The first day of the tournament was definitely filled with plenty of excitement as pool play began in the Junior World Cup and gold division play began in the Espirit Cup.

 

Overall an excellent day for Team USA, as it was also for Team Mexico and Team Canada. 

 

The IRF has modified the format of the Junior World Cup this year so that each pool is filled with players in a specific area of the bracket...top or bottom.  Consequently, a loss in pool play now will not drop a player into the other half of the bracket causing two teammates to play against one another early on in single elimination play.  There is one exception to this rule...in the Girl's 18s, the two American girls, Michelle Key and Ashley Wilhite, will have to face off in pool play, but will go into the draw on opposite sides.

 

The match of the day occured in the Girl's 14 doubles, this division is a round robin with some very tough teams.  Consequently, Team USA, consisting of Danielle Key and Lily Berry took on Team Canada, consisting of Brigitte Richard and Frederique Lambert.  From the outset, the coaches and fans were a bit nervous as the talented Canadians took it to the Americans.  Building a quick 7-0 lead in the first game, Danielle and Lily seemed to be unable to find any rythm at all.  They were only able to get to 5 before Team Canada claimed the first game, but as they walked off the court, their resolve seemed to build.  Game Two was an incredible event of beautiful shot making being outdone by some serious retrievals and a point for point struggle ensued.  Both teams battled to the end before Team USA managed to scrape out the win and force the tiebreaker 15-14.  This time, when they walked from the court, Team USA had the momentum and they were able to close things out fairly comfortably at 11-1.  The girls were all smiles afterward, and are looking forward to their next match which might not be until Monday.

 

Head Coach, Kelley Beane, mentioned that today was a great day for the team as they were able to get rid of the first round jitters and now they should be absolutely ready for the rest of the tourney.  The only World Cup player not to play today was Girl's 18 singles player Ashley Wilhite.  She was there cheering everyone on today though!

 

In fact, the Team USA World cup team completed a perfect day today when Sharon Jackson and Holly Hettesheimer finished off their opponents in two tight games of 7 and 14 in the Girl's 16 Doubles.

 

Other performances of note amongst the 14-18 year olds include Jose Rojas in both the 16 singles and doubles.  I've mentioned in the last two events that Jose has had this look in his eyes when he's playing or preparing to play a match and that look is back.  He was particularly impressive in the doubles where he and partner Ishmael Aldana seemed to be in perfect sync from the moment they walked on the court.  Hardly a word was spoken between them as they both knew exactly who would take each shot and what they would do with each shot that they took.

 

Michelle Key looked very strong today as well as she put the pain of last year's disappointment behind her in her first pool play match.  Sharon Jackson also played extremely well in winning in two games.

 

Brad Kirch had the most notable case of jitters today, but was able to fight through them to win his match in a tiebreaker, 11-0 being the final score.

 

Chris Coy claimed that he didn't really play very well today in either the singles or doubles, but he was able to walk away with two wins and he was happy with that.  He told me that he fully believes that his best racquetball is still ahead of him, and I certainly don't doubt that.

 

On the Espirit Cup side, it was also a very strong day for Team USA as they almost matched their World Cup counter parts. 

 

The match of the day here was in the Girl's 12 Singles as Team USA's Samantha Rosado took on Team Mexico's Guadalupe Cruz.  Both players hit the ball extremely hard and with excellent control and this was on display throughout the match.  Samantha came out a little nervous and fell behind early, but battled back before losing the first game at 13.  She started much stronger in the second game before Guadalupe made a late run, but was able to force the tiebreaker at 11.  In that tiebreaker, momentum seemed to change with every rally, but in the end, Samantha was able to use her conditioning to weaken her opponent and claim the tiebreaker 11-5.  This knocked a Team Mexico point earner out of the gold division.

 

Team Mexico almost returned the favor in the Boy's 10 doubles as Alex Almada and Alan Palomino took on Team USA's Sean Cooperrider and Adam Manilla.  Sean and Adam came out tight but seemed like they would fight through it as both teams traded points early.  But as the teams fought at 5-5, the Mexicans were able to gain some momentum and jumped out 12-5.  Sean and Adam were able to add one point on their next serve, but that would be all they would get in game one.  The Mexican team started to gather around after game one as everyone was sensing the upset.  But Team USA had other plans in mind and Sean and Adam regrouped very nicely to win game two 15-4 and force the tiebreaker.  Having won the right to serve, Team USA did just that and jumped out 2-0 before Team Mexico would quickly grab the lead 3-2.  Sean then ran 7 straight points on his serve to up the lead to 9-3.  At that point, Adam took his first and what would prove to be his o nly serve in the tiebreaker as the Mexicans were able to force the sideout.  Scoring one more point, they ended on four before Sean returned to the service box to serve the final two points.

 

Not to be outdone, Adam's little sister Erika opened her campaign in the Girl's 8s with a convincing win over Team Mexico's Jacqueline Moldinado.  The Girl's 8s is a 6 person round robin with 3 girls coming from the US and 3 girls coming from Mexico. 

 

Other performances of note on the Espirit Cup side include Abbey Lavely and Elizabeth Vargas in the Girl's 10 Doubles as they shook off the nerves very quickly for a convincing win over Alicia Fladstol and Erika Manilla. 

 

Jake Birnel looked very strong in the Boy's 8s winning 4 and 4 over Ecuador's Cristobal Ramos.

 

And finally a quick note about Ecuador's Veronica Sotomayer.  She surrendered a total of 4 points today in winning her Girl's 14 singles and doubles matches.  0 and 1 in singles and, 0 and 3 in doubles.  Thanks to Dave Ellis and his translation abilities, I was able to speak briefly with her about her performance.  She said that she was very happy with the way she played today and that she really likes the courts and the facility at Arizona State University.

 

Tomorrow promises to be another full day of great racquetball.  Streaming will be available via racquetballonline.tv.

 

I will get an update out as soon as I can tomorrow night.