RTTC Men’s 3.5 Champions

River Trails’ captain Bill Johnston is always looking to find the right combination of players and levels when putting teams together.  Some of his players were struggling at the 4.0 level, so he thought bringing in a team at the 3.5 level would be a good idea.  He had some concerns that his players may be too strong for the league.  But each team tries to adjust their roster appropriately as the season goes forward.  River Trails started out strong, remained strong and in the end took home the trophy for the Men’s 3.5 against North Shore.  A bit of bad luck tipped the odds in River Trails’ favor when on court 1, NSRC’s father/son team Dave Kallen and Matt Kallen had to retire due to an injury.  RTTC’s Howard Braun and Dave Kaufman had barely won the 1st set 7-6 and knew the match could have gone either way.  We all hope the injury wasn’t severe and you’ll be back on the courts soon.  On court 2  RTTC’s Bill Hedman and Roland Hogg had a dogged fight on their hands against NSRC’s John Friedman and Jamie Trapp.  After a close 1st set which they won 7-5, they were able to close out the 2nd set 6-3.  On court 3 NSRC’s James Costello and Bob Kriss knew they needed to keep North Shores chances alive .  They pulled out a win against Norm Anderson and Alan Halleck 6-3, 6-4.  On court 4, RTTC’s Bob Harrald and Frank Stanhope won the 1st set but couldn’t finish it out in 2 sets.  NSRC’s Jacques Gordon and Maurice Marcus pushed back and won the 2nd set 6-2.  Then it was a battle of wills, good shots, missed opportunities and sometimes a little luck the put RTTC’s team ahead for the win 7-5 in the 3rd.