CORTA team wins national title

The CORTA mixed 9.0 team went to Surprise, Ariz., and brought home a national title Sunday by winning six matches in three days.

This is the third CORTA team to win a national title. The first was Ken Smith's 3.5 adult men's team and the last one was the 3.0 men's team from Buena Vista that played in the CORTA league over 20 years ago.

"Things just fell our way. We were so close to losing both in the semifinals and finals but came though to win it all," said John Crenshaw, the captain of the team.

The team was originally captained by Christy Bates, but she was unable to go to the Southern sectionals and did not qualify to go to Arizona to compete.

That's when Crenshaw stepped in. He and Allison Cripe took a core of eight players and competed in the tournament. Eli Rowell also made the trip but did not see action and was the primary male backup.

There were three flights and the Columbus team was listed in Flight 2. They played four matches and won all of those, 2-1, to advance to the semifinals.

"Every team there had strong players, and we had to play well to get through." Crenshaw said. "It helped that the weather was 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky."

In the semifinals, the Southern champions played the winner of Flight 1, the team from Northern section.

"We actually were down a team match point. If we lost any of the next points, they go to the finals, and we don't, but we won that match to go to the championship," Crenshaw said.

In the finals, CORTA met a familiar opponent, the Eastern champions. They advanced as the best second place team of the three flights and competed in Flight 2 with Columbus. Their only losses were to Columbus, in the round robin and in the finals.

Again CORTA played and won by the same 2-1 score in a close third-set tiebreaker to take home the national title.

"We were down 8-4 in the third set match tiebreaker and wound up winning 11-9," said Crenshaw of his match with his partner Laurie Duggan. "It was that close."

"Everyone on the team contributed," he added.

Rick Stoller and his partner Denise Newton won all six matches played. Steve Thiel and Allison Cripe won several key matches but were losing in the finals and retired when Columbus clinched it. Crenshaw played three matches with Ann Newman and two with Duggan.

Unfortunately, the Bates team will not be back to defend their title.

"When you win nationals, you have to split up the team and can have no more than three (players) from that team together again. But right now it is a great feeling," Crenshaw said.

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 2:14 PM with the headline "CORTA team wins national title ."