LPRT Winter Classic - No upsets in Round of 16

There were no upsets as the Ladies Pro Racquetball Tour (LPRT) division of the 8th Annual Winter Classic in Overland Park, Kansas finally got underway. But there were two five game matches in the 8/9 and 7/10 battles.

Seventh seed Kerri Wachtel scored seven fewer points than Grace Hughes, but still managed to win the match in five games, 5-11, 11-7, 12-10, 0-11, 11-7.

Hughes was up 10-7 in game three and had chances to win it, but the veteran Wachtel, a former US Open champion, managed to pull the game out with five unanswered points.

Yet that momentum didn't carry over to game four, as Hughes blanked Wachtel, 11-0, by having a good mix of drive serves to the right side - Wachtel's forehand - and drive Z serves to the left side - Wachtel's backhand.

Hughes continued the good play in game 5, going out to a 4-0 lead. Wachtel then scored her first point since the end of game 3, and tied the score at 4-4.

Wachtel pulled ahead to 7-5 before Hughes responded with two consecutive points to level the match at 7-7. Hughes's 7th point came as she laid out to get a ball on the right side, and she hit a side wall-front wall shot that rolled off the front wall.

However, that was the last point Hughes got in the match, as Wachtel put together four straight points to win the match. Hughes score seven more points than Wachtel in the match (46 compared to 39), but Wachtel won more games.

The other five game match looked like it wouldn't be five at the start, as Jennifer Saunders got out to big leads in both games one and two against Cristina Amaya, going on to win both 11-4.

But roles were reversed in game three, as Amaya got the early lead at 5-0, and rode that to an 11-5 win. Game four was similar with Amaya building a 8-1 and extending it to 10-4.

However, Saunders made a run, and almost won game four, as she got five points to make it 10-9 before Amaya won it, 11-9.

In game five, Saunders continued the momentum from late in game four and took a 6-1 lead, and extended that to 9-4. Amaya dug in and cut the lead to one point at 9-8.

Then Saunders got the serve back, called a time out and came back in and won the match on the next two rallies. The first was a three shot rally off a drive Z serve to the left side, and the second began with a characteristic kiss lob serve by Saunders.

Saunders will next play LPRT #1 Paola Longoria in the quarter finals, while Wachtel is up against LPRT #2 Rhoda Rajsich.

Matches will be streamed live over the internet via the LPRT Network beginning with the quarter finals on Saturday at 6 PM. The semi-finals will be at 9 AM on Sunday with the final at 1 PM.

8th Winter Classic
Overland Park, Kansas

Round of 16

1 Paola Longoria v. 16 BYE
8 Jennifer Saunders d. 9 Cristina Amaya, 11-4, 11-4, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8

5 Krystal Csuk d. 12 T. J. Baumbaugh, 11-6, 11-5, 11-1
4 Susana Acosta d. 17 Jennifer Fenton, 11-0, 11-3, 11-3

3 Cheryl Gudinas d. 14 Lucy Delsarto, 11-3, 11-3, 11-0
6 Adrienne Fisher d. 11 Da'monique Davis, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5

7 Kerri Wachtel d. 10 Grace Hughes, 11-4, 11-4, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8
2 Rhonda Rajsich v. BYE

Quarter finals

1 Paola Longoria v. 8 Jennifer Saunders
4 Susana Acosta v. 5 Krystal Csuk

3 Cheryl Gudinas v. 6 Adrienne Fisher
2 Rhonda Rajsich v. 7 Kerri Wachtel

Follow the bouncing ball….