By J. Fred Sidhu, special to USTA.com
SURPRISE, ARIZ. – Under brilliant skies at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex, the Intermountain section men’s team and the Florida section women’s team completed impressive runs to their respective titles at the USTA League Adult 55 & Over 9.0 National Championships.
The Intermountain section men, from Denver, opened play on the final day with a semifinal victory over the Southern section team, from Bluffton, S.C., 2-1. In the 9.0 championship match, Denver blanked the Middle States section men’s team, from Manasquan, N.J., 3-0.
“All of us have played tennis all of our lives and you dream about these moments. We feel blessed and extraordinarily lucky,” said Andy Rinehart, Intermountain team captain. “Tennis is not just winning. We all came away with the friendship, comradery and family support we will never forget. It was a perfect experience.”
The Southern section men’s team went on to capture third place with a victory over the Missouri Valley section team, from Chesterfield, Mo., 3-0
The Florida section women’s team, from Weston, Fla., finished second in its flight on Saturday afternoon but advanced to Sunday’s semifinals with the best second-place record.
From there, Weston proceeded to go on an amazing run, shocking the Midwest section women’s team, from Schaumburg, Ill., 2-1, to advance to the final. In the championship match, The Florida women narrowly defeated the Middle States Section team from Newtown Square, Pa., 2-1.
“It feels awesome. We worked so hard all year and we came together at the end as a team," said Florida team captain Rose Haney. "We just got in as a [second-place team]. Once we did that, we knew it was for us to win. A lot of us have played together, worked together toward this and we finally did it.”
The Southern California section women’s team, from San Diego, finished in third place by defeating the Midwest section women's team, 3-0.