An amusing note about this championship season: we lost our first regular season match. After that first match, I lamented that maybe the triple-bump from C-3 to B-8 would take a little adjusting, and the opposing captain consoled me with, "Don't worry, you have a good team. You'll win some matches." Well, he was certainly right about that!

The very next match changed our whole perspective on the season: facing a Hadfield team that had won the City Championship at C-4 the season before, we'd have been happy with a 3-2 result, but instead we won all 5! That big week put us in a tie for first, and, while we never had more than a two point lead until the season ended, we set the pace the rest of the way.

Before the playoffs started, my co-captain confided to me, "This is going to sound really stupid, but a few weeks ago I had a dream that we won the City Championship." And so we entered the playoffs with the loftiest of ambitions: heck, we were shooting, not just to win a City plate, but to fulfill a dream!

I have to admit, I was shocked when I found out our first round opponents would be "the Jamaicans" -- the same Southland team that had eliminated us the previous season. This reaction was shared by just about everybody on the team when I told them we'd be playing the Jamaicans in round one: "Oh, no, anybody but those guys" was a typical reaction. However, we reversed the score in the rematch, winning it 4-1. (Best line from a Southland player after we won: "This isn't fair. We beat you last season. We own you now.") The victory was a solid start -- despite their second place finish, Southland actually had a better regular season record than us. This win against a strong second place team that had beaten us the previous season was an indication that we really could go all the way.

For the round 2 match, we made a 50 mile drive to Henry County, won the match against Wesley Lakes by taking the #4s and #5s; then we had to wait till the following Thursday for an official ruling on the match when the opposing captain filed a protest in response to a racket-throwing incident. Fortunately, the ALTA VP realized that the complaint was for an incident that did not affect the result of a fairly contested match, so the match result stood.

The semifinals match against Dunmoor was again decided at the #5 spot. The #5s won it in straight sets, but the second set was decided by a tie-breaker.

That set us up for a battle in the City Finals against Neely Farms, a 31-4 team during the regular season. A rain-out for the original date of the playoffs forced a rescheduling of the match to the following weekend, but, luckily, all the players in the playoff line-up managed to make the rescheduled match. (There were one or two players, I am sure, who risked losing their jobs or marriages to play in this match, although none would admit this!)