists squaring off directly. Dylan and Jose played the right side while Marko and Joseph played the left side.
In the 14 Singles, Dylan Reid continued the exhilaration of winning the doubles title and earned a truly hard fought 15-13,14-15,11-10 win in another match of the day type of matchup. It was difficult to find a vantage point to actually view this match as this one brought everyone out to cheer on both players. In the other semifinal, Marko Rojas ended many years of frustration as he beat Joseph Lee for the very first time. These two have had some absolute wars in the past, and while Marko won in two games, there was nothing easy about it. Marko was shooting lights out, and he had to as Joseph was right there with him in each of the two games.
In the Boy's 12 Doubles, Adam Manilla of Colorado and Sean Cooperrider of Florida collected their second straight national title as they fought off a very determined John Lindsay and Sam Reid of Oregon. In yet another match of the day type match Adam and Sean came out shooting the best that they have in this entire tournament. I don't think that John and Sam knew what hit them and before you knew it game one was in the books at 15-8. John and Sam regrouped but still fell behind 7-2 to start the second game. Slowly, but surely, they crept back into it and tied things up at 10. At this point, John and Sam put together the 5 point run that would send this match to the tiebreaker. That breaker was a true dive fest as all the players left it all on the court, but in the end Adam and Sean were able to earn the 11-6 win and the national title. Later on, Adam was awarded the Junior Male Espirit Age Athlete of the Year Award and I have to say t hat this was truly a well earned award. I've known Adam for the past 5 years and he is all heart. You know that he is going to give you everything he has everytime he steps onto the court and even when the chips are down, he'll find away to win. I have honestly enjoyed watching him develop into the young man he is today, and I look forward to being a part of his future development as well.
In the Boy's 12 Singles, Sam Reid managed to get his revenge as he took on Adam Manilla in one of the semifinals. Sam was clearly disappointed with the loss in the doubles earlier in the day and wanted to make a statement. That statement was made early in the 15-2 game one victory. Sam just came out red hot and Adam came out a little tentative and it showed. In the second game, Adam came out more relaxed, but Sam was clearly on a mission and he had an answer for anything that Adam attempted. He fought bravely but Sam still managed the 15-8 win to earn a spot in the finals and on the Espirit Cup team. In the other semifinal, Zach Wertz of Louisiana continued his surprising run through the draw with a win over the top seed John Lindsay of Oregon 15-13,15-11.
In the Boy's 10 Doubles, Kyle Ulliman and Spencer Shoemaker of Ohio earned the gold in a win over Sam Bredenbeck of Minnesota and Matt McAdam of Colorado in two very close games. Scores were 15-11,15-14. Matt was clearly disappointed in this result, but he played extremely well all week and will be going home with 3 medals when they leave tomorrow afternoon.
In the Boy's 10 Singles, Sam Bredenbeck got over the disappointment of the doubles to earn a spot in the final with a win over Jake Birnel of Washington. Joining him will be Ohio's Spencer Shoemaker who beat Ryan Francis of New Hampshire in two tough games.
In the Boy's 8 Singles, Justus Benson of Wisconsin and Jordan Barth of Minnesota will fight it out for state bragging rights and the national title tomorrow.
Please catch all of the action live tomorrow starting at 9am Arizona time on: http://www.racquetballonline.tv there is no charge and the matches have been and will continue to be simply awesome!
As for tomorrow, I am heading back to Colorado tomorrow evening so I will try to put out some updates as events warrant throughout the day. If I cannot do that, it might take me a couple of days to put everything together as I have some things to take care of Monday in Denver.
Before I start with today's update, I have to say...WOW what an incredible day of intense, high quality racquetball at these Junior Nationals. As you all know by now, I usually try to highlight one or two matches that stood out during the course of the day, but the reality is that today just about every division had a bona fide Match of the Day.
As usual, we'll start with the Girl's 18 Singles where this match of the day was the battle between Ohio's Holly Hettesheimer and Kara Mazur of Connecticut. Although it only last two games, they were both memorable as they traded points throughout this one until late in the game each time. Holly managed to dig deep both times and earned the 15-12, 15-13 win and a semifinal date with her doubles partner, Sharon Jackson of Indiana. Sharon disposed of yesterday's upset specialist, California's Sue Sublaban in two games today. Also advancing to the semifinals were Michelle Key of Arizona and Samantha McGuffey of Ohio.
In the Girl's 18 Doubles, the matches were a bit one sided as higher seeded team won both matchups in this round robin event, but those two teams Hettesheimer/Jackson and Mazur/McGuffey will square off tomorrow in what amounts to the championship match of this round robin event. There is still a chance that Key/Schnurman can throw a wrench into the plans, but at this point the two teams have separated themselves from the field.
In the Girl's 16 Singles, both Sheryl Lotts of Ohio and Danielle Key of Arizona enjoyed comfortable wins today to set up their championship match tomorrow afternoon. These two played for the National Title in the Girl's 14s in Portland two years ago with Sheryl taking the title, so I'm sure Danielle is anxious to avenge that loss in front of her hometown fans.
In the Girl's 16 Doubles, tomorrow will bring the championship match in this round robin event as Key/Lotts takes on Brianna Ho and Jessica Munoz. Sheryl and Danielle have looked extremely strong together this week, and I can't say that I've seen either of the other players in a match so far. Consequently, I won't make any premature predictions at this time.
In the Girl's 14 Singles, the top 4 seeds have all advanced to the semifinals but the match of the day here again only went two games but was another point for point struggle as Connecticut's Samantha Rosado defeated Ohio's Lily Berry 15-13,15-12. I didn't have a clock going on this one, but it was a very long battle with some great shooting from both players. Samantha was just able to dig deeper as each game came to a close to get the win.
In the Girl's 14 Doubles, there is currently a three way tie for the lead in this round robin event. Aubrey O'Brien and Lily Berry will play each of the other teams in the tie (Jackie and Samantha Rosado and Courtney Chisholm/Devon Pimentelli) in the next two days so there probably won't be a national champion decided until Sunday in this division. Each of these three teams has been playing very well this week so tomorrow's battle between Berry/O'Brien and Rosado/Rosado could be something special.
In the Girl's 12 Singles, another match of the day took place in the quarterfinal between Virginia's Kelani Bailey, in her Junior Nationals debut, and yes, she is Malia's daughter, and Ohio's Abbey Lavely, a seasoned Junior Nationals participant and several time National Champion already. Abbey seemed to come out a step slow in this one and Kelani took quick advantage for a 15-2 win in game one. This seemed to fire Abbey up as she came back to the court for the second game. Jumping to a 9-1 lead, Abbey looked to be in control and ready to force a tiebreaker, but Kelani had other ideas. She slowly chipped away at the lead and even grabbed a short lived 11-10 lead, but Abbey perservered and came back for the 15-11 win to force the tiebreaker. In that tiebreaker, Kelani came out strong hitting some solid passing shots to both sides of the court keeping Abbey off balance. She grabbed a quick lead of about 5-2 and then seemed to stall. Mali a, at this point, started to get a bit nervous and was seen pacing around the court area and I just tried to stay out of the way and enjoy this match. They seemed to trade points for a while until Kelani got to 10-6. At this point, they started trading serves as neither player could get the elusive next point, but then Kelani managed to get it and Malia was the first to voice her approval. She now faces a semifinal match against Michigan's third seeded Mercedes Arias tomorrow. In the other half of the bracket, Oregon's Hollee Hungerford will take on California's Sabrina Viscuso for a spot in the finals.
In the Girl's 12 Doubles, the top two teams will face off tomorrow for the National Title as Hollee Hungerford and Sabrina Viscuso will team up to take on Ohio's Abbey Lavely and Colorado's Elizabeth Vargas. Abbey and Elizabeth took home the gold in the Girl's 10 doubles last year after beating Sabrina and her previous partner in a very exciting and very long lasting final match and will have to defeat Sabrina and her latest partner if they are to gain the win in their first attempt in the Girl's 12 Doubles.
In the Girl's 10 Singles, the top four seeds have all advanced to the semifinals and two of my Team Colorado players are a part of this group. Elizabeth Vargas will take on Oregon's Alecia Fladstol while Erika Manilla will challenge California's Ashley O'Brien for spots in Sunday's Finals. I watched each of these young ladies play today and all I can say is they will have some really good matches in this division tomorrow.
In the Girl's 10 Doubles, we've crowned our first National Champions of this year's event as Florida's Abby Carter and Kaitlyn Simmons of Maryland completed their sweep of this round robin division with an impressive 15-2,15-6 victory over the Boyle sisters of Oregon. Congratulations to Abby and Kaitlyn! They really played great this week.
In the Girl's 8 Singles, our match of the day here was the semifinal battle between Florida's Jordan Cooperrider and Michigans, Mary Zeng. These two played in the multi bounce division last year in Michigan, and I cannot recall who won. However today it appeared that Mary would be heading into the finals as she grabbed a 15-8 victory in the first game. But Jordan had other ideas as she displayed the heart that all of these kids have shown throughout this event to come back and win the next two games 15-6 and 11-4.
