Hi Carol--I bet your ears have been burning for a couple of days!  This is 
the part of tennis that I really don't like.  I've had numerous email 
conversations with the person who originated the email to Cheryl Hultquist.  
Her original email to Cheryl was meant to be an inquiry, not a protest.  One 
of her concerns was that, if our team did make it to a play-off situation, 
and it was determined at that time that you should be a 4.5, then we would 
have to forfeit all games that you played in for the entire season.  This 
evidently happened to her team two years ago.  (I think she's rationalizing 
after-the-fact.)

You probably know that this person--that lodged the "protest"--is Betsie 
Hollis.  She's my women's team captain.  I've called her on the carpet about 
this...and let her know that by trying to hurt Bill Hunt's team, she is 
hurting me, too.  She did try to withdraw her "protest," but Cheryl had 
evidently already taken action.  There are so many people out there that are 
mis-ranked.  The fellow playing with Kelly last Sunday should not be a 
3.5...the woman we played against should not be a 3.5...Elise Shepherd should 
not be a 4.5...and on and on.  I have heard through Roger White--Rice U's 
womens coach and a USTA verifier--that they are slowly trying to rectify 
mis-rankings by looking more closely at league and tournament results.  I 
think you may be the first casualty of this endeavor.

Bill Hunt has all sorts of counter-arguments.  He had Cheryl's approval to 
play you in mixed at 4.0.  Maybe if we promise to play you with our weaker 
4.0 men--who are borderline 3.5 material--they'd let it pass.  Who knows.  If 
we are going to lose you--and Chris after this week--we're going to be pretty 
weak, not to mention demoralized.

After all, we're all just trying to have some fun on the tennis court.  
Speaking of which, this Sunday is Chris' last match before his big move to 
North Carolina.  We're out at Lee LeClear.  I don't remember if you or Bill 
are scheduled to play, but please join us for a little send-off celebration 
after the match if you can.
--sarah