As for the match, well, I’ll go so far as to offer some picture of what happened. In doubles, Kiril and Al played another solid match and knocked off the number one Penn State team, despite one of their opponents’ persistent grunts about the lucky and fluky shots that Al and Kiril kept hitting, which in actuality were probably pretty typical shots for them. At number two Reid and I played arguably our best match of the season, cleaning up 8-3, including a bizarre shank overhead that I was incredibly lucky to make on break point against us (especially since it came after 2 or 3 complete duff volleys in a row). Torsten and Holland were down 7-2 but fought back the 7-6 when the match was then stopped since we had clinched the doubles point 2-0 (in this tournament format they were stopping all doubles play once the point was decided).
Singles wise, it was a good day. Kiril played awesome at line two even though he was sick the whole weekend. Reid won two pretty close sets to knock off his big serving but erratic opponent, who was quite entertaining to watch with his bizarre attitude and colorful reactions to any good shots Reid hit (as if Reid should not be allowed to hit any good shots…How does he think Reid got to be ranked so high in the first place?). Anyway, Jared fought through to win in straight sets as well, pulling out quite a few close games and showing some inspiring flare. Reid’s win gave us the 4-0 win, and with our flight less than 2 hours from departure, my match was stopped midway through the second set, along with Torsten and Holland’s matches that had only just gotten underway (a consequence of there only being four courts…)
And yes, we missed most of the Superbowl, but we did catch some of the second half in the airport, until we had to board our flight and missed the last few minutes of the game…Not like we missed anything interesting though, I mean what actually happened after it was 20-14 Pittsburgh late in the 4th?
Quotes of the Trip:
I want to take the opportunity to offer some of the best quotes from this weekend, spoken by some of the truly unique characters on our team. I will leave the quotes anonymous, but I think they can help give a glimpse of some of the humor that was pervasive during our travels this past weekend.
“Hey, name five countries in South America” Response: “Brazil, Argentina, Portugal……”
“Do you want me to get you a cookie? I’ll go get you a cookie. I don’t want a cookie, but I’ll go get one for you, ok?”
Dining Highlights:
Foccia Luna in State College right down the street from the Courtyard Marriot where we were staying. Highly recommended, great pizza, the salmon was quite a hit as well.
Dining Low Point:
Ruby Tuesday’s. I know it’s harsh to say, but in comparison to any similar chain restaurants (Chili’s, Applebee’s, Olive Garden, Outback) it’s really lacking. Do they really need to just add like 4 lbs of cheese or butter to every dish, and even then it still doesn’t taste good?
Best Bonding Location:
The hotel hot tub. I wasn’t too keen on it so I didn’t actually go, but that was the place if you were soul searching, or so I heard.
Trip Theme:
Emergen-C fizzing drink mix. Whether you were one of the sick people on the trip or not, you were likely having at least 2 packets of Emergen-C per day, with some people having upwards of 6 or 7. 32 Vitamins and Minerals, you going to argue against that?
We leave on Thursday to play Illinois on Friday night, and then on to South Bend to face the Fighting Irish on Sunday. They are going to be battles, but I have a good feeling about them, and we owe both of these teams some revenge from the last two years. Wish us luck, and thanks for your reading and keeping up with our progress throughout the year.
Until next time,
Dylan Arnould
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