Doubles Monitoring Event
Épreuve nationale de monitoring en double

By Cheryl McKeeman, from Canadian Racquetball, vol. 1, no. 11.

This year's doubles monitoring event was hosted by the Club on Top, in conjunction with the yearly Valentine's Open. A total of 10 teams competed in the Men's Open, with 8 teams in the Women's Open. Newly-appointed National Team Coach Ron Brown was on hand to observe the players, as was coach Michel Gagnon. Racquetball Canada President Usher Barnoff refereed several matches, as did B.C.R.A. President Cal Smith. Local player Brian Dunbar also got to test his new Level 3 designation by refereeing some matches.

As is often the case in doubles, both divisions had some major upsets.

Women's Doubles

In the women's division, #4 seeds Amanda MacDonald and Karina Odegard bested the top-seeded Lori Jane Powell and Debbie Ward, while on the bottom side of the draw, the number 7 seeds Julie Neubauer and Jennifer Saunders defeated #2-ranked Josée Grand'Maître and Chantal Turgeon, before sending teh #3 team of Christie Van Hees and Sadie Hall to the showers. So in the finals, all four players were under 25 years old. The dives and the gets and the shots made for a match that was second to none. Jen nand Julie were in control throughout the first game, winning it 15-9 (sure, the last point was a mis-hit off the rim, but definitely the Manitoba/Alberta team deserved the win in game 1.) Could the Saskatchewan duo make a come-back? Kris Odegard was the coach-du-jour for Amanda and Karina, and they had some intense discussion between the first and second games. Back on the court for game two, it was back and forth - both teams had turned up the pace : they were hitting the ball harder and diving more and going for broke. At 13-12 Amanda mis-hit a ball off the back wall but it somehow made the front wall and rolled out; Jen was right there but no one could have got that ball. Both teams were pushing hard. A typical Amanda MacDonald down-the-line backhand sped down the wall and Jen missed it - but then Julie came flying across the court from nowhere with a diving get that sent the ball back to the ceiling. Great gets, great dives. 14-14. And then Amanda and Karina took it. As the tie-breaker began, we knew the question: who had the mental stamina? All four young women are in excellent condition - this was not going to be a case of one team being more physically tired than the other.

They were pumped, they wanted to go to Bolivia. In that tiebreaker, Karina made the difference as her game totally came back. We really had not seen those trademakr pinches, and almost no passes, in the first two games. But quickly Karina and Amanda went up to 10-0. Jen and Julie did their best, but the points just weren't there, and that 10-0 lead proved to be insurmountable. Final score: 11-1.

Men's Doubles

There weren't quite the same level of upsets in the men's division as there were in the women's, and certainly the home crowd was thrilled with the semi-final win of the sort-of-local-team of Woody Clouse and Kelly Kerr over current Canadian singles champion Kane Waselenchuk and his partner Brian Istace. Woody Clouse played racquetball in B.C. for many years, before heading south about ten years ago to join the IRT tour in the U.S. And Kelly Kerr grew up under the Saskatchewan racquetball program before relocating to B.C. several years ago. But Kelly now calls Vancouver home, and Vancouver has always loved Woody, so they were definitely the home-town favourites. Their match against Kane and Brian was one of the best in this division, with Kane and Brian taking the first game easily before the local guys turned up the heat substantially to steal the second game. The tiebreaker started with Kane and Brian quickly going ahead 5-0 - Kane was back and he looked fantastic. Even his partner was awestruck with amazement at the show that the Canadian champ was putting on. But, on a crucial rally at 0-5, the locals got on the board and that was it for the Albertans. The score climbed to 5-5, with another big rally at 7-5, and then Woody and Kelly dominated the play as Kane and Brian scrambled to try to get back. Final score: 11-5. One of the most impressive aspects to the game was the respect and honesty shown by all 4 players throughout what was a very close and very emotional match. They all kept their cool, and they were calling two-bounces or skips on themselves, and even retrieving the ball for each other!

The semi-final game on the other side of the draw was the first game of the weekend for the top-seeded team of Mike Green and Mike Ceresia. They were facing François Viens and Darin Bryce, who (as #4 seeds) had defeated Ryan Powell and Kris Odegard. Darin and François started strong - but those Mikes just have the ability to crank it up and suddenly they had come from behind and sneaked out the 15-12 win. And then in the second game, the Viens/Bryce team just couldn't do a thing as Mike and Mike walked away with the win.

So that meant the #1 and #3 seeds were meeting in the finals. (Seeding in doubles does not at this point incorporate doubles ability - seeding is done simply by looking at the total singles ranking points for the two players on the team. Changes have been made, though, for seeding the open division at the 2000 Nationals, in that the top two seeds will be the #1 and #2 finishers from this monitoring event, with the rest of the teams seeded by the total points method.) The crowd was out in full force, hoping for our home-town men to kick some eastern butt. But the Mikes were definitely not going to let that happen. They were in control the entire match. Mike Green played beautifully, and nearly flawlessly, while Ceresia did what he needed to do too. Woody just couldn't keep the ball down low enough, and the Mikes kept Kelly circling as they used round-the-world shots and z-shots to keep him running constantly. The scores are not really indicative of the game - it seemed like the scores should have been 15-11, 15-12 at least - but in the end all that really matters is that Mike Green and Mike Ceresia kept their #1 status, defeating Clouse and Kerr 15-7, 15-7.

The Club and other event happenings

The event (and the associated tournament) ran as smoothly as any tournament ever has. The matches were all on time; the t-shirt graphic was appropriate for Valentine's; the tasty food was plentiful on Friday night, all day Saturday, Saturday night, and Sunday day; the members of the host club were thrilled to have Canada's top talent in town; the club staff worked long hours and treated everyone well and respectfully; the athletes were polite and funny and sociable; physiotherapist Bob Fong donated his Friday night through to Sunday afternoon to look after aching athlete bodies; the Saturday-night band had a bunch of friends drop by after 11 pm and they cranked it up for their last set; Kane Waselenchuk combined childcare with coaching as he had half-a-dozen young boys on court 2 on Sunday afternoon; the weather cooperated so that the visitors got to really enjoy downtown Vancouver. This club will host the 2001 Nationals, and if this is what they do for a regular little tournament, well hold on to your hats til you see what they have in store for May, 2001.

Results : Résultats

Women : Femmes

FINAL : Karina Odegard & Amanad MacDonald d.
Jen Saunders & Julie Neubauer, 9-15, 15-14, 11-1

SEMI FINAL : Odegard & MacDonald d.
Lori Jane Powell & Debbie Ward

SEMI FINAL : Saunders & Neubauer d.
Sadie Hall & Christie Van Hees

Men : Hommes

FINAL : Mike Ceresia & Mike Green d.
Woody Clouse & Kelly Kerr, 15-7, 15-7.

SEMI FINAL : Ceresia & Green d.
Darin Bryce & François Viens

SEMI FINAL : Clouse & Kerr d.
Brian Istace & Kane Waselenchuk.