In the Boy's 18 Singles, the top four seeds are all through to the semifinals, but not without a major scare for the second seed, Jose Rojas. In another match of the day, Jose took on Nebraska's Jacob Hutkins. I didn't actually get to see this match but if you were fortunate enough to be logged on to racquetballonline.tv this evening, then you surely saw a great match. Jacob gave it everything he had, but Jose was able to gut out the 13-15, 15-5, 11-7 win to move on to the semifinals where he'll face Richard Sledzik of Massachusetts. In the other half of the bracket, top seed Allan Crockett of Alabama will face California's Ishmael Aldana for the spot in the finals and a spot on the US Junior National Team.
In the Boy's 18 Doubles, the top two seeds have advanced to the final Ishmael Aldana and Danny Lavely struggled mightily against Jacob Hutkins and Jansen Allen, but were able to fight through some struggles as they are playing a tournament together for the first time. They battled their way to a 15-14,15-9 victory and a matchup against Allan Crockett and Jonathan Doyle for a National Title and a spot on the US Junior Team. As fast as all these players are, I'm sure this final will be a lot of fun to watch.
In the Boy's 16 Singles, the top four seeds have advanced and again the number two seed, in this case Oregon's Taylor Knoth played in the match of the day. Taking on his doubles partner in Minnesota's Jake Bredenbeck, Taylor survived three up and down games for the 15-3, 9-15, 11-4 victory and a match against the player he defeated last year for the 14 Singles National Title, New York's Brad Kirch. The added bonus to this match tomorrow occured today with the arrival of Hall of Famer, Jim Winterton. Jim coaches Brad and will most likely be on the sidelines tomorrow alongside Taylor's coach and also Hall of Famer, Fran Davis. So the battle will be both on the court and off in this one and I know I can't wait to see the results. In the other half of the draw, Jose Rojas will take on 4th seed Trevor Snyders of Illinois for a spot in the Final on Sunday.
In the Boy's 16 Doubles, both of the semifinals were worthy of being called the match of the day as John-Craig Chisholm and Brad Kirch defeated Miguel Wiggins and Trevor Snyders in 3 tough games 9-15,15-9,11-1. Not to be outdone, Jake Bredenbeck and Taylor Knoth defeated Danny Lavely and Chad McGuffey also in three tough games. Scores were 11-15,15-4,11-2. So Brad and Taylor will meet twice tomorrow and therefore Fran and Jim will square off at least twice tomorrow as well.
In the Boy's 14 Singles, again the top four seeds are into the semifinals and they all did so today in fairly comfortable fashion. So in tomorrow's semifinals, Louisiana's Joseph Lee will take on California's Marko Rojas in a rematch of a classic match that occured in 2005 in Portland. In the other half of the bracket, top seed Dylan Reid of Oregon will take on California's Jose Diaz. All of these players are definitely playing beyond their years to this point and these matches tomorrow will certainly provide some highlight reel material.
In the Boy's 14 Doubles, the 4 singles semifinalists will get very familiar with each other tomorrow as the team of Joseph Lee and Dylan Reid will take on the team of Jose Diaz and Marko Rojas for the title and the spot on the Junior National Team.
In the Boy's 12 Singles, yet another match of the day as Colorado's Adam Manilla took on Oregon's Joshua Lebow for a spot in the semifinals. Adam came out and built a 3-1 lead in this one and seemed comfortable, but Joshua was shooting extremely well and keeping the pressure on throughout the first game. Adam was able to score the 15-8 win, but the amount of diving that he was doing was certainly concerning me. I walked away from this match for a couple of minutes and then I heard the referree call a score of "zero serving six". Naturally, I hoped that Adam was receiving serve, but when I got back to the match I say that Adam did in fact serve that particular ball. Once I returned to that court, Adam started to chip away at the lead. He got it to 5-6 before Joshua went on another run, but Adam again fought back from 9-14 to 12-14 before Joshua was able to put the game away. In the tiebreaker, Adam grabbed an early lead and refused to allow J oshua to get too close and he pulled away for the 11-6 win and a spot in the semifinals against his former doubles partner, Sam Reid of Oregon. That barnburner will take place tomorrow afternoon, and I will definitely be there to watch that one. In the other half of the draw, Oregon's John Lindsay will take on Louisiana's Zach Wertz for the spot in the finals on Sunday.
In the Boy's 12 Doubles, 3 of the four players will get very familiar with each other tomorrow as Sam Reid and his current partner, John Lindsay will take on Adam Manilla and his current partner, Florida's Sean Cooperrider for the title. Adam has won a National title in doubles in each of the past two Junior Nationals, one with Sam and one with Sean. In both cases, they were beaten in the semifinals at the Junior World Championships.
In the Boy's 10 Singles, the top half of the draw provided all the drama as Jake Birnel of Washington and Colorado's Matt McAdam met in yet another match of the day. Three very tough games ended with Jake squeaking out the 9-15,15-10,11-10 win and a spot in the semifinals against Matt's doubles partner, Sam Bredenbeck of Minnesota. Sam upset the top seed, Kyle Ulliman of Ohio to earn his spot in this matchup. The other half of the draw has played to form as second seed, Spencer Shoemaker of Ohio will take on third seed Ryan Francis of New Hampshire for the spot in the finals.
In the Boy's 10 Doubles, the top two seeds have advanced to the finals as Ohio's Shoemaker/Ulliman will take on the Minnesota/Colorado combo of Bredenbeck and McAdam for the title.
In the Boy's 8 Singles, the seeds really didn't hold here as only the top seeded Justus Benson of Wisconsin was able to secure a spot in the semifinals. In that semi, he'll face another Bailey in Malia's son, Warren. The other half of the bracket pits Minnesota's Jordan Barth against Oregon's Daryl Wainwright.
Tomorrow is going to be an amazing day of racquetball, but at the same time there will be many great joys and many great sorrows as the 2007 US Junior National Team will be determined, with the possible(more likely probably) exception of the Girl's 14 Doubles. While it is great to see the exhilaration that comes to the winners, sometimes it can be hard to watch the devastation that befalls the vanquished.
I certainly hope you're enjoying reading these updates and I do apologize that I haven't been able to provide pictures along with them. If you'd like to see some pictures of players alongside these updates, please check out the following website:
http://www.usra.org/Tournaments/2007JuniorNationals/tabid/3329/Default.aspxThe Banquet is tomorrow night, so the update will probably go out late tomorrow or early Sunday morning.
Every player played at least one match today at the 34th USA Racquetball Junior Olympic National Championships presented by Penn Racquet Sports and the matches were all very entertaining.
In the Girl's 18 Singles, they are down to the quarterfinals as all the higher seeds advanced with the exception of the 6th seed, Brittany Leggett of Oregon. Playing California's Sue Sublaban, Brittany's 1 year absence from Junior Nationals showed as Sue fought through 2 very tough games and the 15-14, 15-11 victory. Next up is the 3rd seed, Sharon Jackson from Indiana.
In the Girl's 18 Doubles, there was a very highly anticipated matchup as the reigning 16 World Champions, Holly Hettesheimer of Ohio and Sharon Jackson of Indiana took on Michelle Key of Arizona and Gabrielle Schnurman of Iowa. Again in two tough games Holly and Sharon were able to gain the 15-11, 15-9 victory and now can start to look forward to Saturday's match with Kara Mazur and Samantha McGuffey who are the defending champions in this division.
The Girl's 16 singles continued their round robin today as both Sheryl Lotts and Danielle Key earned 2 game wins to inch a step closer to their meeting on Saturday which could determine the champion in this division.
In the Girl's 16 Doubles, Danielle and Sheryl teamed up to gain an impressive victory today. I only saw a little of that match so I don't have the scores but they looked very much in control for that part that I did see.
The Girl's 14 Singles are now down to the quarterfinals and the match that caught my attention here was Ohio's Lily Berry taking on Idaho's Savannah McVay. Lily earned her first appointment to the US Junior Team last summer in Michigan and looked very much like she wanted to re-qualify for the team as she rolled to a 15-1, 15-1 victory. I honestly don't recall her missing a single shot in this match as she powered her way into a meeting with Connecticut's rising star, Samantha Rosado tomorrow.
In the Girl's 14 Doubles, we had a definite Match of the Day in the battle between the Rosado Sisters and Courtney Chisholm of Massachusetts and Devon Pimentelli of California. Courtney and Devon started this one very strong to gain the 15-6 win in the game one, but found themselves down 11-3 quickly in the second game. It appeared that this was headed to the tiebreaker, but they fought back with all they had to knot the score at 14. As they clearly had the momentum it looked like this one would now end in two, but they lost the serve and during a long rally, the ball struck Courtney after Devon had played her shot and just like that, we were on to the tiebreaker. That tiebreaker consisted of 2 big runs. Courtney and Devon went ahead 2-0 before Jackie and Samantha put together a 7 point run. When Courtney and Devon returned to the service box, they ran 7 points themselves before we settled into a 9-7 score for a full service rotation. Jackie and Samantha would get to 8, but they would get no more as Courtney and Devon finished the 11-8 win and can now start to think about their Sunday meeting with Aubrey O'Brien from California and Ohio's Lily Berry.
The Girl's 12 Singles will kick it into gear tomorrow with the quarterfinal matches. There was one match in this division today, but I didn't see it. I do know that Sara Leon of California beat Arizona's Nicole Ortega, but I don't have any other information on that match.
