As usual, the 2010 edition of the Irvine Tennis Association Annual Party was a great excuse to play tennis, meet new players, nosh on delicious food, win raffle prizes, and have our general membership yearly meeting. Over 50 members joined in the festivities at the Woodbridge High School Tennis Center. There were plenty of high caliber players on the mens and womens side. Both champions, Mike Szesterniak and Ashley Adams, garnered a total of 31 points dropping only 5 games in six matches. So don’t feel bad if they beat you 6-0! Athena Wong placed 2nd in the ladies divisions with 26 points, followed closely by 3rd place Suzanne Frank and Anneke Chang with 25, and 4th place Hedy Schmutz and Lori Greenman with 23. Jenny Hua, Cindy Reyes and Joyce Kim also played well with 21 points each. The mens division saw the usual suspects such as 2nd place Scott Ryan (28), Ray Ng and Paul Webber(26) at 3rd, then John Sustersic (25), Michael Zhang and new member Leon Barrett (23). Johnny Wu (22) and Hans Schmutz (21) rounded out the top scorers. Tummy Teasers provided the Hawaiian themed lunch. The teriyaki beef and chicken were real crowd pleasers along with giant homemade brownies. ITA officers reported on their events during the brief business meeting. The ladder is being reborn under the direction of new ladder chairman Lee Phomsaveh. Check your email soon for information on signing up! Lee has some great ideas basing wins/loses on an intricate point system and plans to have the ladder update “live” on the website. Special events chairman Charlie Niles is checking out group tickets to a pro tournament and is planning a club exchange with Laguna Woods for our “at-least-over-45-crowd.” Karen Grams of Sundowners announced that our Moonlighter team, captained by Lori Greenman, earned a third place finish this season. Membership chair Marcella Wilson reminded everyone to renew their membership and presented Mark and Weimen Gross with an ITA t-shirt for being the first renewal of the 2010-2011 year. The business ended with a unanimous vote for the continuing board and it was time for the raffle. The prizes started out small but useful (a hat, mousepad, net-checker, cooler, movie tickets, Starbucks gift card) and progressed to bigger items (tennis doormat, wine, tennis backpacks and pro-size tennis bags). The most sought after gift was the case of 24 exotic beers. Gary Bird was especially popular after having the lucky ticket and sharing the beer equally with Fred Romero and Joe Bowerbank. Parents-to-be Mike and Kelly Szesterniak made their final tennis appearance as a child-free couple and wisely traded the small racket bag they won for a jumbo cooler that could double as a diaper bag! Cindy Reyes wheeled and dealed until she got the “players welcome” doormat from the Gross family. Trung and Sam Nguyen jetted off early to catch a plane to Hawaii taking lunch to go and still managed to win a raffle prize – now that’s lucky!
