Sue Panella Wins!

This past weekend, our local tennis team won 2nd place at the USTA 4.0 Seniors Nationals out in Indian Wells, CA (Palm Springs area). Our team played out of the Bass River Tennis Club throughout the spring and summer to qualify for the Sectionals. At the end of August, we traveled to Springfield, MA and won the Sectionals and the opportunity to represent New England at the Nationals. At Nationals there were 17 teams (representing 17 sections of the country), and we made it all the way to the finals where we lost a tough match to a team from VA. But we had never even expected to make it to Nationals, let alone to make it to the finals! And we played in some intense conditions (severe blue, lots of sun, and 110-120 degrees on the courts for the midday matches!). It was a beautiful venue!

One of the unexpected highlights of the tournament was the visibility and enthusiasm we received about our shirts. They were designed by a tennis friend of ours who is a breast cancer survivor. She and Lorraine Salter (our teammate from Reading) are both survivors who raise money for the ESSCO-MGH fund for breast cancer research www.esscomgh.org. Many players at the tournament came up to us to tell us their stories as survivors, and many wanted to buy the shirts because they are really cute and 100% of the proceeds go to the research. It was very heartwarming and exhilarating!