Men's Club Tennis Alec's Angle
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 10:26 PM
Hershey Tourney
Last semester I said I would try to post on here every Monday, but being very busy with schoolwork makes it hard. But I will continue to try.
As most of you know, we lost by a mere one point, 5-4 in the sudden death tie-breaker, to Georgetown in the match for third place, so not only do we not get the $1000, we also do not get an automatic bid to Nationals, which means we are waiting to see if we get into the tournament from the waitlist. However, we are preparing for going to Nationals just in case, so we need to raise a lot of money. Even if we don’t go, it would be great to have a stash of cash for the future.
I realize that I also never gave a suitable rendering of our trip to 
Hershey, Pennsylvania, so I will now do my best to pull the details from my memory. Our level of tennis was mediocre, by our standards, since most of us hadn’t played for months. Rodrigo and Frank played singles and Aaron and I played doubles. The girls who came were Lisa, Leila, Shannon, and Bini, and they pretty much carried the team. On Friday, after getting there at 6pm and immediately having to play, we were extremely hungry after our first two matches, which we won, and so we went to Red Robin, recommended to us by the staff member at the tennis club. 
Frank and Aaron ordered the MONSTER BURGER, and Frank would not let anyone hear the end of it. Every time anyone said “monster” Frank and Aaron always had to high-five. That night some of us stayed up to watch the women’s Australian Open final, which was not too entertaining as Serena demolished Safina.
The next morning we went to Hershey’s Chocolate World, the next best thing after Hershey Park, which was closed. We went on the free ride of the factory twice, and I bought a gargantuan piece of chocolate.
We ended up losing to UPenn in a close match by three games before defeating Villanova to take third place. We were all disappointed that we didn’t win, but we still had the Nadal vs. Federer Aussie Open Final to look forward to, so after sleeping for a couple hours (some of us, anyway), we watched the match, some of us the entire way through. Aaron literally cried after Federer lost the 3rd set tiebreaker, and I was not too happy about the result, but it was an amazing match.
That’s all from your prez, don’t forget to go to Qdoba night to help us raise money next Monday, March 16, and bring as many people as possible.
Saturday, November 22, 2008 11:59 PM
Tennis on Campus Focus Group
This weekend Britt and I went to Baltimore to attend a meeting with leaders of other club tennis teams in the Mid-Atlantic Region, and I feel very optimistic about this future afterwards.
One of the main topics of debate was how the Virginia and Maryland Leagues should work so that matches were actually worth something. While competitiveness is an important factor, the representatives from USTA strongly emphasized the recreational side of tennis, and so here is the compromise that we all agreed upon: There will be on bug Mid-Atlantic League, with two conferences, Virginia and Maryland/DC. We’ll play regular season matches, and at the end of the season the best teams from each conference play each other for bragging rights as to who’s best, but nothing more. On the other hand, we’re going to have a series of WTT style tournaments, one of which we will be hosting here at UVA, and each of these will be worth a certain number of points. The team with the highest point value (#1 ranking) in the whole Mid-Atlantic section will get an automatic bid into Nationals, or some other equally enticing incentive. There will still also be those three automatic bids that we can win at sectionals. The standings probably won’t start until next year, but I’ll keep you updated.
As for fundraising, there were many ideas brought up at the meeting, a few of which we are going to do. I’m going to put a donation button on our website so people can just click and donate there, and I’m also going to look into selling advertising space on the website. The Mid-Atlantic TOC (Tennis on Campus) tournament that we will be hosting should bring in some money—we’ll also probably be able to get free balls and maybe other things for that, and the intramural-type tournament will get us a little bit also.
One major project that we’re going to do next semester is “Future UVAces,” a free clinic for kids in the community, at which we will also collect donations. This is a big project and we’re going to need help from a lot of guys to get it done well.
The officers and I have other fundraising ideas as well, but those are the main ones. The bottom line: we are going to sectionals and nationals, even though we’re probably going to have to work hard and be creative to get there.
I’ve added a few links on our website that will give more info on club tennis if you are interested.
One of my main focuses next semester is going to be increasing involvement in club tennis, which means possibly expanding the team, depending on court availability, trying to establish good relations with the varsity team, and reaching out to the community.
One other cool thing: as a member of a club tennis team, you get a pretty good discount for stuff at tennis warehouse, especially for stuff like shirts and shoes, so if you need anything, be sure to call them, ask for the team department, and ask for the “Tennis on Campus Discount.”
That’s all from your president. Until next time on Alec’s Angle....
