Evenfall in October

Mark your calendars for October 15. The pros and ladies of A1 Lower Cedardale Green are steppin' out. Meet at Best of Boston restaurant and bar, Evenfall, in Bradford at 7:00. Dress code: Nothing with Dri-Wicking fabric or a Nike swoosh. Don't even think about sneakers. Tennis bracelets are optional.

**Designated drivers likely needed.

September 19, 2008

Lob

verb (used with object)
1. Tennis. To hit (a ball) in a high arc to the back of the opponent's court.

Ok. But how do we defend against a Lob Queen? According to USTA.com, "the answer to this query is dependent on the players' athletic ability, tennis skill, mobility, and teamwork, as well as the exact type of lob hit."

• The net person hits the lob if 1 - The lob is a decent/bad one (not one that lands right near the baseline) and she is more athletic and/or is a much better player than her partner or 2 - The lob is fairly short, within a couple of steps of the net player.
• The baseline player hits the lob if 1 - It is a very good lob right near the baseline or 2 - If she is a much better player than the player at net.

Basically, we have two shot options: take it outta the air with an overhead smash OR lob it back. Coach Vern has suggested, too, that we can agree ahead to just cover each other's lobs. Onward ladies.

September 12, 2008

Cedardale Green vs. Lynnfield, Friday morning match. Newly formed partnerships and new players to the team served up one respectful first match and brought home an overall dead-even point tie. Vern is pleased. Now, at the beginning of the season, it seems like the perfect time to qualify the following concerns:

One - No need to apologize when you tattoo someone UNLESS you tattoo your own partner AND it results in an injury. At this level of play it is your opponent's responsibility to keep her racket up.

Two - We all know that tattooing is really accidental anyway because according to HRH Jeannie, Queen of the Tattoo, when you actually do take aim in order to hit that rotten linecalling, snotty attitude, skirt wearing opponent you can't!

Three- You never, ever need to proclaim that you really are a nice person (whether or not a tattoo is involved) because we also know that we ARE nice people. Cap'n Shawn said so. Plus, Dorian has noted that the more someone declares that they "really ARE nice" the less likely it is to be true.

Ok. I really don't know exactly how to phrase this, so I'll just put it out there. Kristine is having cravings. I don't know why, and maybe it's just too early to know. BUT, when wet cement and other foul industrial/construction odors at the Boston Sports Club smell like baked goods from Cinnabon, well, you have my attention.

Thank you thank you to Betsey for driving to Lynnfield to support the team, and kudos to everyone for kicking off the season with great team camaraderie and play...

September 8, 2008

Monday morning practice and the beginning of our North Shore A1 Lower 2008 run. Under the direction of Coach Vernon (who has declared us the BEST team playing out of the club) enter the Tennis Women of Cedardale Green: Cap'n Shawn Licari, Liz Torrisi, Julie Menezes, Arlene Iosif, Jeannie DeLuca, Kristine Sheehan, Marybeth Sampson, Danielle Tjalsma, Dorian Brown, Leslie Bisson, Lisa Raess, Ann Tavener, Jill Formichella, Betsey Natale, Susan Dwyer, and your blogger, Kathy Nielsen-Dube. And we are ready to play: we voted in our captain, picked our team colors, and after having Leslie, PLAYER DOWN ON COURT ONE!!, show us how the follow through on the serve is really done, we are equipped with ice packs, bandaids, and steri-strips. Yeah, we're ready...