The Girl's 12 Doubles also played one match in this 3 team round robin as Oregon's Hollee Hungerford and California's Sabrina Viscuso defeated Oregon's Fladstol Sisters, Alecia and Victoria in two close games.
The Girl's 10 Singles also played one match today to set up the quarterfinals tomorrow as Kaitlin Simmons from Maryland defeated California's Julia Lanman.
In the Girl's 10 Doubles again just one match played as Kaitlin joined her doubles partner, Abby Carter of Florida to defeat the California team of Ashley O'Brien and Julia Lanman.
In the Girl's 8 Singles, they are down to the Semifinals as Ohio's Christina Lavely won a very tough match over Oregon's Sierra Reid by scores of 15-12, 5-15, 11-5. That victory sets up a semifinal with top seed, Erika Manilla of Colorado. The other half of the bracket has Florida's Jordan Cooperrider taking on Michigan's Mary Zeng.
On the Boy's side in the 18 Singles today, they are to the quarterfinals and I have to say that the top 4 seeds are all looking very impressive. None of them has dropped so much as a game to this point, but I would have to give a slight edge to Jose Rojas who just looks like he is totally in control of his matches from the moment he walks onto the court to warm up. He certainly has an air of confidence about him and yet he is the most humble individual away from the court. I talked with him briefly today and you would never know that he is just plowing through the field at this point.
In the Boy's 18 Doubles, they are also down to the quarterfinals and the top 4 seeds again are looking very strong as they haven't dropped a game between them yet. I haven't seen any of these matches yet, but will make a point to do so tomorrow.
In the Boy's 16 Singles, they are down to the quarterfinals and Jose Rojas is looking extremely dominant in this divison. The matchup that I am looking forward to, however, is the quarterfinal between doubles partners in Oregon's Taylor Knoth and Minnesota's Jake Bredenbeck. This should be a great match tomorrow, and is my early candidate for Match of the Day.
In the Boy's 16 Doubles, they are down to the semifinals and the top four seeds will battle it out. The match that I'm looking forward to in this one is the 2-3 battle of Taylor Knoth/Jake Bredenbeck against Ohio's Danny Lavely and Chad McGuffey. Danny and Chad won the World title in the 14 Doubles 2 years ago and Taylor and Jake just missed with a silver medal performance in the 14 Doubles last year, so this has the potential to be a very special match.
In the Boy's 14 Singles, again they are down to the quarterfinals and the top four seeds are looking very impressive. Dylan Reid of Oregon had a very good match today with Chase Stanley of Louisiana. I was very impressed with both players ability to retrieve seemingly killed shots, but in the end Dylan's consistency and strong shot selection kept his title hopes alive 15-10, 15-2.
In the Boy's 14 Doubles, they are down to the semifinals and it is looking like a finals showdown between Joseph Lee of Louisiana and Oregon's Dylan Reid and the California team of Marco Rojas and Jose Diaz. These two teams have just appeared to be a level better than anyone else in this division.
In the Boy's 12 Singles, they are down to the quarterfinals and Team Colorado's Adam Manilla is still on track in his quest for 2 gold medals. Adam played some absolutely great racquetball today to gain a hard fought 15-10, 15-3 win over California's Sawyer Lloyd. After that first game, Adam just seemed to turn it up another gear and Sawyer had no response. Also looking very strong today was the second seed, Sam Reid from Oregon.
In the Boy's 12 Doubles, they are down to the semifinals and the top two seeds have advanced but 3 and 4 were sent packing today.
In the Boy's 10 Singles, they are down to the quarterfinals and again a Team Colorado player has kept alive his dreams of 2 Gold medals. This time, it is Matt McAdam who looked very impressive in his 15-4, 15-1 victory over Wisconsin's Justus Benson.
In the Boy's 10 Doubles, they are in the semifinals and there is another Diaz/Rojas California combination looking to take home the title. They'll play the top seeds tomorrow and that match could be another match of the day candidate.
In the Boy's 8 Singles, they only had a couple of matches today and I didn't see either one. They, like all the rest, are down to the quarterfinals.
As I wrap up today's recap, I must say that I am extremely impressed with the overall level of play of each and every one of these players. There may have been some lopsided scores on the scoresheets, but points have still been difficult to come by. When all is said and done the players that will win the National Title in each division will have truly earned it.
I've been having problems connecting to the internet over at the Student Rec Center and so I cannot send pictures out at this time. I will continue to work on this problem tomorrow and hopefully have something out before the tourney ends, otherwise, I will send pictures out when I return home to Colorado early next week.
Greetings from Tempe, Arizona and the USA Racquetball Junior Olympic National Championships presented by Penn Racquet Sports.
The action kicked off bright and early this morning at the Student Recreation Center on the campus of Arizona State University, but I spent most of the day catching up with my "racquetball family". So first, I will give everyone a look at the seeds in the divisions this year. Of course, this year everyone wants to earn that appointment to the US Junior National Team as the Junior Worlds will be held in Cochabamba, Bolivia this coming December. Spots will be earned by the finalists in each of the World Cup divisions, and those are the 14s, 16s, and 18s for singles for the girls and the boys. There is still a great deal of debate about the Doubles teams, but my understanding is that the winning team in those same age groups will still earn a spot on the team, but their ability to join the team for the Junior Worlds in Bolivia will depend on fund raising. As I generally try to avoid the political aspects of the sport with these updates, I won't be sa ying anymore about that. After all, this tournament is all about the children and I'm all for that.
In the Girl's 18s, defending National and World Champion Michelle Key, from Arizona is the top seed. I spoke with her earlier today and she is looking forward to the challenge of defending both her titles and she got her tournament off to a good start by winning her 1st round in the Girl's 18 Doubles, which this year is a 5 team round robin. The second seed is Connecticut's Kara Mazur, who is a member of the National Championship team from the University of Alabama. Third seed is Sharon Jackson from Indiana, who swept the 16s last year and is looking for the repeat in her first year in the 18s. The fourth seed is Ohio's Samantha McGuffey who just wanted to play today. She'll get that chance tomorrow.
In the Girl's 16s, there is a 5 person round robin in the singles where Sheryl Lotts of Ohio and Danielle Key from Arizona are the seasoned Junior Nationals participants and Junior Team qualifiers.
The Girl's 14s is certainly loaded this year and should provide some great matches in the days ahead. Top seed is Aubrey O'Brien from California. She is also the defending champion and runner up from Junior Worlds. She is very motivated to earn another spot on the team to try and win that elusive World Title, as many of you will recall the final of the Girl's 14s at Junior Worlds was one of the best matches of the tournament. The second seed is California's Devon Pimentelli. She won the 12s last summer in Michigan and got her tourney off to a good start today in the doubles with a fairly comfortable win. The third seed is Samantha Rosado from Connecticut and the fourth seed is Courtney Chisholm from Massachusetts.
In the Girl's 12s, Oregon's Hollee Hungerford is the top seed as she takes her Gold Medal from the 10s last summer up into the 12s. Last year's beaten finalist in the 10s, Ohio's Abbey Lavely, is the second seed and she is hoping to reverse the order this year. The third seed is Mercedes Arias from Michigan, and she is my early pick to be the player of the tournament. The fourth seed is Samantha Simmons from Maryland, and I have to admit that I am not very familiar with this young lady.
In the 10s, Team Colorado's Elizabeth Vargas leads the way as the top seed. She actually played up in this division two years ago, so she is now in her third year looking for that elusive national title that would go so well with the bronze and silver medals she has earned the last two years. The second seed is Ashley O'Brien from California, she has made great strides from last year and is looking to follow in her sister Aubrey's footsteps with a title. The third seed is another of my Team Colorado juniors in Erika Manilla. She spent the day wanting to play, but her first match isn't until tomorrow. The fouth seed is Oregon's Alecia Fladstol.
In the 8s, Erika Manilla is looking to defend her title that she earned last summer. Since I do get to work with her and see her practicing, I know how determined she is and I'm just glad that I don't have to play her.
On the Boy's side in the 18s, defending champion Allan Crockett from Alabama leads the way. He was largely overlooked last year as he was in his first year in the 18s, but that didn't stop him from a very convincing win. He's being overlooked again so we'll just have to wait and see if he can successfully defend his title. The second seed is Jose Rojas from California who looks very determined, and he's going to have to be as he is also playing the Boy's 16 singles and these are the two biggest draws in the tournament. Chances are he'll be playing at least two full matches in each division for each of the next two days. I did speak with US Adult Team Head Coach, Dave Ellis, today and he said that Jose just can't get enough racquetball so the prospect of 4 matches in a day doesn't phase him one bit. The third seed is Rick Sledzik from Massachusetts who is in his final year of Juniors eligibility. The fourth seed is the World Champion fr om the 16s, Ishmael Aldana. I spoke with Ishmael today and he is very quietly confident, which is very much his style.
