Semifinal Friday at the USTA Level 1 Women’s Hard Courts

Bill Kellogg/Carolyn Lane; Tina Karwasky, icing her knees; Andrea Rice (red skirt) & Dina McBride (white skirt) played a great 50 singles semi.

The top seeds in the women’s 50 singles advanced by vastly different paths. Andrea Rice, the 2nd seed, had to rebound from a 6-0 first set drubbing to beat Dina McBride (3) 06 64 62. Andrea sliced and diced off her forehand, drove her backhand and showed off her excellent net skills in the win. Nancy Hilliard beat Marlo Carruth (4) by default (injury).

60s: Ros Fairbank Nideffer (1) beat Vicki Buholz 61 62 to adance to the singles final where she’ll face Fran Chandler (5). Fran beat me for the umpteenth time. The first set was close but once Fran closed that out her errors disappeared and her aggressiveness and movement increased…she won a well deserved 64 60 match.

70s: Judy Dixon (1) blitzed Cathie Anderson (5) not allowing Anderson a game. She’ll face Barbara Hubbard (5) in the final. Hubbard upset #2 seed Kathy Barnes earlier in the tournament and today beat unseeded Marianne Saibara.

80s: Local star and club member Suella Steel, unseeded, took out #2 Susanne Clark. She’ll face a familiar foe, Charleen Hillebrand, who beat 2019 champion Lorna Brooks 61 62.

50 doubles: Vicki Buholz/Gayle Prejean beat #4 seeded Deb Higa/Jami Jones in a match tiebreak; Jen Dawson/Jenny Keller (3) held off Julie Silveira/Mary Beth Williams 62 76; Nideffer/Debbie Spence Nasim (1) beat Christen Bartelt/Amy Alcini in a fun to watch match 63 62 and Tracie Currie/McBride edged unseeded Jodi Rea/Christine Paulson in a match tiebreak.

60 doubles: Tracey Thompson/Colleen Clery Ferrell edged 2019 champions and the top seeds, Susan Wright and Shannon Gordon Carney 61 57 1-0 (7)…those match tiebreaks in this new doubles format are a challenge! Una Davis/Lucia Romanov (5) beat #4 seeded Tina Karwasky/Jennifer Shorr 3,4 and those two teams play each other in the semis. Meanwhile, Julie David/Gail Warden advanced via default (Kathy May pulled a calf); Susan Pendo/Julie Juliani advanced via default (Kathy Vick broke a bone)…

70 doubles: Seeds 1-4 advanced without dropping a set to the semis.

80 doubles are still in the round robin stage. I saw a bit of Roz King/Dorothy Wasser (2) vs Charleen Hillebrand/Sheila Palmer (4); the latter team were up 4-1 in the first and 4-2 in the 2nd but lost in straight sets.

There were some good consolation matches today particularly in the 60s; Ann Young took out Maria Nunez 3,1; Kim Dean played great in beating Tracey Thompson 67 64 1-0 (8)…Tracey also played well, it could have been a main draw quarter or semi another time. And Shannon Gordon Carney edged Tina Karwasky in the 5-8 playoff and plays Susan Wright in the 5/6, another tough match.