Southwest Regional Women Tennis Champs Crowned
Sarasota Shines in USTA Florida Women's League Competition
Jul 21, 2008
When USTA Florida Adult League Sectional Championships kickoff on August 8, five of the 20 women’s teams that competed in the Southwest Regional Championships in Bonita Springs, Florida this past weekend will continue to battle for the privilege of representing Florida at the National Championships in Tucson, Arizona in October.
Doubles a Major Factor in Women's 4.5
A current that flowed tthrough the entire event was the need for strong doubles teams in order to be successful. The women’s 4.5 winners, Sarasota Longwood Run (SLR), supported the theory that strong doubles teams are the key to league success. going 8-4 in doubles and only 4-4 in singles.
SLR finished 3-1 in team matches, and in their lone loss SLR won one of the three doubles matches played. During their 6-0 regular season, SLR posted a 15-3 doubles record and went 9-3 in singles, demonstrating overall team balance.
Women's 4.0 Champions Better in Singles
Sarasota Bath & Racquet (SBR), the Women’s 4.0 winners, was one of the few winning teams that posted a record stronger in singles than doubles. Although their doubles record was not shabby by any means (9-3), SBR posted a 7-1 record in singles. Despite a 2-3 loss to Naples Grande Levine (NGL), their stellar individual match numbers gave them the win.
Strong doubles play did play a major role in SBR’s victory, however. A key match for SBR was the 5-0 win over the Tampa Challengers. If ever a score was deceiving it was this shutout score. All three doubles matches went to super-tiebreak third sets before SBR prevailed against a team that was also 2-0 in team matches when they met.
Sarasota River Strand Takes 3.5
Sarasota River Strand (SRS) emerged victorious in an extremely competitive Women’s 3.5 Division. After a tough 3-2 opening match against Punta Gorda, which was clinched by Marcia Frost’s third-set super-tiebreak victory, SRS posted back-to-back 4-1 wins over Heritage Palms and Tampa Palms Thunder. SRS scored a shutout against Naples Cambier Park en route to posting 7-1 singles and 9-3 doubles records.
Although SRS was undefeated in their division, parity still characterized this division. Second place Tampa Palms Thunder and third place Punta Gorda both finished 2-2 in team matches and 10-10 in individual matches. Even though Punta Gorda beat Tampa 3-2, winning a third-set super-tiebreak at No.3 doubles, Tampa lost two fewer sets (23 and 25 respectively) than Punta Gorda to claim second. The fourth and fifth place teams, Heritage Palms and Cambier Park both finished with 1-3 team records and 7-13 individual match records. Again, Heritage Palms lost just two sets fewer than Cambier Park to determine the standings.
Volley Girls Victorious in 3.0
As predicted, Tampa’s Volley Girls (TVG) proved to be just a bit too tough for the competition in the Women’s 3.0 Division. But they had no easy go of it, and may not have emerged the victorious were it not for the disqualification of SBR’s No.1 singles player, Melissa Steiner-Kelley. TVG got won the championship on the merits of a 3-2 victory on the final day over second place finishers FMRC.
Even though TVG went 4-0, their individual match record was a mere two matches more than FMRC (13-7 and 11-9 respectively). Similar to the parity evident in the 3.5 division, third place finishers, Punta Gorda Club (PGC) finished with an 11-9 individual match record as well, but had two 3-2 losses to the top two teams. Against TVG, a super-tiebreak loss at No.2 singles was the telling blow for PGC.
Women's 2.5
In the final division contested, Naples/Marco YMCA played FMRC three times, winning losing only one individual match. Naples/Marco will journey to sectionals as the Southwest's women's 2.5 representatives.
Chances are that the fifteen women's teams that were not crowned champions went home with a less- than-satisfactory feeling. But hopefully, as the disappointment of defeat wanes, they will remember the pleasure of participation and begin preparing for next season.
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