A women's tennis team from Kings Highway Tennis Club in Darien won the United State Tennis Asssociation district tournament last weekend in Greenville, R.I.
The team is called Lisa Steele's 3.0 Ad Ins. It included Ellen McGinness, Cassie Jones, Cecilia McCall, Denis Harned, Judy Phillips, Kat Curtin and Lisa Brinton from Norwalk; Darien's Adrienne Niedreither, Jennifer Forelli, Debra Seiter, Barbara Bell, Amity Wallace and Janet Scanlon, and Stamford's Debra Jones. Olivia Cavaliere coached the team. The tournament featured the best 3.0 teams from Connecticut and Rhode Island.
In its run to the district title, the Ad Ins played teams from Trumbull, Danbury, Greenville, R.I., and Cumberland, R.I. The Ad Ins dropped their first match, but won their next two by 5-0 scores. The team won on Saturday, 4-1, to clinch a spot in Sunday's final.
That was only the beginning of the drama, however. With hotel rooms scarce in Providence due to a road race, a golf tournament, summer weddings and the Red Sox-Yankees game up the road in Boston, the women traveled to Worcester, Mass., to be available for the finals.
They returned to Greenville the next day and posted a 4-1 victory to earn a spot in the sectional tournament in Massachusetts the week of Aug. 27.
Team picture identification: Front row, left to right: Ellen McGinness, Janet Scanlon, Kirsten Riley, Cecilia McCall, Cassie Jones and Denise Harned.
Back row, left to right: Olivia Cavaliere (coach), Adrienne Niederreither, Jennifer Forelli, Debra Seiter, Barbra Bell, Judy Phillips, Amity Wallace, Kat Curtin and Lisa Brinton. Not pictured: Debra James.
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