In the Boy's 16s, Jose Rojas is the top seed and defending Champion. Last year Jose and Ishmael split Nationals and Worlds and the difference was an 11-10 tiebreaker to Jose at Nationals and an 11-9 tiebreaker to Ishmael at Worlds. The second seed is Taylor Knoth of Oregon, who is moving up from the 14s and has some pressure already lifted as he has earned a spot on the US Junior National Team by virtue of his victory in March at the High School National Championships. The third seed is Brad Kirch from New York. He was the beaten finalist in the 14s last summer. The fourth seed is Trevor Snyders from Illinois.
In the Boy's 14s, another loaded division as Oregon's Dylan Reid has earned the top seed, but that just means a meeting with Louisiana's Chase Stanley who is back at Junior Nationals after a 2 year hiatus. That match goes tomorrow and is an early candidate for match of the day. The second seed is Louisiana's Joseph Lee who is always in the hunt at Junior Nationals. The third seed is Marco Rojas from California and he is just as hungry as his older brother, Jose, for that trip to Bolivia and Junior Worlds. The fourth seed is Jose Diaz from California, and he is looking to put a somewhat disappointing Junior Worlds behind him at this tournament.
In the Boy's 12s, John Lindsay of Oregon leads the way as top seed. John is all heart on the court and I know that he will give it everything he has to get the title. The second seed is Sam Reid from Oregon he also is John's doubles partner in that event. The third seed is a familiar player to those of you that regularly read these updates, he's my Team Colorado player and Ektelon's Junior Athlete of the Year, Adam Manilla. Adam swept the 10s last summer and has been playing extremely well lately, so I look forward to reporting his progress to you this week. The fourth seed is California's Bobby Sehrgosha, the beaten finalist in the 10s last year.
In the Boy's 10s, Ohio looks to have a stranglehold on this one as Kyle Ulliman and Spencer Shoemaker, respectively, have the top two seeds and they will be playing doubles together. The third seed is Ryan Francis from New Hampshire and the fourth seed is Jake Birnel from Washington state. Those two are moving up from the 8s where they were the finalists last year.
In the Boy's 8s, Justus Benson of Wisconsin has earned the top seed ahead of Indiana's Sean Henry, California's Mauro Rojas, and Ohio's Christian Ulliman.
As I said, I didn't see that many matches today, but some players that stood out were Minnesota's John Behm who took out the Third Seed today. Also, Mitchell Hardin of Ohio played very well in squeaking out an 11-8 tiebreaker win in the 12s today against Sean Cooperrider.
I will be out there for all the action tomorrow and will have more reports on the matches tomorrow night including pictures.
The action starts here in Tempe in a little while. I'll post a daily update sometime later on this evening with highlights of all the day's action. In the meantime, you can see matches streamed from the Championship Court live on: http://www.racquetballonline.tv
It's free to watch, so check out the future of this great sport competing for the right to be called National Champion.
On a side note, it's going to be 115 degrees here today, so if you're not here in Tempe, that isn't necessarily a bad thing!
Each player won the #1 singles at the High School National Championships this weekend in St. Louis, MO. Each has earned a spot on the Junior National Team.
Way to Go!
Just a quick reminder that the Lynmar Classic starts this Thursday in Colorado Springs. I will do what I can to get updates out to everyone during the event.
Each woman in the semifinals has a realistic shot at the coveted year end number one ranking, and so the tension was quite thick as Rhonda and Kerri moved to the Championship court and Christie and Cheryl moved right across the way to their court.
I called lines on the Rajsich/Wachtel match so that is the one I can talk freely about.
Kerri came out very strong in this one keeping Rhonda guessing and diving throughout the first game as her drive z to the right was falling perfectly in this one. She either got the straight winner off the serve or got the weak return for an easy kill quite frequently in this first game winning at 3.
As Rhonda walked off the court, her nose started to bleed so there was a little delay to the start of the second game. Rhonda certainly used that time to regroup as she came out on fire and jumped to an early 5-0 lead. Kerri was able to fight back to 5, but Rhonda had stepped up her game and wasn't about to fall two games down.
In the third game, it was a back and forth fight from the opening serve but Rhonda managed to stay at least one point ahead throughout to gain the win at 7.
Now trailing 2 games to 1, Kerri tried to regroup and come out strong in the 4th. Rhonda, however, had a different idea and jumped to a 5-1 lead. Kerri did fight back to 5 all but the effort seemed to take something out of her and Rhonda used that to rebuild the lead to 9-5. Again Kerri dug deep and again Kerri came back. Rhonda did serve for the match at 10-9 a couple of times and then Kerri gained the upper hand and moved to game point at 11-10. A timeout each and some truly great retrievals by Rhonda and solid shot making from Kerri kept the crowd on edge until Rhonda finally finished that match off 13-11.
The crowd then moved over to catch the end of Christie vs. Cheryl. Between the first and second game of Rajsich/Wachtel, I walked over to see what was going on and Cheryl was up 9-3 in the first game. I walked back over after game two and Christie had tied the game at 9. At first, I thought that they were in the second game as well, but it was just that good of a game, so I was sorry to have missed it. Cheryl managed to finish it off at 9.
That must have fired Christie up as I was told she came out very strong in game two and didn't really give Cheryl a chance winning 11-3. The third game had both players settled down and hitting solid shots throughout and 11 points weren't enough to settle it as each player was "in the zone". Christie managed to put together the final run at the end to win it 12-10 and take the 2-1 lead into the fourth game.
They moved the 4th game over to the Championship court as Rhonda and Kerri had finished. This and the lead in the match seemed to fire Christie up even more as she just didn't miss in this game. Her backhand was back to its devastating best and Cheryl just didn't have an answer on this day as Christie finished it off 11-4.
This sets up the Rhonda and Christie final at 4 this afternoon.
Both players looked very strong heading into this championship match in the 8th Annual Racquet for the Cure as they had each only lost 2 games on their respective ways to the finals.
Christie came out flat rolling everything in sight to build a 4-0 lead in the first game, and then she stalled. Rhonda slowly crawled back into the match and ultimately got the game to 5-5. At that point, Rhonda hit the momentum changing shot of that game. With the very lively Ektelon Red Fireball bouncing towards her left side as she ran to her right on the right wall, she reached behind her back and hit a perfect down the line pass that eluded a fully stretched Christie and the 6-5 lead. The players continued fighting on point for point for the remainder of that game until Rhonda put together the late run and the 11-9 win.
As the second game started, the crowd was hoping to see Christie tie things up, but Rhonda clearly had other ideas as she built a comfortable lead early and finished the game as quickly as she could. It seemed that Rhonda was just able to get everything and Christie felt the pressure as she was still hitting great shots, but she knew that they had to be even better to finish off a rally.
After the second game, most in the crowd had started to expect that this might only go 3 games, but Christie certainly had other ideas as she built another lead in this one. But again, Rhonda chipped away to square the game at 6 and then put together another run to bring herself to the brink of the title. Christie did manage to get the game back to 8, but Rhonda would not be denied and she gave a quick fist pump when the final point had been earned.
The banquet was another great event to finish off this long, but enjoyable, day of racquetball. A special thank you to Malia Bailey for coming out for the Racquet for the Cure and for sharing your story at the banquet tonight...there wasn't a dry eye in the house. It's always great to see you, and it was a lot of fun watching you play this weekend...she really played great! As did all the ladies pro and amateur.
What an incredible day of Racquetball here at the 8th Annual Racquet for the Cure in Denver.
The day started with the round of 16s at noon here. Fortunately, I happen to work a few blocks from the Denver Athletic Club, so I was able to take a long lunch in order to referee the match between Cheryl Gudinas-Holmes and Malia Bailey. Keeping in mind that I deal primarily with Juniors, I was a bit nervous calling this match, but both players played fair and hard and it turned out to be a great match.
Cheryl seemed to come out a bit on edge but she was definitely able to turn it up when she really needed it. Grabbing a slow 3-1 lead, it appeared that this wasn't going to be a quick match right from the start. Malia kept Cheryl off guard throughout this match with some great serves, especially serving to the right side and Cheryl's forehand. She got several weak returns or skips throughout the course of the match and you could feel the excitement in the club when Malia grabbed game 2 to even the match.
But Cheryl is still a very tough competitor and still in her prime so she was able to gut out the last two games by identical 11-6 scores.
The other marathon match of the 16s involved local Pro, Jo Shattuck taking on Miami's Vivian Gomez. This match happened to take place right next to the Gudinas-Holmes-Bailey match so I could hear everything that was going on as it happened. There were some truly amazing rallies and shots throughout the course of this one before Jo was able to pull it out in 4. Vivian had the lead in the first two games but was unable to close it out each time and fell 11,10, (6), and 3.
The other two matches in the noon schedule went fairly quickly as Christie Van Hees beat Candi Hostovich in 3 and Angela Grisar beat Kara Mazur in 3 tough games. The scores might have been a bit lopsided in these matches but the play certainly was not. Each match featured some great rallies that had the crowd throughout the club cheering their loudest. With that, the bottom half of the draw was set for 4 pm matches in the quarterfinals.
