Head coach and partner win tennis competition
By Andy Matarrese
Head Women's Tennis Coach Susie Campbell-Gross and partner Carol Sandoz took the Women's Doubles 40 title at the Nike Oregon State Championships that ended Sept. 16 at the West Hills Racquet Club in Beaverton.
The duo cruised to an easy victory, dropping only one game in three matches.
In the final match, Campbell-Gross and Sandoz served up a dominating 6-0, 6-0 against Annmarie Brigandi of San Diego and Kathy Vick of Texas, the No. 2 doubles pair in the country.
Campbell-Gross and her longtime partner Sandoz are no strangers to victory, however. Campbell-Gross and Sandoz were All-Americans at the University of Oklahoma and Arizona State, respectively.
They've won at the Oregon Championships several times, once in the 35 and older league, and five times in the open division, where the world class players play.
This was the first match Campbell-Gross and Sandoz have played in the 40's division.
"We've been number one in the Northwest for, like, 12 years," Campbell-Gross said.
The two have been playing together intermittently for twelve years, taking breaks to take care of their newborn children.
"We've alternated having children," Campbell-Gross said. Campbell-Gross has a 16-month old son named Gavin, and Sandoz had a baby about a year before.
Campbell-Gross was happy to get back on the court and reunite with her longtime doubles partner.
"It was awesome," Campbell-Gross said. "I hadn't played competitively in probably two years."
The coach had no trouble getting back into her groove, however, needing little time to get back into playing form.
"It was fun to train for it - for the whole week that I trained for it," she said. "It pays to be fit."
The league is for women 39 and older, said Campbell-Gross, calling it an "old ladies league," but she was still happy with the win, and especially happy about beating the nation's No. 2 team.
"It's a good feeling," she said.
