2009 USTA/Mid-Atlantic Sectional
Adult Champions and
11 Winners Advance to Nationals
NEWPORT NEWS, VA—At Huntington Park, 11 USTA/Mid-Atlantic Sectional Adult Champions were crowned: 2.5 Men (captain Carl King), 2.5 Women (captain Pam Keim), 3.0 Men (captains Jon Smith and James Dorf), 3.0 Women (captain Amanda Spake), 3.5 Men (captains Bill Biggs and Alan Klein), 3.5 Women (captain Joy Fletcher), 4.0 Men (captain Steve McCoy), 4.0 Women (captain Chung Bell), 4.5 Men (captains Alex Chi and Albert Hsieh), 4.5 Women (captain Bonnie Holt), 5.0 Men (captains Jamie Peterson and Chris Chiu).
2.5 Men’s Champion: VA-Richmond
Rick Lloyd, captain Carl King, Skip Nash. Back: Ken Felts, and Bill Nash. Not pictured: Andy Little, J.T. Murphy, and Chris Leahy.
2.5 Men’s Finalist: MD-Montgomery
L-R: Captain Alex Podpaly, Yuri Gorbach, Brian Lynk, Leon Cammen. Not pictured: William Rodgers, Timothy Whistler, Alex Abramson, Boon Changramai, Alan Diamond, Andrey Andreev.
2.5 Women’s Champion: VA-Shenandoah (Stonebrook)
Front, L-R: Kristi Epstein, captain Pam Keim. Back: Gail Rousseau, Cathy Quinnelly, Linda Andrews, Deb Love. Not pictured: Christina Bowman.
2.5 Women’s Finalist: MD-Prince George’s
Front, L-R: Dawn Crawford, Tafadzwa Matinenga, captain Janice Pegram-Lewis, captain Cheryl Durham. Back: Coach Dion Williams, Lori Myers, Deborah Thompson, Ina Igbozuruike. Not pictured: Jonya Wagner, Regina Celestin.
3.0 Men’s Champion: MD-Howard
Front, L-R: Co-captain Jon Smith, Doug Almeida, Matt Levin, John Hsu, Russ Bell, co-captain James Dorf. Back: Steve Ring, Dan Fredman, Ilya Dondoshansky, Ed Cunningham, David Pinning, Scott Sadlo, Michael Harrelson. Not pictured: David Tompkins, Jeff Malinak, Dana Plude, Jared Sarney, Jim Alvey, Jeff Hydrick.
3.0 Men’s Finalist: VA-NOVA
Front, L-R: Captain Le Pham, Van Trieu, Bruce Nguyen, Thanh Phan, Viet Nguyen, Dat Chau, Dac Ha. Back: Captain Luan Pham, Vinny Nguyen, Kenny Nguyen, Thanh Ngo. Not pictured: Hoang Truong, Man Nguyen, David Ngoc Nguyen, Sonny Tran, Trung Nguyen.
3.0 Women’s Champion: MD-Montgomery
Front, L-R: Chandra Stokes, Dottie Zurnedden, Susanne Clawson, Tammy Bowie, Goht Van Den Brink, Angela Minnici. Back: Captain Amanda Spake, Linda Stelly, Cam MacQueen, Sheila Farrell. Not pictured: Dawn Collins, Marilyn Cox, Beverly Friedman, Kathy McGuigan, Carla Plaza, Lauren Kline, Liz Slaney, Grace Gourdine, Jan Randall.
3.0 Women’s Finalist: MD-Anne Arundel
Front, L-R: Judy Ferringer, Patty Stevenson, Karen Anderson, Sara Ackley, Suzanne Rawley, Brenda Brown, Joi Remoll. Back: Susan Willock, Kristin Engleman, Kareen Whiteley, Julianne Bing, Parris Bozeman, captain Stacia Bontempo. Not pictured: Maureen Radtke, captain Cathy Newman, Angela Porter, Jennifer Cohen, Gale Reed, Nicole Melograna, Bailey McMahon.
