May 22, 2003 - With Sharad's last serve and Tristan's last stab at his would-be first ever championship in intramurals, the Spring 2003 intramural season ended on Tuesday. For most people, this means summer vacations, beach hopping, and staying out until it gets light out again. For others, it means relentless 10-12 hour days running a day camp over the summer. But don't let my troubles spoil your summer of fun. Geoff certainly doesn't. Either way, have a great summer and I look forward to seeing you all again when the leaves start falling off the trees. And check back here over the summer. I'll be having some fun on the site since there aren't any intramurals going on.

Sharad Sharma, 2003 Tennis Mens Singles Champion

Matt Schlegel and Tyler Wagner, 2003 Intramural Mens Doubles Tennis Champions

Annie Promthana and Non Zhang, 2003 Intramural Womens Doubles Tennis Champions

• Playoffs

May 19, 2003 - The mens singles finals will be tomorrow (Tuesday) at 3:15pm, and that will be the very last intramural event we will have this school year. Thank you all for participating and thanks to the playoff crew who helped move playoffs along smoothly. Please remember to come into the RAC 321 to pick up your forfeit fee, prize, and get your picture taken if applicable. Thanks again and I'll see you all next year.

May 14, 2003 UPDATE!!! - PLAYOFFS - Of course the inside joke about this headline is that it is supposed to rain through the next two days. Well, the first day of playoffs went fairly according to plan. Two mens singles quarterfinal matches were played, one was forfeited (a hell of a way for the Spring defending champ to go out), and one mens doubles semifinal was played. The other mens singles quarterfinal is scheduled for tomorrow, as is the semi-final from the other side of the mens singles bracket, and the other mens doubles semi-final match. And the rain is looming. But we don't have the time anymore to put off playing these matches, because finals and soon enough, the end of the semester is also looming. If any matches get rained out tomorrow, come up to RAC 321 and I'll make sure we can set up a tennis court to play the match. So I'm now providing you with a roof and sectioned off court space. You have no excuses. I'll see you tomorrow. Good job to everyone for showing up on time today.

May 12, 2003 UPDATE!!! - PLAYOFFS - It's finally about time for the playoffs to start. Well, for most of the groups. The extremely efficient womens doubles bracket completed their tournament on May 1st, whereas the womens singles bracket deadline has been extended to Wednesday due to a lack of enough matches played to even judge who should make it to the playoffs. But as for mens singles and mens doubles, the brackets are set. I will be e-mailing all of you to ask for your availability in the next week and I will schedule your matches for you to avoid any conflict and to speed up the process. Final exams begin Thursday and people will start leaving town soon, so I don't have the time to wait for you all to reschedule or not show up for whatever reason. The times I set will be final, so make sure you are absolutely positive when you send me the times you are available. And for the record, the tennis teams are done practicing. Thanks and good luck to all of you who made it!

• Playoffs

May 12, 2003 UPDATE!!! - PLAYOFFS - Mens Singles - In case you guys were wondering a few things about the brackets in the mens singles, I'll explain. First of all, I ranked all the #1 players from every pool as 1 through 4 and the #2 players as 5 through 8. Then I looked at the Avg MV to decide where each #1 and #2 would fall within the 1-8 seeds. But not exactly. Here's where I deviated from that plan. First of all, in pool C, Jay Mehta tried to contact Renaldo Coxson and I saw nothing from Renaldo, so I am advancing Jay to the playoffs. Though his forfeit win would put him ahead of Tristan in the normal ranking procedures, I gave more weight to Tristan's victories since Jay never actually won a match. Also, I want to as much as possible avoid two people from the same bracket playing each other in the first round of competition. That reasoning is also why I chose Joey Gasis as the #3 seed and Urnav Desai as the #4 seed when they both had the exact same record and Avg MV. Hey, you gotta beat everybody anyway. Also, Sharad Sharma still had one match to go against Justin Rosenau and I told them both not to worry about it because I needed to get on with playoffs, and the only thing it might have affected was the intrapool seeding. Well, I hope that is good enough for everyone. If you disagree, or you think I did a hell of a job, please write me (recsports@umbc.edu). Thanks and good luck guys.

• Playoffs

April 25, 2003 UPDATE!!! - All groups - I don't know how many of you planned on playing this Saturday at UMBC,but there may be a conflict with Quadmania. Last time there was a beer garden, which there will be again this year, it was held in the tennis courts. You may have to adjust your plans to go somewhere else to play. Just a warning.

