14s Team Tennis Nationals Final Four

The Racquet Club of Columbus 14s advanced team reached the final four of the National Junior Team Tennis Championships this past weekend in Columbia, South Carolina.

Team members included Victoria Fan, Paige Kompa, Sarina Xie, Robert Cash, Colten Clark, Jack Dabek, Robert Dong, and Jordan Phelps.

2014 marked a three peat for the team as Ohio Valley District and Midwest Champions. former members included Erica Chen, Alex Cash, Ashley Tan, Olivia Kompa, Connor Biernat, and Rohith Koneru.

At the National Championships RCC won their first match over Eastern from Hardscrabble CC without dropping a match.  Sarina and Jordan posted singles victories.  Paige / Victoria, Colten / Robert Dong and Jack / Sarina posted doubles wins.

In the sweet 16 RCC played Southern Cal. Paige won in singles, and in doubles, Robert Cash with Jack Dabek, Sarina with Victoria, and Colten with Paige posted victories.

In the quarterfinals with a final four berth on the line, RCC drew a much improved Northern Section team that hammered us last year.  In a testy and tightly contested match Paige won in two tie break sets (+2 games) Jordan won in a match tiebreak (+1) Robert Cash & Jack Dabek won 6 and 2 (+5) and in a huge doubles contest, Sarina and Victoria came back from 3-6 to win 6-2 and fell in a Tiebreak ( even ) over Olympic Hockey great Herb Brooks granddaughter .

With the match on the line and up 8 games, RCC selected Colten Clark and Paige Kompa, and although they fell by three games it was enough to propel RCC into the final four.

In the semifinals RCC lost to Austin Tennis Academy with Dabek and Cash posting a victory and in the Battle for third the team fell to the Eastern team from Queens with Dabek and Cash and Kompa and Dong posting victories. Both teams that defeated RCC reached the final four in 2013 and played terrific against us.

 At the closing ceremonies RCC was honored with a banner for our club for reaching the final four at the National Championships. Each member received a copper medal .

Coach Bryan Nibert’s banner was selected as the National Championship Advanced Team winner for artistic design.  All team members were brought again to center court and given Awards. With great sportsmanship, team effort and practice, RCC is heading back to the courts to prepare for 2015.