Recap

Wolverines Sweep Lions for Great Start to Playoffs

Wolverines Women’s Doubles Team Tames Lions

Unlike the no. 1 ranked Vancouver Rush, who lost to 8^th seeded Northern Rollers, the no. 2 West Coast Wolverines used a fantastic start by their women’s doubles team to accentuate a clean sweep of the Montreal Lions. Even with an undrafted rookie in tow, Atsuko Ozawa, paired with veteran Angie Walker, the Wolverines easily took down the formidable Lions duo of Kim Layton and Grace Thomas, 15-10.

Ozawa put her mark on this opening tilt, contributing a great set-up and two forehand winners to stake the Wolverines to a 3-2 lead. A foot foul on the Lions upped that score and after the teams traded points, the Lions took a timeout holding serve and the score 6-5 in favor of the Wolverines. Walker then got in on the act, setting up the Lions for the first of two unforced errors to make the score 8-5.

The Lions did stage a mini rally, benefiting from two Ozawa unforced errors, however, that is as close as they would get to the Wolverines pair who kept the pressure on. Walker and Ozawa both fired big shots for points, forcing another Lions timeout. Thomas and Layton, fresh from the break, couldn’t get out of their own way, making three unforced errors to go down 13-8. But the Wolverines would also find the Selkirk net twice to keep things interesting. Yet, Ozawa would smack a big overhand and Walker sent a good set-up to ice it.

Wolverines Men Subdue Lions to Put Stranglehold on Match

It had to be daunting for the Lions pair of Sunny Buttar and Ravi Prakash to look over the Selkirk net facing the Wolverines Joel “the Assassin” Pelletier and Haddow Thul. The fearsome duo lived up to their billing, too, showing no mercy in a thorough 15-8 shellacking of the Lions team.

After Montreal scored the first point, Pelletier, the eventual Player of the Match, ripped a perfect ATP to square the game. For a brief time, the Lions were in it, as Prakash smashed a forehand winner, followed by a Wolverines’ rally to tie it 3-3. That was the point of no return, however, with Pelletier adding to his tally with a great set up that Prakash shorted, forcing a Lions timeout down 6-3.

After the break, Prakash made an unforced error that epitomized this contest, finding net off a Wolverines serve to up the score to 8-4 and a few points later hit one long as the score moved to 10-5. Buttar got into the act, the wrong way as well, hitting serve side out to give the Wolverines an 11-6 lead. With the score 12-7, Thul matched his partner’s prowess with a smooth ATP of his own, abetted by a poor return by Prakash. Mercifully, the game ended when Prakash returned a serve into the net.

Wolverines Escape with Victory in Mixed Doubles, Capping Match Triumph

The last thing the Wolverines would have wanted was to take their Lions opponents lightly in this key game. For a bit, though, it looked that way as Joel Pelletier and Atsuko Ozawa nearly blew a 14-9 lead en route to a match-winning 15-14 triumph. Sunny Buttar and Grace Thomas were full value for the comeback attempt, but too many unforced errors early on sealed their fate.

In fact, Thomas hit the Dura ball into the net twice on service return, leading to a 4-3 Wolverines lead. She did make up for it with a nice forehand winner, unfortunately it was sandwiched between two Pelletier forehand winners as the Wolverines upped the lead to 7-5. The Wolverines did get sloppy for a couple of plays and Buttar capitalized with overhand, and crossing shot winners to tie things up 8-8.

Slowly, the Wolverines put the Lions on their heels, making great use of Player of the Match Pelletier’s shooting prowess and Lions unforced errors to take a commanding 12-8 lead. Three points later, however, the Lions were forced to take a second timeout, as Buttar went side out on service return.

Re-energized, the Lions went on a tear, benefiting from some indifferent play by the Wolverines and Buttar and Thomas both making a pair of outstanding shots to send this heated contest to double freeze at 14-14. But, the Wolverines dinked their way to getting service back and then won the game and match when Buttar made yet another unforced error.