Tuesday, June 21, 2011

An eventful night of tennis

Tonight's match — like most — had great shots, unforced errors, energy, fatigue, the usual highs and lows. But also a lot more.

Patrice and I started our match outdoors at Western. It was a muggy night — lots of rain during the day — and I said, "At least my muscles will be loose."

When I went to retrieve a ball after a point, I slipped and fell on the muddy grass. Good thing my muscles were loose. (Patrice fell earlier today, too, riding her bike in the rain.)

And my toe hurt. Not from falling but from tripping on the couch on Saturday. So it felt great to fall and not get injured. Seriously, I was grateful!

We won the first set. Then the skies rumbled and our opponents Julie and Karen suggested we nab an indoor court before anyone else did.

Inside, we lost the second set. They were up 5-3 when it was my turn to serve. The lights went out. In the dark I said, "30-love." Maybe this would also be a reprieve for my serve, which had gone into hiding.

We took a break waiting for the halogen lights to come back on. Ann, our captain, offered me an Advil.

A few minutes later, we resumed play at 30-love. We won that game but lost the next one.

The third set, we were either tied or down a game. I tried not to get nervous when they were up 5-4.

Then we were up at 6-5. I could hear people clapping. For us, for them. Did we close it out? No. Julie held serve.

I'm getting a lot of experience playing tiebreakers. Finally, almost three hours after we started, we won and shook hands with Julie and Karen. And when we came up the stairs, the first thing we heard was the Western team telling us, "Great match!"

It was even better being able to celebrate with our teammates Ann, Jessica, and Jody. And Carol, thanks for giving me the emergency tape for my toe.

Our first 4.0 win! But no time to relax. We'll have another tough match tomorrow.

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