3.5 Men’s Champion: VA-NOVA
Front, L-R: Aaron Dale, Jeff Hsii, Chris Delrosario, Sounjay Gairola, Fernando Astorga, Scott Garrett, Dick Wadden, Vlad Dreiman. Back: Evan Martin, Bob Cusack, Dave Ashman, captain Bill Biggs, Dave Engle. Not pictured: Duy Vu, Jacques Beaudry-Loisque, Shannon Johnson, captain Alan Klein, Scott Miller, Steven Hurwitz, Al Laich, Ken Ferguson, Andrew Michaelson, Damian Wingate.
3.5 Men’s Finalist: DC
Front, L-R: Rey Esguerra, captain Tommy Zimmerman, Henry Yung, Kevin Chiong. Back: Brian Mooney, Chris Krackeler, Ty Wilson, David Wiencek, Kenneth Smith. Not pictured: Jon Caudle, Stan White, Adam Polon, Shannon Johnson, Chris Law, Brad Jones, Adrian Azer, Christian Delrosario, Mark Adams, Leon Berry.
3.5 Women’s Champion: VA-Shenandoah
Front, L-R: Belinda White, Lu Ann Rubenstein, Beth Halley, Terry Cocozza, Marla Jackson, Jan Smith, Margie Eberling, Debbie Mulholland. Back: Christy Martin, captain Joy Fletcher, Bridget Robeson-Costigan, Marianne Jones, Molly Melchior. Not pictured: Dennise Holmes.
3.5 Women’s Finalist: DC
Front, L-R: Laura Sommers, Jiang Hong, captain Liz Smith, Sharon Sabasteanski, captain Esther Wang. Back: Maria Marques, Bridget Gauer, Sue Bridge, Liz Dahreddine. Not pictured: Arial Pegues, Nina Babel, Cindy Coe, Michelle Bryan, Pam Mosko, Chi Wai, Christine Bragale, Margaret Rubino.
4.0 Men’s Champions: MD-Howard
Front, L-R: Paul Hsiao, Jeff Ocker, Rick Tyng, Dave Stepherson, Haider Abbud, Jay Abbud. Back: Victor Ng, Patrick Orwig, Ben Sandler, captain Steve McCoy, Michael O’Connell, Kevin Lewis. Not pictured: Marshall Hand, Mark Salazar, Randy Grobaker, Richard Sam Smith.
4.0 Men’s Finalist: VA-Richmond
Front, L-R: Scott Whitaker, Don Love, captain Grant Slegowski, Junnie Pagunsan, Chris Grinnell. Back: Holland Gravely, Ron Burroughs, Brian Pilgrim, Shaun Burroughs, Lyman Brown. Not pictured: Hank Wood, Nathan Wood, Rafa Lugo, Larney Clark, Gary Burton, Brent Bykowski, Charles Wayland.
4.0 Women’s Champion: MD-
Front, L-R: Captain Chung Bell, Teresa Wallendjack, Vicky Parra. Back: Tiffany Hodges, Alyssa Dooley, Elizabeth Deakin, Mignon McLemore. Not pictured: Lauren Carson, Karine Vincent, Tracey Dickens, April Kelly, Melissa Mendoza, Sonia Sekhar, Sonia Nath, Suzan Lumpkin, captain Ele Pratt, Maraya Pratt, Terry Childs.
4.0 Women’s Finalist: VA-NOVA
Front, L-R: Ellen Dickman, Jill Tsiamis, Colleen George, Gigi Sellers, Kathy Welsh. Back: Captain Heather O’Hara, Sara Brenner, Carla Carson. Not pictured: Marilu Saban, Anke Jeuniaux, Diana Lach, Nan Stipa, Laura Mitchell, Brenda Lee, Caneel Cotton, Jill Chandler.
4.5 Men’s Champion: MD-Montgomery
Front, L-R: Carlos Zuniga, Fredrik Skoglund, captain Alex Chi, Cameron Vincent, Rohan Raikar. Back: Paul Sommers, Mike Duncan, Greg Sturman, captain Albert Hsieh. Not pictured: Raleigh Chiu, Mitch Oh, Collin Green, John Parsley, Randall Wong, Jonathan Santos.
4.5 Men’s Finalist: VA-Richmond
Front, L-R: Jeff Jamison, Shad Harrell, Kevin Calhoun, Keith Adams, Kosta Dombrovsky. Back: Captain Jimmy Cooke, Brad Burch, Andy Todd, Mark Snead, Eric Cofer. Not pictured: George Barnes, Tom Mitchell, David Dwight, Dwight Galbraith, Jim Stiff, Ed Fuhr, James Hensley.
