New York Buzz vs. Delaware Smash
by Christopher Gerby
After running their road record to a perfectly awful 0-5 with a loss
to the lowly Philadelphia Freedoms, the New York Buzz returned to
the friendly confines of Schenectady's MVP Stadium. The team is, by
any reasonable standard, in shambles. Doubles specialist Don Johnson
is still AWOL with a wrist injury. Rising star Shenay Perry is fresh
off a humbling 5-1 loss to unheralded Elena Tatarkova. And Justin Bower,
the team's emotional core, came down with nasty flu-like symptoms on the
way back from Philly. Not a promising state of affairs for the Buzz as
they prepared to face the Delaware Smash, the league's only undefeated
team.
A key to the surprising success of the Smash has been the play of
Liezel Huber and Samantha Reeves, WTT's top-ranked women's doubles
tandem. The irony of that would not be lost on anyone who witnessed
their gamesmanship-drenched battle in Schenectady last summer. At the
time, Huber described Reeves as "very annoying," but that was back when
Liezel was still a member of the Buzz. Speaking of which, the team's
failure to retain her services is a point of some consternation. "The
day before the draft I still thought I was coming back, just because I
hadn't had word that I wasn't," Liezel told us. "I'm sad that I'm not
back. It's nothing of my doing... I love this town and I loved the
other team members, so it was very surprising and very sad for me that
I didn't come back, but in the same breath, I joined a great team and
made new friends."
First set: men's singles -- Justin Bower vs. Paul Goldstein
After splitting a pair of singles meetings on this same court last year,
Justin Bower of the Buzz and Paul Goldstein of the Smash settled in
for the rubber match. The early games went with serve, but not as
comfortably as the scores would make one think. They were both grinding
out there, sparring their way through patient, deep-hitting rallies.
Leading 3-2, Bower had his best chance to break, pulling ahead 30-40.
A nice rally ended when Bower netted a backhand, so Game 6
would come down to a singer winner-takes-all point. It was a classic,
with Bower controlling the action until Goldstein came up with a
spectacular running forehand pass on the dead run. All of his Smash
teammates, along with coach Brad Dancer, jumped to their feet in
unison as Goldstein raised a triumphant clenched fist.
An exchange of holds after that forced the set into a tiebreak. It
started very poorly for the ailing Bower, who blew a routine smash,
yanked a forehand wide, and framed a backhand. Goldstein added
insult to illness, executing a drop volley with underspin to go ahead
4 points to 0. Facing a handful of set points, Bower dumped a half-volley
in the net. The 5-0 tiebreak win for Goldstein was a lopsided end to
what had been a closely contested, entertaining clash.
OVERALL SCORE: SMASH 5, BUZZ 4
Second set: women's doubles -- De Villiers/Perry vs. Huber/Reeves
The "back row rowdies" (four boisterous young men who are always
perched at the top of the grandstands on the scoreboard side) threatened
to steal the show from the players in this set. They sang, chanted,
taunted the opponents, supported the Buzz, and otherwise drew as much
attention to themselves as possible. Huber and Reeves, meanwhile,
played some very sharp doubles to take a 3-2 lead for Delaware. Shenay Perry
saved a break point in Game 6, but groaned loudly after reflexing a
volley wide to fall behind 2-4. Before long, it was set point. Reeves
directed a smash at young Perry, who blocked the ball wide and gave
her racket an angry end-over-end bounce. The Huber/Reeves express
rolls on, 5 games to 2.
OVERALL SCORE: SMASH 10, BUZZ 6
Third set: men's doubles -- Bower/Rudman vs. Goldstein/Humphries
Friends for the past 15 years, Justin Bower and Shaun Rudman won in
their first two appearances as a WTT doubles team. Would the third
time be a charm? Sure looked like it after Bower held at love and
Rudman hit a blistering return down the line for a 15-40 lead against
Scott Humphries in Game 2. Humphries battled back to 40-40, however,
and won the game when Bower accidentally clocked his partner in the
back of the head with a return. This was a source of obvious
disappointment for one of the back row rowdies, who screamed, "The
Buzz is my only passion! I love you, Nannie!" (Nannie de Villiers,
who wasn't even playing in this set, looked up and smiled.) Without
another break point in sight, the set advanced to a tiebreak.
