Hi everyone, this is not Jen, but rather her Uncle...Curt your trusty reporter and photographer for the week. Sorry but Jen couldn't make the trip to Dallas, so I'm the lucky one who will be trying to get some good shots and stories of what's happening here at the USJO National Championships.
The 18-1's are actually in their 3rd day of competition. The first day they went 1-1 beating the number 1 seed in the pool in 4 games, but losing the match to the #2 seed in the pool. On their second day of play the won both of their matches. That brought them into day 3 with a 3-1 record and a good chance to get into the Gold Championship round. However it was not be. They lost both matches today, the first one in 4 games, and the second one in 5 games. This put them out of contention for the Gold, and due to the tie breaking rules they ended up finishing 5th in the pool overall with a 3-3 record. They will be playing their last JO matches of their careers on Sunday for 17th place in the 18 Open Division. Click here to see pictures of the 18-1's from today.
The 17-1's arrived in Dallas yesterday. They took an exciting train ride from the airport to the hotel, and then headed out for dinner. Dinner was at the Spaghetti Warehouse and they had a great meal. Today they started their tournament in the 17 Open Division which players best 3 of 5. After a rocky start in game 1, they pulled it back together and won the next 3 games to win the match against San Gabriel. Their second match of the day was less eventful, and they easily won the first 3 games and the match against Dallas Jrs. They then went and watched the 17-2's finish their match before heading back to the hotel where they swam for a bit, then went off to a local Burger joint called Hang 10. Their next two matches are on Sunday at 9:30 & 1:30. Click here to see pictures of the 17-1's from today.
The 17-2's arrived in Dallas yesterday. They also took the exciting train ride from the airport to the hotel, and then headed out for dinner. For dinner they scouted out the local burger joint, Hang 10 which at first seemed a little shady, but turned out to be ok and it had good burgers. Today they started their tournament in the 17 Club Division but not until 1pm so they came over to the convention center earlier in the day to watch the 18-1's and 17-1's. Their first match of the day was suppose to start at 1pm but the court was already running an hour behind so they started about 2pm. Not wanting to be short changed in their tournament playing time they decided to take 3 games to win the match against TCA. After the first match Curt told them that if the next match was won in 2 games and one of the games was no more than 8 points, he would buy them dinner. So an hour later match 2 started, and we were crushed in game 1. Bryan re-explained the rules of the bet stating that we were to be the team that won the match and the other team was to get only 8 points, and with this new understanding the girls went out and won games 2 & 3 fairly convincingly. This put them 2-0 for the day. After the match they headed out to the Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner and Sophie's 17th Birthday chicken dance. It was a lot of fun. On the way back they decided to take a quick shower in the fountains, and then ran over to hug Bryan, Erin and Curt (who were dry up until that point). When they got back to the hotel the chaperones Diane and Jon Wigen got ice cream and a cake for Sophie's Birthday. I went over and joined them for some interesting conversation and ice cream. Their next 3 matches are on Sunday at 4, 6, & 8pm. Click here to see pictures of the 17-2's from today.