The Midwest Mixed 7.0 team was represented by the Wilmette team from Centennial. This team took 3 years to morph into its present form, with players coming from a very wide geographical area of distribution, and a wide range of ages. We had a grandfather on our team and mostly players who were parents. “A bunch of misfits, sort of like the ‘Bad News Bears'”.
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Unlike traditionally built mixed doubles teams, this team was built on a foundation of strong 4.0 women with strong 3.0 men. To the players, it was all unexpected victories as the team progressed from State to Sectionals to Nationals.
In the 17-section team National tournament, the team was in the only Flight (group) with 5 teams, the rest of the groups only containing 4 teams. On the first day, the first match was against Florida, one of the favorites. Their top team was made up of two persons, one year from high school graduation and turned out to be probably the strongest pair of the tournament. Their combined age was less than the male player from Midwest. However, except for the loss against this team, the other two Midwest teams came through, with the team score 2-1. The second match was against New England, which Midwest dispatched handily, 3-0. Meanwhile, Pacific had defeated New England and Middle States 3-0 and Middle States had defeated Florida 2-1. Gambling a little, Midwest captain decided to save the best players for Pacific on the second day. Against Middle States, it was close and Midwest lost 2-1. With the loss, it seemed that our chances to advance were gone. Then, a little bit of luck. Florida beat Pacific 2-1, and Midwest was back in the hunt. Against Pacific, it came down to the last court and Midwest won 2-1 in a squeaker.
On the third day, the rains hit and there was a rain delay. The matches had to be shortened to a single Pro set of first to reach 8 games. Midwest faced Southern in the Semi-finals and won with difficulty as one of our players got injured and persevered limping through the last 2 games. The score was 2-1. In the Finals, all the other states cheered Midwest on against Caribbean, which was gratifying to the Midwest players on their excellent job in making new friends. Midwest first court lost in a hurry. Midwest third court won in a squeaker 8-6. Midwest second court was comfortably ahead 7-4 but Caribbean team came back to reduce the deficit 7-6. It came down to the best female player on the Midwest serving out the match. With the service return sailing out on 40-15, there was a moment of stunned silence. It took 3 seconds for the cheers to erupt and pandemonium to ensue.
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