THE WEST DIVISION HEADS INTO THE HOME STRETCH: PORTLAND PREVIEW
The Paddlers have gotten the ol’ band back together, and will feature an optimal roster for their hometown event than the makeshift lineup that got rocked in Rock Hill. Will they be able to roll their way back into the playoff race with just 3 regular season events remaining?
January 20, 2024. What’s pongin’, Pongheads? With only 7 short days before the West Division renews hostilities (January 26-28 at the dazzling venue of the Portland Expo Center, get your tickets HERE), we here at Majorponghead have been Croc-chompin’ at the proverbial bit to see the Paddlers, Blasters, Smash and Spinners face off again at full or near full strength after a somewhat unsatisfying encounter with their East Division counterparts in Rock Hill. Following the Cross Divisional event in which the East completely dominated the West, the absence of braggadocio in the social media accounts of the East players/coaches/owners was very telling. Even the most brash and outspoken members of the Crocs, Gold Rush, Revolution and Wind couldn’t bring themselves to celebrate too vociferously, as it was obvious how the Western Division teams (with the notable exception of Bay Area) were without so many of their key players. It was a free agent frenzy of a weekend. This will not be the case in Portland.
Official rosters for Portland: almost everyone is back! AmyNandanLashinLilyOlaAdiFabiolaDancingCoachKouLeiRachelDaniel….we missed you.
With only a couple notable exceptions, all four teams will be at full strength. But the couple of notable exceptions could prove to be very critical indeed. The Bay Area Blasters, the one team from the West that came full strength to Rock Hill (and carried the Western Division torch proudly by going 3-1 that weekend), now faces a weekend without their #1 draft pick and Master Jedi #29 Wenzhang Tao. Recovering from a knee injury, Tao’s absence is a major blow to Coach Maggie Tian’s aspirations to keep their momentum going after Rock Hill, given how absolutely electric Tao’s play had been of late. That reverse penhold backhand was absolutely banging! Without Tao, the Blasters will need to lean heavily on #11 Ma Jinbao, fresh off yet another command performance on the WTT stage at Corpus Christi, where he convincingly defeated world #68 Lubomir Pistej, and came oh-so-close to pulling off the win against the eventual finalist, world #139 Joao Monteiro (succumbing 11-9 in the 5th). The Kingslayer (#7 Lashin Elsayed) returns to MLTT action and like last time, will need to play up…will we see a rematch against the #2 King Kou Lei? If we do, all credit goes to MLTT VP of Competition(#1) Mimi Bosika for noticing that Elsayed had accidentally booked his plane ticket to Portland, Maine instead of Portland, Oregon (we do not make this stuff up, folks…). Also returning will be #23 Lily Zhang on the heels of her rousing run into the finals of WTT Corpus Christi…and needless to say, that is a seismic needle mover for Bay Area.
The Seattle Spinners will be without the services of one of their best young guns, #16 Andrew Cao. With a superb 18-9 record in singles, Cao’s absence will be keenly felt (rumor has it that Andrew is in Europe for training and competition), but the return of #21 Olajide Omotayo and young superstar #37 Adi Sareen will give Coach Luba Sadovska a few more tools in her toolbox, especially the Omotayo/Diaz doubles pairing that seemed to work so well earlier in the season. For the MLTT fantasy league aficionados out there, we also have some insider information that Omotayo is bringing his lovely GF to Portland to watch him play, so based on whether you think that’s a plus or a minus for Ola, make your picks accordingly. We tend to think it’s gonna be a big motivating factor, but what do we know….
…we know a lot more than you, hahaha!
Coach Jörg “Bitzi” Bitzigeio will arrive in Portland with a fully loaded Texas Smash lineup, most importantly with #28 Cool Hand Amy Wang back doing her silent assassin thing. Nandan Naresh, having recently qualified for the USMNT and headed to Busan in February for the World Teams Championships also returns, bringing his top notch top-knot action. And finally, we previously noted how the birth of baby Max to Princeton’s Jinxin “The Professor” Wang seemed to spur his game to a new level, now we’ll see if the happy news of a spring baby will similarly up #18 David McBeath’s play. Congratulations David! And if you’re taking any suggestions for baby names, can we put “Nelson Wellington Churchill Lennon McCartney Ozzy Osbourne McBeath” in for consideration? Come on now, admit that it has a ring to it!
Last but certainly not least, the hometown Portland Paddlers will seek to beat the MLTT hometown curse with the most significant return to action of all, #2 King of Karaoke Kou Lei. Though he was unavailable for duty at Rock Hill, we last saw him winning the US Open Men’s Doubles event partnered with Princeton’s Koyo “Red Bull” Kanamitsu. King Kou will bring his unmatched 20-4 singles record back into the fray. Equally consequential, #26 Rachel Sung also returns to action so that the Dancing Coach, Christian Lillieroos, will be able to reform the formidable doubles pairing (Rachel sports a spectacular 12-3 record in doubles) that scored so many team points for Portland in the first half of the season. Currently sitting in 4th place in the west, Portland will not only need to break the hometown curse which befell Texas, Chicago and Florida, they will need to absolutely reverse the curse and kickstart their playoff run.
Everything is still very much in play in the Western Division, with a mere 14 points separating 2nd place Seattle from the Blasters in first…not to mention just 18 and 20 points respectively between Texas and Portland from a playoff spot. With a total of 9 team matches over the course of the next three months yet to be played, the final standings are far from being determined…but certainly after Portland there will be more clarity. Good luck to all the teams, and keep on pongin’, Pongheads!
