Maybe you recall a story I wrote a couple of weeks ago chronicling the journey of area tennis players Jill Bratberg and Jane Bentz of La Crosse and Kathy Kryzenske of Onalaska, Wis.

The three players hooked up with an Eau Claire-based United States Tennis Association team, played well, had fun and wound up receiving an at-large bid to a sectional tournament in Minneapolis.

To make a long story short, the team won the sectional tournament, therefore earning a totally unexpected trip to the USTA national tournament in Hawaii.

Yeah, I know, tough gig. Palm trees, Pacific Ocean breezes kissing your face, sun splashing off your not-so-tan skin. Maybe I'll put in an application to be a ball boy next year.

It wasn't all fun and games for Bratberg, however.

The La Crosse woman played two, three-hour matches the first day, including one where she could have been tabbed "Shoeless Jill Bratberg." More on that in a minute.

The Eau Claire USTA team with the La Crosse flavor played four matches, losing all four, in the national USTA 4.0 tournament. The fight they put up and the experiences they left the islands with, however, is what really mattered.

Take the "Shoeless Jill" match, for example.

"In the middle of the second set, I ran up to the net and stopped and my shoe came off," Bratberg said of her opening singles match against a player from West Virginia. "I hit over 30 balls without my shoe on. My teammates and people were watching, so they were counting (the hits). What made me mad is I didn't win the point.

"I hit a couple of inches wide on the 30th ball. I won that match (6-4, 7-6) in a tiebreaker, but I was dead-tired. It was in the 80s, and the humidity, it is so much hotter than the temperature feels."

Bratberg, a former Winona High School and UW-La Crosse player, had a two-hour break, then played yet another 3-plus hour singles match. Forget about jet lag, or about the fact that she was playing in a tropical paradise.

Tennis is tennis, and this woman is competitive.

"I was so tired. I was begging for my body to kick in," said Bratberg, who lost the first set 7-6 (7-5 tiebreaker). "It was so stinking hot. Just when I thought I was going to

be able to pull this thing out, she (her Hawaiian opponent) called for a trainer because of cramped legs.

"As soon as that trainer came out I thought, 'Sweet, I have her now.' The competitive nature in me came out and I started hitting more drop balls. I know that sounds mean, but I wanted to win."

Bratberg won the second set 6-4, but found herself in a huge hole at 6-1 in a 10-point third-set tiebreaker. No big deal. Bratberg rattled off nine straight points to win the tiebreaker, and the match.

Gut check? Yes. Did she have an answer? Absolutely.

Whew! Her first full day in Hawaii, and Bratberg plays more than six hours of grueling tennis. Despite losing both of its team matches by 3-2 scores, the Eau Claire team was ready to bounce back.

But was Bratberg?

"I played singles on Saturday (the next day) against a gal from Puerto Rico. My brain wanted to get to the ball and my body didn't," Bratberg said.

"She beat in straight sets (6-3, 6-2). The good thing is they (Puerto Rico) went on and won the whole thing."

The good thing, if there is such a thing from a loss, is that Bratberg, Bentz and Kryzenske had Sunday and Monday off. They did some tourist things, and even went snorkeling.

For Bratberg, there was little time to talk about the trip. Upon her arrival home, she discovered one of her and husband Alan's triplets, Kayli, had a lymph node infection. Bratberg didn't even unpack as she spent the next 10 days with Kayli at the hospital.

"It was scary," she said. "We were so lucky that it was a staff infection. That is serious, but some of the other things (it could have been) were far worse.

"I didn't really have time to think about trip. Now that I have, it was just awesome. I just want a re-do on my Saturday morning match. And once you get a taste of nationals, you want to go back big-time. Next time I would keep my shoes on."