Southern faced off against Texas in the 35s final yesterday. The weather was nice, not too warm or windy. Sophie Woorons-Johnston beat Patricia Zerdan 62 61 in a match that onlookers said was of very high quality and closer than the score. Julie Cass, Texas beat Autumn Sisk at #2 and Southern’s Marissa Chapin took the #3 singles over Meredith Walton. So Texas had to sweep the doubles to win and Southern had to win just one doubles. Southern put in a very strong team at #1, Woorons-Johnston and Jan Deener and beat Cass/Walton in straight sets to win the 35s title. Southern won at #2 doubles too, with Paula Juels-Jones and Sisk winning in a match tiebreak over Laura Hudson/Zerdan.
Florida beat SoCal 3/2 to win the bronze medals behind the strong singles play of Sirianni, Cristina, Hana Guy and Paula Myslivecek, who gained strength as the matches went on (losing only a combined total of 1 game in the final sets of each match). SoCal swept the doubles.
Although SoCal won 5/0 over Southern in the final of the 45s, the singles matches were hard fought. Fran Chandler, Southern played Gretchen Magers and that match was a nail biter to the end. Magers won the first set; Fran rallied to take the second set tiebreak 73 and was poised to win the match (and by that time she had to win it for Southern to have a chance; Jennifer Dawson beat Sue Webb 1,2 and Debbie Nasim beat Jolene Watanabe 46 62 62), leading 53 and serving but perhaps thought too much, missed a couple of shots to make it 54; at that point Gretchen changed her game slightly, to finish more points at the net and won the next three games; Fran fought hard but the difference was Gretchen raising her game at the end. Southern Cal also swept the doubles.
In the 3/4 playoff, Florida played Mid Atlantic. Kirsten Elim and Julie Ogorne swept past Daniela Esswein and Tracy Viebrock respectively. However, Vesna McKenna and Alicia Wise more than made up for the briefness of the other singles matches. Vesna played brilliantly to absorb Wise’s power, winning 75 67 76. Wise cramped in the third set tiebreak and Vesna, a paramedic among other talents, got out her stick and massaged Wise’s leg, disregarding the “no treatment of cramps rule” to help her opponent. Wise then got a wrap and limped back to the court, not wanting to give up so near the end. Vesna won the next four points and the match with steady, smart play. So it was on to the doubles. Jenny Klitch, who had injured her leg the day before, stepped up for the doubles and Vesna and Jenny beat Mary Davis and Andrea Rice, but Mary Dailey/Tracy Viebrock fell to Ogborne/Elim and MATA won the bronze.
The other flights didn’t finish due to the all day rain the day before in Boca Raton. Eastern and Intermountain tied for fifth.
