The Woodlands Men's Tennis Team Wins National Championship

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- The USTA Men’s League team representing The Woodlands Parks and The Woodlands Country Club recently won the 2023 USTA League 65 and Over 7.0 Men’s National Championship played January 26th to 28th in Surprise, Arizona. Seventeen teams from all USTA Sections around the country including Hawaii and the Caribbean vied for the crown.

The Woodlands Team won the Texas Sectional in November 2023 to earn their spot in the National Championships. All members on the team are residents of The Woodlands/Montgomery County.
The National Championship format requires each team to play 3 lines of doubles against 4 randomly drawn teams over the first two days. Winning 2 of 3 lines constitutes a win. The Woodlands Team won all four matches without dropping a set, yielding a #1 seed to advance to the Final Four (Semi-Finals and Championship matches).

In the Semi-Finals, The Woodlands Team defeated Southern California by winning all 3 lines. Thus, claiming their spot to the Finals against Southwest, a team that played in the Finals the previous year.

The Championship Match was climatic. The Woodlands Team won one line easily; the other two lines went into third set 10 point tiebreakers. In the deciding match, The Woodlands Team survived three Championship match points before finally prevailing 11-9 to secure the USTA League 65 and Over National Championship title over the Southwest Section by a 2-1 score. Overall, The Woodlands Team record was 18-0, winning 52 out of 54 individual matches.

Team Members pictured below from left to right: Juice Marin, Eric Fredricksen (Team Captain), Gary Hirshey, Tom Rapson, David Peterson, Patrick Friday, Bob Parrott and Mark Ramsey