Congratulations Team Tuscaloosa/Alabama Tri-Level!
Reflections on the tennis trip of a lifetime…by Aly Wood
Our 3.5-4.0-4.5 team from Tuscaloosa enjoyed an incredible week at the BNP Paribas National Tri-Level tournament in Indian Wells, California from March 17th – 22nd. Most of the team flew into Phoenix, AZ and enjoyed a festive St. Patrick's Day with some of the team's family, and then continued our travels to Indian Wells with a beautiful drive through the dessert into California. We were thrilled with our accommodations and enjoyed a fabulous private house with our own pool and hot tub. We definitely needed the hot tub after the intense play and competition we encountered during the tournament! The best Tri-Level teams in the country were represented, and we were fortunate to have the opportunity to test our skills against several of them while we were out there. Overall we finished 7th out of 14 teams with a couple of tough tie-breakers keeping us from 2nd or 3rd place. We also had the amazing opportunity to watch some of the best professionals in the world play on the 5th largest stage in tennis. Nadal, Roddick, and Jankovic were just a few of the players that we were able to view close up, while participating in the tournament and playing along side them as they warmed up for their matches. Indian Wells Tennis Garden is a beautiful venue, the event was very well run and we truly enjoyed this opportunity. Hopefully we can, with this trip, entice others to take part in the Tri-Level experience and create a larger pool of play in Alabama and the Southeast. We are very appreciative of the enthusiastic and generous support that we had from the Tuscaloosa tennis community and would like to thank everyone who took part in our efforts by donating money, prizes, and time to all of our fundraising. We could not have done any of this without you!
A few quotes from players are:
“It was a lifetime event for me and I can’t think of a better group that I would have wanted to experience it with”
“I was proud to say “Yes, we are from Alabama!!”
“It was very touching the way the t-town tennis community embraced us and made us feel so special”
“Loved wearing our T-town colors. I think the "Alabama Tennis" tees and houndstooth visors looked good on tv.”
“I suppose” - one teammate, when asked to make a line call (was it in?) just turned, shrugged and said “I suppose,” which continued to be our mantra for the rest of the trip. (If the radar gun had been on it, it probably would’ve measured 140 mph).
“I thought about Keith out there when I was hitting those winners up the middle”
