Texas used its home field advantage Sunday to upset Southern in the 45s and Southern California in the 35s. The day started with a light but persistent rain which kept the players off the courts till after 10am. Since most players had flights around 4pm, this became a problem when some matches went long (the finals were 2 out of 3 sets; the other ties were merely match tiebreakers in the event of split sets).

In the 45s, Texas #1 Shelly Works upset Fran Chandler in three sets and at #3 singles, Heidi Gerger won; Mariana Hollman showed few ill effects from her marathon yesterday and won at #3 singles. Unfortunately, the Southern players all had 4pm flights to catch and had to default both doubles, giving the tie to Texas 4/1.

Southern Cal beat Northern Cal in the 3/4 playoff to take the bronze medals, taking #2 and #3 singles and #2 doubles; #1 doubles was unfinished (SoCal retired) because one of its players had a plane to catch; and I split sets with Judy Rakela and lost the tiebreaker 11/9. It was very windy today, and the sun was bad in the afternoon..tough conditions out there.

The 35s final was exciting and came down to the wire. Texas scored first when Beverly Bowes, their #3 player, took out SoCal’s Jaime Jones in straight sets. At #1 sing6les, Gretchen Magers (46) took on the 35s Gold Slam winner Patricia Zerdan (36) and the match was long and brilliantly played…fantastic volleys by Magers and defense, spin and speed by Zerdan.Zerdan won 76 in the third. Jennifer Dawson beat Julie Cass to keep the tie alive.

In doubles, Magers/Dawson took on Bowes-Hackney and Cass and it was a match to remember…I think Magers sees the court in 3D Color while most of us see it in black and white! She commented at one point, after hitting one of her patented backhand volleys that she loves tennis…hitting volleys the way she does…it looks like a lot of fun! However, Bowes/Cass rallied from 2/0 down it the third to win, and at the end, Bowes in particular seemed to rise to the occasion and hit some great returns and volleys. Texas won 75 46 64. That was the deciding match; Cammy Macgregor/Jones having come back from a set down to win 60 in the third to tie it up at 2 matches each.