Eastern 3.0 team places third at 2024 USTA League National Championships

USTA Eastern’s 40 & Over 3.0 Women’s squad recently captured third place out of 17 teams at the 2024 USTA League National Championships, held October 25-27 in Scottsdale, Arizona. But if you ask the Eastern contingent’s captain Laura Crain about the result, “it feels like first!”

“Coming home with that banner and plate was such an amazing feeling,” Crain said of lifting the third-place hardware. “Our team fought until the very end."

Indeed, the Oceanside, N.Y.-based crew dug deep to score that placement. After narrowly losing to USTA Texas in the round robin stages of the tournament, they realized they’d need to play at the peak of their powers just to advance to the semifinals.

“Once we took the loss to Texas we knew that we had to be pretty perfect in [our next] two matchups [against USTA Hawaii and USTA Intermountain] if we wanted a shot at the playoffs,” Crain said. “You don’t 100% control your own destiny because other teams needed to lose [too] in order for us to claim our spot. Our chance really came down to the number of sets we lost, so we knew we not only had to win almost all of our courts, we needed to win them in straight sets.”

They quickly proved they were up for the challenge. Incredibly, in 98-degree heat, they claimed nine of their next ten courts in encounters with Hawaii and Intermountain. (The division plays one singles and four doubles courts in each match.) Even more incredibly, they captured all nine of those victories in straight sets.

Unfortunately, the Eastern unit’s solid record of courts won came to an end in the semifinals, as USTA Middle States notched a 4-1 advantage to advance to the final. Even still, that scoreline is deceptive; three of those four courts lost came down to third-set match tiebreakers.

“It really could have gone either way,” Crain said. “Yes, we were upset not to be playing for first or second, but we also knew we weren’t willing to let third place slip away from us after losing those tiebreakers. So in the end it lit a fire under us to finish strong.”

And finish strong they did. Facing USTA Northern California, Lewis claimed a “clutch” singles win while Crain and her doubles partner Lynda Vaillant, as well as Michele Gardi and Chapman, dropped just one game each in their respective doubles duels to ultimately secure a hard-earned bronze.

“Positive attitudes from the team are crucial and we all worked really well together,” Crain said. “Once we lost to Texas on the first day, I was really worried that that was it for us. It’s hard to keep playing nearly perfect games, especially when you don’t know if it will be enough. That said, we never threw in the towel. We played hard and it paid off.”

They also played a lot. Astoundingly, the same team represented USTA Eastern in the 18 & Over 3.0 Women’s championship, held just a week prior at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, California—360 miles away from Scottsdale. For Crain, all the travel and tired legs were more than worth it in the end. After all, through events like these, she's found a community in the sport

“Last year we won nationals [in the 18 & Over 2.5 division] with a very small final team of just six players,” she recalled. “We took that win back home and found that a lot of people wanted to be a part of something that special. So this year I captained two completely full teams and had to turn people away. I think it’s awesome that so many people saw our experience and wanted to get involved with USTA because of it.”

No doubt even more local players will want to join in the fun in 2025.

“I loved cheering on my teammates,” Crain said. “The memories we made together this weekend will last a lot longer than the four days we spent in Arizona.”