Mens USTA 4.5 Eastern Sectional Champion.
Headed to the nationals, Tucson, AZ, Sept. 21-23.

The last time a 4.5 Albany team went to nationals was in 1990.  This 2001 team would beat that 1990 team 4-1.  In fact, this team would likely beat the last 4.5 national champion from Eastern (1997) by a score of 4-1 or 5-0.   The team is very confident heading into nationals (despite being in a bracket that includes southern california).



Standing (l to r):  Tom Gould, Mark Caouette, Larry Yakabowski*, Steve Angle*, Dave Lencewiz*, Marty McMahon (captain), Rob Faulkner*, Ron Salvador*, Dave Graham.   Kneeling(l to r): Eric O'hearn*, Rohit Kumar*, Greg Morgan*.  Not pictured: Gerry Cuva*
(* = denotes TCTA participants)

Sunday morning.  We already clinched the national berth saturday afternoon, and thus sent some of the team home.  But others stayed to play a meaningless match.  Although, it gave most of the team a chance to stay out late the night before (the'ballet') - instead of the 'lights out' curfew at 10 pm.

Captain McMahon tastes bubbly after an 11-year drought.  But he did share the bottle with the rest of the team;  it's a good thing there's enough alcohol in bubbly to kill the germs that would have been passed around.
To be fair, six of the 1990 team were rated up to 5.0, and didn't come down to the 4.5's until 4-5 years later.  From the 1990 team, Marty, Greg, Gerry, Tom, Dave, Mark, and Ron are on the 2001 team.  On the current team at least 5 guys previously had national benchmark 5.0 ratings.

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