Opening Day 2017:

 

Frosty Hollow Freeze @ Pennsbury Terminetters:

           

           

             It was opening day for the 2017 Frosty Hollow Freeze as they headed to Trenton Ave to take on the new Pennsbury Terminetters.  Inside the dome stadium, the crowd was setting up shop for the much anticipated action.  The temperature on the courts were hot and mild like the chicken wing sauce the fans were eating in the upper deck of the stadium.  The Freeze crowd cheering loud and on their feet were up against a loud Terminetter crowd.  However, the Terminetter crowd quickly dispersed after the Freeze jumped out to a big lead.  The Freeze grabbed a demanding lead from the first serve of the match and went on to win by a score of 18-4.  

           

            The Opening Day Lineup that was submitted by the Freeze was put with a nice touch.  The Singles positions were set by Ian Blackman and Shawn Gallagher.  The Doubles Positions were set by Bob Hawley/Zach McGowan, Ashish Patel/Eric Ulzinow, and Lance Shaffer/Mark Shaffer.

           

            The new scoring system this year has the games played with much more excitement with every court riding on every point until the final tennis shot is hit for the day.  1 Singles is worth five points, 2 Singles is worth four points, 1 Doubles is worth six points, 2 Doubles is worth 4 points, and 3 Doubles is worth three points.  Every point means something if you want to make the playoffs at seasons end.  

           

            The Frosty Hollow Freeze had a few debuts on this opening day, including the new look phenomenal dark blue uniforms which were looking fantastic all night.  Also, Gallagher and McGowan made their Frosty Hollow Freeze debuts and seem to fit in great with the team.

           

             Ian Blackman and Shawn Gallagher both gave great efforts on the Singles courts with Blackman walking away with scoring 5 points on the night.  Gallagher stated, "I'm a failure .. sorry guys .. I'm still going with its Zach's fault though .. he emptied my tank on Thursday night in a 3 set thriller .. .. can't recover like I used too."

 

              Bob Hawley and Zach McGowan torched their opponents in dominant fashion.  McGowan then asked Frosty Hollow Freeze player Carlos Araujo, "Any pointers for me and Bob?"  Carlos jokingly responded, "Just tell Bob to stay out of the way and not Double Fault."  Zach left that with,  "Wailin Bob held his own."  

              

            On another Doubles Court, Lance Shaffer and Mark Shaffer known as 'The Grinders' scored 3 points for the team.  The Grinders like to play a speed game with physical play at the net but the pace of this game was slower in action.  The Freeze crowd on hand were doing the lobster chant because of the amount of lobs that were hit in the match.  The Grinders fed off of the crowd and steamed to a win.  Lobsters were on sale at a good price.  Lance and Mark both agreed, "A slow match but a good win".

              

            With the score at this point 14-4, Ashish Patel and Eric Ulzinow added the 4 points to close it out.  Ulzinow came in like a closer and tore the cover off the ball.  He put the print of the tennis ball on his opponent from a heavy smash.  Get out the way when Ulzinow has the opportunity to make a splash.  Patel stated, "Always good to start the season off with a win.  Let's keep it going next week!"  Araujo commented, "I had fun watching all matches."

           

            The Freeze are on the board and have great camaraderie and want everyone to continue to root for each other.  The Freeze love having big cheering crowds and having players root on the team members.  The Freeze host their Home Opener next week.

 

 

 

 

Also; The Carlos Araujo Show,  aired on ESPN 8 (El Ocho) on Saturday night:

 

 

To all aficionados of the Freeze:

 

            The campaign of 2017 has begun. We went to Pennsbury  and annihilated our opponent. Except for Shawn Gallagher, he had indigestion as a reason for a poor performance. Lemon Drop #2 plays better, he just had an off day, he blamed the loss on the Obama administration for not vetting the opponent. The rest of the matches went according to schedule massacre as previewed in ESPN 8 (el ocho). 1st singles , Ian did his usual job of devastating his opponent, and had plenty of time to text between games. Good Job to Lemon Drop #1. 1st Doubles was Zack (The Kid) and skinny Bob Hawley. Surprisingly, they had the nerve to lose a game. I would not recommend playing them as the 1st doubles in the foreseeable future. 2nd doubles, Ashish (Gummy Bear) Patel and Eric the Horrible had the even bigger nerve to lose a set to John and someone else. Pagano did a cartwheel backwards and the end of the set. However, reality setting for the rest of the match with Ashish and Eric cruising to victory, by winning the next two sets in five minutes. Lastly, Team Lobster started slow, However, true to their form, quickly recuperated winning in two sets in about two minutes. Overall, Team Captain Nadine (Super Mom) Shaffer sums it up by saying " what the hell is going on". Good overall effort by the team. Until next, your intrepid reporter says "keep your feet on the ground and lob".