Florida Women's 65 Team Wins USTA National Intersectional Championships November 2009By Scott Harrison
Last week (November 16-22) Retsy Wilson of Pensacola traveled to Naples, FL to participate in the USTA National Women's Intersectional Team Championships as part of the Florida 65's team and they won the National Championships 3-2 over Southern California.
Team captain, Belmar Gunderson (left) and Retsy Wilson (right)
The USTA National Intersectionals feature Women's 35, 45, 55 ,65 ,75 and 80 teams. The younger teams play a format of 3 singles and two doubles while the 75s and 80s play two singles and a doubles. Each age group plays a compass draw with however many of the USTA's 19 sections field teams.
In Wilson's 65 division, there were 12 teams and the Florida team was seeded second behind top seeded Southern California. It had been many years since anyone had topped the Southern Cal team. Wilson partnered with Dorothy Wasser in the doubles for the team this year winning two matches and losing a meaningless final match.. After an opening round BYE, the Florida team beat Northern California 4-1. In the semifinals, Florida faced a Southern team that felt they should have been seeded second. Florida left no doubt that the seed was correct by soundly whipping the South 4-1.
In the finals, Florida swept all three singles and the doubles didn't matter - National Champs. In addition to Wilson and Wasser, the Florida 65s team included Donna Fales, Ria Graham, Jovette Levine, Susan Martin and Margy Edmunds.