4.5 Women’s Champion: VA-Virginia Beach
Front, L-R: Shannon Heisler, Bekki Jucksch, captain Bonnie Holt, Tammy Mavromatis, Lea Trant, Christie Ritter, Georgina Young. Back: Susan Willard, Liz Van Calcar, Lynne Johnson, Laura Stone. Not pictured: Janet Hoffmann, Betsy Kainer, Molly Nissman.
4.5 Women’s Finalist: MD-Montgomery
Front, L-R: Linda Vinh, Daisy Peraltu, Dava Curtin, captain Shelley Fu, Shailini Jariwala, Joy Freeman. Back: Kelly Moler, Sarah Sando. Not pictured: Jennifer Stoker, Amy Koontz, Sara Dumansky, Nino Kostava, Del Owen, Susan Hsieh, Stacey Gorden, Debbie Broadus, Beverly Vayhinger, Kim Erickson, Linda Eshleman, Laura Smith.
5.0 Men’s Champion: MD-Montgomery
Front, L-R: Steve Sullivan, Nathan Crick, captain Jamie Peterson, captain Chris Chiu. Back: Matt Bilger, Doug Neagle. Not pictured: Ray Stewart, Jon Murchison, Chase Dawson, Mike Scherer.
5.0 Men’s Finalist: MD-Montgomery
Not pictured: Captain Mark Schneebaum, Isidore Ifeanyi, Gilbert Schuerholz, Dale Cathell, David Costello, Matthew Lennox, Neale Castillo, Brian Phoebus, Hyon Yoo.
2009 Mid-Atlantic Sectional Championships
Third Set Tiebreaks Dominate
Mid-Atlantic Adult Section Championships
Rain Forced Matches Inside Friday & Saturday
By Kathryn Barrett
NEWPORT NEWS, VA—From experienced tournament players to first-time participants, third-set tiebreakers were a common sight at the USTA/Mid-Atlantic Adult Sectional Championships held at Huntington Park.
For the 3.5 Women’s champions, winning meant doing some digging. After losing two singles matches, the Fairfax, Virginia, team needed to win all three of its doubles matches.
On the final day of play, their championship came down to the second doubles match. The team, representing Virginia’s Shenandoah, was up 6-2 and 5-2 in the second set when they lost the second set.
“We dug ourselves into a hole,” said Debbie Mulholland of Leesburg, Virginia. She and her doubles partner, team captain Joy Fletcher, Hamilton, Virginia, had to take their match to a third set, winning 10-5 in the 3rd-set tiebreak.
Fletcher said, “It was a mental thing. We heard the applause on our other courts and knew it was up to us to win.”
As a result, the team, which ranges in age from 38-55, will be wearing their coordinating marine blue (Nike calls it cruise blue) and white tennis outfits to nationals.
It was a similar story of tiebreaks with a slightly different outcome for some of the tournament’s most seasoned players, the 3.5 Men’s Mid-Atlantic champions from Northern Virginia, representing the VA-NOVA league.
Since 1989, Bill Biggs has been captain of a USTA/Mid-Atlantic adult league team, sometimes two, and he’s seen his share of third-set tiebreaks.
His team, nicknamed “Big 10s,” needed to win 4 of 5 matches on the final day in order to move on to nationals, a place he’s been four times over the years. The third doubles team lost their tiebreak in the third set; however, the team won the other four matches they needed that day to win sectionals.
“Yep, you got it.” Biggs said. “The ‘Bad 10s’ team from Fairfax Racquet Club played good today!”
Even some of the tournament’s newest tennis players experienced the challenge of going to tiebreaks in the third set. “Every court (on the first day) went to a third-set tiebreak,” explained captain Pam Keim of Winchester, Virginia, whose 2.5 women’s team represents Virginia’s Shenandoah league.
“I’m sorry… I just… we just worked so hard for this,” Gail Rousseau of Boyce, Virginia, said while holding back tears. And she wasn’t alone.
Tears, squeals of delight and cheers could be seen and heard from the team out of Stonebrook Club who said they are so new to tennis they had never been to a tournament, much less won one until they won their district competition and now, their section.
