Recap

Southwestern Ontario Brewers Rally from Early Defeat to Beat Montreal Lions 3-1

Lions Women Set Pace with Convincing 15-12 Victory over Brewers

Having already beat Toronto United in their first match, the Montreal Lions were eager to get a leg up on the Southwestern Ontario Brewers.

It didn’t look good early on, as Brewers Christina Chin and Susan Pound took advantage of some jitters from the Lions’ Kim Layton and Grace Thomas. It was 4-0 for the Brewers and the Lions called what would be a timely timeout.

From there, Layton and Thomas staged a steady comeback, playing good defense and keeping Chin and Pound in check. By the side change, the Lions had trimmed the Brewers’ lead to two, at 8-6.

After the Lions Thomas drilled a beautifully place shot to get the Lions within one at 11-10, two plays later the Brewers did themselves no favors with a missed served and then trailed 12-11.

The Lions then put an exclamation mark on what would be a 15-12 win, with the 14^th point coming on yet another blast that fooled the Brewers.

Brewers Upend Lions in Vigorous Mens’ Match

Having lost their first game, the Brewers needed a win in the men’s doubles to get back on track. Mark Cleminson and Jeff Elwood delivered, overcoming a strong pushback from Lions Cam Rich and Eric Gagnon to prevail 15-13.

The Lions roared out to an early 3-0 lead, but that was quickly reduced as the Brewers found their footing, eventually getting things all square at 4-4, and never looking back.

The Brewers also took advantage of who the commentators called a “streaky” Cam Rich. He alternated between being extremely consistent, to making a few costly mistakes. Outside of that, the Brewers Jeff Elwood put his stamp on the game, delivering a blistering backhand smash to put his team up at 10-17 before a timeout.

Both teams traded some unforced errors after the timeout, with the score tied 13-13 before Ellwood again came up huge. After a great exchange between the two teams, he came up with another masterpiece to give the Brewers the advantage.

He followed that up with a superlative overhand winner to send the Brewers to the win and tie the match at 1-1.

Brewers Take Command with Tight Victory in Mixed Match

In certain terms, this was a “punishing” game. It was hotly contested and in the end the Brewers Jeff Elwood and Susan Pound dispatched Montreal’s Grace Thomas and Eric Gagnon, 15-13.

In terms of “punishing”, both the Lions and Brewers traded two smashes that plunked their counterparts – hard. With the score 1-1 Pound drilled a return winner right into Gagon and added a bit of smirk after for the cameras. Not to be outdone, Gagnon ripped a winner at Pound, who just managed to get her paddle in the way of the speeding Dura ball.

The teams traded scores with the Lions holding a slight edge, 8-7 at side change. After that, Pound and Elwood really pushed the pace on the ol’ PickleRoll, flipping the score to 10-8.

Unfazed, Gagnon and Thomas met their opponents’ zeal, tying things up at 10-10 after a miraculous lob by Gagnon that Elwood couldn’t handle.

However, after the teams played tag and the score at 13-13, Elwood and Pound got the Freeze point and won on serve to give the Brewers the pivotal game 3 victory.

Brewers Hold Off Late Surge By Lions to Claim Key Third Win

Of all the games played between the Lions and Brewers, this one was too close to call.

Brewers Mark Cleminson and Christina Chin did come out on top, but not after staving off furious rallies staged by Lions Kim Layton and Cam Rich. Chin and Cleminson iced it after the teams traded smacking the ball into the Selkirk net during a lengthy double freeze, winning 15-14.

Early on, the two mixed squads showed lots of adept dinking and defensive acumen, with Rich and Layton taking a 8-7 lead into side change.

The Lions stretched the margin to 10-7, but Chin got the Brewers closer with a scintillating lob shot that the Lions couldn’t handle. Even still, Montreal forced the Brewers into an error and seemed well on the way to a win, up 11-8.

The Brewers, though, kept up the offense and took advantage of some good shot/bad shot play by Montreal’s Rich and Layton, flipping the score to 13-11. More of the same ensued between the two battling duos, leading to a double freeze. Neither team could score on serve, with some very tricky dink play and missed opportunities punctuating the proceedings. However, the Brewers found the right formula eventually, coming out on top 15-14.