Paola Longoria and Montserrat Mejia will faceoff in the final of the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) TeamRoot.com Super Max Slam in Overland Park, Kansas for a second consecutive year, as they also met in last’s years final, when Mejia beat Longoria for the first time on tour. They both won their respective semi-final matches in two straight games. Longoria - the LPRT’s #1 player - beat her doubles partner Samantha Salas, 15-2, 15-5, while 6th seed Mejia defeated 18th seed Hollie Scott, 15-8, 15-9.
Longoria and Mejia were both solid in the semis. Salas and Scott played well, but both were a bit all or nothing on their shots, and while they made a good number of shots, they were not as consistent as their opponents.
The drama on Saturday was all in the doubles semi-finals. Gabriela Martinez and Maria Renee Rodriguez were down 14-0 in game one against the #1 seeds Longoria and Salas, yet they came back to win the match in a tie-breaker, 5-15, 15-6, 11-7. This is Martinez and Rodriguez’s second win over Longoria and Salas on tour and the first came in the semi-finals of last year’s TeamRoot.com Super Max Slam.
In the other semi-final, Alexandra Herrera and Erika Manilla came back to defeat Mejia and Jessica Parrilla, 5-15, 15-4, 11-4. Herrera is practically playing on one leg, as she suffered an injury recently, and withdrew in game one of her first singles match this weekend. But the lefthanded Herrera can still shoot the ball when she doesn’t have to move too much to get to it, and Manilla is more than able to cover the balls that don’t come to her partner, so they managed to pull out the victory.
Manilla also helped her side’s cause by hitting drive jams serves to the left side that came over to Parrilla on the right side at an awkward angle that she had trouble handling.
Herrera and Mejia played together in last year’s TeamRoot.com event - as they usually do - and they defeated Martinez and Rodriguez in the final. Martinez and Rodriguez will be looking to get a bit of revenge for that loss and to capture their first LPRT doubles title. Sunday’s final will be just the second time Martinez and Rodriguez are in a final.
You can watch the LPRT TeamRoot.com finals live via the LPRT YouTube channel or the LPRT website (click “LPRT Live” at the top of the page). The singles final will be Sunday at noon with the doubles final to follow at 1 PM. All times central.
2022 LPRT TeamRoot.com, June 9-12, 2022
Overland Park, Kansas
Semi-finals - Saturday
1) Paola Longoria d. 13) Samantha Salas, 15-2, 15-5
6) Montserrat Mejia d. 18) Hollie Scott, 15-8, 15-9
Final - Sunday
1) Paola Longoria v. 6) Montserrat Mejia - Noon
Doubles - Semi-finals - Saturday
5) Gabriela Martinez & Maria Renee Rodriguez d. 1) Paola Longoria & Samantha Salas, 5-15, 15-6, 11-7
2) Alexandra Herrera & Erika Manilla d. 3) Montserrat Mejia & Jessica Parrilla, 5-15, 15-4, 11-4
Doubles - Final - Sunday
2) Alexandra Herrera & Erika Manilla v. 5) Gabriela Martinez & Maria Renee Rodriguez - 1 PM
Follow the bouncing ball….
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