MOBILE, Ala. -- Lord of the Strings, a Grand Forks youth tennis team, won a USTA Na-tional Junior Team Tennis Championship title Sunday.
The Grand Forks team, representing the Northern section, defeated Austin, Texas, 43-40 in the championship match of the advanced 14-and-under division.
It's the first team from North Dakota to compete in the USTA junior team event.
The tournament format consists of five matches: boys singles, girls singles, boys doubles, girls doubles and mixed doubles.
"I knew this was a strong group of kids, and it would be interesting to see how they'd stack up on a national level," said Tim Wynne, head professional at Center Court Fitness Club in Grand Forks. "This is a great accomplishment for tennis in North Dakota and in our sec-tion."
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Lord of the Strings and Austin were even after singles play, as Samantha Anderson won the girls match and Erik Johnson lost the boys match by the same score.
After doubles, Texas took a one-game lead as both matches went to third-set tiebreakers. The Texas girls won 12-8 in total games, compared to the Lord of the Strings' boys 11-8.
In the deciding mixed doubles match, Anderson and Johnson defeated Josh Hager and Brooke Hughes 12-8, giving Lord of the Strings the three-point victory.
Sixteen teams were in the tournament.
Grand Forks defeated teams from New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Virginia to qualify for the championship round. Lord of the Strings then defeated Orlando, Fla., in the semifinals.
Members of the Lord of the Strings team are Johnson, Samantha Anderson, Joey Anderson, Andre Caoili, Lalangi Marasinghe, Gregory Wischer and Mimi Yunker.
