Pirate Galaxy » rd set started with three-straight po

In November of 2014, I spoke to Kidambi Srikanth over a not so clear phone line from China. He had just experienced the greatest moment of his professional career by beating his childhood hero Lin Dan in the final of his home tournament. It was the first time an Indian male player had won a Super Series title and to add to the luster of the moment, it had come on the birthday of his coach and mentor Pullela Gopichand. Srikanth is a measured, soft-spoken young man but a lilt of excitement seeped through his voice.I had nothing to lose, so I wanted to give my best, Srikanth told me then. When I went into the match, I never thought I could beat him. I had a few strategies in mind, so I thought if I could execute them properly, I had a chance. I felt if I got all my strokes in, a 100 on 100, and make very few mistakes, I could do something. There arent too many weaknesses in his game because he has won more tournaments than anyone else in the history of the game.On Wednesday, at 9.20 am local time in Rio, just 10 minutes short of 6 pm in India, Srikanth faces the onerous task of producing an encore?as he fronts up against Dan in the quarterfinal.Since that heady day Fuzhou, their paths havent crossed. Dan had won their previous two clashes and comfortably at that. He has decimated the field so far at these Olympic games winning his three matches in straight games. Known on the circuit as Super Dan, the 32-year-old won Gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and followed it up with a repeat performance in London in 2012. He has been world champion five times. Hes won the All-England six times. Hes helped China win the Thomas Cup Five times. Just for fun, he has four Asian games Gold medals too.That Lin Dan is a colossus of modern badminton who loves the big stage is clear as daylight. The question is if Srikanth has the tools to upset this rampaging monster of a player. His coach Gopichand, who will have carefully strategised for this moment, was expectedly unwilling to share much insight, offering instead the bare essentials to set up this contest.It will be a tough match, Gopichand said. All we know is that he will give his best, lets see how he performs. All your past records are of no significant value here. It is about who is able to soak in the pressure and who is able to keep the momentum. I think Lin Dan is smart, he knows how to play on the big stage and he will be tough to beat. I think Srikanth will go in with a lot of confidence from his last three matches. Lets see how he does. Hes a good player and hes playing well.After an underwhelming year, Srikanths return to form at these Olympics has been quite encouraging. His upset win over World No. 5 Jan O Jorgensen in the pre-quarters was a reminder of his prowess on the court. Once ranked as high as No. 3 in the world, Srikanths ranking has tumbled just outside the top-10 in recent months at the back of a string of inconsistent performances. Though he started the year by winning the Syed Modi Grand Prix gold title in Lucknow, his results tapered off subsequently.Starting with a second round exit at the All-England championships in March, Srikanth suffered a series of first round defeats at tournaments in India, Malaysia, Singapore and China. He finally showed a flicker of improved form by reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open in June. An attacking player by instinct, Srikanth has been carefully nurtured by Gopichand to develop a more all-round game and improve his fitness. In Rio, the effort put on the training court over the last month and a bit has paid off. His first two opponents were brushed aside comfortably in the group stages and the ninth seed stunned Jorgensen by unleashing a ferocious all-out attack that the Dane could not find a retort to.Its a dream come true as Lin Dan is my idol, Srikanth had said after his pre-quarterfinal victory. Its been a long time since I beat him last time in the China Open final, so this will be a new game.John Cominsky Womens Jersey . Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC failed to make the postseason while Montreal Impact fell at the first hurdle losing heavily to Houston Dynamo in the Eastern Conference Knockout Round. Tony Gonzalez Womens Jersey . