Jamming With Tracy Austin

On July 19^th, some of the Jammers had a chance to hang out with no other than tennis legend and two-time US Open Champion, Tracy Austin.  I wanted to meet Tracy Austin since I was a kid.  Several years ago, Tracy came to Springfield to promote Cardio Tennis.  This time she was here to do an adult on-court clinic, lunch, and a photo session.  Now who would want to miss out on an opportunity to meet this three-time Grand Slam winner and international tennis ambassador?  Some of us Jammers (Teresa, Kelly, Nancy, Heidi, Debbie, and I) loved that opportunity and were there that day.  We all had a blast and learned something from Tracy.  Debbie and I got our picture taken with her and yes, I got Tracy’s autograph too for my tennis collection.

Here I am with Tracy

Debbie with Tracy

I got Tracy to autograph these

9-0 RECORD, BUT SECTIONALS-LESS

It has been an interesting week for the Jammers.  On Monday, June 9^th, it was their very last regular season matches against the High Strung from Joplin.  All of the Jammers were pretty excited to see if they could make it a 9-0 undefeated season.  It did work out for the Jammers that night; we won 4-1 against the High Strung to have a 9-0 record for our season.  So the Jammers were officially the 2012 Local League Champions.

Team Standings

Team Name	Wins	Losses	Indiv. Wins	Indiv. Losses	Sets Lost	Games Lost
Jammers	9	0	37	8	22	283
Slice Girls	6	3	29	16	37	366
High Strung	2	7	9	36	73	477
TopSpin	1	8	15	30	64	446

Our only lost for the night was when Theresa Lor lost her singles match to Mary Kirkpatrick, 6-2, 6-0.  For the rest of the team, we all got rained out, but we were awarded all the wins since Joplin didn’t want to move to Cooper to complete the matches.  So before we got rained out, Hee-Sun Kim won the first set against her opponent, Julie Ingle, 6-1; Hee-Sun was ahead on the second set 2-0.  The same goes for Karen Griffin and Teresa Emerson, they won the first set 6-1 against their opponents, Debbie Prigmore and Tammy Hunter; Karen and Teresa were ahead 2-0 in the second set when the match were retired.  Carol Rollins and Suzanne Lennard were also ahead in their match against their opponents, Staci Iorio and Kristine Bhend, 6-1, 2-0.  Julie Trout and Margaret Taylor match against Ellen Desmond and Kim Higdon were at 6-1, 0-1 when the rain forces them to retired the match.




2012 Jammers - Front: Karen Griffin, Lisa Powell, Hee-Sun Kim, Suzanne Lennard, Kayla Ratliff;
Back: Margaret Taylor, Kelly Kramer, Heidi Smith, Teresa Emerson, Beth Wilson, Carol Rollins, Nancy Winters, Julie Trout (Not Pictured-Theresa Lor)

2012 Jammers with their captain Huong Doan

The Jammers 2012 season ended unexpected on July 14^th at District playoffs against the Net Force from Columbia, MO.  The Net Force beat the Jammers in the first round 3-2.  Kayla Ratliff lost her singles match to Junko Oba, 6-3, 6-4.  Nancy Winters came through for the Jammers one more time, from being down at 0-3 in the first set to winning her singles match against  Johnna Leak with the scores of 6-4, 6-0.

Our doubles team of Kelly Kramer and Teresa Emerson fought hard against their tough opponents, Patti Roberts and Kelly Fuchs, but lost in the first set 2-6.  They hung in there and won the second set 6-2.  It wasn’t the Jammers’ day, Kelly and Teresa lost in the third set tie-break 7-10.

Beth Wilson team up with Suzanne Lennard and won their doubles match for the Jammers against their opponents, Linda Robertson and Nancy Parker with the scores of 6-4, 6-4.

Heidi Smith and Margaret Taylor were also come up short in their match against their opponents, Tricia Vogt and Lisa Rose.  They lost in the first set 6-1, but hung in there in the second set and won 6-0.  But they lost in the third set tie-break 8-10.



In between matches, the Jammers decided to do this stretch exercise.

Kelly Kramer

Teresa Emerson

Beth Wilson - Suzanne Lennard - Kayla Ratliff

Nancy Winters

Jammers

More Jammers

Theresa Lor

Julie Trout

Heidi Smith

Margaret Taylor

In the second round, the Net Force was also victorious against the Jammers.  They won with the score of 3-2.  Kelly Kramer played her little heart out at singles against her opponent, Patti Roberts.  She lost in the first set 6-2.  Kelly hung in there and won the second set with the score of 6-3.  She gave it her all, and fought for every point, but come up short in the third set tie-break, she lost with the score of 9-11.

Kayla Ratliff tried her hands at singles again.  Winning wasn’t on her side that day, Kayla lost to her opponent, Kelly Fuchs, with the scores of 7-5, 6-2.

Heidi Smith and Margaret Taylor played well together once again, but they couldn’t get a win against their opponents, Nancy Parker and Lisa Rose.  They lost their match with the scores of 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).

Nancy Winters team up with Teresa Emerson and fought hard to win their doubles match against their opponents, Tricia Vogt and Jane Boles with the scores of 7-5, 5-7, and 1-0 (10-8).

