It was the ladies turn to shine tonight and they did just that in their quarter final match against One Health. After watching both the men’s and women’s teams competing over the last couple of weeks in their play-off matches, i’ve noticed some significant differences between the two teams. I narrowed it down to my top 3 favourites and here is what i’ve discovered some of the very obvious differences to be…

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The women came out very prepared, they had double checked that they had packed all their equipment, made sure their racquets had been re-gripped, brought their proper court shoes and arrived ready to play. On the men’s side, well let’s just say that I found JP desperately rummaging through the lost and found bin 20 min before his match looking for his shoes he had left at the club the day before. That pretty much sums it up.

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I took note of some the the comments the women made on court during their match. They included “good shot”, “wow, nice get”, “great boast”. In the men’s matches I heard comments that included “oh, come on”, “I totally could have gotten that” and the most ridiculous of all…”baby food”.

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Both the men’s and women’s matches had long rallies but the women didn’t appear to be tired until the 4th or 5th game. The men on the other hand were completely exhausted after the first game (sorry JP) and used every excuse possible to have a chance to catch their breath. Jordan took it to extremes to and walked all the way down to the doubles court water fountain in between games just to give himself some extra time!

Here is the recap from the evening…

Philloza and Karen were up first. Karen decided she was going to make a statement about how the night was going to go by winning the first game 15-1! The other two games weren’t quite as quick but there was no doubt Karen had control the match and she got the job done. On the other court, we all took one look at Philloza’s opponent with her tall stature and giraffe like long legs (don’t get me wrong, they were very nice legs) but I have to admit, I was a little worried. Well no way was Philloza going to be intimidated, she controlled the T brilliantly and volleyed all the loose balls which had her opponents giraffe like long legs running like crazy all over the court. That is until the 3rd game…Tied at 1-1, I had a little chat with Philloza to give her some tips in between games. I told her to make sure she hit the ball deep to the back. Well, it turns out she took my advice literally because in the 3rd game, she hit every single ball to the back and didn’t hit a drop shot the whole game. Oh no, I had some major damage control to do. I quickly let her know after losing the next game that she still needed to hit her awesome drop shots right after hitting the ball deep to the back of the court! 3-2 win for Philloza (phew…I may have been out of a job for that one)

Next up was Joanie and Deb. We all knew that the night could easily come down to games or even points but we didn’t dare say that out loud out of fear of making the ladies nervous. Nerves was definitely not an issue for Joanie as she had a solid plan. I’m not sure if Joanie’s opponent knew if she was on a squash court or a volley ball court with all of Joanie’s overhead smash winners and unbelievable dives to retrieve the ball. Joanie’s comment to me going into the 5th game was that she was going to “leave it all the court” and she did just that. She gave it her absolute best but unfortunately fell short with a 2-3 loss. What a match though!!

Deb on the other court knew that it was her job as the number one player on the team to secure their position in the next round. She had her opponent running in one direction while strategically hitting the ball in the other direction…can you say “TAXI”! Deb had fantastic shot selection and kept the ball deep before hitting numerous winning drop shots. 3-0 win for Deb. Victory for Pickering!

See you on the courts,
Nicole

Incredible tactics, shot selection and court movement were on display by the guys during the semi-final matches against Master Fitness and Squash last night!

Darryl and JP were the first two players to start off the evening. Both of our players stepped on court focused and ready to “take care of business”. Unfortunately, Darryl’s match ended before he even had a chance to get into the match when his opponent had to default because of a self inflicted injury in the first couple rallies of the first game.

On the other court, JP started with a significant lead in the first game by putting pace on the ball and hitting tight shots. I’m not sure if the oxygen levels were low on his court or if he had been out in the sun all day but he was looking a little red in the face after winning the first game. Hmmm…maybe chasing his two year old son around doesn’t help with his cardio as much as he may think! Either way, there was no way JP was going to have to play more than 3 games so with his three wall attacking boasts (which I don’t always recommend) and his killer low drives, JP did what he knew how to do to win the match 3-0. I think those treadmills are down the hall to the left if i’m not mistaken. 🤔

2 wins and 3 matches to go…
Next up was Jordan and Praveen. Jordan literally ran around the court like a gazelle giving his opponent a tour of all 4 corners of the court. His opponent was no slouch as he desperately dove numerous times to retrieve some of Jordan’s shots. Just like an animal hunting his prey, Jordan was steady, patient and used every opportunity to completely exhaust his opponent before taking him down 3-0!

On the other court, Praveen was clearly not messin’ around. As the famous quote goes “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”, this was how Praveen played his match. He glided effortlessly around the court and when the opportunity arose, he attacked every loose ball without hesitation to win the match 3-0. There was no “baby food” being served up by Praveen last night!

Pickering had officially won the night before Scott stepped on court to prove that the best was yet to come…I’m sure his opponent took one look at Scott’s intimidating forehand swing before deciding that he would concede the match. Victory for Pickering!

Pickering will now compete in the finals at Mayfair Lakeshore on Wednesday March 25th at 6:30! Please come out and cheer on our club! I will be heading down to watch if anyone would like to meet me in Pickering and carpool.

Next up is our Women’s D team playing in the quarter finals in Pickering tomorrow night at 7:20. Come out and let’s cheer the ladies on!!

See you on the courts,
Nicole