The USTA Midwest section took home hardware from the Darling Tennis Center in Las Vegas over Columbus Day weekend, as a women's team from the Chicago suburbs won the 2019 USTA 18 & Over 2.5 National Championship.

Captained by Irene Carod and based out of the Midtown Athletic Club in Bannockburn, Ill., the team scored a pair of 2-1 victories in the knockout rounds against teams from the Intermountain and Southern California sections to take the title. 

The roster consisted of Andrea Barci, Laura Barnett, Jamie Bass, Andrea Best, Cheryl Ingram, Meritxell Lamiel, Cristina Mota, Maggie Nodland, Jody Pabst, Beatrisa Paz, Vanessa Rosengarden, Amy Shappert and Pamela Sherman.

"We have a large roster and everyone played during the season to help win our flight," said Todd Seltzer, the team's coach and the head teaching professional at the Midtown Athletic Club.

"Simply making it to Nationals coming out of Chicago and the Midwest section is a great accomplishment. This is mostly due to the large number of players in the area and the extensive amount of playoff matches a team needs to win in order to advance.

"Our players were happy to be in Las Vegas at Nationals, but a National Championship was their goal."

To get to the knockout rounds, the squad posted a near flawless record in their draw at the national site: going 4-0 overall, the Midwest team swept all of the matches by a 3-0 score, and lost just one set. 

While not facing too much adversity on the road to the semifinals, the Midwest did face some en route to claiming the trophy. Despite losing the singles match in both the semifinals and finals, a clean sweep of four doubles matches across the knockout rounds helped the Chicago-based team come out on top. 

Added Seltzer: "The tournament was run so smoothly and the experience at Darling Tennis Center was awesome. Our players are ecstatic to have realized their dream and achieved their goal of winning a National Championship!"