April 25, 2003 UPDATE!!! - PLAYOFFS - The top two finishers from each bracket will make it to playoffs in both of the mens divisions. If a match ever gets played in either of the womens divisions (hint, hint), the top four from singles will make the playoffs. The womens doubles tournament basically is already in playoff format, since there's only the two of you teams. If you have any questions, as usual, please call me (Dustin) at 410-455-1540 or write me at recsports@umbc.edu. Thanks and good luck.

Please read through all this information as it contains some necessary information about how the tournament will run. I will need you to stay on the ball with your matches as we don't have a heck of a lot of time. There are four divisions: Mens Singles, Mens Doubles, Womens Singles and Womens Doubles. There was only one mixed doubles team signed up and they will play in the mens league. Mens Singles and Womens Singles are set up so that everyone will play three matches before playoffs. Womens Doubles only has two teams, so they will play in a best of five series. Mens Doubles is set up so that every team will play four matches before playoffs. I know it's hard to get everyone's schedules in sync so that all four participants can make it to a certain time, let alone trying to do it four times, but try real hard.

IT WILL BE UP TO YOU TO SCHEDULE YOUR MATCHES. You DO NOT have to play matches in the order they appear on the schedule page. Play the matches as convenient for you and the other players in your bracket. Please cc me on all e-mails so I will be able to make my decisions easier in the event of a forfeit. All e-mail addresses are supplied for you on the bracket schedule pages (check the links below). If you fail to schedule a match before the end date, I will keep your forfeit money. The last day for the regular season of this tournament will be Sunday, May 11th, noexceptions. Playoffs will begin the next day, Monday, May12th. I will be sending out deadline announcements, which if you do not meet, I will forfeit you out of the tournament. So please pay attention. I would also urge you to stay ahead of my schedule as it has been my experience that a lot of players tend to not be able to schedule games the closer it gets to finals.

The first deadline will be Sunday, May 27th. Please have at least one match in each of the brackets you are playing in completed by then.

Times to play - You may play on any tennis courts you can agree upon. The UMBC courts will be available all day with the exception of varsity tennis practice and physical education classes. There are classes out there on MWF from 8:30am-10am and TuTh from 11:30am-1:00pm. The varsity teams usually practice from 3-6 Monday through Friday and they are finished with their home matches so you don't have to worry about running into that. Catonsville Community College has lighted courts until at least 10pm (correct me if I'm wrong) if you don't mind the drive.

Scores - All games will be one set up to 10 (win by two) with a standard tie-break if players are tied at 10-10. Players should switch sides after every odd game. I would like the winner of every match to e-mail me the scores from the match. Something along the lines of:

Fisher over Rupert
10-5

OR Fisher over Rupert
11-10 (7-3)

If I don't get your e-mail, I will not know that you played the match.

A good idea - To get you started, I should have already e-mailed you all the e-mails of people in your group. What I would recommend is that you send out e-mails to the entire group telling them when you are free and what bracket you are in and see if anyone can show up at a certain time. For example, reply to the whole group of mens doubles pool B:

Hi. This is Dustin Fisher from Mens Doubles Pool B. Here are times when we'd be available to play:

MON - after 12 this monday (4/21), but only 12-4 the following two (4/28, 5/5)
TUES - before 11, 1-6
WED - after 6
THUR - before 11, 1-6
FRI - after 3, if I don't go home

I actually cut and paste that directly from an e-mail already sent out, so I see you guys are already on the ball a little bit. Eventually, you'll need to target certain teams, but this is a good way to get started instead of e-mailing everyone individually. It could also get you two matches in one day, which would be especially helpful for somebody playing in multiple brackets. And if 3 people answer, then you can play two matches at the same time. That would be awesome.

Balls - I don't want this to run people out of money, but make sure somebody has some decent balls when you show up to play. A lot of tennis tournaments require each person or team to bring a can of new balls and they will play with one and the winner will get the other new set. If you want to agree on that, great. But like I said, I don't want this to run you out of money. The school will lend you balls, but they really aren't that great.

Money, etc. - There are still a few people to whom I have spoken, who have not yet paid. I need that money by Monday 4/21. If you have any other questions, please write me at recsports@umbc.edu or call me at 410-455-1540. Thanks and I'll see you all on the courts. Good luck!

• Mens Singles A - B - C - D
• Mens Doubles A - B
• Womens Singles
• Womens Doubles