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. http://www.thefaclonsshoponline.com/Youth-Julio-Jones-Falcons-Jersey/ . Brad Jacobs and his Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., team took control of the game early. John Cominsky Youth Jersey . Down by seven with 90 seconds left in regulation, thats where they looked comfortable. Julio Jones Youth Jersey . In what the team had called a retirement, Ryan said Thursday that he is resigning as chief executive of the Rangers in a move effective at the end of this month.OXFORD, Miss. - For the ninth time in the last 10 seasons, head coach Craig Skinner picked up his 20th win as the No. 24 Kentucky volleyball team defeated Ole Miss, 3-1 (26-28, 25-15, 25-22, 25-15) at The Pavilion.The victory improves UK to 20-6 overall and 13-2 in Southeastern Conference play. Ole Miss drops to 15-12 this season and 4-10 in league action.I really liked our focus and work during rallies to keep putting pressure on Ole Miss, Skinner said. Our balance is a great example of how we need to play. We dont need to rely on one aspect of the game and we were effective in everything today. Its good to see that type of play in November as we head down the stretch.Kentucky shut down the Rebels offense, holding Ole Miss to a .099 attacking clip. UK tied a season best with 18.0 total team blocks. Junior Emily Franklin tied her career high with 10 blocks. Sophomore Olivia Dailey also tied her career best with six blocks, including one solo block. Junior Kaz Brown added six blocks with two block solos during the four-set win. Three other Wildcats - freshman Leah Edmond, sophomore Brooke Morgan and junior Darian Mack - all recorded three or more blocks.We felt like we had a good gameplan and our blocking could made a difference today, Skinner said. Emily and Olivia were great with their career highs. They were very disciplined with her hands and made a lot great moves.Along with her five blocks, Dailey helped the offense earn 59 kills with 53 assists. The match was her fourth this season with 50 or more helpers.Junior libero Ashley Dusek was all over the floor on the defensive end, earning a season-best 31 digs. Dusek is just one of two UK players to produce 30-or-more digs in the 25 point rally scoring era, and this was the fifth in her career. The East Bernard, Texas native also helped out on the offensive end with a season-best three aces. One other Wildcat, McKenzie Watson, earned a service ace during the contest.On the attack, Edmond paced the Wildcats with 18 kills on 37 swings. Brown also delivered a double-digit kill total during the match with 12 hammers on just 23 swings, good enough for a team-best .435 attacking clip. Along with her career day at the net, Franklin was one kill shy of a double-double with nine kills.ddddddddddddSET 1 Ole Miss started the match strong and earned an early 5-1 lead. After going down 8-2, UK called its first timeout of the match. UK responded out of the timeout with a kill from Brown and was able to cut the Rebel advantage to 13-11. Kentucky tied the set at 17-17 with a kill from Mack. Neither team could gain more than a one-point lead until Ole Miss won the first set 28-26. Edmond led the way with four kills in the set.SET 2 Kentucky began the set with a kill from Edmond and UK controlled the set the entire way. The Wildcats jumped out to a 9-4 lead on a hammer from Mack and Ole Miss was unable to push within five for the rest of the set. The Wildcats biggest advantage was at 20-12 after a rejection from Mack and Edmond. UK won the set on an attack error, 25-16.SET 3 The Rebels got the third set started with three-straight points, but UK responded to tie the set after a service error made the frame 3-3. The set rocked back-and-forth until a Brown solo block and attack error gave UK a five point advantage at 16-11. The Rebels fought back with a 7-2 run to go up 19-18. UK tied the frame with a Franklin kill, and three-straight kills from Edmond helped UK gain a 23-20 lead. Edmond finished Ole Miss off in the third set with a kill and UK took the frame 25-22.SET 4 Ole Miss earned the first point of the final set and led at 2-1, but was unable to take back the lead the rest of the set. UK went up 3-2 with a kill from Edmond and never looked back. Senior Anni Thomasson doubled up the Rebels at 14-7 with a hammer. Ole Miss cut the advantage to five with an ace, but Kentucky would allow just five more points in the contest and win on a kill from Franklin, 25-15.BY THE NUMBERS 31 - Number of digs for Ashley Dusek, a season high 18.0 - Total blocks for Kentucky today, tying a season high as a team 10 - Number of blocks for Emily Franklin, tying a career best 4 - Career 50+ assist matches for Olivia Dailey (53 today) ' ' '