Intermountain, Pacific Northwest Win Section's First 2019 Titles

What happened in Vegas certainly won't stay there for two USTA League national champions.

The Intermountain men's team and the Pacific Northwest women's teams became the first representatives from their sections to win a national championship in 2019 over the weekend of Oct. 18-20 at the Darling Tennis Center in Las Vegas, winning the 2019 18 & Over 4.0 titles.  

Captained by Douglas Fowkes and playing out of Gold's Gym in Orem, Utah, the team of Stuart Weichers, Royce Plowman, Spencer Ellis, Fred Heath, Scott Sowby, Adam Peterson, Jihoon Noh, Keith Johnston, Scott Hinton, Matthew Pineda, Andrew Whittle, Alex Venegas, Ryan Holmes, Legend Lee Chip Sao, Todd Castagna, Paul Williams, Jonas Kurihara Kurihara, Derek Elison, Jackson Aubrey, Zachery Siddoway and Jacob Harris.

A dominant league season in the lead-up saw team VASA-Fowkes go 8-0 overall, with an individual match record of 35-5. That form continued into Vegas, as the team went 4-0 ahead of the knockout stages, with just two sets lost.

In the semifinals, the Intermountain team beat Scott Rader and Shien Lee's Eastern team out of the Bronx by a 3-2 final score, before denying captain Jason Freeman's Texas team the title with a 4-1 victory.

The Intermountain team swept doubles, with all three flights decided in straight sets, en route to taking victory. 

Babette Zielinski's Pacific Northwest team, based out of the Stafford Hills Club in Tualatin, Ore., posted two 4-1 victories over teams from the NorCal and Southwest sections en route to taking the national title. 

Dominant showings in singles in the knockout rounds helped the cause for the Oregon team, as Mary Bullard and Suzanne DeLea did not lose a set at No.1 and No.2 singles combined. Overall, they only surrendered 15 games across four sets.

The roster also included Mary Hlady, Bonny Carlson, Linda Graham, Donna Feuerherdt, Toni Kidd, Jamie Slonaker, Allison Reid, Leslie OBrien, Debbie Smith, Kori Montpas, Raini Spitze, Allison Schenk and Launi Smith.