The top half then took center stage as Rhonda Rajsich started USA vs Mexico day with a match against Nancy Enriquez. Rhonda's play in the Play the Pro fund raiser last night had clearly gotten her motivated for this one as she didn't waste any time and won in 3 games 7,3, and 2. Nancy's doubles partner and friend Samantha Salas, however, was able to turn the tide and beat Diane Moore in 3 tough games to earn a quarterfinal match with Rhonda. In the other part of this bracket, Kerri Wachtel and Kristin Walsh each won today to set up a very familiar quarterfinal match. I may be wrong here, but I believe that they have met at every tournament so far this season. I'm sure Shannon will confirm that for me tomorrow morning.
At 4 pm, the quarterfinals started as Cheryl Gudinas-Holmes faced Jo Shattuck in the championship court and on the video stream. Jo gave it everything she had, but Cheryl had turned it up to another level for this one and ended it in three 6,1, and 4. She then headed straight across to the other match featuring Christie Van Hees and Angela Grisar.
I've been trying to think of the right words for a few hours now that would do justice to the titanic struggle that this one turned out to be. The rallies were amazing and long and almost every rally had me wondering what each lady would have to do in order to win a point as both ladies made some amazing retrievals and some outstanding shot making as well.
I've been on court with Christie a couple of times so I know firsthand that when she lines up a backhand, that rally is usually over. Angela, however, had a different game plan in mind and managed to anticipate that backhand throughout the course of this match. They split the first two games with each player winning fairly easily. Angela had grabbed a lead in the third and seemed to be on her way to the 2-1 lead, but Christie dug deep and fought through the pressure and the altitude to get that game. When that happened, it seemed to deflate Angela a bit and Christie turned it up in the 4th to close out the match. Scores were 4, (2), 9, and 7.
With that, the top half took to the courts again as Rhonda returned to the championship court to face Mexico's Samantha Salas. This one seemed to be a true dive fest as both players left it all on the court. Samantha showed that she is definitely well on her way to becoming a true force on the Women's Professional Racquetball Organization Tour as she kept Rhonda running and diving throughout. Luckily for Rhonda, she enjoys doing that and she was able to get the 7,(8), 5, and 4 to move on to the semifinals.
The other quarter featured Kerri Wachtel against Kristin Walsh. This match has been one of the fiercest all season, but on this day Kerri seemed to have a little more in the tank and closed Kristin out in 3 close games. Scores were 10, 4, and 8.
That sets up the semifinals tomorrow at 11am here in Denver. I believe the streamed match will be Rhonda Rajsich vs. Kerri Wachtel and right across the way will be Cheryl Gudinas-Holmes vs. Christie Van Hees. The finals will take place tomorrow afternoon at 4pm Mountain time. I have volunteered to serve as a line judge for one semi and the final, so I should be able to talk about those two matches at length in tomorrow's update.
The pros are currently playing in the Pro-Am Mixed doubles challenge. 8 local Open Men's players paid $100 for the opportunity to team with a Pro in a blind draw Mixed Doubles challenge with the winningteam taking home the $800 prize. The pairings turned out to be Kara Mazur and Woody Clouse as the top seeds. Malia Bailey and Anthony Herrera are the second seeds. They are playing this out to its conclusion this evening and those two teams are on court right now fighting for that top prize.
The action starts bright and early tomorrow morning so I will sign off for now.
There were only 2 Pro matches this evening as the ladies were pairing down to the round of 16 which will be played tomorrow starting at Noon Mountain time.
Tonight's matches featured a WPRO player taking on an Open Level lady from Colorado. My initial thoughts before either match started were that the altitude here might make a difference in the outcome. Then the matches started and I remembered that there is definitely a difference between Pro and Open level players.
In the first match, Malia Bailey of Virginia took on Janelle Williams. Janelle has the type of game that can certainly frustrate an opponent as she is always in the right place and plays the percentages, but on this night, nothing was going to stop Malia. She came out shooting incredibly accurate passes and pinches and took Janelle out of her element to claim the win in three games. Scores were 0,1, and 4 I believe. That win gives Malia a match with second seed, Cheryl Gudinas-Holmes tomorrow at noon. I was standing next to the two of them as they talked after the match, and Cheryl was clearly disappointed about having to play Malia right away. The two of them are friends and they both know that someone has to lose tomorrow, and of course, with the race for the year end number one up for grabs amongst so many ladies this year, every match from here on out carries just a little extra weight.
The other match tonight featured up and coming star, Nancy Enriquez from Mexico against Colorado Racquetball Association Board Member, Cindy Tilbury. Again, this match was dominated by the true Pro level player as Nancy kept Cindy on the run throughout. Cindy did string together some good shots here and there, but Nancy was clearly in control from the beginning and claimed the win in three games. Scores were 0,1, and 5 I believe. Didn't actually see either score card, but I thought I heard those scores along the way. That win earned Nancy a match with top seed, Rhonda Rajsich tomorrow at 1:15. I think that this match and the Gudinas-Holmes vs. Bailey match will be streamed on the internet at: http://www.racquetballonline.tv
After those matches, the Pros settled in to a fun evening of play as the Pro/Sponsor doubles paired the pros with a local event sponsor. I'd like to tell you that I can remember all of the teams, but I only cover the Juniors so most of the sponsors were unknown to me. Teams that I do know were, Junior Player Adam Manilla teaming with Chile's Angela Grisar. This was a different team as Angela played the right side since Adam is left handed. They played well but fell short of the goal. Another team was local legend, John Foust, who made a successful return from recent shoulder surgery, teaming with Ohio's Kerri Wachtel. They managed to get to the semifinals before bowing out. Also, USAR Board Member, Linda Mojer, teamed with Kristin Walsh.
The Final match (which had two lift tickets on the line) featured Indiana's Diane Moore and Ken Sylvester against Mexico's Samantha Salas and the Man in CO Junior Racquetball, Diving Dan Davis.
Unfortunately, the crowd was disappointed tonight as Dan refused to live up to his nickname and stayed on his feet all night and that probably cost them the title match as they were beaten 7-5.
After that, Rhonda took on all comers for $50 donations to the cause in games to 9. The kicker was that every point she gave up earned her opponent $5 back...so with the extra pressure on, Rhonda turned up her game and beat everyone by 9-1 scores...regardless, the beaten foes donated the whole $50 to this very worthy cause.
The action starts tomorrow at noon with 4 matches. Cheryl Gudinas-Holmes vs. Malia Bailey, Angela Grisar vs. up and coming Junior star, Kara Mazur, Christie Van Hees vs. Candi Hostovich and Jo Shattuck vs. Vivian Gomez. The top half of the draw plays at 1:15 and features Rhonda Rajsich vs Nancy Enriquez, Kerri Wachtel vs Michelle Earl, Kristin Walsh vs. Kimi Ferina and Samantha Salas vs. Diane Moore. I'm fairly certain of those matches, but if you'd like to check out the draw for yourself see the website at: http://www.ladiesproracquetball.com or the event website at: http://www.racquetforthecure.com
More tomorrow.
I've decided to take a break from shovelling snow to get this update out...I will provide pictures to some of you later on this weekend...if anybody would like to see pictures, please email me separately and I will do what I can during the weekend.
First, I would like to congratulate each and every one of the 301 players that came to Tempe, Arizona to compete in the 18th IRF Ektelon Junior World Racquetball Championships, and also congratulations to Team Mexico for defending their titles in the Junior World Cup (14-18 year olds) and the Espirit Cup (12 and under).
I didn't get to see all the matches yesterday, but I will report on what I know. And today we will start with the match of the day. The Girl's 14 Singles Final between Ecuador's Veronica Sotomayer and USA's Aubrey O'Brien. Both players gave it everything they had from the opening shot to the final point in the tiebreaker.
Aubrey came out strong in this one keeping the score close early in the first game with solid passing shots and near perfect splats forcing Veronica to play even smarter than she already does. Slowly, however, Veronica pulled away putting points together until she had won the first game 15-5. This didn't deter Aubrey one bit, as she fought through a point for point battle in the second game. The crowd continued to grow at the exhibition court as this match progressed and each rally ended with wild cheers from 1/2 of that crowd. The U-S-A cheer was even heard for the first time this tournament. So when Aubrey managed to get the 15th point in that second game, the US Team and all of their fans absolutely erupted, the noise was truly deafening. Aubrey came out strong in the breaker to build a 5-2 lead, but Veronica wasn't about to go away without a fight. She started ripping shots and quietly moved to match point at 10-5, but Aubrey wasn't about to let this world championship go that easily. She regrouped and managed to get to 9-10, each point ending with Aubrey pumping her fist to the crowd. You could feel the adrenaline in the air. At 9-10, Aubrey hit a great serve to get a weak return from Veronica, but she skipped the set up and Veronica was able to close out the win on the very next serve. The team from Ecuador erupted in cheer and took their celebration to the court, where they danced around and waved their countries flag for all the online fans in the world to see. Afterwards, I asked the Ecuador coaches when was the last time that Veronica had lost a game in tournament play. None of the coaches could remember, her mother didn't even know.
Veronica would be cheering again later on in the morning as she and teammate Maria Paz Munoz would officially claim the World Championship in the Girl's 14 Doubles with a fairly easy win over Mexico.
In the Girl's 18 singles, Michelle Key put an end to her disappointment from last year where she didn't get to play by winning the World Championship in this division. Michelle played very smart and controlled throughout this tournament and was truly deserving of the title. One she now looks forward to trying to defend next year.
