A warm, steamy Orlando day was the setting for Sunday at the 2019 USTA League National Adult 40 & Over 3.0 Championships, hosted by the USTA National Campus. Two champions were crowned in the early afternoon, as the Caribbean (Independent – Puerto Rico) men defeated Southern (Independent – N. East, Miss.) 4-1 and the Southern (Rock Hill Tennis Center – Rock Hill, S.C.) women bested Midwest (Carmel Racquet Club – Carmel, Ind.) 3-2 for the national crowns.

Top-seeded Caribbean and No. 2 seed Southern (Independent – N. East, Miss.) cruised through the semifinal round to setup the showdown for the men’s title. Caribbean swept aside Intermountain (East Junior High – Boise, Idaho) by a 5-0 margin without surrendering a set. Dominating singles play by Southern, in which three of the four sets were won at love, propelled them to a 4-1 final score line over Mid-Atlantic (Independent – Howard County, Md.).

Four of the five courts contested between Caribbean and Southern could have gone either way, and even singles line one featured a tight opening frame before Nestor Munoz Santiago closed out a 6-4, 6-2 victory for Caribbean. At the second doubles position, the tandem of Fernando Rodriguez-Flores and Eduardo Almodovar fought their way to a 6-4, 7-5 result; coupled with teammates Carlos Garcia and Samuel D Monge taking care of court three 7-6, 6-3, that would be all Caribbean needed to clinch the national title. The remaining two spots were decided by match tiebreaks, with Caribbean’s Jorge Mau-asam and Doubles Pennock polishing off the doubles sweep 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 while Southern’s Jerry Mosley gutted out an extended 6-7, 6-4, 1-0 effort at line two singles.

Captained by Luis Sanchez, the entire Caribbean roster consists of Almodovar, Rodriguez-Flores, Pennock, Francisco Millan, Garcia, Rafael Silverio, Manuel Enrique Roca, Monge, Mau-asam, Luis Melendez-Fox, Munoz Santiago, Anndy Senatus Jean, and Ramon Rivera.

In the women’s semifinals, No. 1 seed Midwest (Carmel Racquet Club – Carmel, Ind.) handled Missouri Valley (Elite Squad Tennis Club – Overland Park, Kan.) 4-1 while third-seeded Southern outlasted Middle States (Kinetix Sports Club – Norristown, Pa.) by the slimmest of margins. Midwest’s singles players lost a combined five games to set the tone for their squad; in a much different dual, an individual matchup at the second singles spot that lasted nearly three hours was the decider for Southern.

Both singles matches were on and off the court in a flash as part of the women’s final, with Southern’s Heather Crysler claiming line one 6-1, 6-0 and Midwest’s Peggy Waldal taking line two without the loss of a game. That turned the focus to the trio of doubles contests, where Southern once again proved their toughness to push themselves across the finish line. Jennifer Gluff and Julie Williams teamed up to breeze through the top spot 6-1, 6-2; the pairing of Nancy Moll and Kristine Predmore won a close first set before sprinting through the second frame for a 6-4, 6-1 final result at line three. Midwest’s Alicia Wickler and Taeko Escasa set the final overall margin at 3-2 in favor of Southern thanks to a 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 slugfest from court two.

Captain Hilary Toon’s full Southern roster includes Heather Lasala, Tracey Loughlin-Young, Moll, Roxanne Lamm, Pamela Faile, Amy Wiethoff, Predmore, Karen Garland, Gluff, Lori Huecktker, Wendy Clendening, Williams, Crysler, and Kelley Conrad.

In the third-place playoff matches, the Intermountain men held off Mid-Atlantic three courts to two and the Missouri Valley women defeated Middle States by the same final score.

Complete results from the men’s competition can be found here, while a full listing of the women’s scores can be viewed here.