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Netts do it again in 2018

03/24/2018, 10:15pm CDT
By Sheldon Silberman

How long can the Nett dynasty go on?

 

 

Andy Nett owns the MSHA Open Doubles.  It took a tie-breaker in 2010 for his first win with father, John Nett.  Last year, younger brother Tom Nett took the place of father John but the Nett Dynasty continues  - a ninth state doubles title for Andy and a second for Tom  There have been only two games lost by Andy and John or Tom in that span of nine years – the tie-breaker in 2010 against Ray Miller and Matt Hiber and 2016 against Ryan Pesch and Donovan Foley.  It looked like this year might go differently.  David Miller joined Ryan Pesch as they worked their way to the finals.  The first game went to the Netts and it looked like the match might be over.  But Pesch and Miller got off to a great start and held the lead in the second game before Andy turned on the Pro after-burners and closed out the match in two games. 21-11, 21-18.  Third place was claimed by David Schiller and the ageless Tom Bowman with another entertaining 11-10 tie-breaker over Mike Gustafson and Mat Langhorst.

It was great to see Nick Brown back in the tournament paired with Michael Miller they came up short in the quarter finals against Miller and Pesch but closed out the consolation championship with an 11-8 tie-breaker against Brian Burke and Donovan Foley – a really entertaining match!

The A Doubles division was reinforced with Golden Master players as there were not enough entries in the 50+ division to fill the draw.  Perennial finishers Mike Wells and John Stoffel took the top honors but were pushed to the edge in the finals against Steve Tamminga and Jim Grota 21-19, 21-13.  The other team from the 50s+, Brett Broxey and Joe Lacey-Gotz squeaked out third place in a thriller over the North Dakota team of Jay Spooner and Patrick Revier 15-21, 21-18, 11-7.  Youngsters Andrew Burkhart and Andrew Lyons took consolation honors over Phil Kleischay and Tim Fichtel.

Adalberto and Jesus Cordero (father and son) held off all challengers in B Division defeating top seeded David Abramson and Kristina Langhorst for the championship.  Dean Held and newcomer Henry Arneson claimed third place while Austim Kleineschay and Dale Campbell took consolation honors over Eric Mohr and Josh Pfister.

The C division pitted veterans against the youngsters.  Jim Lash and Tom Pearson (originally looking to play in the 50+ age bracket dropped into the Cs and claimed the championship from the 5th seed.  It took an interesting tie-breaker final to defeat the up-and-coming Nathan Stoffel and Zack Wells 8-21, 21-12, 11-5.  In a twist of bracket scheduling, Alex Meyer and Matt Bartholomew took third over Antonio and Jose Flores as well as consolation over Crystal and Niki Theobold.

The majority of the players seem to be in the 60-year-old brackets.  None of these folks are strangers to each other so a lot of strategy was employed as some non-traditional teams joined the fray.  Brian Coonce and Don Reiter pretty much owned the 60A Division even with a competitive final against Emil Weiler and John Miller.  Jay Spooner and Mike McQuillan took third in a momentum-based tie-breaker match against Phil Kleineschay and Tim Fichtel 21-12, 11-21, 11-3.  Mike Burke and long-time partner Mike Black claimed consolation honors with a win over equally long-time partners George Langhorst and Glenn Solin.

Greg Sothern and Sheldon Silberman teamed up to take the 60B Division championship with easy wins until the finals against Lee Engele and Mike McQuillan.  The first game looked easy but in the second, the lead changed numerous times before Sothern and Silberman closed it out for the championship. Dean Held and Pete Kaehler claimed third place over Will Bjornnes and Greg Taylor while Marko Santori and Mike Dorscher took consolation honors.

One of the stories of the tournament were the six players that played in two divisions.  The tournament committee tried to predict who would win and lose so the matches for each player would not be scheduled at the same time.  The committee’s crystal ball needs some repair! In particular, Dean Held, Mike McQuillan and Jay Spooner ended up double-booked on Saturday throwing havoc into the schedule.  Everything worked out as all were very flexible but iron-man honors go to Mike McQuillan who played five matches across two divisions with four of them going to tie-breakers.  Mike won third place in the Super Masters A and second place in the Super Masters B (with different partners.)  Jay played four matches, three of which went tie-breaker (that’s because he learned that playing with Mike in the 60A.)

Over eighty players participated and everyone enjoyed the great University of Minnesota facilities and traditional MSHA hospitality

 

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