Ping Pong Tourney
There was a ping pong tournament at school today that I was fired up for. There's some pretty stiff competition among the regulars that play in between classes and the tournament was no diferent. The way they decided who would play who in the 1st round was they picked names out of a hat. To set the stage... my top 3 regular players are Rob 1st, me 2nd, and Gary 3rd. I was thinking in the back of my mind "Please don't let me play one of them in the first round." So Matt Kaminski started pulling names and mine came first. The 2nd name that came up..... Gary. So I instantly had to get fired up. He got out to an incredible start... jumping out to leads of 11-4 and 14-6. He was absolutely KILLING my backhand... which is my weak spot. So when it was 14-6 it was my serve because you switch after every 5 serves. I figured in order to have him not hit it to my backhand I would have to serve it to his backhand... because thats a wicked hard shot going cross court on your backhand... especially with a hard serve. So I took all 5 of my service points which made it 14-11. I briefly took the lead at 19-18 but he took the next 2 points which set up a match point for him. So when a player is down a match point... he serves until he loses or ties the game. I tied it up after a long and dramatic rally and let out a sigh of relief. I'm not going to get into the tiebreaker rules because its really complicated... but what it basically comes down to is you have to win by 2. So I continued serving but he won the next point to make it 21-20. Another rule is that you can't lose on a bad serve. And I was sooooo grateful for that because I flat out lost control of my serve. I can't explain it. I hit like 5 serves that bounced on my side and then over... it was rediculous. I guess i just choked or something. But the 6th one i finally got over and won the point. Tie game again. I was still serving and caught a HUUUUUGE break. I served it and it just nicked the back line. 23-22 me. So now the serve went over to Gary because he was down a match point. A controversial play resulted. He served it and he hit it off the edge of the back line on his side. It was a fuckin lob ball that I should of smashed to end the game had I been in my right mind... But it landed on my side and i grabbed it and threw it back to him thinking it was a bad serve. I immediately realized my blunder but didn't make a big stink about it because I was hoping Matt would change the call. What he ruled was that if you hit the back edge of the table... its out of play and the ball is dead. I'll tell ya right now.... thats bullshit lol. I caught a huge break. So it didn't really matter at that point because you can't lose on a bad serve. So it was still 23-22 me. He almost did the same thing on his next serve but it just hit the back edge and went flying. So he served it again, I had a nice return to his forehand and he returned it into the net and I had won. I mean it was a championship calibur match... and it was the 1st round. I honestly would of rather played him later on in the tourney because it sucks that 1 of the top 3 players in the school has to bow out in the first friggin game. So in the second round I played Andy. He had played well earlier in the day and he actually beat Gary twice earlier in the day so I thought I was in trouble. But I won that one 21-13. It was a pretty borng match actually. So in the semifinals I played this kid Ryan who I either have a reeeeeaaallllly tough time with or i flat out kill him.... I think it usually depends on his mindset. What I've noticed from playing him this year is that if you can get an early lead against him he gets all pissed and pretty much melts down. So I knew the volley for serve would be crucial, as crazy as that sounds, because he has a tough time with my serve. I jumped out to an early 8-0 lead and went on to roll 21-9. Onto the finals. It shaped up the way it should... the best player vs. the 2nd best.... Rob vs. Ricker. It was pretty close early on.... it was 8-7 at one point. My nerves started kicking in tho and I knew I would have to control them in order to have a chance. He took the lead 15-10. But that turned the serve over to me and I took the 1st 4 points and made it 15-14. But I had an untimely bad serve which made it 16-14 him. The lead grew to 20-6 and on match point I served it to his backhand... he had a nice return... I just got a piece of it and lobbed the return over to his side and he promtly slammed it down my throat to win it. I didn't have a hissy fit like I usually do when I lose... I went over and shook his hand and said "you're flat out better than me bro." I mean.. I felt like I played pretty damn good but he was just better. I was happy tho. I played pretty well and I was satisfied that I lost to a better player... if that makes any sense. But he got a 30$ gift certificate to the mall and I got a 20$ one.