2016 USTA League Nationals - Where to find more information

In some sections, USTA League Sectionals have been played and the teams heading to Nationals have been decided.  In fact, I think most if not all 18+ and 40+ divisions will have their Sectionals completed by this coming Labor Day weekend.

For the teams that won at Sectionals, or even those just curious about who is going, a natural question is how to find out more information.

First, you probably want to know the schedule, and I wrote about that recently so take a look.

There is also a National Championships page on TennisLink where they lay out all the different divisions and levels with a link to a page for each.  Go there and click on the link for your division/level and you can see information on registration, the tournament handbook, hotel information, and (when posted) the match schedule.

Next, if you want to start see who you may be playing at Nationals, you can use TennisLink's Championship Search to go find out who won Sectionals from other sections.

But if you are really interested in scouting opponents and planning your line-ups, you may want to consider my Flight Preview and Team Detail reports that will show you summary and detailed information on the ratings of each team and help you decide when to play who and what courts to play them on.  The competition at Nationals is very close, and it is often who gets the best line-up or match-ups that pulls out the team win.  And if you get any reports, I'll do the leg work mentioned above of figuring out who the teams are or will be in your flight.  Contact me if interested.

2016 USTA League Pacific Northwest 40+ Sectionals Review

The 40 & over Sectionals for the Pacific Northwest section of the USTA are complete and more teams are headed to Nationals.  Here is a summary.

Note that any comments about favorites is using the top-8 average from my flight preview reports.

At the 2.5 level, the women had Seattle teams ACES and ETC face-off in the final with the overall favorite ACES taking the title 3-0.

The 2.5 men had a single flight playing round-robin, and the favorite Pine Lake from Seattle finished 3-0 to take the win.

The 3.0 women had SAC from Portland playing STC from Seattle, with SAC the narrow favorite taking a narrow 3-2 win.

And the 3.0 men had two Seattle teams from CP and NTC face off with CP getting the narrow 3-2 win.

At the 3.5 level, the women saw upsets in both flights as SPR from Southwest Washington beat ESTC from Southern Oregon 4-1 in the final.

The 3.5 men saw Seattle's STC team beating MAC from Portland in another tight one 3-2 in a minor upset.

The 4.0 women was another Seattle vs Portland showdown with AYTC and IRV playing, neither the favorite in their flight, and AYTC getting the close 3-2 win.

The 4.0 men had two Portland teams face off and WHRC again getting a 3-2 win over MPRC.

The 4.5+ women went back to Seattle vs Portland with Portland coming out on top as CGM beat BC 3-2.

Last, the 4.5+ men had Seattle's MI beat Eastern Washington's Spo 3-2.

The 40+ division did not have near the dominance the 18+ did with Seattle taking 11 of the 12 titles.  Of the 10 titles given out in 40+, Seattle did lead the way but with 6 titles, Portland with 3, and Southwest Washington with 1.

Good luck to all at Nationals!

2016 USTA League Pacific Northwest 40 & Over Sectionals are this weekend

The Pacific Northwest section of the USTA is holding their 40 & over Sectionals this weekend in Spokane.

As a preview, here is the top-8 averages for Flight A of the 3.5 women.  This table is part of what is in a sub-flight report that you can still get for any gender/level to scout your opponents and plan your line-ups.

Team	Average
SAC-Gatzke/Looi	3.48
TLTC Hilger	3.46
MI-Ko	3.37
ESTC-ServeAces and Limes	3.30

It appears the Northern Oregon and Southwest Washington teams are the class of this flight, on paper at least!  It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Alas, like last year, there are fires in Eastern Washington, but, knock on wood, at this point the air quality is not as bad as last year so the plan is to play the normal schedule outdoors.  Let's hope we can stick to that.

I say "we" because my team will be there!  In fact there are several teams from Columbia Silver Lake making the trip so good luck to them all.

Because I will be on the court playing/watching, I may not be able to respond to requests or questions as quickly as normal, but I will get to all the e-mails as quickly as I can.

Perhaps I'll see you in Spokane!

2016 USTA League Nationals schedule, Mobile a new location

Sectionals for USTA League are being played and completed in many sections leading up to Nationals.  That begs the question, when and where are Nationals for 2016?  This blog post will give you all those answers.

The past few years have seen Nationals predominantly played in the Southwest, specifically the Palm Springs area and Tucson or Phoenix Arizona.  This year, a new site is added to the rotation and it will make travel easier especially for those in the South but also the East as Mobile Alabama is hosting several divisions/levels.

I think one reason the Southwest has been chosen over the years is the high probability of dry weather which makes it far more likely than not that there won't be schedule issues due to weather.  While Mobile will be closer for many, what is the weather like there in October?  What do you think of this being a new location for Nationals?

