Merrillville Invite

Today we all went to the Merrillville Tennis Invitational.  This is the third year that the boys have played there and luckily all three years Doug did not have a soccer commitment.  The tournament was supposed to start at 9 a.m. Central Time, but the early morning rain delayed the start about 45 minutes.  This gave the boys a lot of time to warm up and everyone else the chance to visit with Carl.  We were glad that he was able to join us today as he hadn't been to one of Cal's tennis matches before and Merrillville is only an hour and 40 minutes away for him.  While we waited for Cal to start Cam filled Carl in on the happenings at Camp Mack yesterday and Meg was able to tell him all about high school and soccer.

Cal played #2 singles and started off winning 6-0, 6-0 against his Portage opponent.  None of the other Wawasee boys had started so Cal had quite the gallery watching him.  He played very well and halfway through the match Nate Perek turned to the coach and said, "He's only lost 4 points so far." Needless to say it was a lot of fun to watch.

While we waited for round two we were able to watch several other matches and Cam met up with the Bethany Christian coach.  After the first round only Cal and Nate Perek made it to the winners bracket, but the #1 doubles and #1 singles were close.  Cal's second match was against Centerville.  Cal played well, but lost in two sets.  His opponent was the best I have seen him play this year.  Cal held his own and most games went to deuce or had long rallying points.

While we waited for his match for third place, Doug and Carl ran to Portillo's to get everyone lunch.  The line there was long, but it really didn't matter as Cal had at least two hours in between his 2nd and 3rd match.  Cam, Meg and I waited in the van to get a break from the wind and bees.  Cal walked back and forth between the courts and the van.

After lunch Carl decided to head back to DeKalb.  The rest of us headed back to the courts to watch Wawasee play.  Cal was finally called on to the court close to 3 p.m. and at first I wasn't sure he could overcome the long wait.  The rest of his team finished up and arrived at his court when he was down 1-4 in the first set.  They gave him the second wind he needed and he came out on fire, winning all but one of the next 11 games.  I am not sure his opponent knew what hit him as Cal was placing the ball on the back line time and time again.  We were so proud of his win and third place finish and glad to be a witness to it all.

We took Meg and Cam miniature golfing afterward at their favorite spot in Valpo.  Doug was up one on the last hole, but I had a hole in one and he had a four so that I could win for the third time in a row.  Cam was frustrated with his play at first, but improved and was happy to finish in third.  From Valpo we drove to South Bend to do some shopping at Target and the mall.  We stopped for dinner at Scottie's Brewhouse.  It was good as usual.  We were all thoroughly exhausted when we got home, but it was a lot of fun spending the day together.