A Roller Coaster Ride

The 'excitement' set in today, as we played the 2 relatively weaker teams in our group which we had to beat if we wanted to get into the top 4.

We started off playing SNG. S was in good form today and overcame her opponent, the 1st singles, quite easily. For the first time I saw her perform so cool-ly! Next came our doubles against their first doubles. It was a tough fight as we made far too many mistakes. I think YL was very nervous... but its understandable because I believe that everyone of us was dying to win the matches today. Thank goodness we managed to clinch the 2nd point as well. Next we had JM to play the 2nd singles. The first set saw her being 'trashed'. However, after adjusting her playing style, she actually managed to put up an excellent fight against her steady opponent and stretched her all the way to the 5th set where she lost very marginally. What a waste! For once I saw JM play well... all along she has been just serving and smacking and losing really fast(except the first match which she won). This time round, I think it was really heartening to see that she too could be quite steady at the competition table. I am definitely not saying that cutting is the best way out at the competition table but I think that in order for one to be able to attack well while playing on the competition table, one really needs to train regularly... so I guess this playing style that she displayed today fits her better at the moment since she has very little time to train. After JM played her match, our 2nd doubles played. Even though the opponents seemed weaker than them in terms of skills, I think we were a bit too nervous and made too many mistakes, thus making the scores really close many at times. Thank goodness we clinched the winning point after 4 gruelling sets. The last match was played by WL. We had an advantage for we had already won the game against SNG. Alas, WL didn't manage to perform well and sucuumbed to her opponent quite quickly. I was quite disappointed, considering the fact that she was playing very well during the past 3 trainings. Thank goodness this disappointment didn't last...

The 2nd match of today was against NY, a school which we had never won before. Just 3 months ago we lost to them in the zones and hence we were definitely expecting a tough fight. Sure enough, it was a tough one and watching it made me feel like I was on a roller coaster ride...

We used the same line up against them. S played the first singles and it was really great to see her beat the NY first singles! She played so well and was able to attack such that the opponent wasn't able to block most of her smashes and topspins. The tactics which she used were great too. If only she had made less mistakes in her attacks, I think the score would have been less marginal... but anyway, I rejoice in the fact that S played well and won. She really deserves praise for being so cool-headed and for performing so well today against both her opponents.

Next came our first doubles playing against the opponent team's weaker pair of doubles. It wasn't entirely unexpected... for I had already thought that they might swap in order to secure 1 point from their doubles. We definitely expected to win this doubles, perhaps even with ease... but expectations aren't always met, sadly. We won the first 2 sets, then went on to lose the next 2 sets. In the last set, we were leading 9-6... then came this ball that flew off the table. I saw it fly off. The girls saw it fly off. The umpire saw it fly off. Thus he flipped the score and it read 10-6. Strangely, the opponent team's teacher in charge stood up and claimed that the ball hit the edge of the table. Their players also claimed that it hit the edge of the table. Then the umpire awarded them the point. Baffling it was. Alas, things happened very quickly... even before I(or anyone else) could react, the game resumed and guess what? We lost 4 points in a row to lose 11-9. Everything just happened too fast for me to believe what really happened then... after I realised what had happened, I felt really disappointed for I strongly believed that this point was one of the 'must-get' points if we wanted to win the match against NY. I could feel myself lose 'enthusiasm' after this match...

JM went on to play the 2nd singles, against one of the 'NY's sisters'. Once again she did well, but not well enough to win, unfortunately... Alas I gotta admit that it was a good attempt and I ought to give her credit for putting up such a good fight. She was really in quite a good form today and it was just a waste that she didn't manage to win any of her 2 opponents.

Now we were down 1-2. YR and J went up to play against NY's stronger pair of doubles. Could see that they, especially YR, were still really pissed off with NY for claiming that the ball hit the edge of the table in the previous doubles match. Could see her 'burning hot inside' when she played. The first set saw them losing marginally, due to excessive mistakes in attacking(made mainly by YR). Think the 'fire' got her somewhat too impatient. Coaxed her to cool down after the 1st set and tried coaxing her to be less aggressive... it proved to be slightly better, as they went on to win the 2nd set. The 3rd set saw them trailing 1-5 from the start. Alas, don't know what happened to J, she suddenly started smashing and all the balls went in! Surprise surprise... they managed to catch up and ended up winning the set quite easily after catching up. The 4th set saw them doing well too as their opponents started making many 'careless mistakes'. We thus won the match and the big score now read 2-2. Kudos to YR and J for fighting their hearts out against the better pair of NY's doubles... They sure do deserve praise.

The deciding match was then played by WL, against the other sister. The opponent sure was an aggressive and good player... as we had all seen during the zone competition. Alas, WL started off extremely well and managed a 8-0 lead before winning the first set 11-7(somewhere around there I think). The 2nd set saw the opponent attacking fiercely and more accurately and I could see that WL was quite 'shocked' by the accurate and fierce shots coming over to her. Yet she still put on a good fight but lost this set. The 3rd set soon started and WL again fought hard to keep up with her opponent. With her variations in service and steady 'cutting' with her anti-spin, she managed to get her opponent to 'commit suicide' in attacking and won this set very comfortably and if I don't remember wrongly, the score was something like 11-2! Amazing it was! Unfortunately, the opponent made less mistakes in the subsequent set and won it back, forcing the game into its last set. Could see that the NY girl wanted to win really badly as she probably felt that she 'ought to' win the match. This urge to win probably translated into nervousness for her, as she went on to make more mistakes in the last set, with WL winning it 11-7(if I don't remember wrongly). PHEW... We all were overjoyed! WL sure deserves the most praise for being such a great fighter against a well-skilled opponent. Could tell that she was also 'heated up' during the match as she did several 'funny things', like shouting out loud to herself 'STEADY', and at one point of time, when Thomas shouted 'relax' to her, she actually responded by shouting out the word 'RELAX' as well. Almost fell off my chair laughing despite the tense atmosphere. But all these just show how much she wanted to win and this I certainly applaud!

Left CF Pri feeling indescribably elated after that. I don't even remember feeling this happy when I won a SEA Games gold medal 7 years ago. I was simply glad that they have successfully gotten into the top 4 of the National Schools Championship and will be receiving the coveted medal, even though we do not know what the colour of the medal will be yet. This medal is a precious one... one which they had fought hard for with lots of sweat and perhaps even some tears. It is certainly a good 'souvenir' for the primary sixers and a source of encouragement to the younger ones to keep up the good work.

3 cheers to them~! Hope that they will continue to fight hard in the coming matches and earn themselves a medal of a 'nicer colour'.