Monday, November 17, 2008 10:56 PM
My Second Term
Hello all members of Club Tennis,
Yesterday I was re-elected to be your president, Chip VP, and Steven Wexler Treasurer. At the beginning of my first term I didn’t know much of how to do things, and I feel that at that time the focus was too much on rules and regulations and less on the tennis. Tennis is what we do, what we love, what we enjoy. Why else would we play it? In my second term I plan to bring the focus back to where it should be, and I, with the help of Chip, Aaron, and Steven, am going to make club tennis as fun, organized, and enjoyable as possible. I am always open to new ways to improve, so if you think something should be changed or added, I’m all ears. For the end of this semester, I’m looking forward to the end of the semester party we’re going to have, which will hopefully include karaoke and club tennis superlatives. But looking to the future, I’d like for us to host a team tournament here, as well as an intramural-type tournament to raise money. I know that Chip has a few ideas for making practices livelier, and in our first meeting we’re going to talk about those. The girls are also going to have almost a completely new cabinet and I’m looking forward to coordinating with them to improve our matches and mixers. We’re also going to look into having mixers with other clubs and organizations.
Thursday, May 1, 2008 12:42 PM
Aaron's Alley
Sorry this has been a long time coming, but with exams and such it has been difficult to find the time to write anything up. As we all know I sometimes tend to drink, so my memories of the nationals experience have been pieced together by the help of some of the team.
The drama started 24 hours before leaving. Kristen Mcvitty had to drop out, we could get subs but one of them couldn’t go till later, and the other had to leave early. Kristen Dunbar and Rick had nearly a 2 hour conversation about why she could not come. Needless to say, the trip started out with a little bit of a gloomy air. I left in the early car with Rick and Gautier, and therefore cannot account for anything that happened with the others. We stopped at Sherwood Manor and Doc Sherwood made us BBQ. After that, it was back on the road to get to the Hotel. Once we got there we realized that we Britt had the credit card, and therefore we could not get into our rooms. I; however, persuaded the cashier to let me hold the rooms in cash. Once we got settled we ordered some Chinese food, (of which Lisa ate a good amount) and called it a night.
Rick woke early the next morning, he hummed his theme song (Snow by the Red Hot Chile Peppers) under his breath. This was the most intense I’d seen him, pacing the halls with his headband and UVA apparel. Eventually we all got to the courts, there was some minor trouble involving a forgotten id card by Lisa, but Warrens NY city driving skills were able to handle the situation. We breezed through our first match, and went to Harris Teeter to get some food. Our second match was more difficult. We lost to Wisconsin (the number one seed) by a margin of 5 games. After the last point we immediately drove back to “the Teet” and purchased large amounts of alcohol. Britt, Warren, and I all had a bottle of Andre each. This left us in good form to play the next match. Warren and I were absolutely drunk. I nearly fell after an eye formation poach… We ended up winning that match 6-1.
The rest night consisted of partying with the Puerto Ricans. They introduced us to a “Cuba Libre’s” a mixture of rum and coke. They also stole a small beaker from their chemistry lab which we used as a shot glass. Mel, Warren, Lisa, Michelle, Heppe, Britt and I spent the night partying with them.
The next night Rick, Gautier, and Chip joined in. Rick is a total stain when he is drunk. I’m not sure I can even remember all of his drunken escapades, my favorite is tied between the taxi driver dropping him off in the middle of nowhere and me being forced to drive and get him, and Rick singing Soulja Boy to a random black employee at the hotel.
The final night consisted of a massive party where countless things happened which I will not write on the blog but you can ask various team members if you want specific details (except don’t ask me, b/c I have no memory of the last night!!)
I’ve been honored to be a guest writer for Alec’s Angle,
Aaron Brownell aka Grandpa
Sunday, April 20, 2008 11:44 PM
Blue Hen
I apologize for this post that is long overdue, especially to those who check this page every day in the morning to see if I've updated it. Well, what can I say about Delaware? It totally beat the homework that I should have been doing that weekend, that's for sure.
It started out inauspiciously enough: I needed to return the demos that I got from Tennis Warehouse, or else I would have to pay a late fee, but I had to use UPS. We went to the drop box in front of Bryant Hall but of course it was too small, and then we went to the post office which told us we needed to go to a UPS store, and then we passed a UPS store on the way but I didn't want to turn around. Every time we saw a UPS truck on the highway I contemplated rolling down the window and giving the package to the driver (I would have done this had the traffic been slow enough and if the truck had been right next to us).
As for the ride up I had three excellent travelling companions: Rodrigo, Bini (DAS BNMCHN), and Lisa. One of the many highlights of the ride up was my thorough rendition of The Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang. Yes, I knew and sang all the lyrics.
Anyway, we finally got to Delaware only to find that it is an imitation UVA. They have a Corner (Main St) and they even have a restaurant named the Korner (You can't really see the name in the pic, but that's the restaurant). They also have a mini fake Lawn that looks very familiar.
