To be the best team in women’s pickleball, Anna Bright knows she and partner Jade Kawamoto will have to play something better than how they played Friday in Dallas at the National Championships.
Seriously? Because things looked pretty impressive in their quarterfinal victory.
Truly, it’s kind of hard to fathom how things could be more seamless than they were in their victory against Tina Pisnik and Lindsey Newman.
Kawamoto and Bright, opponents last weekend in the MLP championship match here on these same courts in Dallas, have looked comfortable as teammates in this tournament, ripping into the semis with a 11-2 11-8, 11-5 victory.
The two were on offense the entire match, had little trouble, except for an early, second-game hiccup when Pisnik and Newman got out to a 5-0 lead, and showed too much speed, court coverage and range for Newman and Pisnik.
“They are just a great defensive team,” Bright said. “I was overplaying things at the start of the second game and I was getting a little impatient, but for the most part, we played a solid match.”
It will take something north of solid to keep up with the game’s most prolific winners in women’s pickleball in Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau, but Bright and Kawamoto look like they…
