Pensacola was VERY well represented at the Senior Combo Sectional Championships in Daytona in early January 2012.

I was in Daytona this past weekend playing in the Senior Combo Sectional Championships. Three Pensacola area teams were participating; Mary Day's 8.5 Women's team, Lisa May's 6.5 Women's team and Ric Pounders' 8.5 Men's team.

As usual at these events, everyone had a real good time in addition to playing some fantastic tennis. One of the nice things about this weekend was the weather - picture perfect with temps in the low 70's, light breezes - just perfect weather for two matches a day.

The champs of the weekend were the Women's 8.5 team. They went undefeated among their four team division defeating Pinnelas 2-1, Marion 3-0 and Hillsborough 2-1. In the last match against Hillsborough, all three matches went to the third set tiebreaker. In addition to Captain Mary Day, Penny Emling, Ginny Graybiel, Jean Lee, Beverly Patteson, Diana Waters, Retsy Wilson and Debbie Wroten all brought the heat for Escambia county. Everyone did their share to garner the win. Congratulations!

Lisa May's Women's 6.5 team did almost as well. The Women's 6.5 division had three four-team flights. So, May's team had to win three matches just to get to the semifinals on Sunday. The 6.5 Women defeated Pinellas 2-1, Leon 3-0 and Hillsborough 2-1 in the second match on Saturday. In that last match on Saturday that put Escambia into the finals, Lynne Owsley and Kim Camp defeated their Hillsborough counterparts 7-6, 5-7 and then won the 3rd set tiebreaker; terrific match. Sunday May's team faced Marion County's ladies and lost 2-1 but every match went to the third set tiebreaker - Marion won by only 2 games! The whole match could very easily have gone Escambia's way.

Lisa's team included Kim Camp, Debra Campbell, Kristin Drlicka, Barbara French, Trish Kington, Lynne Owsley and Brenda Sauer. Great job!

And now to my team, the Men's 8.5. We finished SECOND!! However, there were only two teams! We had a ball though. The Pinellas county team a bunch (14 to be exact) of good players and very nice guys. We played them four times and lost all four. But, we won three individual matches and had three others go to third set tiebreakers. So, it could have been a lot closer. We also played with only six players and that can be a little tough with so many bad knees, even in perfect weather. In addition to Captain Ric Pounders, the Escambia Men's Senior 8.5 team included Scott Harrison, Linsley McMillion, Hal Major, Pete Moore and Shane Russell.