We are in the finals!!

After 2 losses in a row we had to re group for the semifinals that was due to start tonight at 7 pm. We lost to St Louis Aces with Kim Clisjters in their team and then the following night to The Washington Kastles with world no 10 Nadia Petrova playing for them. Their owner Mark Ein got Petrova to play because the Kastle's needed to win their last 2 matches to qualify for the playoffs.We where up against the Newport Beach Breakers. We played them twice in the regular season. Our 1st match was in Springfield and we won in a Super Tiebreaker after Vania King our no 1 women won 8 games in a row, 4 of them in overtime to clinch the match for us. The 2 nd match was in Newport and we won 23 -18.I knew that our women were our strength and their men were their strength. I knew if the men could get 6 games in the men’s singles and men’s doubles we will win. The match started well for us with the men winning 5-2. This was great for us. 2nd up was Raven against Ramon Delgado who is the top singles player in the league. Raven lost twice this season to him 5-2. Raven played well and was very unlucky not to break Delgado at 3 all, but Delgado's experience pulled him through 5-3. So we got 8 games in the 2 men’s events and now our 3 strongest events were to come. Liezel and Martin played great and served for the match at 4-2. If they won that game we would've had a 4 game lead but unfortunately they lost serve at 4-2 and only won 5-4 in a tie-breaker. We had a 2 game lead going into the women’s doubles. The girls won 5-3 and we where up by 5 games with Vania to play. She has destroyed the Newport Beach girls every time we have played them and we where all obviously very confident that we will win now, but this is team tennis and anything can happen. Vania played the worst match of the season and the other girl played out of her shoes. She beat Vania 5-1 and because the match was tied we had to play a Super tiebreaker. A Super tiebreaker is a 13 point breaker with the 1 st player to get 7 points the winner. Vania played like we know her and won 7-3. We where all so happy. We where through to the finals, Sunday in Washington.We will play Washington in the finals. They beat the New York Sportimes 21-20 in overtime.I was very honored today when I was named the World Team Tennis Coach of the year for 2009. I also received the award in 2007. My record in charge of the Lasers is now played: 30 won 26 lost 4.