’10 State Singles Championships was a great event!!!
For everyone that had a chance to come down and absorb the experience at ASU this past weekend, saw some excellent racquetball. For those who missed out, RPAA only hopes you can make it next year! We had an excellent venue, with sponsors like Honey Bears, Chipotle and Jason’s Deli. Ben Simons, the tournament director, had an awesome presentation on Saturday night that showed 14 (yes..14!!) years of Arizona Racquetball history from previous tournaments. If you missed the slideshow, we are trying our best to have that available at our our state events (Singles and Doubles). In case you missed the action, the Sun Devils team were in action as they are getting ready for their up and coming 2010 Intercollegiate tournament in Springfield, MO. The Lady Devils pretty much soaked up the Women’s B and C division with Ashley Jimenez being crowned for both divisions. It was no easy task for her as she had to escape victories from Gjienna Conway and Haydee Cruz. Kristen Frisk who is also part of the team placed 3rd in Womens Cs and 4th in Womens Bs. In Women’s As division Izayadeth Aguayo made a big impact this weekend by placing second. Her biggest victory came Saturday night over NMRA Bronze winner, Kerri Garcia. Good Job Lady Devils and Men Devils!! Wish you the very best at Intercollegiates!!
Other action was in the 45+ division. A big upset occurred, Tom Cain taking out Mike Lubbers (Silver medal finalist at the 2010 NMRA) in the tiebreaker 11-1. Tom Cain was unable to play his finals due to helping out with the IRF in Honduras, so Rocky Lemmert is claimed 45+ Arizona State Champion! In the Women’s Open finals between former state champion, Michelle Key against #2 World Ranked player, Rhonda Rajsich. What appeared to be a very close battle at the beginning of both games, Michelle gave it her best in hopes to capture another state title but the experience of Rhonda allowed her to win the match in two games. As the titles continue to accumulate for Rhonda, expect more to come in the near future. Congratulations to Lisa Bu as she claimed two titles, Women’s As and Women’s 45+. Good Job Lisa, looking forward seeing you next year to defend your titles! Other notables, Trevor Deason winning the 18 and under division, Corey Mason winning the Men’s As division, Oscar Avalos getting second place for Men’s Bs and Cs division only to lose to Chuck Gideon (Men’s B Champion) and David Lorenz (Men’s C Champion). Good job guys! There were also some women taking on the Men’s division, Arlene Sweeney, Rhonda Rajsich, Michelle Key and Nicole Passage. Good job Girls, awesome performance!!
Two exciting matches that occurred on Sunday was the first match of the day and the last match of the day on Court 1. The first match of the day was the Men’s 25/30+ Open Division finals between Pio Moniz and Damian Zamorano. What looked like a lopsided match at the beginnign,Damian was making excellent shots to both sides of the court and keeping Pio off-balance the entire first game. Damian looked completely dominate the first game taking it 15-8. The fire in Pio’s eyes was not dimming anytime soon as he fought a great second game. At one point it was locked up 14-14 with each of them serving for game 4 times each. Pio finally mustard up an Ace drive serve to the right corner that left Damian stunned, sending the match into a tie-breaker. Even though how much Pio has been training for this event, it looked like Damian’s skills were a little sharper for this morning as he stride to capture the Gold by winning the tie-breaker in dominate style 11-5. The last match on Court 1 was between 5 time state champion, Jeff Bell and current “back-to-back” state champion, Jason Conway. The first game started out very hot in favor for Jason Conway as Jeff Bell found some ways to get the matched locked up at 5-5. Only then the rally’s started to favor Jason, as they became longer and putting more pressure on Jeff Bell. Jeff found himself that he had not found himself all tournament long..on the defensive side of things. As Jeff was trying to adjust, Conway consistently applied pressure making Jeff dive from front to back in many of the rally’s. Conway ended game one with a fashionable cross-court shot that went right in the middle of Jeff’s legs (15-5). After game one results, more and more people started to fill in on the empty seats around the court, soon there was not an empty seat. It was an packed crowd. Everyone was witnessing history in the making. Who was going to win between Jeff and Jason. Game two pretty much started out like game 1, Conway continued to pour on the cross-court shots and forcing Jeff to take shots from a defensive position. At some point in the middle of the game, Jeff found his niche’. He found a weakness, or more a strength to use against Jason. Jeff started to use the Drive Z to the right-hand corner forcing Jason in weak returns giving opportunities for Jeff to control the second game. Soon the match was noticing a turn of events as Jeff became more the aggressor and Jason being put on the defensive side. As Jeff started his dominance Jason had no answers, as Jeff took game two 15-8. As the crowd anticipated for what they all came down to watch…a tie-breaker!! As the music continued to energize the crowd, you can see the two fearless warriors master-minding their next plan of attack. Tie breaker started, Bell starts right off where he ended game two, Drive Z to the right corner. Jason made some great shots from the back corner, in fact there were some flat rolls where it left Jeff in “awe”! Needlesstosay both warriors were definitely drenched in their sweat, can’t imagine the bruises they are suffering internally from all the diving. That didn’t matter as neither one of them backed down to their opponent. Jeff looked in control, so did Jason. Each of them exchanging sideouts. Soon about in the middle of the tie-breaker, the 5 time champion reached deep into his pockets and proved to everyone in the crowd why his is a Champion. Conway tried everything he could but you can see towards the end of the match, he wasn’t going to take out his opponent today as he rendered his two year era on being “Arizona’s Best” to Jeff Bell in a thrilling and exciting tie-breaker 11-6. Jeff Bell is now the leader of all Arizona title-holders with an impressive 6 titles (95-97, 99, 01 and 10).
RPAA congratulations everyone who received awards at the 2010 State Champ. For those who participated in the event, I hope you had a great experience and hope to see you out at the next up and coming events. For those who had a great experience, please pass the word as we like to encourage everyone to come to these events, participate or support friend(s) and family members.
For more information this tournament, please click here.


The Racquetball Players Association of Arizona proudly presents the up and coming tournaments for the remainder of the year. To review we are starting out with a Doubles Shootout in Tucson, Arizona on January 30th at Tucson Racquet Club. Next on the list, February 10th through the 14th, USRA presents the 43rd Annual National Doubles in Tempe, Arizona at the SRC at ASU. For more updated tournaments please click on the Tournaments section and find out which tournament you see yourself playing and participating in!!