Day 2 - April 18th, 2014

Its is 11:30pm and I am just sitting down to write todays post.  Yes we were the last match of the day, yes we had to go out on good Friday and find the only open restaurant, Tim Horton's.  Although we are back in the hotel room and lining up for the showers.  John Dempsey has brought over a basket of Easter Candy and all is good...Back to the Blog and our matches...

10:45am Nathan Von Hagen vs Quinton Anderson 3-0

4:50pm Nathan Von Hagen vs Michael Greenwood 3-0

Nathan started the day in the consolation draws.  Fortunately for Nathan he would have a couple easy matches.  Both matches provided Nathan an opportunity to build his confidence in his game and get ready for a tougher haul on Day 3.

1:30pm Grace Thomas vs Charlotte Choppas 3-1

48 hours after arriving in Toronto, Grace finally stepped on court for her 2nd match.  This time it was Charlotte Copas.  In the first Grace was a bit tentative but forced more errors out of her opponent than she made.  The Second game Grace flicked the ball around the court and found herself losing 11-2 before she knew what had happened.  In the usual Grace fashion she came back and dominated the last 2 games using basic length and strength.  The shot of the match was a rolling nick on game ball in the third.  Tomorrow Grace will play in the Semi-Finals.  Keep an eye on our Twitter or Facebook page for an announcement of the live stream. 

2:15pm Kellan O'Neill vs Julien Gosset 0-3

Day 2 and 2nd match for Kellan, this time against the second seed, Julien Gosset.  The match was a 0-3 loss for Kellan but each of the games were tight and Kellan played some of the best squash I've seen from him in a while.  On the flip side I was not impressed with Julien's aloof attitude on court but was impressed with Kellan demeanour in the face of defeat. Tomorrow will be a big day for Kellan.  3 match and 3 wins will put him in the top 8.

2:50pm Nicolas Vincent vs Mateo Bultrago 3-1

6:00pm Nicolas Vincent vs Adam Vanwyngaarden 0-3

Nicolas had two matches today.  One hot and the other cold.  Vincent punished his opponent and ran him around the court till he submitted easily in the 4th.  Stepping on court for his second match Nicolas had a string of errors and could not pull it back together.  Front wall nicks resulting in strokes, and Adam's volley kept Nick from building any momentum in the match

2:15pm Matthew Henderson vs Michael Mehl (3/4) 3-1

8:40pm Matthew Henderson vs Brett Schille 1-3

Stars today go to Matthew Henderson.   Heading into his first match of the day (a nice reasonable 2:15pm) Matt met up with the 3/4 seed in the tournament.  Unfortunately the first game slipped away 11-6 with Matt trying to match Mehl's crazy angles.  In the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Matt confined Mehl with penetrating length, and yes a winning reverse boast on game ball.  By no means were the games blowouts but Mehl was visibly upset, receiving 2 conduct strokes for unsportsmanlike behaviour.  The last 4 games were won by Matt with 2 point gaps each time (11-9, 14-12, 13-11)

For the last match of the day, we had Matt Henderson and Brett Schille.  Starting at 9:20pm and running till 10:10pm this 4 game match had drama and tension.  The first 2 games, Matt held the first two games, neck and neck, but was too involved with the referees calls.  He was playing well he just couldn't finish.  In the 3rd game Matt started to keep the ball on the front wall, retrieved like a dog and got game ball 10-7 over Schille.  Schille evened it up 10-10 and the crowd was getting tense, but Matt wanted it more and at 12-12 put in the craziest shooting rally ever, eventually claiming the game 14-12.  In the 4th thing were so intense that when the referee played a let on one of Matt's retrieves that the audience groaned, Nicolas couldn't handle it and jumped up and screamed in shock!  In extra points the rallies were intense but Matt was not able not find the right bounces and Schille moved into the Semi-Finals.  Tomorrow Matt will have 1 match to get into the top 8.

Trevor Borland (left) and Yvon Provencial (right) hard at work

Nathan getting ready to serve

Here comes the Thunder!

Getting Ready to watch Matthew

Matthew, Nicolas, and Gavin

Day 3!  Here we come.

Ben

Day 1, April 17th, 2014

The only viewing for courts 8 through 14

Day 1:

Nicolas Vincent started the morning playing Kristian Lethbridge-Hall and won in 20min.  The true excitement starts at 4:25pm when we have 3 matches all playing at the same time.

