Glad that January's ALTA is finally over!

Personally, my ALTA record in January is abysmal, at least these last couple of years. Last winter wasn't so bad - I was 3-3 with 6 different partners - but this year I went 1-3 with 3 different partners. All matches were mixed or senior mixed doubles.

On the plus side, after a January 28 loss last year, I went on a winning streak that lasted into the summer senior men's season. So perhaps this year will progress similarly, who knows?

Yesterday's regular mixed match was somewhat demoralizing in that our first place team lost four out of five lines to the third place team. My partner and I played a man that had parked in our neighborhood's handicap space, needed a knee brace and could barely move. However, he was a high A player such that he could get to any ball close to him and rip it for a winner. After dumping the first set at love, we rallied from behind throughout the second before losing it 5-7. I think that we could have won the match if we'd gotten the set to a tiebreaker because we'd finally figured out how to construct winning points. Oh well.

The good news is that our team is still a point ahead of the team that beat us and there are still three weeks to play, so a lot can happen. Our senior mixed team also suffered an anticipated crushing defeat on Saturday as well - losing 3 of 4 lines - so the weekend wasn't a positive one as far as winning doubles matches. Both were home losses, which somewhat compounds the disappointment. But again, we're not completely out of that division yet either, and still have a chance to make a run for the playoffs.

Wish us luck!