Texas Sectionals!

In September, I was asked to play on a tri-level tennis team. Basically, you have a tennis ranking as an adult. In this tournament, there are three different tennis (hence tri) ranks playing in each round. So, the tennis team consists of people of varying levels playing against other teams. You play against your level in each round though. Whoever wins at least two of the three rounds gets to advance. Our first tournament was in January in Dallas. Our team won in a very close match!

We advanced to Sectionals, which was last weekend in Kingwood, Houston. There were 10 teams from the state of Texas. Two pools of five teams each. We played a round robin with our pool to see who would advance to the finals to play the winner of the other pool. We lost our first round....barely. There was rain and lots of it. Lots of hurry-up-and-wait going on. Finally, on Sunday we got to really play out our matches (after being there since Thursday night). We won all the rest of our matches and narrowly won our pool (I mean, squeaked by.....one more set lost, not match...but set, and we might not have won). So, we went to the finals against Ft. Worth. One line won immediately, another lost....it came down to a close match on our third team....and WE WON!!!

What does this mean? Well, we are Tri-Level Sectional Champions. And, we advance to Nationals!!! We will be playing at the BNP Paribas Tri-Level Open Championship at Indian Wells. We will be representing Texas and our team will combine with the men's tri-level team and we will compete as one section. We will be playing at the same time the pros are. And, we get tickets to go and watch the top ranked players in the world when we aren't on the court!

Needless to say, I'm so excited to go and compete at Nationals. I am even MORE thankful that Trey gets just as pumped for me and insists that I go (I have a very bad case of Mom guilt when I leave for tennis). My girls had such a fun weekend with just him. He is so encouraging of my talents and insists on me taking time off. I've almost quit tennis a couple of times this year. Not because I don't love tennis, I do, but running a household with three little girls is a full time job. Planning to leave is stressful. Being away is tough. But once I'm on a tennis court and playing some very competitive matches, I must say, there's a part of my soul that is filled with joy and feels like I'm doing something I was born to do. Obviously, I'm so glad he never let me quit :).

You know who would have liked this too? My mom. She sat at countless matches watching me learn and grow as a tennis player. It wasn't just me who invested my time as a youth to a game that I love, but my mom was right there too. I'm so thankful for her and her devotion and support of me. May I help my kids find and nurture their talents and gifts like she did.