Friday through Sunday, August 3-5, Lopez Island Community Tennis Association hosted the 12th annual Lopez Open Tennis Tournament. The weekend was kicked off Thursday evening with a potluck “draw party” where the divisions, brackets and schedule of play were revealed. Categories of play included singles, mixed doubles, men’s doubles and women’s doubles.

This year 21 doubles teams and four singles entrants toiled under the unusually hot Lopez sun. Entrants came from Lopez, Orcas Island, Seattle and its suburbs and from as far away as Los Angeles and Arkansas.

This year the popular round robin format was continued in the early rounds. This format allows for more play of all teams while those with the best overall win-loss record in their division advance to the semifinals and finals.

Lucien Schmit successfully defended his singles championship from last year outlasting Dean Ciano in a hard-fought two setter. In mixed doubles Marybeth (MB) Morstad and Tom Pal topped Audrey Wakefield and Scott Jamieson in perhaps the most exciting match of the tournament. In the late afternoon men’s doubles Steve Buchanan and Bruce Bartley overcame an early 5-1 deficit in set one to win in two sets over Timothy Maxson and George Sampson. The women’s doubles final match featured Audrey Wakefield and Linda Vint besting Linda Adams and Marybeth Mrstad in another exciting match.

Visit www.licta.org for additional pictures from the tournament and to stay informed about tennis on Lopez.