The Okotoks Tennis Club went where its never been before and nearly walked away with a title.
Okotoks broke new ground and took second place in the 3.0 division in its first ever trip as a club to the Calgary Interclub Tennis finals on Saturday.
“It was a nail-biter. We had a great match against the Calgary Winter Club, but they just nipped us,” said Okotoks 3.0 team captain KJ Read. “It’s the first time in our existence as a club that we’ve made it to the finals of interclub and that’s very neat. You don’t know when you’re going to get back there again. It’s a good experience.”
The playoff format followed that of the regular season where each team plays eight matches. Two each in men’s singles, women’s singles, mixed doubles and one in both women’s and men’s doubles.
The best record out of the eight matches gets the victory.
The Winter Club won by the narrowest of 5-3 margins on the weekend.
“We lost both mixed doubles in a tiebreak,” Read said. “We had two other ladies that were leading 5-3 and of course you have to win six games to win the set and they came back and nipped them 7-5. We had our chances, they were there, that’s just the way it goes.”
The team, made up for most of the season by Read, Michael Ardizzone, Andy Asplund, Alistair Duncan, Carol Evans, Claire White, Dessa Hockley and Andrea Rothfischer, sat in first place for most of the season.
Along with a strong 4.0 team, Okotoks put together two teams in interclub play for the first time.
It’s not hard to find a silver lining to the second-place finish.
“You look at the club we’ve got roughly under 200 members,” Read said. “We’re playing the Calgary Winter Club, I don’t know what their exact membership is, but I’ve got to think it’s in the hundreds if not thousands, it’s a huge club. All those clubs like Glencoe, and Calgary Winter Club, all the upper end tennis facilities they’ve got tons of people to choose from.
“We managed to put six people together and make this great run.”
The curtain lowers on the tennis season in Okotoks this weekend when the OTC finishes off its club championship.
For more information on the Okotoks Tennis Centre go to okotokstennis.com
