WIN Wins Mid-Atlantic!!!

[Ft.S]

Washington InterNationals (WIN) team under @leech leadership, who put together a superb team, just clinched the Mid-Atlantic Sectionals at NewPort News, undefeated no less!

Well done WIN and @leech, congratulations!!! Time to prepare for nationals now

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Washington InterNationals (WIN) team under @leech leadership, who put together a superb team, just clinched the Mid-Atlantic Sectionals at NewPort News, undefeated no less!

Well done WIN and Chris, congratulations!!! Time to prepare for nationals now

Congrats. Any surprises? Any nailbiters or cliffhangers?

 

[Ft.S]

There were few for sure, I'll let @leech chime in when finds the time. I played one singles match, got the first set, up 5-4 second set and receiving, next game lasted close to 15-20 mins with ~20 deuces There were lots of cheering from my teammates, which helped me hang in there and close it out 6-4

 

[schmke]

Interestingly, of your 15 courts played, just two didn't go as expected, and one was a very minor upset as a match tie-break was expected, although that did give you your 3-2 win. Although it looks like you could have lost that court and still advanced.

 

[BeyondTheTape]

@leech . captain of the year candidate.

 

[Ft.S]

Interestingly, of your 15 courts played, just two didn't go as expected, and one was a very minor upset as a match tie-break was expected, although that did give you your 3-2 win. Although it looks like you could have lost that court and still advanced.

As usual, very perceptive Your reports to us showed likeliness of the win, but it is always a little different once you get on court of course. I was surprised of those two losses as well, and personally I was not expecting them to be even that competitive. Even in my case, I should not have struggled as much as I did, I am just glad it was a win after all.

 

[Cindysphinx]

Congratulations!

 

[leech]

Congrats. Any surprises? Any nailbiters or cliffhangers?

The primary cliffhanger was finding out which teams were most impacted by Sectionals being pushed back two weeks due to Hurricane Florence! Our team was impacted, but maybe not to the degree that some of our opponents did. One team had to default courts in two of it's matches (but had a full lineup vs us, ha).

One big surprise was that I expected our last opponent to be undefeated coming into final match, but they got upset the day before. Schmidt had calculated a 0.09 difference in the Top-8 averages for the two teams, and the "weaker" team won. By virtue of their loss, we had to win just two courts in the final match to clinch.

 

[schmke]

Based on who actually played, the "weaker" team was actually favored to win 3-2 in that match. Top-8 averages are a good predictor, but if a team doesn't play their stronger players or gets bad match-ups, you will see upsets.

 

[mmk]

There were few for sure, I'll let @leech chime in when finds the time. I played one singles match, got the first set, up 5-4 second set and receiving, next game lasted close to 15-20 mins with ~20 deuces There were lots of cheering from my teammates, which helped me hang in there and close it out 6-4

Good job Ft.S

 

[leech]

There were few for sure, I'll let @leech chime in when finds the time. I played one singles match, got the first set, up 5-4 second set and receiving, next game lasted close to 15-20 mins with ~20 deuces There were lots of cheering from my teammates, which helped me hang in there and close it out 6-4

Some context to this. FtS had won the first set 7-6 and was up 5-4 in the second set. But a ball fell out of the score tender, so to observers who arrived in the midst of his epic 20-minute close-out game, it looked like FtS was down 0-4 in the second set. So we had no idea that each of his game points was actually a match point, ha. We were cheering hard for FtS (and sometimes his opponent, who is a friend of mine) regardless, as they had a ton of 10+ shot rallies in sweltering heat.

Although the team had already taken three courts in that match, winning his court was huge, as it enabled us to clinch Nationals the following day even if we took just two courts in our final match. And allowed us the option to sit our best player, who is self-rated, in the final match, and avoid taking any unnecessary risk in getting him DQ'd.

 

[OnTheLine]

Some context to this. FtS had won the first set 7-6 and was up 5-4 in the second set. But a ball fell out of the score tender, so to observers who arrived in the midst of his epic 20-minute close-out game, it looked like FtS was down 0-4 in the second set. So we had no idea that each of his game points was actually a match point, ha. We were cheering hard for FtS (and sometimes his opponent, who is a friend of mine) regardless, as they had a ton of 10+ shot rallies in sweltering heat.

Although the team had already taken three courts in that match, winning his court was huge, as it enabled us to clinch Nationals the following day even if we took just two courts in our final match. And allowed us the option to sit our best player, who is self-rated, in the final match, and avoid taking any unnecessary risk in getting him DQ'd.

That description is a great endorsement of @Ft.S !
Sounds like y'all have a really good team both in terms of skill (made it to nats) and clearly good managment on your part! Congrats.