Brookhaven’s 4.0 men’s team played four matches in the USTASouthern Sectional at Louisville, Ky. but lost their opening roundtest 3-2 to Arkansas on Thursday. That forced Brookhaven to playtwo matches on Saturday after beating Tennessee 3-2 on Friday.Fatigue became a major factor in the fourth round.

“We won both singles matches but our doubles were unable to pullit out,” said Brookhaven captain Richard Panzica, recalling theArkansas match.

Ryan Brownhill and Mitch Rayborn of Brookhaven were winnersagainst Arkansas in the singles competition.

“After that, it was pretty upscale,” Panzica pointed out.

Brookhaven beat Tennessee 3-2 late Friday afternoon. “We splitthe singles and won two out of three doubles,” said Panzica.

Competing in doubles for Brookhaven were Dennis Sims, JimJohnson, Kevin Rayborn, Stan Winborne, Johnny Ott, ChadOberschmidt, Chad Fleming and Panzica.

On Saturday morning, Brookhaven defeated Alabama 4-1. Battlingheat and dehydration became a factor, especially Saturdayafternoon.

“North Carolina had fresh legs,” said Panzica. “They were asolid team and they beat us 5-0. We lost two close matches insingles. Two doubles matches were close.

To Brookhaven’s credit, North Carolina did go on to win thechampionship.

“We were hoping for a rematch with Jackson because they made itto the finals (in the other pool),” said Panzica. “We feltconfident we could beat Jackson again,” in a rematch of the statetournament finals.

On Saturday, Panzica was feeling the energy-sapping effects ofdehydration. “I felt like I was dehydrated. As a precautionarymeasure, I got two of the guys to run me to the hospital. Theylooked me over and gave me two bags of drip.”

In the sectional, Brownhill went 3-1 in singles. He lost toNorth Carolina in the last match on Saturday. Mitch Rayborn was 3-2in singles.

Brookhaven was forced to play three matches in a 24-hour span.”I wish we could have spread them out,” said Panzica.

“Against North Carolina, we didn’t even finish. We realized thatwe already had lost three matches.”

Panzica said most of the team should be together for nextseason. “We feel pretty good about going back next year. It alldepends on if we can keep everybody in 4.0.”

Brownhill might be promoted to 4.5, depending on the evaluationof USTA officials at the verification clinics. He usually plays ona 4.5 team during the regular season.

Under new rules next year, USTA Adult League players will beable to self-rate themselves, pending final approval by leagueofficials.