Four different Sunshine State regions collected team titles on Monday to wrap up the 2018 USTA Florida Combo 18 & Over 6.5/8.5 Sectional Championships, hosted by the USTA National Campus. Winners included Broward (6.5 men), Hillsborough (6.5 women), Sarasota (8.5 men), and Escambia (8.5 women).

Broward (City of Oakland Park) defied the odds with their 2-1 victory over Marion (Fort King Tennis Center) in the men’s 6.5 final. Playing with just two pairs and forfeiting line three, the victorious squad got an impressive 6-2, 6-1 result from Marcus Pfenninger and Ara Toroyan on court two before Michael Stites and Fernando Calvo pulled out a marathon 5-7, 7-6, 1-0 win at the top spot to clinch the title.

The women’s 6.5 final also ended with a 2-1 score line, as Hillsborough (FishHawk Ranch) defeated Escambia (Independent). The same two tandems that delivered in the semifinals for Hillsborough once again came through on Monday. Team captain Krissy Heybroek and Jackie Caouette cruised at line one – 6-2, 6-3 – to go along with Shannon Deck and Kim Ortmeier taking court three 6-1, 6-3. Heather Reese and Maria Hicks got Escambia on the board with a commanding 6-3, 6-0 win at the second spot, but it wasn’t enough to secure the trophy for their squad.

Entering the day as the only team to not suffer a loss in the men’s 8.5 competition, Escambia (Independent) handled their dual with Duval (Charles J. Williams YMCA) by a 2-1 margin to advance to the final. Charlie Skelton and Christopher Brown took the contest on court three 6-4, 6-1 while Rick Cuny and Stephen Baes held on for the win in a tough 6-4, 6-3 encounter at line two. Duval’s Michael Feci and Eric Constable were awarded court one when their Escambia opponents retired despite leading 6-2, 5-5. The other semifinal between Sarasota (Payne Park) and SMD (Ron Ehmann Tennis Center) was much tighter. Each team claimed one court in straight sets, as SMD’s Jesus Larranaga and Andres Lozano won 6-1, 6-3 in the second spot but Sarasota counter with Michael Boothman and William Rhodes’ 6-2, 6-4 effort at line three. That shifted all the pressure to court one, where SMD held the early advantage only to see Sarasota duo Randolph Gibson and Eric Abbott storm back 2-6, 6-4, 1-0.

Sarasota rode the wave of momentum from surviving their semifinal struggle to upend Escambia for the team trophy. Surprisingly, all three contests ended in just two sets. Boothman and Rhodes kicked the dual off for Sarasota with a 6-3, 6-1 victory on court two, but Escambia answered with Lubomir Kaderjak and Brad Bradford taking line one 6-4, 6-3. In the decisive third spot, Gibson and Abbott once again produced for their team, finding a way to win a back-and-forth first set before closing things out 7-5, 6-3.

In the women’s 8.5 semifinals, Escambia (Independent) was pushed to the limit before downing SMD (Coral Oaks Tennis Club) and wild card entrant Pinellas (Tarpon Tennis Center) swept aside Sarasota (Longwood Athletic Center) 3-0. Escambia was the most dominant team in flight play, but quickly fell behind versus SMD after dropping the opening frames on courts one and three. They did manage to get in the win column first thanks to Lori Gonzalez and Carel Demanss earning a 6-3, 6-4 result at line two. Kimberly Kaskel and Jill Reiter evened the score for SMD with a 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 score line, and while SMD also held the upper hand at the top spot, it was Escambia’s Jenna Kafferly and Melissa Paravalos rallying back 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 to push their team into the championship dual. Meanwhile, it was a one-sided affair for Pinellas, as Allison Lowie and Danielle Armstrong (line two) plus Stephanie Means and Abby Kronk (line three) dropped a mere nine games. Judi Alford and Jennifer Bell fought to take court one 6-4, 7-5 to complete the sweep.

Perhaps the match of the day, Escambia outlasted Pinellas in an extended 2-1 dual that featured two match tiebreaks. Even the position that did not split sets hung in the balance for a while, as Escambia’s Lauren Haack and Rachel Trahan needed a tiebreak to win the opening frame before running away with the second 6-2. Lowie and Armstrong combined for their second victory on the day at line two, hanging on for a 6-2, 6-7, 1-0 final result. But the clutch tandem from the semifinal round produced the goods one more time for Escambia when Kafferly and Paravalos clawied their way past their Pinellas counterparts 7-6, 3-6, 1-0.

For complete results from the 2018 USTA Florida Combo 18 & Over 6.5/8.5 Sectional Championships, click here.