North Shore NCW 4.5 Red Champions – Back Row, l-r: Whitney O’Neill, Mary Calcagno, Lynette Carlson, Susan Fellito, Carol Gottwald; Front Row: Pam Maher, Laura Egerter, Donna Bodkin, Sheri Birndorf, Captain

Shari Birndorf couldn’t have said it better, “This trophy belongs to both teams.” When the difference between being the Champion and being the Runner-up comes down to 1 game you know both teams deserve the trophy. I also loved LSSF’s coach, Scott Johnson’s succinct response about the finals, “Great matches. Big fun.” Big fun…I love it! Because that’s how it is when you make it to the finals. It IS Big Fun, win or lose. So take a look at these scores. On court 1, NSRC’s Pam Maher and Whitney O’Neill 3 setted against LSSF’s Nancy Gaspadarek and Hilary Bruce 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. On court 2 NSRC’s Jennifer Zaban and Jenny Soudan came out the winners in 2 sets against LSSF’s Beth Hermann and Gwen Pontikes. On court 3, NSRC’s Lynette Carlson and Carol Gottwald probably thought they would come off the courts pretty quickly after a 1st set 6-1 win, but LSSF’s Kristin Davin and Tina Chang wasn’t about to roll over. They fought hard in the 2nd set and won the 2nd set tie-breaker 7-5, and had the momentum going into the 3rd set which they won 6-2. On court 4, NSRC’s Mary Calcagno and Susan Fellito and LSSF’s Lisa Gregg and Emily Emmerman had a terrifically close match. NSRC came out the winners but the scores show it could have gone either way – 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. On court 5, we have what I call the “hmmm” scores. LSSF’s Lisa Hillstrom and Tina Leopardo won against NSRC’s Lisa Tank and Laura Egerter 7-6(4), 0-6, 6-1. Did someone check out? Or did someone step it up? Or both? On court 6, LSSF’s Judy Piccione and Audrey Stovall kept it close in the 1st set but dominated in the 2nd set against NSRC’s Robin Goldstein and Donna Bodkin. I feel for the players on courts 2 and 6 who came off the courts first and cheered and agonized over every point their teammates won or lost. In the end, the matches were tied at 3-3; sets were tied at 8-8; and after everyone calculated all the games multiple times, North Shore won 75-74 over Lakeshore. (Not pictured in the photo above: Jen Soudan, Jen Zaban, Lisa Tank and Robin Goldstein)