4:25pm Nathan VonHagen vs Elliot Hunt 0-3:
We can safely say this was not Nathan's best squash match.  When I asked him how he felt about the match Nathan's response was "Bad".  At this point Nathan fell to the consolation draws and will have to win the net 5 matches to finish in the top 8.  This is what we call slogging it through the draw

4:25pm Nicolas Vincent vs Ethan Shoihet 0-3:
Some days you run into a player that is just a bit fast and quicker and more consistent than you are.  Ethan Shoihet explained to Nicolas why he is a 5/8 seed in the Boys Under 17 draw.  Nicolas will be joining Nathan in the consolation draw and will have a bunch of matches through the next couple days.

4:25pm Matthew Henderson vs Cameron Butler 3-2:
To start at the end of the story and work to the beginning, Matt has a cold.  We just finished going to shoppers drug mart to stock up on nasal decongestant.  But as things go Matt did the job he cam to do and won his first match.  He did take the full 5 games to do the job.  I like to think that he was just getting used to the courts.

Matt and his medication supply

5:00pm Kellan O'Neill vs Will Harris 3-0:

Kellan had a very positive match with a kid that could have been trouble.  keeping his cool on court and interjecting changes of pace into the game, Kellan walked away with a clean 3-0 first round win.

Entrance to the courts, coaches viewing for the weekend

7:20pm Grace Thomas vs Chloe Wren 3-0:

After the first 4 points of the game I was surprise to see how much Chloe had improved since I saw her play last year.  The rest of the match was more of what we expected of Grace as she dominated the match with Chloe just getting more frustrated as the match went on.

Mustafa, Grace, Nicoals, Janel, supporting Gavin Maxwell from the only other viewing position of the courts

Here we go!

We are all set to head to Toronto, Ontario April 16th, 2014 for the Canadian Junior Championships.  This year the event will be hosted by MayFair Parkway Racquets club in Markham, Ontario. Its been years since I've been to the club and I'm excited to see how things have changed.

Going into the 2014 Canadian Junior Championships we have some good prospects this weekend.  Grace Thomas is going into the girls Under 17 this year as the #2 seed in the event.  Its a high bar set but she has worked hard to get there.  The real challenge for the event will be in the Semi-Finals when she would meet with Tara Shannon.  This is the match that will define her weekend.  

In the boys U17 we have 2 athletes, Matthew Henderson and Nicolas Vincent.  Neither player is seeded in the event but Matt is looking at a match up with the 3/4 seed Michael Mehl in the 2nd round and feels that this is a fair match to break through into the Quarter-Finals.  Nicolas Vincent starts off the U17 with Kristian Lethbridge-Hall of Nova Scotia and then meets 9/12 seed Ethan Shoihet in the round of 32.  Nicolas has climbed the rankings since January this year and my intel indicates that Ethan has not been playing well, Nicolas stands a good chance at an early tournament upset.

In the Boys Under 15 we have both, Kellan O'Neill and Nathan Von Hagen.  Kellan will have a solid first match in the tournament.  Winning the first match will bring him up against the 2nd seed in the BU 13, Julien Gosset.  Nathan Von Hagen will start off his tournament with another solid match (if he keeps his feet moving he should get a win).  His second match would then be 5/8 seed James Flynn, who is a strong player from Toronto.

In the U19 draws Gavin Maxwell is moving into his second last nationals event while Janel Gaube is in her last event.  To start with the Girls U19, there are 11 players and Janel drew the #1 seed Alyssa Mehta (more to come this weekend).  Gavin Maxwell is a 5/8 seed in the boys U19.  By the time we get to the U19 seeding is only a picture of the past.  Every time you step on the court you need to be ready to play, because all your opponents are all capable of winning.  As the 5/8 seed Gavin is set up for a Quarter-Final match with Jarryd Osborne, who placed 2nd at the PNW U19 boys this year.

Tomorrow is travel day.  I will be on the 5:30am out of Victoria, and in Toronto by 11:30am PST.  We should be able to get in to the Hotel and relax before hitting the squash court for a 6:15pm EST practice time.

2014 Tournament Draws

Keep an eye on this blog as we will be updating with the excitement of the event and pictures of the action and fun.

Later
Ben