Missoula, MT, WPH Press, 2/3/24-
Saturday at the 2024 R48 Red Death produced several Race 4 Eight match of the year candidates, with four of the six main draw matches going to third games.
Quarterfinals
Vic Perez authored the biggest upset of the season in Saturday’s opening match, ousting R48#1 Lucho Cordova and eliminating Lucho before the semifinals for the first time in more than three years. Lucho won a close first game that saw Perez eliminate a 6-11 deficit to tie the score at 11. Lucho scored three of the final four points of the first game and led 13-9 in game two and appeared to be on the verge of an upset-escape more than one hour into the match. Perez rallied again, this time tying the score and finishing the comeback to force a third. Lucho took an early lead in the tiebreaker, but it was all Perez from there, as the Pride of the LAFD earned his second career win against Lucho.
Leo Canales earned his first career win against David Fink in the second quarterfinal, blitzing Fink in both games. Canales returned Fink’s best serves to the ceiling, while capitalizing on virtually every opening throughout the two-game sweep. “Leo played awesome, there was nothing I could do,” Fink would later say. “I was really hungry for this one,” stated Canales. “The St. Louis loss really hurt (to Fink in a tiebreaker). Everything was working for me today.”
Danos Cordova faced Mark Doyle for the first time and was aiming to avoid the upset-bug that bit the top half of the draw. Cordova started quickly in game one, surprising Doyle with but hop serves and taking an early 4-0 lead before Doyle served. Doyle, however, was not going anywhere. Doyle worked his way into the match with paddle kills and power drives off the back wall, eventually wrestling control of the first game and outscoring Danos 15-7 to close out the first. Danos kept his nose in front throughout the second but Doyle was always lurking. With Doyle serving at 13-14, he was called for the first foot fault of the event. An enraged Doyle gave Danos a second serve setup, which Danos killed for a side out and Danos ended the game quickly with a fly kill return of serve.
Steaming between games, Doyle was clearly still affected by the call to start the third, falling behind 11-0 and 13-2. “Things just started to get away from me,” stated Doyle. “Daniel made some good shots and I skipped a few and all of the sudden it was 13-2.”
Doyle charged back, scoring six points to cut the deficit in half. “At that point I was just trying to score some points,” Doyle would later say. “When I got to six or seven, I started thinking I could do it.”
Doyle continued to charge, sitting just one back at 12-13. The comeback bid ended there, as Doyle’s hopes for his first Race 4 Eight semifinal would have to wait.
“I was paddy-caking too much,” Danos would later say. “I knew I was doing it but Mark was hitting the ball hard.”
Martin Mulkerrins was dominant in reaching his fourth semifinal of the season, dispatching Sam Esser in just twenty-four minutes.
Quarterfinals
Perez def Lucho 11-15, 15-13, 15-7
Canales def Fink 15-3, 15-5
Mulkerrins def Esser 15-8, 15-1
Danos def Doyle 11-15, 15-13, 15-12
Semifinals
Both Leo Canales and Vic Perez were seeking their second Race 4 Eight finals appearance in the upper bracket semifinal. Canales continued the dominant play that saw him keep his first two opponents under eight points in four games in the first against Perez, leaving Perez on just three points in a dominant first game.
Perez was no stranger to dropping lopsided first games on the Red Death show court, as he has rallied from first game blowouts in last year’s and this year’s Red Death to win. Perez was able to cool off Canales in the second, finding the back corners with ceiling shots and disrupting Leo’s rhythm. Despite not being able to play as aggressively, Canales stood just two points from the match late in the second game but could not cross the line.
Canales grinded in the third, playing more patiently and pouncing on offensive chances to deny Perez his sixth tiebreaker win of the season. “I gave myself a B on the season coming into this event,” stated Canales. “I came into this event with a strategy, as opposed to the other events in this season where I just showed up to play. My goal is always to be more consistent.”
Much like the upper bracket semifinal, the first game was over very quickly, as Martin Mulkerrins never allowed Daniel Cordova into the rallies. “Martin was just playing so well in the first,” Danos would later say. “I didn’t feel like I was playing badly.”
Danos worked his way into the match in the second, extending rallies and not allowing Mulkerrins to dictate from the center of the court. Mulkerrins had a number of chances to pull away and take the match in the second but could not convert, as Danos forced a third.
The pair would play their second tiebreaker in a row, with Danos winning a thriller in the final of the 2023 R48 Tucson Memorial. Martin started well in the tiebreaker, finding the game that carried him to a first game blowout win. Trailing 0-5, Danos started to go for more kills, particularly his patented shoulder height left-hand kills. Danos would eventually lead 13-10 but missed a fly kill first-strike attempt that would have given him match point. A flat kill and two more rallies tied the score at thirteen, but an avoidable call on Mulkerrins on a ball that fooled both players in the deep court handed Danos the serve. Danos closed out the match with two straight points, including a dramatic twenty-eight shot rally on match point that saw both of Danos’s legs cramp after the final shot.
Semifinals
Canales def Perez 15-3, 13-15, 15-7
Danos def M. Mulkerrins 2-15, 15-12, 15-13
Final (Sunday, 11:30 am MST): Danos vs. Canales
9th place final: Burgos vs. Streibig 10 am MST
5th place final: Fink vs. Doyle 10:45 am MST
2024 Montana Red Death Sunday Broadcast Schedule on ESPN+: 10 am-1 pm MST.
Follow the brackets from the 2024 R48 Red Death HERE
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer