SAN FRANCISCO AT CONCORD-SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2006

By Boyd Winnie

San Francisco almost brought their entire squad and was very supportive to their team and had lots of coaching spirit and clapping.  Concord was at home so had a home crowd on there side.
 
Sally Su (San Francisco) vs James Therriault (Concord)

Therriault seemed to be more relaxed than usual.  He varied his spin shots quite a bit to see what would work better against an offensive player like Su.  Therriault won the first game comfortably.  In the second game, Su seemed to read spin better but Therriault did not seem to worry about the tight playing area.  He side\top-spinned his shots around the barriers to keep the ball in play.  Su seemed to be able to react to the high balls very well and squeezed one game out.  However, after that, Therriault stepped up his game a notch and won the next 2 games comfortably by using more sidespin and more offense then he usually does.  He wins some very good counterlooping rallies close to and far away from the table.  It was a very entertaining match to watch.

Spencer Chase (San Francisco) vs Trevor Runyan (Concord)

Spencer Chase has definitely improved since last season.  He looks more fluid than he has before.  However, in this match, Trevor Runyan was on fire when it counted most and took all 3 games on serve and third ball attacks.  When Chase got into the rally, he played very calm, cool, and collect.  Therriault comments that Chase has a very calm and steady game.

Terry Tam (San Francisco) vs Jeremy Nau (Concord)

Jeremy Nau started out playing hardbat and switched to inverted rubber about six months back.  His rating has jumped up from about 1200 to 1800 recently with consistent play and lessons at the Concord club from former league member Peter Zajac.  However, that does not give him the experience at the table that he has to earn by playing higher-rated players in tournament play.  Terry Tam mixed up his topspin and dead balls to win this match convincingly.  Nau's best play was in the second game where he had some leads but could not hold onto them. He "choo"ed when he won some good points but came up short.

Vincent Tai/Myron Lee (San Francisco) vs Trevor Runyan/James Therriault (Concord)

San Francisco brings a lefty/righty combination for the doubles match but are no match up to the all-around game that Concord played mixing defense with offense.  San Francisco takes the first game but after that, Concord takes the match easily.  There was a little controversy with Myron Lee's serves as some of them were not going from square to square like they are supposed to.

Sally Su (San Francisco) vs Trevor Runyan (Concord)

Sally Su takes the first 2 games and plays into Runyan's body really well.  Runyan is not getting anything back and Saul Weinstien says that Runyan is "not a happy camper at the table".  The entire San Francisco team was coaching Su and they likely took longer than the allotted minute between games and during the timeout.  Runyan comes back to tie the match at 2 games apiece.  He pumped himself up in the fifth game and hit angles in every which way on Su to take it in deuce.