The men’s tennis team from Washington Crossing, Pa., representing the USTA Middle States Section, finished second at the USTA League Adult 40 and Over 4.0 National Championships held at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, Calif.
The Washington Crossing team lost to a team from Dallas, 4–1 in the Championship match. Earlier in the day, the Washington Crossing team defeated a team from Centennial, Colo., 4–1 in the semifinals. They advanced by winning their round-robin flight contested through a Friday and Saturday.
The team features Joseph Hargrove (Princeton), Gorm Clifford Yoder (Philadelphia), Marc Bertino (Marlton), Todd Dlugosz (Morrisville, Pa.), Terry Schneider (Yardley, Pa.), Richard Smith (Red Bank), Rick Rogers (Newtown, Pa.), Chenggang Wang (Deptford), Alex Lawrason (Cherry Hill), Jeoffrey Purnell (Haddonfield) and Pete Macios (Doylestown, Pa.) and plays at Bucks County Racquet Club.
Established in 1980, USTA League has grown from 13,000 participants in a few parts of the country in its first year to more than 865,000 players across the nation today, making it the world’s largest recreational tennis league.
USTA League was established to provide adult recreational tennis players throughout the country with the opportunity to compete against players of similar ability levels. Players participate on teams in a league format, which is administered by the USTA through its 17 sections. The league groups players by using six National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP) levels, ranging from 2.5 (entry) to 5.0 (advanced). USTA League is open to any USTA member 18 years of age or older.
The 2015 USTA League season will be the third season with the updated structure and format which offers four age categories (Adult 18 & Over, Adult 40 & Over and Adult 55 & Over and Mixed 18 & Over) to better align participants with players their own age. A fifth age division, the Mixed 40 & Over division, was added last year. The restructuring guarantees more frequency of play opportunities at more appropriate age groups.
For more information about USTA League or the USTA, visit www.usta.com.
