When Rob Schultz won the title, he instantly turned to his partner to rejoice in the pickleball tournament triumph. He wasn’t simply celebrating with anybody, though. Dianne Schultz, his wife, was the one he played with.
“This is big,” Dianne said. “The fact that we came together and we could play and win gold together. I love it.”
The Village of Caroline pair defeated Jack Hurst and Nina Riley 12-10 in the Pickleball Community Volunteer Group’s 7.5 Combined Rating Mixed event at Rohan Regional Recreation Complex recently.
The gold medals were almost snatched from the husband and wife’s grasp. Rob and Dianne had a 4-0 and a 7-2 lead in the championship game, respectively. Hurst and Riley, on the other hand, staged a comeback.
Hurst and Riley battled back and forth to tie the game at 7 before establishing a slight advantage. Rob and Dianne sought a timeout while the game was tied to try to interrupt their opponent’s momentum. While the break didn’t immediately pay off, it eventually allowed the Schultzes to establish their own rhythm.
“Momentum is a funny thing in pickleball,” Rob said. “Once it’s rolling, it’s hard to break it. A timeout can do that sometimes.”
Hurst and Riley tied the score at 10 before Rob and Dianne recovered a 10-9 advantage. With a win-by-two rule in place, the game was at risk of dragging on in the sweltering Florida heat.
That was never going to happen to the eventual victors. They needed two more points to win gold.
“I just relied on my husband,” Dianne said. “He’s an amazing player. I believe in him, and he believes in me, and we knew we could do it.”
Rob and Dianne only lost one game during the competition, to Hurst and Riley in the round-robin round. They said that their loss helped them improve for the final.
Despite the fact that they are husband and wife, Rob and Dianne admitted that they rarely play together.
Dianne is a 3.5 player, whereas Rob is a 4.0. This was the first time they had played as a doubles team in months. However, the connection they had developed during 32 years of marriage compensated for the lack of playing time.
“I know how to treat all of my other pickleball partners, and I need to treat her the same way,” Rob said. “She was positive with it, and she rose to the occasion.”
The event drew a total of 30 teams. For the first half of the event, teams participated in a round-robin format after being divided into four pods. Each pod’s top two teams advanced to the playoffs.
There were 8 teams in the playoff bracket, and they participated in three rounds. The games were played to a total of 11 games, with the victor having to win by a margin of at least two. Dan Civitarese and Eva Peters won the bronze medal game, defeating Lee Anne Cook and Ken Kozlowski 11-1.
