Live From Austin!: Competition Saturday

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March 6, 2005

Competition Saturday

The Cahill family was in full competition mode Saturday with Claire playing in the Champ tournament in Georgetown, Kate and Meg in San Antonio, and Scott with his opening Soccer game in North Austin.

Deb is with Kate and Meg, while I took Claire and Scott around. Logistics looked like they could work until damp courts delayed Claire's 8am start time to 10:30. Scott's soccer match was at 12:45pm, so it was going to be interesting.

Claire might have a different take on her performance, but here's mine.

She had a dramatic first round match against a tough, quick lefty player (a. k. a. "Lefty".) Lefty got off to a very quick start, going up 5-2 in the first set. That's when Claire seemed to reach deep and kick it up two or three levels.

I was sitting next to Claire's primary coach Jonas, when we saw how she began to start bouncing on her toes as she readied for return of serve. She began absolutely hitting out on her shots making Lefty slug it out, and then varying the pace which caused Lefty to dump shots into the net and hit long. Before we knew it, Claire had the match back at 5-5. It went to 6-6 which meant tie-break time.

Eyeing my watch, it was now 11:45am, now one hour before Scott's match, and we had a 30-40 minute drive ahead of us to get to his game.

Of course the tie break was the same kind of slugfest that the prior games had been. The score worked it's way up to 6-6, before Claire forced Lefty into an error by bringing her in on a short ball which she dumped in the net. On set point they slugged away until Claire ultimately prevailed.

Now 45 minutes before Scott's match we had to bail. Jonas watched the rest of the match, and Claire went on to take the second set 6-4, with as much dramatic flair and determination as the first set, I'm told.

The amount of progress I saw since the December Austin tournament was amazing. Even Coach Jonas commented how he'd not seen Claire play at this level before.

The win, gave her an opportunity to play the number one seed, a girl who was getting ready to "age up" to the 15-16s. Claire slugged it out with her, but did not ultimately prevail, although the first set was very close at 6-4, and could have gone the other way. We were lucky to just made it back in time from Scott's soccer game to see the whole match.

I think this tournament has given Claire confidence as she is freshly competing with the 13-14 year olds, that she can play with any of them. Especially if she can attain that level she kicked it into when down 5-2 of that first round match I saw.

Scott's match was a lot of fun to watch. They really battled the other team falling behind early, then storming back. There is some controversy whether they caught the other team at 5-5, which Scott will tell you was the result, or 5-4 which is the mainstream belief of the final score. What really matters is that the kids really played well together as a team and Scott proved a force as he broke the ball free out of the scrum on many occasions when the kids were all bunched together, showing off his strength.

Kate and Meg will have to give the full report from San Antonio. Unfortunately rain today, cause the tournament to be cancelled, stopping Kate's bid to win the whole tournament, and Meg's bid to repeat as Consolation bracket champion, as she did in her first tournament last month in Corpus Christi.

Posted by Jim at March 6, 2005 9:52 AM

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The Cahill family was in full competition mode Saturday with Claire playing in the Champ tournament in Georgetown, Kate and Meg in San Antonio, and Scott with his opening Soccer game in North Austin. Deb is with Kate and Meg, while I took Claire and Scott around. Logistics looked like they could work until damp courts delayed Claire's 8am start time to 10:30. Scott's soccer match was at 12:45pm, so it was going to be interesting. Claire might have a different take on her performance, but here's mine. She had a dramatic first round match against a tough, quick lefty player (a. k. a. "Lefty".) Lefty got off to a very quick start, going up 5-2 in the first set. That's when Claire seemed to reach deep and kick it up two or three levels. I was sitting next to Claire's primary coach Jonas, when we saw how she began to start bouncing on her toes as she readied for return of serve. She began absolutely hitting out on her shots making Lefty slug it out, and then varying the pace which caused Lefty to dump shots into the net and hit long. Before we knew it, Claire had the match back at 5-5. It went to 6-6 which meant tie-break time. Eyeing my watch, it was now 11:45am, now one hour before Scott's match, and we had a 30-40 minute drive ahead of us to get to his game. Of course the tie break was the same kind of slugfest that the prior games had been. The score worked it's way up to 6-6, before Claire forced Lefty into an error by bringing her in on a short ball which she dumped in the net. On set point they slugged away until Claire ultimately prevailed. Now 45 minutes before Scott's match we had to bail. Jonas watched the rest of the match, and Claire went on to take the second set 6-4, with as much dramatic flair and determination as the first set, I'm told. The amount of progress I saw since the December Austin tournament was amazing. Even Coach Jonas commented how he'd not seen Claire play at this level before. The win, gave her an opportunity to play the number one seed, a girl who was getting ready to "age up" to the 15-16s. Claire slugged it out with her, but did not ultimately prevail, although the first set was very close at 6-4, and could have gone the other way. We were lucky to just made it back in time from Scott's soccer game to see the whole match. I think this tournament has given Claire confidence as she is freshly competing with the 13-14 year olds, that she can play with any of them. Especially if she can attain that level she kicked it into when down 5-2 of that first round match I saw. Scott's match was a lot of fun to watch. They really battled the other team falling behind early, then storming back. There is some controversy whether they caught the other team at 5-5, which Scott will tell you was the result, or 5-4 which is the mainstream belief of the final score. What really matters is that the kids really played well together as a team and Scott proved a force as he broke the ball free out of the scrum on many occasions when the kids were all bunched together, showing off his strength. Kate and Meg will have to give the full report from San Antonio. Unfortunately rain today, cause the tournament to be cancelled, stopping Kate's bid to win the whole tournament, and Meg's bid to repeat as Consolation bracket champion, as she did in her first tournament last month in Corpus Christi.

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March 6, 2005

Competition Saturday

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