On November 21, the Las Animas 7.0 mixed doubles tennis team
from Gilroy won the national championship in Hawaii. This was the
first team from the Gilroy Tennis Club, in the club’s 30 year
history, to ever make it to National’s let alone win the national
championship.
By Ken Marques, Special to the Dispatch
On November 21, the Las Animas 7.0 mixed doubles tennis team from Gilroy won the national championship in Hawaii. This was the first team from the Gilroy Tennis Club, in the club’s 30 year history, to ever make it to National’s let alone win the national championship.
The team, captained by Marc Hansen from Morgan Hill and Carol Marques from Gilroy, won the Monterey Bay League Championship back in April. They went on to clinch District and sectional championships in May. The teams’ final record after National’s stood at 20-6. The team took the bare minimum of players to National’s, which was six. The six members were Hansen (4.0 rating) paired with Andrea Pecosek (3.0 rating), Rudy Abitago (3.5 rating) paired up with Cherrise Thomas (3.5 rating), and Ken Marques (4.0 rating) paired up with Jamie Reynolds (3.0 rating).
The Las Animas team representing NorCal had to play Texas on the first day and squeaked by with a 2-1 victory. Thanks to Hansen and Pecosek’s 11-9 third set tiebreaker victory, which set the tone for the rest of the tournament. Later that day Las Animas played Northern, from the Washington area, and once again won 2-1. The Hansen-Pecosek team along with the Abitago-Thomas team each dominated their respective competitors. Reynolds and Marques lost a close one in a third-set tiebreaker 6-4, 5-7, 10-7.
On Saturday, the team faced off with Southwest and all three teams from Gilroy dominated. Marques and Reynolds fought off a tough first set to win the match 0-6, 7-5, 10-6 in tiebreaker to put themselves in the winner’s circle for the first time. Hansen-Pecosek cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory and Abitago-Thomas crushed their opponents 6-2, 6-0. Later that afternoon, the team fought hard with Intermountain and due to a scheduling conflict, the team from Gilroy had to forfeit a doubles match. The team lost the match 2-1 but Marques and Reynolds were victorious, allowing the team to take first in its division with that single individual match victory.
They hosted Pacific Northwest Sunday in the semifinals and all three teams were victorious. Another nail-biter with Hansen-Pecosek clinched the national title match with an 11-9 tiebreaker win over PNW. The Gilroy team faced Missouri Valley in the national title match and swept 3-0. Abitago and Thomas were the first to win their match 6-2, 6-1. Hansen-Pecosek clinched the title with a 6-4, 7-6(4) win and Marques and Reynolds provided the exclamation point with a 6-3, 5-7, 10-2 victory.
Abitago and Thomas were the strongest pair of the three with a team record of 16-0 and 5-0 at nationals and usually guaranteed a win.
Hansen and Pecosek went 5-1 at nationals and Marques and Reynolds went 4-2. Hansen and Pecosek were the clutch team with their three extremely successful victories, which they pulled off even though Hansen had severe back problems and played the entire tournament in excruciating pain. Marques and Reynolds came up big when they needed to and helped the team as best they could.
While other teams from around the nation had two or three backup teams, the Las Animas team fought through it all with just six players playing all six matches in three days.