- JB serving: Humphries rips a cross-court return winner -- 1-0 SMASH
- JB: Bower can't dig out a half-volley. He takes the second ball out of
his pocket and rifles it high into the air, out of the stadium, into
the surrounding woods. Needless to say, he draws a ball abuse warning
from the umpire. -- 2-0 SMASH
- SH: Goldstein hits Rudman with a volley and apologizes -- 3-0 SMASH
- SH: Bower's forehand pass is just long -- 4-0 SMASH
- SR: Nifty touch volley winner by Bower to stay alive -- 4-1 SMASH
- SR: Bower knifes a winning backhand volley -- 4-2 SMASH
- PG: Goldstein closes it out with a service winner -- 5-2 SMASH
OVERALL SCORE: SMASH 15, BUZZ 10
Fourth set: mixed doubles -- De Villiers/Rudman vs. Huber/Humphries
With Justin Bower under the weather and already in street clothes by
the end of intermission, Shaun Rudman got the call for mixed doubles.
If you're scoring at home, this would be the Buzz's fifth different
mixed doubles combo (Johnson/de Villiers, Becker/Perry, Becker/de Villiers,
Bower/de Villiers, Rudman/de Villiers) in ten tries. Early indications
are it's not a keeper. With Scott Humphries absolutely murdering the
ball and Liezel Huber painting the corners with her serves, Delaware
jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
An overrule went against the Buzz in Game 4, prompting a strenuous
argument from Nannie de Villiers, who's been a picture of simmering
frustration all season. She held her serve, though, and the Buzz
changed ends, greeted on the other side of the court by the back row
rowdies. Their ranks had swelled to six, with a woman now in
their midst. (Curiously, though, she's not the one who yelled, "I
love you, Rudman!") Humphries held for 4-1, the game ending on a bizarrely
bad line call. Nannie once again got in the face of umpire
Candy Pantano, who's been on the box for all but one of New York's
home matches this season. The exchange looked genuinely heated on
both sides, with Pantano finally snapping, "I saw the ball out; let's
play" and De Villiers replying, "You have no eyesight."
Rudman kept Buzz hopes alive, holding for 2-4. ("How do they fit a
tennis court in Delaware?" one of the rowdies wondered aloud, getting
a laugh from Paul Goldstein and Brad Dancer.) Shaun then played a
truly inspired return game, getting to 15-40 with a topspin lob
winner and putting away a high backhand volley on the next point for
3-4. Alas, the Buzz lost all of their momentum when the rowdies removed
their shirts. "Topless fans support the Buzz!" they bellowed, shortly
before De Villiers coughed up a double fault to end the set 5-3.
OVERALL SCORE: SMASH 20, BUZZ 13
Fifth set: women's singles -- Shenay Perry vs. Samantha Reeves
Amused by her wildly enthusiastic fans, Nannie de Villiers actually
clambered into the stands and was shoulder to shoulder with the
back row rowdies as the final set began! Like the hex Bill Clinton
put on Andre Agassi at the French Open, Nannie's presence in the
crowd did nothing to help Shenay Perry's cause. She squandered a
40-15 lead with a double fault and two unforced errors, getting her
serve broken right off the bat. Game 2 saw Wisconsin native Samantha Reeves let a lob
bounce before calmly smashing an overhead from the baseline. A big
smile on her face, Reeves turned to Paul Goldstein and said, "I learned
that from you!" Sam held for 2-0 and Nannie decided she'd had
enough of the bird's eye view, returning to the court as one of the
rowdies asked, "Can I have your number?"
