Last weekend, November 10th – 11th, several current Jammers and former Jammers and their teammates went to Belleville, IL to compete in the USTA Tri-Level Sectional Championships. Among the Jammers are: Teresa Emerson, Hee-Sun Kim, Kelly Kramer, Nancy Winters who represented the 3.5 NTRP level. Former Jammers, Huong Doan and Debbie O’Reilly, along with teammates, Allison Steiner, and Nancy Rahmeyer who represented the 4.0 NTRP level. Former Jammer, Sharon Bennett, and teammate, Lisa Matthess made up our 4.5 NTRP level.
2012 is our first year in having a Tri-Level team. This is the second year there is a Sectionals for a Tri-Level League. We all were very excited about going to compete. There were a total of 4 teams, including our team; St. Louis, Iowa, Kansas, and of course us. Since there were 4 teams, we were going to play a round robin format, so we knew we would have to play all the teams.
Our first match didn’t take place until Saturday at noon, so the team didn’t leave Springfield until Friday afternoon. We didn’t travel as a team since everyone’s schedule was not the same; we decided to just meet everyone at the hotel. I traveled with Debbie O’Reilly and Nancy Winters. It was a pretty easy drive there, until we stopped into Sonic in Cuba, MO for a bite to eat. We were leaving Cuba and continued our journey when Nancy’s car decided not to start. Good thing there were a couple of guys that were there that saw that we couldn’t start our car, and one of the guy offered to jump our car for us. There are still nice people out there. A super KUDOS goes out to the nice gentleman and his girlfriend/wife. Thank you Lord for watching over us!
The first match on Saturday was against the team from Iowa. Sharon teamed up with Lisa to play against the Iowa’s 4.5 team of Teresa Racette and Cathy Mayer. Sharon and Lisa played hard but couldn’t pull out a win. They lost in two straight sets 6-4, 6-1.
Debbie and I teamed up to play against our opponents 4.0 players of Julie Bruntz and Rhonda McCoy. I think both of us were nervous so we lost the first set 2-6. We worked hard in the second set and nothing seems to be working for us. We were down 2-5 when I told Debbie; hey we got nothing to lose. We came back and fought hard, the next thing we knew, we were up at 6-5, my serve for the set. First serve into Julie’s body and she couldn’t return the serve back. Next thing I know, I served up 3 aces in a row and we took the second set, 7-5. Wow, unbelievable! We were down at 2-5, and came back to win the set at 7-5 was incredible. We fought hard in the match tie-break, but it didn’t go our way, Debbie and I lost in the match tie-break 5-10. That was a tough lost for us; I usually don’t lose in a tie break, especially coming back from winning a set that we were so far behind. Tough lost! Still licking my wounds for sure!
Our only win against Iowa comes from our 3.5 court, Kelly Kramer and Hee-Sun Kim. They teamed up together to play against Punky Conway and Patricia Blodi. Kelly and Hee-Sun won the first set 6-3. They lost in the second set 3-6. They hung in there to win the match tie-break 10-8 to win their match.
In the meantime, our 4.0 court between Allison Steiner and Nancy Rahmeyer against St. Louis’s players Lisa Lamb and Sherry Taylor; it was a great match as well. Allison and Nancy played hard but they couldn’t pull out a win, they lost in two straight sets, 7-5, and 6-2.
Our doubles team of Lisa Matthess and Sharon Bennett had a very interesting match against St. Louis’s players, Kristine Gesme and Laura Dunaway. They lost the first set 4-6, but fought hard to win the second set 6-4. Lisa and Sharon won in the match tie-break 12-10. It was a very great match; both teams were incredible, great tennis to watch.
As always, it was hard for me to sleep the night before an important match. We definitely need to win all 3 courts and St. Louis needs to lose or if they win, they need to win 2-1 and not 3-0.
Sunday came and our 4.5 team of Lisa and Sharon had an easy match against Kansas doubles team of Karen Fox and Convallaria Wong. Lisa and Sharon won in two straight sets 6-3, 6-2.
The 3.5 court of Teresa Emerson teamed up once again with Nancy Winters. It was one of the longest match I’ve ever seen the two of them play. Teresa and Nancy lost the first set in a tie-break against their Kansas’s opponents Jane Windholz and Mitzi Hackney 7-6 (4-7). I believe Teresa and Nancy played against Mitzi Hackney and beat her and her partner at Sectionals in Oklahoma City a month ago. I’m sure she wanted to seek revenge against Teresa and Nancy this time.
On the second set, the Kansas team was ahead 5-3 and they thought they have the match for sure. Teresa and Nancy hung in there, fought hard, came back to win the second set 7-5 to bring the match to a match tie break. Teresa and Nancy didn’t come this far to lose in a tie-break, they won the match tie break at 10-5. This also gave the team a match wins against Kansas.
Team Standings By Championship Report As of Today's Date: 11/14/2012 4:56 PM
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Section
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Championship
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Level
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Div/NTRP/Gender
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Section
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Combo / 9.0 / F
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Team ID
|
Team Name
|
Team Score
|
Indiv. Score
|
Sets Lost
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Games Lost
| ||
Wins
|
Losses
|
Wins
|
Losses
| ||||
*****
|
2
|
1
|
7
|
2
|
5
|
62
| |
*****
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
4
|
11
|
87
| |
*****
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
6
|
12
|
87
| |
*****
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
6
|
13
|
93
| |
It was a very competitive weekend. We all had fun, and we all glad that we had a chance to compete in a Tri-Level League. It was a perfect ending to our 2012 USTA League. Way to go Short Hops! We are all looking forward to 2013 season. Perhaps the Tri-Level Championship Title will be ours next year.
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| Short Hops - Front Row: Debbie O'Reilly, Teresa Emerson, Nancy Rahmeyer; Middle Row: Huong Doan, Allison Steiner, Hee-Sun Kim, Kelly Kramer; Back Row: Sharon Bennett, Lisa Matthess, Nancy Winters |
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