The Girl's 18 doubles had been decided earlier after Mexico had beaten the US on Wednesday night to win the gold and give the silver to the US.
In the Girl's 16 singles, Mexico's Paola Longoria continued her domination of juniors with a straight games win over USA's Sharon Jackson. I didn't see this match, but I heard that Sharon stuck with her early on in the first, but pulled away late and kept the pressure on to win in two. All in all, it was still an excellent tournament for Sharon as she was still able to claim a world championship later in the day.
She and Holly Hettesheimer combined to defeat Paola and her doubles partner for the Girl's 16 Doubles title. Didn't see this match, nor have I heard anything about it as I was on the road back to Denver before it started.
On the Boy's side, Mexico's David Ortega continued his dominating run in Junior play claiming both the singles and doubles titles in the 18s. Chris Coy and Zach Apperson gave it all they had in that doubles final, but came up just a little short. It was clearly not the end to his junior career that Chris was hoping for, but he is one tough competitor and one high class individual. I am certainly honored that he was representing the US at this tournament.
In the Boy's 16 singles, Ishmael Aldana continued his strong tournament by taking out close friend and doubles partner, Jose Rojas for the title. They weren't quite able to complete the sweep of the division as Mexico was able to claim the doubles title.
In the Boy's 14s, Mexico was able to complete the sweep as Alex Cardona repeated the feat of teammate David Ortega by winning the singles and doubles avenging his loss to Jose Rojas last year in the singles by defeating Taylor Knoth in two tight games.
On the Espirit Cup front, in the Girl's 12 Singles, Team USA's Devon Pimentelli came up just short in her bid for a first World Title when she was beaten by Bolivia's Maria Jose Vargas. Team USA did manage to win the doubles title when Elizabeth Brenner and Samantha Rosado completed their sweep of the round robin competition.
In the Girl's 10's, one of the Gonzalez sister's won the event. To be honest, they are twins and I cannot tell them apart so I'm afraid I have no idea which girl won the title.
In the Girl's 8s Mexico claimed both the Gold and Silver in this round robin event with Team USA's Erika Manilla bringing home a bronze medal.
On the Boy's side, Marko Rojas was a one man wrecking crew in this tourney as he swept to the singles and doubles titles. He now moves up to the 14s and is looking forward to his first bid to qualify for the US Junior World Cup team. He is also one very talented young man who could be the next big thing on the IRT tour.
In the Boy's 10s Mexico ended up Gold and Silver and Team USA's Adam Manilla brought home the bronze in both singles and doubles. Adam truly was the personification of the heart that this entire Team USA showed during this World Championships. I am extremely proud of him and glad to know that he really had a good time at this tournament despite his very tough, close losses in the semifinals of both the singles and doubles. He did gain a little consolation when he and mixed doubles partner, Hollee Hungerford from Oregon claimed the World Championship in the Mixed Doubles.
The Boy's 8s were dominated by Mexico, but both Ryan Francis and Jake Birnel showed that they have some serious talent to contend with as well.
As I get to the wrap up portion of this update and the tournament in general, I feel it is very important to mention how lucky we are to have the current US Junior Team coaching staff in place. They are an inspiration for our kids and for us all in their behavior and their demeanor. They added a couple of new faces this year, but they never missed a beat. I only hope that they will continue on in this venture for many years to come. They all share a true passion for this sport and a true dedication to each and every player on their team...our team. For those of you that don't know who they are:
Kelley Beane - Head Coach
Cheryl Gudinas
Kristen Walsh
Andy Pitock
Shane Wood
Charlie Pratt - Coach in training
Jen Meyer - 12 and Under Coach
Now that we are at the end of the year, I figure I might as well hand out my "unofficial" year end awards for this tournament. This is entirely my opinion based soley on the matches that I saw this past week.
Female Athlete of the Year World Cup Age - Michelle Key. I was so sad for her last year when she couldn't play in the tournament due to fears about a recurring hamstring injury, and she just put it all out there every match this week to claim the title in the Girl's 18 Singles.
My runner-up here is Sharon Jackson who was all heart all week.
Male Athlete of the Year World Cup Age - Ishmael Aldana. To lose like he did in Juarez was tough, but he fought through all that this year and had a great tournament to take home the title.
Female Athlete of the Year Espirit Cup Age - Devon Pimentelli. I had no idea who she was at the opening ceremonies, but watching her play, I can tell that she has some serious game.
Male Athlete of the Year Espirit Cup Age - Marko Rojas. Two world championships and a dominating performance at this tourney make him the clear cut choice.
Match of the Year - Female - World Cup Age - Sharon Jackson over Yazmine Sabja in the Girl's 16s. Sharon trailed bad in all three games but still fought back to win it. My runner up here is the Girl's 14 Singles Final Veronica Sotomayer over Aubrey O'Brien.
Match of the Year - Male World Cup Age - Ishmael Aldana over Ruben Estrada. All the motivation and being his second tough match of that day.
Match of the Year - Female - Espirit Cup Age - Ximena and Lucia Gonzalez over Abbey Lavely and Elizabeth Vargas - Girl's 10 Doubles. They went into this one both undefeated and Abbey and Elizabeth played their best match of the tournament but were still beaten in two tough games by the Mexican sisters.
Match of the Year - Male - Espirit Cup Age - Adam Manilla over Pablo Sauma in the Boy's 10s quarterfinals. Watching this one, you would have thought that they were both playing on the IRT tour, it was that good of a match.
That's all for now...pictures later.
Another amazing day of racquetball as we've now reached the finals in all divisions. For awhile it looked like they weren't going to make it on the Boy's side of things, but they were able to get the quarters and semis completed today, and the overall World Cup is going to come down to the matches tomorrow between the USA and Mexico. Several divisions will have this matchup so I'm sure you can imagine what the atmosphere will be like.
Today in the Girl's 18s, Michelle Key played some solid racquetball in defeating Mexico's Marcelo Moreno to set up her final against the other Mexican player, Karen Torres. Michelle is definitely excited about the challenge and is playing hitting the ball extremely well right now.
The Girl's doubles finished their play in this round robin with a tough match with Mexico. The Mexican team of Eleni Guzman and Marcela Moreno came out strong a jumped to a 6-1 lead in the first game. Kara Mazur and Samantha McGuffey fought back to 6-6 before Mexico went on another run to 9-6 and then to 12-9. The Americans continued to chip away, but were only able to get to 12 before the Mexican team put the game away. That only seemed to fire Kara and Samantha up as they refused to miss anything in the second game. Consequently, the 15-0 score was appropriate for what went on in that game. Now it was the Mexicans who were fired up. Team USA had the serve first in the tiebreaker, but it was the Mexicans who took the early 3-0 lead. Kara and Samantha got it back to 3-2 on their next serve, and then we stayed there for quite a while. I believe there were 3 complete rotations of serve before Mexico got the next point, and once they did that they didn't stop until they reached 11. They still have a match against Canada tomorrow, but I think that they have already clinched the Gold Medal.
In the Girl's 16s, we had the match of the day as Sharon Jackson took on Bolivia's Yazmine Sabja, who had lost to Aubrey O'Brien last night in the 14s. Sharon came out red hot in this one to grab a 4-0 lead on her first serve. However, things changed very quickly as Yazmine found a serve she liked and got a great run of points going. She ended up taking a 9-4 lead before Sharon attempted to regroup with a timeout. She was able to get herself back into the match and slowly chipped away getting to 9-12, then Yazmine brought herself to 14. But Sharon refused to give in right away and got back to 12 before Yazmine put away the first game. In the second game, Sharon appeared out of sorts as Yazmine kept her off balance mixing up her serves. Eventually, she pulled ahead 9-1 and things were looking a bit bleak. But Sharon Jackson is all heart, and this was clearly displayed today. She fought with everything that she had and chi pped away until she had a 14-12 lead. That lead was short-lived as Yazmine got it back to 14 before Sharon could finish off the game. It appeared as if the momentum had made its final move over to the Team USA side, but Yazmine had other ideas, this time she jumped to a 6-1 lead in the breaker. But Sharon fought back leaving it all on the court. The shots by both players were outstanding, but in the end Sharon wanted it more and she took it 11-9. Sharon now faces Mexico's Paola Longoria in the final in yet another USA-Mexico matchup.
In the doubles, Sharon Jackson and Holly Hettesheimer defeated the Canadian team of Christine Richardson and Erin Baldwin to advance to the finals against Mexico.
In the Girl's 14s, Team USA and Team Mexico each had one player in the semifinals and each girl had to play a girl from Ecuador. Aubrey O'Brien looked sharp today in beating Maria Paz Munoz, while Veronica Sotomayer was able to get a comfortable win against Jessica Parrilla. Aubrey will now try to end Veronica's strong run at Junior Worlds, where it appears she has never lost a match. I heard that earlier today, but haven't had a chance to go back and verify that information.
The doubles team of Lily Berry and Danielle Key played the Ecuadorians (Munoz and Sotomayer) today and fought bravely in two tough games. However, the pressure put on by the young girls from Ecuador proved too much as they won a very long lasting 15-6, 15-12 match. In the second game, the Ecuadorians served for the match 3 full times before they could achieve that elusive 15th point. Looking at the standings, it appears that Ecuador will win Gold, Mexico Silver, and the US Bronze in this event.
