ICT Fall-out Recap
Posted on October 13, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
The ICT tournaments are my absolute favorite local tournaments. They are super organized and Kayla Keuter and her band of volunteers always do a fantastic job. I remember the 2020 ICT Fall-out being one of my first “real” tournament experiences. A guy from Arkansas named Ryan Cating was playing in it but his mixed partner fell through. He was playing 4.0 level so I was going to hook him up with Huyen Nguyen or one of the other girls (I actually don’t remember now) but no one could play so, as a last resort, I ended up playing with him instead. I actually felt really bad because Ryan was pretty good but I had limited experience and, although I was decent, I didn’t really thing I was 4.0 material at the time.
Ryan and I went 1-2 in that tournament. Those aren’t great results but, when you consider that I had zero tournament experience, it’s actually not too bad. And, it’s probably the only win I’ve ever logged against Ashok Periyaswamy.
Ashok has gotten so good and Ramon Lozano and I actually got murdered by him and partner Suparna Garinger in the Lenexa tournament. It was my first time teaming up with Ramon.
Anyway, the my very first ICT Fall-out tournament started me on a journey of playing in all of the pickleball tournaments I could squeeze into my schedule. Last year I played in about 10 or so pickleball tournaments. This year I am on track to complete 20 — my last one for the year being the Diamond Amateur Championships in Florida in December.
Back to the most recent ICT Fall-out tournament… I actually started playing singles this year and, even though it is quite taxing on your body, I am enjoying it at a lot. I also feel like the singles has helped my doubles game in that I’m actually driving the ball some now, whereas I’ve never really been able to drive the ball before because of my lack of tennis experience.
This year I planned to play 3.5 women’s singles on Friday, 4.0 women’s doubles on Saturday, and 4.0 mixed doubles on Sunday. I used the word “planned” because that’s not what actually happened. On the last day of registration, I saw there were 3 ladies in 3.0 singles, 4 in 3.5 singles (counting myself), and 2 in 4.0 singles. Me, being that schemer that I am — I moved myself to 4.0 singles when they extended the registration period. I figured even if things go horribly wrong, I’ll still get bronze. Basically, everyone is guaranteed to get a medal.
When the weekend came, we ended up with 5 players in 4.0 women’s singles. So much for my scheme! LOL. I guess having only 2 players in 4.0, and the cheap $5 per event entry fee, also enticed Chanell Nguyen and Fong Witte to sign up. Instead of just being handed my bronze medal, I actually had to earn it.
I lost to both Jenny Corley (silver) and Krystal Fosnight (gold) but beat both Fong and Chanell and ended up in 3rd place. Not to shabby for a short girl.
The weather was absolutely perfect and that was the most fun I’d had playing singles – ever. My favorite singles match of the evening was against Chanell. Typically when women play singles it’s mostly a baseline battle. Chanell and I had cat-and-mouse rallies at the non-volley zone. I wish I could have gotten our match on video. Also, I was down 7-10 in game 3 and ended up coming back to win it 12-10. I’m pretty proud of that comeback, most specially since we were just having such a good time playing against each other.
Ramon Lozano and Katie Merrill didn’t play singles but they came to hang out and watch and so a bunch of us went to the Monarch for dinner after.
Clockwise from left, starting with Ramon: Ramon Lozano, Drew Spencer, Karen Fox, me, Katie Merrill, Mitch Spencer, Jenny Corley, Austin Corley, Ben Meyer, and Ty Richardson. Brian was our photographer.
The next day was women’s doubles day. Sue Denny got some awesome action shots of me and Jenny. This is only my second time playing with her but she is such a great player and fun partner.
I love her easy going and positive energy on the court. We lost our first round against the two ladies from Kansas City (Brandi Meyer and Tiffany Bateson) but we didn’t lose again after. We actually ended up coming from behind and taking gold!
Brandi and Tiffany (the team that we lost to in the first round) ended up getting bronze. They lost to Molly Sager and Cindy Egan (silver) in the winner bracket final and then we defeated them on our way back up. We actually had to beat Molly and Cindy twice because they were undefeated and we had come up from the back draw (aka oppotunity/consolation/losers’ bracket). We beat them in the best 2 of 3 match and then had to beat them again in the game to 15.
Anyway, I love this podium pic so much, not just because Jenny and I are at the top but because all of the teams were perfectly matchy-matchy. Matching outfits are my most favorite part of playing doubles. In fact, if it weren’t for matching outfits, I wouldn’t care to play women’s doubles at all. LOL.
After gender doubles day, a bunch of us went to Twin Peaks for late lunch/early supper. Ramon had never been there.
Tanner Rice, my mixed doubles partner who also ended up being Ramon’s men’s doubles partner that day because Jason Doll was still recovering from knee issues and didn’t want to push it, and I wore our matching DUPR shirts. The shirts arrived too late for Tulsa Pickleball Classic so Tanner had to bring them on this trip.
It was still too early for them to go to their next activity so we ended up watching football at our house to kill time. Tanner didn’t have a place to stay because he was originally just going to only play mixed with me and drive up and back on the same day on Sunday but then he got roped into playing with Ramon on Saturday (I think totally worth it for $5 more because they ended up winning gold in 4.5 men’s doubles) so he was going to sleep on the couch but then some plans fell through and we ended up with a couple of bedrooms available so he got an upgrade.
So far I had competed in 4.0 women’s singles on Friday, and 4.0 women’s doubles on Saturday. When Tanner and I originally talked about playing together back in May/June, I thought we were playing in 4.0, but we actually ended up playing in 4.5 instead. I talked about the bait-and-switch in a previous post. I totally felt tricked but it worked out great in the end. We took 2nd out of 5 teams. It also helped that Ramon and Katie moved up to 5.0 in that tournament so we didn’t have to face them again. They were our first round match at the Tulsa Pickleball Classic a couple of weekends prior and they sent us to the back draw.
I’ve only played with Tanner twice but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself both times. Besides both running DUPR sessions, we have so much in common. Our personalities and approach to tournaments are so much alike. I feel like if I were a tall, white guy I would be him and if he were a short, Asian girl he would be me. Katie has dubbed us #TeamNice.
Anyway, he is pretty darn amazing so I hope that I get to play with him a at least a couple more times before he moves on to greener pastures. People get better and they leave you in the dust. It’s just a fact of life and nothing personal (although it never ceases to amaze me how people take these situations so personally). He is super nice (much nicer than me), fun (I probably have the edge on fun, though, just because I am super goofy), and easy to play with so I have no doubt he will be in very high demand for future tournament team ups.
This weekend for the Bartlesville Pickleball Classic tournament, I am teaming up with Jenny again (our 3rd tournament together) but I have a different partner for mixed doubles. Tanner is also playing in the same division as me but with a different partner so we get to face off. This will be the true test of how nice he really is – LOL. Stay tuned for the results. Until next time, GNG.
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