But here we go with the schedule.  First 18 & Over.

Date	Level	Location	Flights/Schedule
9/23-25	2.5	Mobile, AL	PDF
9/23-25	5.0+	Mobile, AL	PDF
9/23-25	4.0	Rancho Mirage, CA	PDF
10/7-9	3.0	Surprise, AZ	PDF
10/7-9	3.5	Mobile, AL	PDF
10/28-30	4.5	Rancho Mirage, CA	PDF

And then 40 & Over.

Date	Level	Location	Flights/Schedule
10/14-16	3.0	Tucson, AZ	PDF
10/21-23	3.5	Rancho Mirage, CA	PDF
10/21-23	4.5+	La Quinta, CA	PDF
10/28-30	4.0	La Quinta, CA	PDF

Next, 55 & Over.

Date	Level	Location	Flights/Schedule
10/21-23	6.0 & 8.0	Surprise, AZ	PDF
10/28-30	7.0 & 9.0	Surprise, AZ	PDF

Last, Mixed.

Date	Level	Location	Flights/Schedule
11/4-6	18+ 7.0 & 9.0	Tucson, AZ	PDF
11/4-6	40+ 6.0 & 8.0	Surprise, AZ	PDF
11/11-13	18+ 6.0, 8.0, & 10.0	Tucson, AZ	PDF
11/11-13	40+ 7.0 & 9.0	Surprise, AZ	PDF

Good luck and have fun to all that get to go!

USTA League 2016 Nationals start in just over a month!

USTA League Sectionals continued in a number of sections including Southern, Mid-Atlantic, Intermountain, Eastern, and more.  With the completion (well, almost in Southern, they finish Monday morning), more teams are headed to Nationals.

That means Nationals are right around the corner, and checking the calendar they start as early as September 23rd, barely over a month away.  If you are headed there, time to start getting ready!

Southern Section 40+ Sectionals 4.0 Women After Two Days - Too Close To Call!

The Southern section is holding their 40+ Sectionals this weekend, and the 4.0 women is as close as it could be.

Flight II has five teams playing round robin, each team will play four matches, and after two days, every team has at least one win and ever team has at least one loss.

Here are the standings:

Team	W	L	IW	IL
Mississippi/Poole	2	1	8	7
North Carolina/Yeager	1	2	7	8
Louisiana/Cruthirds	1	1	5	5
Georgia/Otterlee	1	1	5	5
Arkansas/Bennett	1	1	5	5

Yes folks, that is close.  Every match played has been 3-2 and the only difference between the teams that have played three times is a 3-2 win for Mississippi.  And of the 30 matches played so far, a full 13 of them have been match tie-breaks.

It is pretty rare that any team could still win going into Sunday, but that is the case here as any team could finish 3-1, or there could be a log-jam at 2-2 with every team finishing with that record.

Flight I is not nearly as close with Georgia/Murrah at 3-0 and Kentucky/Scanlan at 2-1, the rest with just one match win.

But Flight II should be exciting on Sunday!

Update:  One more match was recorded and Arkansas/Bennett won a match 4-1 and took the lead.

2016 USTA League Pacific Northwest 18+ Sectionals Review

The 18 & over Sectionals for the Pacific Northwest were held this past weekend in Spokane and with the completion, teams have qualified for Nationals.

As has happened in the past, Northwest Washington (Seattle) cleaned up.

At the 2.5 level, the women saw two Seattle area teams face off with Robinswood beating TCSP 2-1 in the final.  The men played round robin and that resulted in Mill Creek winning the flight losing just one court in three matches.

The 3.0 level had the women having a repeat of local playoffs and two teams from Amy Yee playing, Troung getting the 3-2 win.  The men also had a repeat with TCSP beating ETC 4-1.

At the 3.5 level, the theme continued with Robinswood beating TCSP 5-0 for the women.  The men found a team from Portland make the final in MAC but they lost to a Seattle team from Harbor Square.

The 4.0 level women saw a Portland team make the final in TLTC, but they lost 3-2 to TCSP from Seattle.  The men saw another Seattle team from Amy Yee win 4-1 over a team that made the trek from Alaska!

The 4.5 level saw a women's team from Spokane make the final but lose 3-2 to Edgebrook from the Seattle area.  The men had the first non-Seattle winner as St. John from Portland beat Mercer Island 4-1.

Last, the 5.0+ level had a women's team from TCSP in Seattle win the round robin.  The men had STC from Seattle winning over a team from Bremerton.

So of the 20 finalists, 14 were from Seattle and of the 12 champions, an amazing 11 were from Seattle.

Congratulations to all.  Good luck at Nationals!