One of the great things about Delaware is Super Fresh, the mediocre supermarket that sells five-packs of ping pong balls that are located right next to the drinks. Rodrigo and I went in to buy only ping pong balls, at Aaron's request, and it was kind of awkward walking up the cashier with only ping pong balls and nothing else.
Okay, now to the reason that we actually went to Delaware. The tournament was all right. We torched a couple of teams in the first two rounds, but for the last match of round robin play we had to drive 30 mins to get to this crappy indoor tennis facility that was in the middle of nowhere, and for no reason. It wasn't raining, it was just because the tournament director had them reserved and didn't want to lose the courts or something. But the courts were horrendous. They were a nice teal color that made seeing the ball unnecessarily difficult; so difficult, in fact, that Aaron wanted to file a complaint. (Aaron's description of himself as a T-rex when doing the V-sit and reach in high school made the journey there totally worth it). I also forgot to mention that World Team Tennis format makes no sense and should be banned. That said, we were playing Pitt at these teal courts and won three of the first four matches, but do to a WTT rule we could still lose the match if we lost 6-0 or 6-1 or they won the set and then won a certain amount of games in a row to force a tie-break. Bini and I were playing mixed doubles, the last match, and we lost the first 3 games, and so Aaron and Lisa sub-ed in for us. They lost the set 6-2 and then won one game to prevent Pitt from coming back, but we won by the narrowest of margins.
We had had a hard enough time getting to this tennis facility in the middle of nowhere, me especially because I did not even have the directions, the other car did, and we had to navigate back in the dark, which proved easier than I thought it would be. On a side note, we could not drive anywhere without making a U-turn--we were that bad with directions.
So we finally made it back to the hotel and after chilling for a bit we decided to go to the tournament director's house for a party he was throwing. Both nights Aaron drank the most out of everyone, and both days he was the first one up, ready to go play tennis. I don't know if it was the mixture of caffeine and alcohol or his iron liver. Aaron also taught us how to make the wookie sound, which he can do with impeccable accuracy. So at this party, Delaware, whom we were going to play the following morning, was trying to get us hammered, but they were unsuccessful, as we beat them pretty badly.
Rodrigo won the raffle and got a Babolat racquet, which was pretty cool. We played Villanova A next, and they were ridiculous. I forgot to mention that the previous day, when we played Villanova B, Aaron pulled one of his underhand slice serves on match point to win the guys doubles with Warren, but we were all aghast. Warren eventually apologized to the other team. So we were playing Villanova A and we played them pretty close in the doubles matches, but then they pulled out their secret weapon, Priya, and she just steamrolled us. It was Steven and Lisa playing in the mixed doubles, and that's when we pulled out the Smirnoff on the court and mixed it with gatorade. Warren then proceeded to add "Wex" to every word referring to what Steven did, and so created words such as "Wex-special," "Wex-fiasco," and...other words, you get the idea. We won the mixed in a tiebreak but lost the match, which was the semifinal round--a pretty decent showing.
For those who didn't go, you really missed out. There are lots of things that happened that I didn't mention in this blurb, but I think it's long enough already. I hope Aaron plans a few more of these for next semester because I am definitely going again.
Sunday, April 6, 2008 10:23 PM
A Few Thoughts
I think the story of the tournament was not our winning the case of German monk beer, but Frank's emergence as one of the most energetic guys on the team. His vocal support was invaluable to our two teams, and without him who knows how well we would have done.
Overall the tournament was a success, all things considered. Aaron did a great job as Tournament Director, all the teams got to play, and we made the best of the situation on Sunday when it rained. Everything worked out pretty well, and now the Boarshead is considering officially allowing us to play there in the future.
Saturday, March 8, 2008 5:41 PM
New Website
In order for future generations of Club Tennis members to be able to use the website, and to make it easier for me to edit, I have remade it with a few changes. For those of you who are greatly disappointed that there is no message board, I apologize but I don't know how to do that yet with the program I'm using, however in time I will learn how to do it and there will be a message board.
The singles ladder is updated so that those who didn't play a challenge match in the first three weeks were moved down three spots. I also made up teams for the doubles ladder. A doubles challenge counts equally as much as a singles challenge, and I really want guys to start playing more doubles, as I think that is our weaker area.
If you have any comments about the website I would appreciate your feedback, just send me an email.
As for what's happening on the ATP tour, I can't believe that Federer lost in the first round of Dubai, nor can I believe Roddick beat Nadal and Djokovic and then won the title. However, I heard that Federer had mono and that is why he wasn't playing well. Watch out at Indian Wells and Miami.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Party at Tye'sThursday, February 21, 2008
Tennis ThoughtsSunday, January 13, 2008
First Day BackFriday, December 14, 2007