OGDEN -- The Ogden Athletic Club women's 2.5 tennis team loves tennis, but they're hoping to get more than "love" out of their next tennis tournament -- the USTA National Championships in Rancho Mirage, Calif., this weekend.
The team -- consisting of Denise Shumate, Karen Bailey, Aliea Sabbagh, Debbie Wilson, Becky Toller, Gloria Otto, Megan Young, Jolynn Bell and Veronica Blake -- worked their way up through Districts, winning the Utah state title, and then going on to win the Intermountain Sectionals to earn a spot in the National Championships, where they will play other winning teams from regions all over the U.S.
"It was very exciting," said Bailey. "We have checked back and there hasn't been an OAC team that has ever gone to nationals. I don't know how many OAC teams have even gone to sectionals. I felt like that was a really big accomplishment for us, because there are so many strong clubs in Salt Lake City. It was pretty exciting for us to get to that point and make it through."
Bailey, who won't be making the trip to nationals because of a scheduling conflict said that their experience was part of what helped them win the tournaments to qualify for nationals.
"We have a really good team with really strong women," said Bailey, 53, who picked up tennis three years ago when her mother died. "When we played those women, we realized they're the same level of tennis players as we are, and we had more experience, which has really helped us more mentally than anything in match play. Tennis is such a mental sport at times. I think a lot of it was our experience."
Blake, a founding member of the 2.5 team said that the team is looking forward to testing themselves against other top-level teams. "What we really want to do is be a strong team and we definitely want to win," said Blake. "It's a really cool opportunity, and we've been practicing together every week since we won Sectionals."
Blake, Wilson, Shumate, Sabbagh and Toller will be representing OAC in the tournament. They'll play two doubles matches and one singles match, with their total score determining which team wins against regions from Texas, the Southwest and the Midwest to see if they make it to the semifinals, where they have a double-loss tournament to determine the final placing.
The OAC team, which formed about three years ago, has players ranging in age from their 20s to their 50s and Blake said that most of them will be moving up to the 3.0 level after this tournament.
Comments