(By Steve Hopkins)
The opening weekend of Major League -Tafel tennis contained six games on Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, California.
The first two games were played on Friday – the Texas Smash versus the Bay Area Blasters and the Florida Crocs versus the Portland Peddlers. The Texas Smash won 15-6 over the blasters, with Hiromitsu Kasahara, Amy Wang, McBeath/Liang, Liang and Monteiro and together gave the team a 9-6 advantage that the Golden Game came in. In the last match, the Smash was at the top of the Blasters 21-17, giving them the 6 points and expanded their overall victory score to 15-6. In the other Friday match, the Portland paddlers conveniently defeated the Florida Crocs, with Hampus Nordberg, Kotomi Omoda, Naresh/Kumar, Kang Dong-Sooo and Jens Lundquist had set up a 10-5 lead and after winning the golden game, their lead spread to 16-5.
In the Saturday matchups, the Florida Crocs were at the top of the Texas Smash 13-8, leaving both teams with one victory and one loss behind. The winning Crocs team was Daniel Gorak, Peiyu Zhu, Naranjo/Yeh, Marc Duran and Chihwei Yeh, but the team had fallen 7-8 and needed the golden competition to win the victory. In the last match, it was AA 21-19 victory-the narrowest margins that secured the 13-8 victory. In the other 2 Matchup, Portland registered a decisive 16-5 victory over the Bay Area Blasters. Kang Dong-Sooo, Kotomi Omoda, Kumar/Nordberg, Lundquist and Nordberg created a 10-5 lead and then won the Golden Game for a combined 16-5 score.
After lost twice, the Bay Area Blasters managed to save the weekend with a Sunday 13-8 victory over the Florida Crocs. Elsayed Lashin, Ge Chi, Mon/Silva, Ved Shesh and Jinbao Ma entered the last game with 7-8, but then dominated the Golden Game for the victory. And in the last game of the weekend, the Texas Smash Portland gave its first loss with a 16-5 victory. McBeath, Wang, Kasahara/Liang, Monteiro and Kasahara entered the Golden Game 10-5 and then expanded their winning score to 16-5.
At the end of the opening weekend, the Smash and the Peddlers are each 2-1, and the CROs and the Blasters are 1-2. The next MLTT event is from 19-21 September in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Visit Butterflyonline.com for the latter in Table Tennis News and results.
Share the post “MLTT Week 1 Summary”
#MLTT #Week #Summary