The 2022 autumn season of Tennis Geelong Triples finished with a bang last Thursday with premiers crowned across four sections.
The big winners were Moolap Tennis Club, with all three of its teams finishing as champions.
Section 1 saw a matchup of the defending premiers, NSA from Drysdale Tennis Club, taking on the premiers from two seasons prior, the Night Owls from Highton Tennis Club.
Both teams produced empathic upsets in the semi-finals, coming from third and fourth on the ladder, respectively.
The grand final was nothing short of epic, with NSA winning each of the three doubles sets, and the Night Owls winning each of the three singles sets.
NSA’s ability to make each of the singles sets slightly closer on their home court at Drysdale proved to be the difference in a 3-3 30-27 win.
Moolap Zing Kings’ addition of Lachy Edgar made them the preseason favourite in Section 2, and the team finished the regular season undefeated. That record included a draw in round five against All Saints Anglican, however, so the grand final was not to be without some tension.
All Saints mixed up their order from the round five encounter, a strategy that did not prove successful as Moolap only dropped six games in the singles sets. Their singles prowess, along with Bradley Canny’s three wins, propelled the Zing Kings to a 4-2 32-21 triumph.
In Section 3, the Moolap Goats lost only four sets in their five rounds, so the Winks Wizards had their work cut out for them in the decider.
The Wizards played some of their best tennis in the final, and the score was two sets all with the Goats leading by two games going into the last two sets.
Moolap club president Matt Pettigrew inserted himself in the lineup for the final doubles set, a successful substitution that brought 6-4 win.
The blockbuster singles matchup of Moolap’s Kyle Beattie and the Wizards’ Brett Salajan lived up to its billing, with Beattie closing out an undefeated season and clinching the premiership for the Goats with a 6-4 set that capped a 4-2 30-24 win.
Table 29 Tennis Association finished on top of the ladder in Section 4, only losing seven sets in six matches heading to the final with Moolap’s Conc It Crew.
The Crew, playing in its first season of Triples, improved each week and had confidence heading into the grand final match up.
This translated to a fast start, winning the first two sets, including a 6-1 doubles win by Josh Similar and Danny Erihe. Table 29 scraped out one of the next two sets, but still trailed by nine games heading into the last singles and doubles.
The last two sets were won by the minor premiers, but the Crew had enough of a margin to seal a fairy tale win, 3-3 29-25.
