Combo league

Tonight was my first night back on the match court since Districts last month. I had a lot of confidence coming off my district wins, but I was a bit nervous considering I hadn't played an actual match since July 20, nor have I had a lesson since before then.

And my winning streak...is over. Or is it? It may be redeemed through a technicality, but I lost the match.

This was a combo league match at the 6.5 level. A team match consists of three individual doubles matches. Each doubles team should be made up of one 3.0 and one 3.5 player, thus the 6.5 'combination'. However, since most 3.5s want to play 7.5, most of these teams are just a bunch of 3.0s.

I was actually supposed to play on court #1 with a 3.5, but her car broke down on the Beltway. We also had a missing person, so our captain did a quick redo of the line-up, and I ended up on court #2 playing with a friend of mine who I've known a long time, but we've never actually played together as a team. We both partner the same person though, and we soon realized we both are ad court players. We had some communication problems, but that is usually to be expected when you haven't played with someone before.

We just couldn't get it together though. We got handed a couple of breadsticks by our opponents, who were just outplaying us. Me and my partner weren't bad, the other team was just better.

Now, for the technicality. Because this league does have a state playoff, all teams and players are supposed to be registered on Tennislink before playing a match. On a whim, I checked the other team's roster, and on of our opponents was not on there. I called the captain and sent a few emails right away, because I know this opposing captain, and I know she is fully capable of pulling a fast one. Why is this so important? Well, an unregistered player causes a default, which would be an automatic win for us on that court. Since our #1 team also won, that would reverse the team score for a win for us!

But I still really lost a match, bringing my fabulous end of season winning streak to an end. I suppose it had to happen sometime. I consoling myself by browsing ebay for tennis dresses.