Out & About: St. Paul City Day 1

#2 posting 5.9.2007
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ST. PAUL CITY TOURNAMENT---day 1

Today the St. Paul City tournament got underway at Central and there are four players left.
In the singles the four left are:
Pang Thao, Harding
Mee Xiong, Harding
Khoua Xiong, Highland Park
Lee Vue, Central

The doubles that are left include:
Dia Xiong/PaNhia Yang Harding
Shelly Thao/Panhia Lee Como Park
Pa Yang/Nalee Xiong, Harding
Karen Obermeyer-Kolb/Kia Thao, Johnson

I was happy to get there on time. There were 10 courts with all teams providing four singles players and three doubles teams. I spent most of the day on court W3 where the singles games were taking place.
The first match up was Desirae Garcia vs Humboldt. Garcia took the first game 23-19. 23? according to my book that is what it was. Humboldt led 19-16 when Garcia got a side out and then rolled off six straight. Of the last seven points five were hitting errors.
The second game went a little quicker with Garcia taking it 21-12. She broke it open on her 7th serve with 8 straight points to make it 16-10. That run started off with two fans on Garcia's serve. A clear ended it.

The second contest that took over was Nha Phan of Central vs. Novia Josiah of Arlington. Phan steamrolled her way through this contest with a 21-5, 21-6 victory. Phan scored on each and every serve in game one. Each serve had a run of six or four. The smallest run was two on her Phan's first serve.
Phan was held scoreless on two serves, but the runs were still big. The biggest was a seven run on Phan's third serve.

Next up was a "sweet 16" round with #1 Pang Thao of Harding vs Ye Thao of Johnson. Pang had the early advantage in game one as she sprinted to a 10-1 lead after her second serve. Pang was held scoreless on two of her seven serves. Pang sided out over Ye at 50% (3/6). Pang won 21-9.
Game two started off with another roll by Pang. She opened with six straight and followed that up with four more on the second serve to lead 10-2. Ye fought back and closed to two points, the last time at 15-13. A Pang drop got the side out and she never let Ye get the serve back. Pang had five straight to close the game 21-13.

Pang Thao won her quarterfinal over Ling Wang of Arlington. She will see teammate Mee Xiong who beat Pakou Vang of Johnson in her quarterfinal.

In another "sweet 16" game it was Harding's third singles player, Stephanie King vs. Central's Nha Phan. Phan took an early lead at 3-0, King soon took advantage of Phan hitting errors to take a 5-4 lead. King broke free with three points on her 10th serve. The first two in that burst were aces. Phan closed to 16-13. King countered with another string of three counting the side out. King made use of the 11 hitting errors to win 21-15.
The second game started off with both players tightly bunched. King broke the game wide open with 8 straight service points on her 6th serve to take a large 16-6 lead. Phan got to 17-9, but King closed out with the last four points 21-9. Phan had 10 errors for King points in this game.

In the quarterfinals it was King again, this time against Khoua Xiong of Highland Park. King had maybe finished her game with Phan about 15 minutes earlier.
The first game had back and forth action with Xiong taking the early advantage at 3-0. King matched her and the game was tied at 3, King did take a 10-8 lead, but Xiong went on a 9-1 run to lead 17-11. Xiong's drop game was working overtime with 8 points at this point. King started her comeback with three straight. Xiong had a smash that handcuffed King for point 18 and then another drop for 19. King held off Xiong with three points, all Xiong hitting errors. A King hitting error gave the bird back to Xiong. King's aggressive smash got the side out and then she added two points to finish the game. One problem---I only had it 20-20. Nevertheless it was King up 1-0.

King had the early advantage and led by a couple at the breaks 6-4, 10-8. Eventually she had a three point run on her 7th serve to take a 14-10 lead. Xiong hitting errors provided 7 of the 14 points at this time. Xiong had a run of four on her 8th serve to take a 17-15 lead. Xiong maintained the lead the rest of the game. The only points King scored after that were drives on side outs. Xiong finished with two service points to make it 21-17.

King was dehydrated and took a longer break between game two and three. It didn't rejuvenate her though. Xiong jumped out to a 14-3 lead with 10 straigth points on her fourth serve. Both players had traded side outs at that point. Xiong used a variety of shots to grab the lead. Xiong put the game on the verge at 19-8. King found her second wind at this stage. She got a side out and then made use of three Xiong hitting errors to close to 19-12. A missed serve gave the bird back to Xiong. King sided out with a drop and then had five straight service points to make it 20-18. A deep bird by King ended it for a 21-18 win for Xiong. This was the last contest of the day and all eyes were there.

Next up: tomorrow morning.