Beth Wilson and Suzanne Lennard were also victorious in their match against their opponents, Susan Zurowski and Joan Arthur, with the scores of 6-0, 6-3.

It was a sad day for all of us, we all wanted so bad to win and to go to Sectionals, but it just didn’t happen for us this year.  I kept thinking; what if I would have done the lineup this way, or that way, maybe we could have win.  What if, what if…just a little too late for the Jammers now.  I’m sure the feelings of hurt, disappointment, angry will eventually go away.  Right now, it is just so hard to think that the Jammers won’t be at Sectionals this year.  We worked so hard and we were just SOOO CLOSE.

It just go to shows that it’s not that easy to get to Sectionals, you just can’t assume you are going.  You HAVE TO WORK for it.  Columbia worked for it this weekend and they deserve to go to Sectionals this year.  We just have to learn to live with it and move on. 

The Adult Jammers won’t be at Sectionals this year, but some of our Senior Jammers are still going to Oklahoma City for their Sectionals.  At least they will have something to look forward to.  We all have something to think about with this lost, we have plenty of time to think about it between now until our next chance at District playoffs next year.  For 2013, I am sure all the Jammers will work their butt off to make sure they can get to District playoffs, not only that but play their heart out to win District so they can be at Sectionals.  I’m sure a lot of them will think about this past weekend for a long time.  I know I will.

OMG...HOLY FISH

OMG…HOLY FISH…This week match was like the very first match of the season.  It was a nail biting match for sure.  The Jammers took on the TopSpin team and it wasn’t an easy win for them like the last two times the two teams met.

Our doubles team of Carol Rollins and Suzanne Lennard met up against Nancy Skinner and Linda Donnelson, it wasn’t our night for the Jammers, Carol and Suzanne lost their match 6-1, 6-4.  Kelly Kramer and Lisa Powell had a tough first set against their opponents, Lori Young and Judy Daugherty.  Kelly and Lisa fought hard and won in a tie-break 7-6 (7-5).  Then they cruise through the second set with the score of 6-0.  Heidi Smith and Julie Trout were victorious together again with their match with the scores of 6-2, 6-3 against their opponents Lori Robinson and Leah Clark.

Theresa Lor played at singles again, but this time, she was beaten by her opponent, Lisa Acosta, with the scores of 6-0, 6-2.  Our princess, Nancy Winters, played the other singles for the evening.  Nancy admitted she was nervous in the first set, and didn’t think she was able to win the match.  She hung in there, fought hard, and came out victorious against her opponent, Gerri Mach, with the scores 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 1-0 (10-7).  We needed that win to win as a team, and our little princess pull it off for us.  Super Kudos goes out to her this week.

Even though the Jammers won this week, it was hard for me to watch them play.  I didn’t get to watch them play the whole match since I was gone the first half of the match.  I felt like a failure as a captain since they came so close to losing the match this week.  Did I not do the line up right?  Did I not match up the players the best way it should be?  Where did I go wrong?  I kept thinking, am I the only one that wanted an undefeated record?  Am I that competitive?  Since we’re in District playoffs, the team doesn’t think the last two matches matter?

As I walk around watching some of them played, they all acted like they don’t even know each other.  There were no COMMUNICATIONS on the courts.  I don’t know how many times I’ve told them to talk to each other on the court.  If things don’t go right for you, talk to each other and change things up.  Don’t do the same things over and over again and expect a different result.  That is the same for whether you are playing singles or doubles.  I wanted the Jammers to learn from each match they played.  If they win, what did you do to win, so you know to do it next time.  If you lose, what did you do wrong, so you won’t do it next time.  I’ve read this quote once ‘Sometimes you learn more from losing than winning.  Losing forces you to reexamine.’  I like this quote; maybe I am too hard on the Jammers.  Maybe I should let them lose once in a while so they can learn from their losses?  On the other hand, if you keep losing, and learn nothing from it, what’s the point?  Correct?

I guess I shouldn’t expect everyone to be as competitive as I am.  To me, if you don’t want to be competitive, you can’t be a Jammer.  That is really a big different between the Jammers and the other teams.  If you can’t give 110% to the Jammers, you shouldn’t be on the team.  This week I looked at some of them and wanted to say ‘can you not give me that 110%?’

I met a man by the name of Jim Holcomb from Arkansas a couple of months ago.  He really wanted to form a 3.5 USTA Men’s League.  We tried, but couldn’t come up with enough players to have 2 teams, so we have to abandon the idea for 2012 season.  This week, I have the opportunity to place him on one of our 7.0 Mixed Doubles League Team.  Why am I telling you this?  Because I like this guy, as soon as I put him on a team, he didn’t really ask when Sectionals is going to be, he wanted to know when Nationals is going to be.  Now that is the kind of attitude I like all my Jammers to have.  Every time they step out on the court to play, think of why they are playing, what is their goal, why are they working so hard in the heat to win a match, is it worth it?  For all those Jammers that had been to Sectionals, I guarantee you; the answer would be ‘Yes, it’s worth it’.

Jammers are 8-0 this week; they have one more match to go next week before District playoffs.  Oh, I almost forgot, thank you Debbie O’Reilly for filling in as captain this week.  You did a great job!

Whether we win or lose next week, the Jammers cinch the Local League Champion title second year in a row.  Let’s win our third trip to Sectionals!!!  Go Jammers!!!