They still tremble when they think about it.

By winning a regional at Princeton, N.J., a local tennis team from Hillcrest Racquet Club representing Middle States Tennis Association and Hillcrest Racquet Club earned a berth in the 2006 USTA League Tennis Adult 4.5 Men's National Championships.

And one of those once-in-alifetime opportunities to go to Hawaii, since the tournament was being held in Waikoloa on the Big Island.

But it wasn't the excitement of going there and playing there in the end that left the group of 12 players and some of their families shaking.

As the Middle States team was about to take the court for a 7:30 a.m. semifinal match against Texas on Sunday, Oct. 15, a 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck within a close vicinity.

The players scurried to safety from the Hilton Waikoloa's dug out stadium-style court.

Suddenly, the trip of a lifetime had the team reflecting on their mortality.

We were five minutes away from being called to our semi, and the ground in front of the place we were at started moving, said player/coach Don Hutchison. We ran out to the golf course. We thought it would let up. It didn't. It got bigger and stronger.

We heard reports it went up to a minute, but I think it was more like 30 seconds.

Hutchison said the ground beneath him moved up and down on the initial quake. After the whole team moved to the fairway of an adjoining golf course, the earth shook for a second time, about seven minutes after the first.

"You hadn't really recovered from the first and the second one hit," Hutchison said. "On that one the ground was moving sideways."

You can imagine all the thoughts that cross your mind when you're suddenly in the middle of something so catastrophic and frightening.

Members of the team, half of them from Berks Country, were trying to reach their families who were still back at the team's hotel six miles away, on the eighth floor no less.

On the fairway, the group was told to move to higher ground, in the event of a sunami. They were directed to go about a half mile up a road to a hill behind a sand trap.

I said, 'Is this high enough,' and they said they didn't know," said Hutchison, now able to see some humor in the ordeal.

At first, I didn't know if a volcano behind us was erupting or there was a sunami in front of us, said Hutchison, "The first one got my knees. The second one went right up into my chest. My chest was fluttering.

Once back at their hotel, a third shock came nearly 45 minutes after the first. It measured 4.4.

"That was nothing," kidded Hutchison.

In all, 30 aftershocks were reported from the quake, which officially struck at 7:07 that morning.

But by 11 that morning the Hillcrest team was called back to the Hilton to play its semifinal.

"I said to the guys, 'If you don't feel like playing tennis, I fully understand,'" said Hutchison, who knew where tennis ranked among the morning's events.

The Hillcrest team lost its semifinal to Texas, the eventual champion, then beat Southern to finish third in the event, making it a successful trip.

An earth-shaking one, at that.