FOUR GUYS, FOUR SETS Jon Dixon, Matt Moore, Spencer Creech and I got together for a friendly round of tennis Sunday afternoon at Whitley Park in Zebulon. I wish there had been someone there to help us off the court. We played three grueling sets of round robin – switching partners each set – but apparently that wasn’t enough. We had to play one more grueling set that went down to the wire. Matt and I (I Spy) took on Jon and Spencer (The Dominators) in the first set. I Spy dominated the first two games for a 2-0 lead, but that was about it. Spencer’s serve was devastating, as usual, and Jon’s serve, even though he’s not played in about three weeks, was difficult to return as well. The Dominators dominated the next four games and went up 4-2. Matt and I did manage to win another game and cut their lead to 4-3, but Jon and Spencer put the hammer down on us in the next two games to win the set 6-3. Jon and I (The Educators) teamed up against Matt and Spencer (The Young & Restless) in the second frame. Jon Dixon was flat serving his ass off in this set. I think I saw it laying there on the court when we left about two hours later. He had several aces and several more that were simply not returnable. I think he’s been practicing somewhere and just not telling us about it. The Educators jumped out to a 3-0 lead before The Young & Restless won the fourth game to cut our lead to 3-1. With Jon’s strong serving and baseline game and my masterfully sporadic play in all facets of the game, we put the pedal to the metal and ripped off three more wins to take the set 6-1. This didn’t sit well with Matt and Spencer and I had a feeling we’d hear about it later. Spencer and I (The Annihilators) hooked up for set three against Jon and Matt (The Graduates). The first two sets featured a ton of good, long points and games that went back and forth at the end so we were all fairly tired at this point, but once that ball is served for the first point of the first game of a new set? Look out! All that ‘tired’ falls off, well, most of it, anyway, and we get after it like we just started. At least it feels that way to us. Nobody backs down. Nobody slacks off. It’s a new set with a whole new set of possibilities. The Annihilators took the first two games and thought they were going to breeze right through The Graduates. Up 2-0, Spencer and I lost the next two games to Jon and Matt and stood tied at 2-2. Not much annihilating going on here. We traded wins in the next four games and stood there looking across the net at each other tied again, this time 4-4. Spencer and I worked hard the next two very long and strenuous games to take the set 6-4, but it was no walk in the park. All three sets were hard-fought and well-played. Usually, we are done at this point, but Spencer felt like he and Matt could make a better showing against Jon and me than that second set blowout of 6-1. Jon and I didn’t think that was the case, so we sauntered back out onto the court for a fourth and final battle. Apparently, Spencer wasn’t just making small talk with his remark because after four tough games we were all tied up at 2-2. And after four more tough games, we were tied again at 4-4. As luck, fate, and the tennis gods would have it, The Educators prevailed again over The Young & Restless by taking the next two very tough games for a 6-4 victory. I wasn’t kidding when I said I wished someone had been there to help us off the court. There was no sitting around on the bench going over what we should have done or could have done and no bragging about what we did do. We all crawled to our vehicles and carried out tired asses home. “Enjoyed it. Bye,” was about all I heard. Let’s play some more! Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday…
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 01:19:43 +0000
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