On the Boy's side the 18s will come down to a battle of Mexicans as both Alejandro Landa and David Ortega advanced to the finals. Chris Coy and Allan Crockett gave it everything they had today, but each ran up against a truly determined opponent and neither had an answer on this day. I talked with Chris shortly after he lost to Costa Rica and reminded him that there was still gold to play for in the doubles.
In those doubles, Chris and Zach Apperson had a true battle with last year's beaten finalists, Michael Burgess and Ryan Smith from Canada. This match was a very close one from start to finish as Chris and Zach gained the win 12 and 12 to set up another USA-Mexico final as they will battle Ruben Estrada and David Ortega tomorrow for the gold.
In the 16s, Jose Rojas continued his quest for two world championships by displaying his dominating style in the quarters and semis of the singles giving up 8 points in the quarters and 9 in the semis. In that final, he'll face his partner and close friend, Ishmael Aldana. Ishmael had two battles on his hands today as he first faced Costa Rica's Felipe Alonso. Knowing that he needed to conserve energy and not go to a tiebreaker, he fought back bravely from deficits in both games to win 13 and 13. This set up a semifinal match against Mexico's Ruben Estrada. I found out later from talking with Shane Wood that Ishmael had been pointing to this match for a year.
Last year, in Juarez, Mexico, Ishmael was not 100 percent when the Junior Worlds started, but being the person that he is, he decided to tough it out and do the best he could for the team. In the end, he faced Ruben prior to the finals and didn't play well. The scores were something along the lines of 2 and 1. Ishmael has lived with that for a year, and you could see when he gained the final point of his 14 and 10 win that he was thrilled to have that monkey off his back. He is looking forward to meeting his friend for the gold, and hoping to reverse the order of finish from Junior Nationals where Jose brought home the gold.
In the doubles, Ishmael and Jose defeated the Canadian team of Barrett Husulak and Sean Barclay in the semis to set up another USA-Mexico match for the gold.
In the 14s, Taylor Knoth will be looking to sweep the event as he earned a spot in the finals with a 6 and 5 win over Costa Rica. This sets up another USA- Mexico match as Alex Cardona was able to beat Brad Kirch in the other semifinal. Alex will be looking for some form of revenge as he was the beaten finalist last year as Jose Rojas grabbed the World Championship in Alex's home country.
In the doubles, Taylor and Alex will get to know each other very well tomorrow as they will face off here as well with their partners for the gold. These matches could very well determine the overall World Cup.
I don't know the overall scores heading into tomorrow, but I do know that the teams are close.
On the Espirit Cup side today, in the Girl's 12s singles Devon Pimentelli had the day off but will face Bolivia tomorrow for the gold.
In the Doubles, Elizabeth Brenner and Samantha Rosado defeated Ines Lecland and Mercedes Arias and have clinched the World Championship.
In the Girl's 10s, Hollee Hungerford gave it all that she had in the semifinals todays against Mexico's Lucia Gonzalez, but lost in two tough games. Lucia will meet her sister, Ximena, for the gold tomorrow.
In the doubles, Abbey Lavely and Elizabeth Vargas defeated Hollee Hungerford and Victoria Fladstol to set up their meeting with the Gonzalez sisters for the Gold. Abbey and Elizabeth have looked pretty strong this week and are hoping to avenge last year's defeat down in Juarez.
In the Girl's 8s, Erika Manilla has clinched at least a bronze after her win over Christina Lavely today. She'll face top seed, Diana Aguillar, tomorrow and a victory could bring home the gold. It could come down to a tiebreaker.
In the Boy's 12s, Marko Rojas is on the same mission as his older brother, Jose, as he claimed a spot in the finals where it will be another USA-Mexico matchup.
In the doubles, Marko and Jose Diaz have earned a spot in the finals and will take on...you guessed it...Mexico for the gold.
In the 10s, a very tough day for Adam Manilla. He gave it everything he had, but came up just a little short in the semifinals against Mexico's Andres Parilla...the IRF staff took great pleasure in announcing Manilla and Parilla to the court before the match started, but it was fairly apparent that the two titanic struggles that Adam endured yesterday had taken their toll on him as he appeared a bit sluggish and out of sorts throughout this match. Although he did manage to win the first game, he just couldn't seem to find the right shot in the second or third game and lost out 10 and 5. But no complaints from him, he had a really good tournament and will go home with at least 2 bronze medals and is still in the running for the Mixed Doubles Gold.
The doubles has two Mexican teams fighting for the gold tomorrow.
In the 8s, again two Mexicans will battle it out for the gold.
Originally, I had planned on leaving tomorrow fairly early as I have some things to do in Denver on Friday, but it looks as though the current storm will be preventing me from getting home on time so I will be there for the whole day tomorrow and will then be able to put out some form of update later on. We're going to be driving to Albuquerque tomorrow night, so it'll probably be late before I get this update out, but I will do what I can...including pictures.
What an amazing day of high quality racquetball. The atmosphere definitely kicked into gear today. The drums and noisemakers haven't made an appearance yet, but I'm sure they aren't far behind. As such, I'm going to break with my protocol of covering the ladies first by going with the match of the day.
It took place in the Boy's 10 quarterfinals between Costa Rica's National Champion, Pablo Sauma, and the US National Champion, Adam Manilla from Colorado. This match took place over 9 hours ago, and I can remember every shot moment by moment. It didn't start very well for Adam as Pablo found a slight chink in his armor and exploited it relentlessly in the first game. Adam just couldn't get untracked and Pablo ran out to an uncatchable 10-1 lead. Adam fought back to 3, but kept Pablo from clinching the game for several serves giving him a glimmer of hope for the rest of the match. When word started to spread that Adam had lost the first game, the crowd went from a few people from the US and Costa Rica to the vast majority of people in the club. I kept looking behind me to see even more people trying to find some vantage point to watch the action.
Game 2 started much differently, as Adam started hitting some great shots and Pablo seemed to hurt his hip with an early dive. Adam was able to capitalize on this and built a strong 8-2 lead, but then momentum seemed to turn again as Pablo inched back in to this game. Pablo got the game back to 10-7 when they seemed to trade amazing shots for quite a while. I didn't have a clock going on the match, but I know it was a long time. Finally, Pablo broke through with his eighth point, and the crowd started to sense the upset. Fortunately, I know Adam and am aware of how totally unflappable he is. He stayed calm and level throughout this game and slowly...and I do mean very slowly finished Pablo off 15-10. Both players left it all on the court in this one as each rally seemed to have both players diving for amazing retrievals multiple times each rally.
The tiebreaker was a very tense event as the crowd continued to grow. By now, very few people were watching any of the other courts and the players saved their best for this atmosphere. Adam came out and slowly built a 5-1 lead in the tiebreaker and eventually got the score to 8-5. At this point, I could see that Adam had determined that he was through giving up any points and he was able to chip away with some truly amazing shots from all over the court and the 11-5 win. To put things into perspective, as Adam and Pablo were walking onto the court to start their tiebreaker, Veronica Sotomayer from Ecuador was starting her first round match in the Girl's 14 elimination draw on the very next court. Veronica was finished with her match, changed, and enjoying some food long before Adam and Pablo stepped from the court.
Now for the rest of the story. In the Girl's 18s today, it was a mixed day for Team USA. Michelle Key was able to beat Ireland's Julie Skehan in two games, but Ashley Willhite lost a tough tiebreaker match to Canada's Christine Richardson. Ashley just couldn't seem to calm down in this one and was left devastated by the result.
The Girl's doubles team of Kara Mazur and Samantha McGuffey defeated the Guatemalan team of Carolina and Monica Escobar in two good games, and will now face Mexico tomorrow where a win would give them the gold in this 5 team round robin. As I've said earlier, these two are amongst the toughest competitors that I've seen and I know that they will definitely leave it all on the court tomorrow.
In the Girl's 16s, again a mixed day as Sharon Jackson eliminated one of the Mexican players when she beat Rocio Enriquez in two games. Sharon looked to be in control of this match from the outset as she powered shots all over keeping her opponent totally off balance. However, Sheryl Lotts lost a tough match to Bolivia's Jenny Daza. Sheryl seemed out of sorts in this one and never really got comfortable.
The Girl's 16 doubles team of Sharon Jackson and Holly Hettesheimer had the day off and will play in the semifinals tomorrow afternoon.
In the Girl's 14s, the mixed day theme reappeared as Aubrey O'Brien battled in the Match of the Day runner-up. Playing Bolivia's Yazmine Sabja, she too started slowly losing the first game 15-3. Coming back strong in the second, she forced the tiebreaker with 15-11 win. The tiebreaker was a point for point struggle as neither player was able to build any real lead or any real momentum. Then Aubrey was able to break a 6-6 tie and run 3 points. But Yazmine managed to scratch and claw her way back to 9-9. Taking her last time out, Aubrey returned to the court determined and managed to get the 10th point, but had to wait two service times before the 11th would follow and the 11-9 win, setting up a semifinal with Ecuador's other 14s player, Maria Paz Munoz.
