Rain delayed the start of Monday’s matches by eight hours at the 2020 USTA Florida 18 & Over Men’s 3.0/3.5/4.5 & Women’s 3.5/4.0 Sectional Championships. A completely reworked schedule postponed all matches in the women’s 3.5 competition until Tuesday but did allow for three more teams to take home titles.

Getting crowned as sectional champions on the day were the Alachua (Jonesville Tennis Center – Gainesville) 3.0 men, the Collier (Club at Longshore Lake – Naples) 3.5 men, and the Miami-Dade (Kerdyk Biltmore Tennis Center – Coral Gables) 4.0 women. They join the men’s 4.5 squad representing Hillsborough (Sandra W Freedman Tennis Complex – Tampa), which was victorious in their divisional championship dual Sunday.

Collier (Club at Longshore Lake – Naples) dominated in the semifinals and final of the men’s 3.5 competition, sweeping both duals to earn the sectional title. In the semifinal against Brevard (Kiwanis Island Tennis Association – Merritt Island), Nick Puga closed out the singles matchup 6-2, 7-6 while Andy Mintz and Dale Klaus teamed up to take the second doubles spot 6-4, 6-4; Josiah Crombie and Ben Yocom finished off the sweep 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 on court one. The other semifinal saw Hillsborough (HCC Tennis Complex – Tampa) take down Miami-Dade (Crandon Park Tennis Center – Key Biscayne) by a 2-1 margin thanks to quick victories from Bradford Everett in singles and the duo of David Ponraj and Ken Chin on the first doubles court.

All three opening sets of the championship tilt were tightly-contested, but ultimately Collier ran away with the win. Puga was again on the singles court, where he bested Everett 6-4, 6-0. This time it would be Klaus playing with Kevin Kustka in the first doubles position, where they held off Ponraj and Chin 6-4, 6-1. Crombie and Yocom stayed on the second doubles court to survive a marathon 5-7, 7-5, 1-0 affair with Kareem Marshall and Mark Nelson.

Don McWaters’ complete Collier roster includes Ralph Oswald, Mintz, Carmelo Rubio, Paul Michaels, Klaus, Puga, Kustka, Yocom, Crombie, Scott Gill, Matias Zafatle, and John Franta.

In women’s 4.0 action, the two semifinals were decided by 2-1 score lines. Broward (Midtown Athletic Club – Weston) survived a loss in singles versus Orange/Seminole (Red Bug Lake Park – Casselberry) thanks to the tandems of Lizette Ibarra and Angelica Baez along with Lorena Villar Seminario de Guzman-Barron and Ivy Touchstone coming through in match tiebreaks. Miami-Dade (Kerdyk Biltmore Tennis Center – Coral Gables) also dropped the singles against Collier (Naples Bay Resort), but got commanding wins from Eleasa Thompson and Gretchyn Martinez plus Alejandra Siller and Sandra Bazain.

Carolina Campuzano set the tone for Miami-Dade in the final with her 6-2, 6-2 singles triumph, as they swept Broward 3-0 for the title. Thompson and Martinez took the court at the top doubles spot with the title on the line, turning in a 6-4, 6-1 effort over Baez and Ibarra. Siller and Bazain also returned for Miami-Dade on court two, surviving 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 against Villar Seminario de Guzman-Barron and Touchstone.

Bazain serves as the captain of the Miami-Dade team that consists of Alba Johnson, Elizabeth Gonzalez, Ana Maria Faraci, Ellen Malherbe, Nina Lindsey, Helena Maseda, Daniela Rengifo, Andrea Leal, Leslie Stein, Estefania Lacoa, Siller, Martinez, Silvia Kusaka, Dilia Grossman, Thompson, and Campuzano.

After all three teams went 1-1 on Sunday, Alachua (Jonesville Tennis Center – Gainesville) won both of their duals on Monday to take home the men’s 3.0 crown. They recorded a 2-1 defeat of Marion (Country Club of Ocala) and emphatically swept Duval (Sawgrass Racquet Club – Ponte Vedra Beach) to clinch the title.

The Alachua crew, captained by Timothy Ferguson and co-captained by Josh Spink, features a roster including Nathan Wycoff, Darnel Dela Cruz, Thomas Duffaut, Jorge Torres-Vazquez, Isaac Barron, Daniel Herman, Chris Cochran, Nick Hamm, Nathan Whitaker, and John Weissler.

With only the women’s 3.5 competition left to be decided, Tuesday’s matches will begin at 8 a.m. For more information on the 2020 USTA FL 18 & Over Men’s 3.0/3.5/4.5 & Women’s 3.5/4.0 Sectional Championships, click here.