USTA League
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Team Stories
Issue 23: Winter, 2008
The Foster City Tennis Club sponsors many teams and we have written many stories to share our team experiences with the club. For prior issues, please check out our archive.
- Senior Women's 3.0 Team
- FCTC 7.0 Mixed Doubles Team
- Senior Women's 3.5 Headed to Playoffs
- Senior Men's 3.5 Leads League
by Kacey Karmendy, Captain
Well, we're just a little over half-way through the season, and our team is in first place by a hair! This season is a challenging one for us, as there are only two other teams in our flight (where have all the senior 3.0 ladies gone?), so we will be playing each team FIVE times. Well, at least we'll get to know each other really well!
Some of us played in the SuperSenior 60 7.0 league this summer (don't worry, ladies, I won't reveal your identities), and, while we didn't win many matches (I suppose one match can be considered "not many"), we all gained some valuable experience playing with the "Big Gals".
We have many returning players: Maria Campodonico, Roz Chan, Patti Ellis, Rikko Field, Marji Fujiki, Marcia Furey, Mary Hannigan, Gemma Hon, Marie Horn, Marion Lowrance, Sam Marshall, Maureen Olson, Po Yee Pau, Fumi Wong and Phyllis Wong. We have also welcomed some new players: Helen Geer, Gail Ghose and June Walker. I want to acknowledge my returning co-captain, Marcia, for her support and input into the never-ending guessing game of assembling lineups.
We are looking forward to the rest of this season, and hoping for some post-season play. GO TEAM!!FCTC 7.0 Mixed Doubles Team (2008 NorCal Champions)
by Jake Karmendy, Co-Captain
The long and winding road to USTA's Western Nationals Mixed Doubles Championships ended the weekend before Thanksgiving at Gold River Racquet Club near Sacramento. But it began some 14 months earlier when Barby Pickett's FCTC 7.0 Mixed Doubles team was merely one of some 180 teams in Northern California competing for the right to take the trip.
Along the way the team traversed the tough Upper Peninsula League in Fall 2007 and early 2008, amassing a spectacular 13-1 season record but needed a hard-fought win over Beresford in the March Local Playoffs to make it to the Stanford Districts in May 2008.
Three straight wins at the Stanford Taube Family Tennis Stadium brought the team to Harbor Bay for the NorCal Championships in June. There the team won all four of its matches by identical 2-1 scores, indicating both the highly competitive nature of the tournament and the team's overall strength. No doubt the team's gaudy 22-1 record served notice that FCTC would need to be reckoned with at Nationals at Gold River.
The long road ended on November 22, 2008 when the team fell just short of making it into the National Semi-Finals. As luck would have it, FCTC was placed in a bracket that included the two teams who would eventually vie for the title. While FCTC beat one of those teams, the team fell just short in tiebreakers to make it into the medal round. All in all, it was quite a trip.
At the end of the season that lasted from September 2007 through November 2008, Foster City's 2008 7.0 Mixed Team became USTA NorCal League Champions. A testimony to the depth of this team is that upon entering Nationals, six players were undefeated and six more players had only one loss.
Please congratulate Captain Barby and her team on this marvelous achievement. Team members included Paul Lin, Sheila Cooper, Henry "Code Violation" Lin, Cathy Lin, Jenille Tan, Jobe Tan, Martin Uiberlacker, Ken Wanzer, Kathryn Chou, Allison Don, Jo Lim, Helen Geer, Stewart Kerr, Glenn Hernandez, Jeremy Pickett, Dale Russell and Co-Captain Jake Karmendy.Senior Women's 3.5 Headed to Playoffs
by Barby Pickett, Captain
The 2009 Sr. Women's 3.5 team consisting of Elsa Bader, Galynn Brady, Kathleen Cammarata, Lisa Chang, Karen Chew, Patty Coulson, Sandy Lower, Joyce Madeira, Lynda McAdams, Vikki Mion, Joanne Nino, Barby Pickett, Joanne Pontis, Regina Spadarella, Cathy Urban, Diane Weiss, and Scarlett Wood got off to a great start this season with 16 individual matches won against 5 individual matches losses.
We are in second place in a division where the top four teams go to playoffs. We got a little nervous when the yearend ratings came out for fear that the “up and out rule” would strangle our playoff power but a “modified up and out rule” and not too much damage to our team gives us hope of a playoff victory as the end of the season approaches.
With three more matches to go, we look forward to our playoffs matches in February.by Jake Karmendy, Co-Captain
With just over half the season in the books as of this writing, our FCTC Senior Men's 3.5 team has compiled a perfect record and leads the Upper Peninsula League. The team, captained by Jake Karmendy and co-captain Wil Dang, has been able to manage through debilitating injuries [old guys break easily], surgeries [ditto] and wife-inflicted vacations on the strength of a large and talented roster.
Updated 1/22/09
The team has gotten solid play up and down the line-up, which includes past members Ed Cruz, Jin Jue, Alan Hall, Tony Lolong, Mitch Tom, Victor Luscap, Chuck Lumia, Ben Asaro, Paul Ko and Bruce Klafter. New team members have added depth and strength: Alan Ting, Dale Russell, Larry Parish, David Ronce, Jeff Peterson, Larry Trice, David Ping and Mort Newman.
But the toughest part of the regular season still lies ahead. Can this team stay healthy enough and focused enough to be top dog come Playoff time in February? Stay tuned.
© 2009 Foster City Tennis Club