An exchange of holds took the set score to 3-1 and the overall tally
to 23-14. "10 more games! 10 more games!" chanted the rowdies,
full of sarcastic optimism. Game 5 saw Umpire Pantano actually hold
up play so she could scold Nannie de Villiers, who'd apparently
made a snide comment between points. Witnessing this, Shenay rhetorically
asked, "Why are we always in trouble?" Two points later, she double
faulted to concede another break. Perry lofted the ball into the
trees by the parking lot, earning her team's second code
violation...and troubling one of the rowdies, who remarked "Hey, my car's
out there!" Reeves closed out the set 5 games to 1, sealing the deal
when Perry weakly sliced a backhand into the net on match point.
FINAL SCORE: SMASH 25, BUZZ 14
Let's not even talk about the Buzz, who at 2-8 have already clinched a
losing record for 2003. Of greater importance are the 9-0 Delaware Smash,
vying for the league's first perfect season since the Newport
Beach Dukes ran the table 14-0 in 1994. "We're not thinking about
staying undefeated," Liezel Huber insisted after her team took all
five sets from the Buzz. "We're just thinking about playing who we're
playing at that time, frankly." On a lighter note, I asked Huber if
she's still traveling with her little dog Sam, who was a big hit with
the fans last season. "Yeah, they're home right now. We had a tough
time coming back from England, so my husband and him stayed home. We
miss him. Everybody misses him!"
Having graduated from Stanford with a degree in Human Biology, Paul
Goldstein is one of the world's brighter athletes. He's also on a par
with Kim Clijsters among the sport's most prolific, notebook-filling
talkers. Rather than attempt to condense Goldy's wisdom, I'll present
you with a transcript of our post-match Q & A...
On The Line: Your team is 9-0 now, without a marquee name. Has team
chemistry been a big factor in that?
Paul Goldstein: Absolutely. We all get along really well. Three of us,
minus Liezel, played on the same team last year. We started last
year 0-4 and then we ended up 8-6, so we won eight of our last ten.
52 weeks in between seasons, but for some reason we were able to
maintain the momentum we kinda started last year. And Liezel has just
been a godsend. She's put her stamp on both the women's doubles and
the mixed doubles right away. I think they're first or second in both
of those. (note: Delaware does lead the league in both events) She's just been a
perfect complement to the three of us returning from last year, so I
think team chemistry has been great. It's been important. We all
support each other quite well, I'd say. We all get along quite well.
One thing about the season, getting off to a good start is important.
If you feel like you're out of it in terms of the standings, it's harder
to stay positive; it's harder to be energetic; it's harder to be
supportive. Getting off to a good start, winning a couple big matches
early on, it's frankly a lot easier to mesh personalities. Not that I
think we would have had a hard time anyway. I mean, we all do get
along great, genuinely. But the winning has made things a lot easier.
On The Line: Already this season, you've played guys like Roddick and
Blake. Is that a pretty good test of where your game's at these
days?
Paul Goldstein: Yeah, I mean, this format -- which I really enjoy and it's
so fun -- it's a tough gauge of where you are, because...
On The Line: It's so quick?
Paul Goldstein: It is SO quick. No-ad scoring, anything can really happen.
I will say it's beneficial in the long run in terms of
valuing each point. I think you can take that when you're done in
Team Tennis and use that as an advantage. But I'd say it's a hard
gauge as to where you are, just because it's so quick and anything
can kinda happen. And those guys, they only play one or two matches
for Team Tennis, and they come in just swinging from the hip. It's
not the best gauge for where you are, but it certainly helps with
confidence.
On The Line: We've got some pretty unusual fans here this season...
Paul Goldstein: Oh, they're great. Great. We had no problem with them
whatsoever. I thought that it was very fun and that's really the
essence of Team Tennis. And if you come to Delaware, you'll see some
of our guys get after it pretty good. I think it was great. The
only thing I was surprised with is they were doing all of that stone
cold sober.
No road trip to Delaware for me, unfortunately. Your intrepid reporter will be
right back at MVP Stadium on Monday night as the Buzz seek revenge
against the Philadelphia Freedoms.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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