Sparta resident wins national title
Sparta. Sparta resident Alexandra Miller Clark helped lead Ridgewood-based Team Smillie to a national championship in the USTA 40 & Over Women’s 4.0 division, capping a journey from local to national titles.
Sparta resident Alexandra Miller Clark brought home a national title as part of a United States Tennis Association 40-and Over women’s 40 team. on Oct. 19 in Scottsdale, Arizona,
Team Smillie, based in Ridgewood, defeated the Southern Section team to win the national championship.
The New Jersey team first became local champions, then regional champions, and finally defeated all New York teams at sectionals in Albany to qualify for nationals as the Eastern team.
“Our outstanding captain recruited strong players from all around New Jersey to make up an excellent team,” said Miller Clark, who has had four children go through the Sparta school system.
Miller Clark played both singles and doubles for the team and said her net game is her strength.
In 1987, as a sophomore at Newton High School, Miller Clark helped start the school’s first girls’ tennis team, coached by Bob Ford. She went on to run track and cross-country at Duke University as a walk-on.
It wasn’t until her early 30s that she returned to tennis.
“Tennis increases my energy, which helps me to be a better mom, psychologist and whatever role is before me,” she said.
Miller Clark founded Live Well Psychology Center in Sparta, is the current president of the New Jersey Psychological Association, and serves as a trustee for the Lake Mohawk Tennis Club.