The Girl's Doubles team of Lily Berry and Danielle Key defeated the Venezuelan team 11-5 in the tiebreaker and have an excellent chance for some medal. They face the tough Ecuadorians tomorrow.
On the Boy's side, in the 18s Allan Crockett defeated Costa Rica's Bruno Casalvolone in two to set up a quarterfinal with the top seed, Mexico's Alejandro Landa. Chris Coy defeated Ireland's Christopher Carey.
In the Boy's Doubles, Chris Coy and Zach Apperson defeated the Venezuelan team to set up a semifinal meeting with Canada's Michael Burgess and Ryan Smith.
In the Boy's 16s, a good day for Team USA as Jose Rojas and Ishmael Aldana both won their way into the quarterfinals in the singles and also teamed in doubles to gain a spot in the semifinals where they will face Team Canada's Barrett Husuluk and Sean Barclay.
In the Boy's 14s, another good day for Team USA as Taylor Knoth and Brad Kirch both advanced to the quarterfinals in singles and then Taylor joined forces with Jake Bradenbeck in the doubles to advance to the semifinals.
Last year in Juarez, Team USA swept the gold in the Boy's 14s and this year's team is looking for the repeat.
On the Espirit Cup front, the Girl's 12s had a semifinal meeting of the 2 US point earners as Devon Pimentelli managed to defeat Samantha Rosado in a very tough match. Samantha came out on fire, but couldn't maintain that momentum throughout the second game and Devon showed great patience to battle through and advance to the final where she will face Bolivia's Maria Jose Vargas.
In the 12 Doubles, Mercedes Arias and Ines Lecland received a forfeit victory and Samantha Rosado and Elizabeth Brenner defeated the Mexican team to set up their meeting tomorrow. If Samantha and Elizabeth win, then they will earn the gold.
In the Girl's 10s, a mixed day as Hollee Hungerford managed to defeat Ashley O'brien to advance to the semfinals, but Abbey Lavely lost a tough match to Mexico's Diana Aguilar.
In the doubles, Abbey Lavely and Elizabeth Vargas had the day off but are on track for a Thursday meeting with the Mexican team of Lucia and Ximena Gonzalez for the gold.
In the Girl's 8s, Erika Manilla had a true battle with American Jordan Cooperrider but managed to get the win 12 and 14. If she wins out, the she could force a 3 way tie at the top of this 6 person round robin.
Christina Lavely played a great match today as well but lost a tough one to top seeded Diana Aguilar.
In the Boy's 12s, Marko Rojas kept alive his dreams of gold as he advanced to the semifinals in the singles defeating Ireland's Daire Gargan in two and then teamed with Jose Diaz in the doubles to advance to the semifinals as well beating the Mexican team of De los Rios and Jurado 14 and 9.
In the Boy's 10s, you've already read about the match of the day, but Adam played in two great matches today as he and Sean Cooperrider played in the semifinals against Mexico. Adam and Sean came out strong and managed to win the first game 15-13. However, the Mexicans changed their strategy and found a weakness to force the tiebreaker 15-2. In that breaker, Mexico jumped to a 7-0 lead before Sean erased it in one stint in the service box, but unfortunately, Team USA could go no further and lost out 11-7 in the tiebreaker. They have earned the Bronze medal and Adam is one very tired young man. His singles semifinal is tomorrow morning at 7:50 and I for one am very excited already.
The Boy's 8s have fallen out of the Gold division and I have no idea what they did today, so I would encourage everyone to check the draws online.
The banquet is scheduled for tomorrow evening so I will try to get something out to everyone before then, otherwise, it'll be late.
What an incredible day of racquetball, the action was non stop and this was just the last day of pool play. The rest of the tournament promises to be very exciting as we now move to the single elimination portion of the Junior World Cup.
Head Coach Kelley Beane mentioned that the team was still doing well and everyone is looking forward to the next phase of this tournament.
In the Girl's 18s today, teammates Michelle Key and Ashley Willhite met in pool play to determine final placement in the main draw. These two had a point for point battle throughout the match. And once again, Michelle Key managed to get the win in three very tough games 10, (12), 9. Both ladies hit some great shots throughout this match, but Michelle seemed to be able to put together a few more runs in the end.
The doubles team of Kara Mazur and Samantha McGuffey were just getting ready to start as I was leaving so I am not sure what happened in that match.
In the Girl's 16s, we had the match of the day involving Sharon Jackson and Canada's Denise Haynes. This match was also one of the longest of the day lasting close to 2 hours. Denise got off to a very hot start in Game one grabbing a quick 5-2 lead. From that moment she seemed in control of the match as she was able to parlay that into a 15-5 first game victory. But Sharon wasn't going to lose without a fight, and game 2 certainly proved that. Point for point from start to finish, Sharon was able to gut out the victory and force the tiebreaker 15-14. That tiebreaker had the Student Rec Center rocking as each rally had half of the crowd exploding with cheers. In the end, Sharon had a little more than Denise and was able to gain the 11-6 victory. Afterwards, coach Beane told me that this one was all heart on Sharon's part. I have to agree.
Sheryl Lotts also faced a Canadian opponent in Frederique Lambert. In this match, Canada was able to turn the tables and Frederique grabbed the win 6,2. Sheryl was able to get all the nerves out in the pool play, and she is now looking forward to the main draw starting tomorrow.
The doubles hadn't started when I left (after 13 plus hours in the facility) so I would again encourage everyone to check the draws online.
In the Girl's 14s, another split day as Aubrey O'Brien defeated Mexico's Yesenia Malvaez while Danielle Key lost a tough tiebreaker match to Mexico's Jessica Parilla. I don't have the scores for either match, although I do know that Danielle lost the tiebreaker 11-7. Aubrey looked particularly sharp in this last match before the real show begins.
The Girls doubles team of Lily Berry and Danielle Key lost a tough one to Mexico (Parrilla/Magdelena) in two close games.
On the Boy's side in the 18s, Allan Crockett led off with his match against Canada's Michael Burgess. In warmups, this looked like it was going to be quite the battle, but when the action started Michael was ready to play and Allan had an off day. Michael jumped to a big lead in the first game and continued the momentum into the second winning by scores of 6,1. Allan was obviously disappointed after this match, but he was able to put it into perspective when he told me that it's better to get this out of his system now in the pool play rather than later in the week in the main draw. Chris Coy was just taking to the court when I left, so again, please check the draws.
In the doubles, Chris Coy and Zach Apperson were victorious over the Irish team of Christoper Carey and Colm O'Regan to win their pool and clinch the third seed in the main draw.
In the 16s, Team USA enjoyed a 3-0 day as Ishmael Aldana started things off with a tough 10,6 win over Canada's Sean Barclay. Sean came out on fire in this match, but Ishmael was able to whether the storm and claim the win.
Jose Rojas came out firing on all cylinders early to grab a 6-0 lead against Canada's Barrett Husuluk, but Barrett had something else in mind when he came back to take game one 15-13. That effort seemed to drain him, though, and Jose rolled through the second game and tiebreaker 3 and 4.
In the doubles, Ishmael and Jose were able to beat the team from Ecuador to win their pool and move into the main draw as the second seeds.
In the 14s, Taylor Knoth and Brad Kirch both won their matches and their groups fairly convincingly to move into the main draw as the first and third seeds, respectively.
In the doubles, Taylor Knoth and Jake Bredenbeck won their match today and their pool to move into the main draw as the top seed.
On the Espirit Cup front, the girl's 12 singles players had the day off as they are in the semifinals. However, the doubles team of Mercedes Arias and Ines Lecland had a very tough battle with the team from Bolivia today. Playing hard throughout, the Americans lost in two very close games.
In the Girl's 10s, the singles will resume action tomorrow with quarterfinal round matches. In the doubles, Abbey Lavely and Elizabeth Vargas managed to win a tough tiebreaker match against fellow Americans Sabrina Viscuso and Ashley O'Brien. This match was tough as all the parents were there cheering on all the players and nobody seemed to want to step forward and coach the girls for fear of showing favortism, but they all perservered and a great match was the result. The tiebreaker ended 11-3 for Abbey and Elizabeth.
The Girl's 8s players enjoyed a day off today, but will be back at it bright and early tomorrow morning.
In the Boy's 12s, Marko Rojas continues to roll through the field winning today's match 4 and 0. However, doubles partner and fellow singles point earner, Jose Diaz lost a tough match against Mexico's Rodrigo Garay 10 and 14.
Jose was able to regroup though for the doubles as he and Marko teamed to win over Mexico's De los Rios and Jurado 14 and 9.
In the Boy's 10s, Adam Manilla has made it through to the quarterfinals, but he got all he could handle today from Costa Rica's Nicholas Arguello. Adam built big leads in both of the games, but seemed to stall both times allowing his opponent to chip away. In the first game, Adam got to 14-9 and served for the game more times than I could count. Eventually Nicholas tied it at 14, and they both served for the game several times, but each serve was met with an even better return before Adam was finally able to put the game away. It looked like the same thing would happen in game two, but Adam was able to regroup and claim the win at 9.
The Boy's doubles were off today, but will be back at it with the semifinals tomorrow evening.
The Boy's 8s had the day off today and both American point earners are currently playing in the Blue division.