The Men’s 4.0 Maryland-Howard County team, under captain Steve McCoy, called itself the team that never dies. “We’ve been on death’s doorstep many times (during the season),” McCoy said, chuckling.
The captain explained that the team thought they were done at districts and somehow they escaped death and made it to sectionals.
There, they needed two individual match victories. It looked as if the team, whose members live near Columbia, Maryland, might be “done” again and once again, a third-set tiebreak made the difference.
The doubles team of Patrick Orwig and Jay Abbud began the tiebreak 0-1.
“Somehow we got some magic going,” said Orwig. “We were really into it.”
The pair went on to win the third-set tiebreaker 10-5, providing the second win the team needed. So even though the team lost 2-3 on the final day in a round-robin format, two wins were enough to become sectional champions. His team had more individual match wins to win the Sectional Title.
Abbud added, “This is so cool! Out of hundreds of teams, we get to go to Las Vegas (to Nationals)!”
Of the epidemic of matches being decided in third sets, Pam Leibfreid, the Mid-Atlantic Sectional League Coordinator and tournament director, said, “They should be close. These are all high level tennis players, at their individual level, so we expect competitive matches.”
While the biggest challenge on the court may have been prevailing in those nail-biting tiebreaks, the biggest challenge off the court was summed up in one word. “Weather!” exclaimed Leibfreid.
Summer thunderstorms and deluges interrupted play, especially on Friday.
The tournament, which used 20 outdoor courts for some 400 participants, had to be moved to two indoor facilities. At one point on Saturday, 38 courts were being used - 2 indoor and 2 outdoor facilities, in an effort to get the tournament back on schedule.
The Men’s 5.0 Adult sectional champions summed up a spirit of competitive camaraderie. Jamie Peterson, captain of one of two MD-Montgomery County teams, said, “The tournament was good spirited; it was good competition.”
His words echoed the sentiments of the team captains. Of his team, he said, “It’s a group of good tennis players and it’s a group of good people.”
And he should know. The captain of his team’s final opponent was Peterson’s brother-in-law.
*****
After beating 3.0 women’s teams Maryland (Bontempo/Newman) 4-1 and DC 3-2, Maryland (Spake) fell to Virginia 3-2.
The two Maryland teams tied with 2-1 records but Spake’s team had the edge in individual match wins 9-8 for the Sectional Championship.
No. 1 singles player Angela Minnici was undefeated at sectionals with a 3-0 record.
Amanda Spake said this is her fifth year captaining a 3.0 women's adult team, and some ladies have been on the team the entire time.
“Our team is known for its diversity. Ages on the team range from 32 to over 65, and some of our strongest players are in their 60's. We are racially diverse as well -- African American, white, Hispanic, and Asian.
“This was our second year at Sectionals - last year we were strong, but had a player disqualified, which proved to be the end of our hopes of winning and getting to Nationals. However, this year we were even stronger, and we did win, which was a major accomplishment that many of us thought we would never see.
“Our biggest challenge in getting to Nationals has been financial. While some people have more than enough money to pay for their trips to Tucson, several of us do not. We are having two fundraisers hosted for us by local businesses.
“The first is at the Vegetable Garden in Rockville, MD, one of the most popular vegetarian restaurants in the DC area.
“The restaurant is donating 10 percent of its revenues for the entire day to our team to help us get to Nationals.
“Likewise, Tennistopia, a tennis equipment store in Rockville, is donating a percentage of a day of sales to the team.”
Click on this link to see the Virginia District Winners and Championship Memories:
http://www.network.usta.com/publish.sps?syndicatorguid={FB8E431A-1CC5-47C9-BF18-E6D76015B8D0}&rmasiteinstanceguid={6E71DBC4-E0EF-4491-9228-E2EED22C127A}&rmapageid=27&customPageID=4158&Sectionid=5770&parent=2510
Click on this link to see the Maryland District Winners:
http://www.network.usta.com/publish.sps?syndicatorguid={1B9755C3-E402-4B09-8ADA-6E551384228A}&rmasiteinstanceguid={71156565-B501-4989-847B-03195798574F}&rmapageid=24&pageType=single&newsid=6636594