After the World Professional League’s sixth week of match play at the WPBL Arena in Las Vegas, NV, the Phoenix Fire remains atop the standings. The league had a shortened weekend, as no matches were played on Thursday July, 4th in honor of Independence Day.
Phoenix started the weekend off with their fifth straight match win by defeating the Toronto Blue Sharks 11-6 although, the Houston Hustlers ended their streak Saturday. The Fire wouldn’t go down easily as Scott Frost beat Houston captain Jeremy Jones with his 30-13 singles win tying the match at 4 apiece. The Hustler’s Justin Hall and Chip Compton outlasted Manny Chau and Tommy Kennedy in singles shoot-outs to put Houston back up 6-4 heading into the match's final game which Houston won 30-15.
The South Division’s standings tightened up over the weekend, with help from the Houston Hustlers who swept both of their matches. By defeating the first place Phoenix Fire 11-4 Saturday, and knocking off the Atlanta Scorpions 11-5 on Sunday, the Hustlers sit in second place in the South Division. Houston is now just over two match points behind Phoenix, and a tenth of a point ahead of the Los Angeles Wave who is in third.
The Hustlers built a 6-1 lead in the first half of play against the Scorpions before Johnny Archer and Dennis Hatch scored 3 match points with singles wins over Jones and Justin Hall to pull within 6-4. Shannon Daulton and Chip Compton each scored shoot-out points in the final singles game, but Houston took the final game of the match 20-19 in a shoot-out to capture an additional point, plus the three extra for winning the match.
Atlanta lost both matches over the weekend, losing ground on the fifth place Miami Cruise. Miami defeated Atlanta 14-3 Saturday by sweeping the singles portion of the match 5-0. Hunter Lombardo and Jose Parica each picked up regulation wins and Corey Deuel added a shoot-out point against Daulton. Miami lost their Sunday match against Los Angeles 11-4 which ended the Wave's three match losing streak. Fifth place Miami is now averaging 7.4 points-per-match, and only a point behind second place Houston in the South. Los Angeles and Las Vegas sit in third and fourth respectively in the tightly packed foursome, with Atlanta 2.6 points per match behind fifth place Miami averaging 4.6 points per match.
Toronto was the only team from the North Division competing this weekend. The Blue Sharks bounced back from Friday's loss to Phoenix with a tight win over Los Angeles 10-7. John Morra only needed a couple of shots to out-duel Oscar Dominguez in a captain's choice shoot-out to settle a 7-all tie after the match's eight games. Toronto slipped just below the New York Pride into third place in the North with the loss, three tenths of a point behind the Pride. Minnesota, who had the week off, remains atop the North having won all five matches, averaging ten points per match.
Sub-par performances by Tommy Kennedy and Johnny Archer over the weekend forced the veterans to slip from atop the individual standings. Darren Applenton and Thorsten Hohmann, both of whom had the week off, have now moved into the top two spots in the league.
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