Our destination was Orlando, Florida, for the first time, the UAA, would be played, on a neutral site, with
the promise of great weather. This was a great move by the UAA home office and ensured us to be in 80 degree weather. I was excited for the trip and felt like our team was ready to go.
Brad Jaffe, aka:slideroo, and member of the NCAA 2003 championship team, drove up 3 hours to come watch our team play. Brad was one of the better competitors I have ever had the pleasure of coaching. Brad was not the greatest practice player, but shined when the lights came on. Brad loved to compete, and to this day, he still loves the game, and would play for me today, if he still had some eligibility.Recently, Brad and his wife, had their first child, a baby girl, beautiful Isabella Grey Jaffe. Congrats!!!!!!!!!!
The biggest concern going into this tournament was our health. Goody was still suffering from muscle strain, and for the first time, Potts was ailing. Potts did something to his knee against ABAC, and had been uncomfortable for the week of practice leading up to the tournament. We have the best training staff in the country, and, they worked on his knee the entire week. He was definitely not a 100%, but he Pott's is a warrior, and this was not going to stop him from competing.
Day #1 Rochester
Our first match was against Rochester, especially in doubles. Our main goal was not to be sloppy and stay sharp. The best news of the day was Potts was feeling better about his knee.
Day #2 Case Western
In the past, Day 2 would have been easy, but as I stated before, we can no longer take these teams lightly. Case Western, coach by young, Todd Wojekowski, has done an amazing job turning this program around. Match time was scheduled for 9am, we arrived at 8am for warmup, these guys already had a full lather going. I could tell they were going to come after us.
Case came out firing in doubles. We got down early breaks at 2 and 3, but were thankfully, playing well, at 1. Case's best spot was at 2 doubles, and they ended up taking the point. At 3, Potts and Kowalski, battled back from breaks to secure us a 2-1 lead going into singles. Singles was pretty much straight forward. We played well, and were able to secure a spot in the finals.
Day #3 Wash U
Wash U was having a down year for their expectations, but Roger Fullmer, is a good coach, and even, though they were projected to lose in the semi-finals, they managed to pull out a huge 3-0 deficit win against Carnegie to put them in the finals.
Emory vs. Wash U matches are like the NFC east football games, records don't matter, because rivalry between the 2 schools will almost always, make the matches close. Once again, doubles was going to be key, and it was critically important for us to set the tone early. On paper, we it was clear that we should dominate, but an 8 game doubles pro-set, can change that in a blink of an eye.
Fortunately, we took a 2-1 lead going into singles. We lost at 1, but were able to coast at 2 and 3. Pottish had a very tough opponent at 1, but once again, he was too much, and more importantly, his knee looked to be good going into our stretch run. Goody, at 2, played one of his better matches, against a very tough player, and ended up winning in straight sets. Wagner, at 4, took awhile to get going, his opponent is a very good and cagey player. He was frustrating Wags by moon balling, but once Ian found his rhythm and patience, it was over. At 5, Halps, played a talented young freshman, great ball striker. Halps, was too much as well, going undefeated all week. At 6, Ruds, was really struggling going to into the tourney, but his focus and tenacity, helped him play his best tennis in the finals. Last match, was Kowal at 3 singles. Kowal was playing another talented freshman, and managed to drop the first set, before, finally winning a marathon 3rd set breaker.
It was a great performance for our team and a UAA title. Potts was awarded MVP of the tourney, and Jaffe was given the title, ugliest golf swing in the world, next to mine.
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