and Okker over Roche and Pattison to take a 13–10 lead. Pattison cut the lead to 18–17 with a 7–5 men's singles win over Okker. Dürr and Stöve dominated Evert and Shaw, 6–1, in women's singles for a 24–18 victory and the Golden Gaters' second consecutive Western Division Championship. The Golden Gaters opened the best-of-five WTT Finals at home on August 20, against the New York Sets with a 31–23 overtime loss. The Sets took a 25–15 lead to the final set of women's doubles. Dürr and Stöve beat Virginia Wade and Billie Jean King, 7–5, to force overtime. Wade and King won the second game of overtime to seal the match. The Golden Gaters drew 5,120 fans for the second match in Oakland on August 23. Golden Gaters coach McMillan hoped to get the team off to a good start in the match by having his strong women's doubles team play first. However, Wade and King marched to a shockingly dominant 6–0 set win against Dürr and Stöve. Sandy Mayer won the first three games of men's singles against Okker to give the Sets a 9–0 lead. Mayer went on to win the set, 6–1, and give the Sets a 12–1 lead. The Golden Gaters picked up their play from there and even forced overtime. But the Sets cruised to a 29–21 victory. The Golden Gaters hit the road for the third match at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum which was dominated by the Sets, 31–13 in front of 5,730 fans on August 27. Wade and Mayer both had dominant 6–1 victories in singles over Dürr and Okker, respectively. The Sets completed the series sweep by winning all five sets of the final match. Departure of Stöve In October 1976, Golden Gaters co-owner Larry King resigned as WTT president and became the interim president of the New York Sets, the team for which his wife Billie Jean played, furthering the conclusion that there were many conflicts of interest throughout the league. Following the 1976 season, the Golden Gaters left Betty Stöve unprotected, and she was selected in the WTT draft by the Sea-Port Cascades. New WTT rules intended to create more competitive balance among the league's teams forced the Golden Gaters to leave one of their big stars unprotected. Frew McMillan, Tom Okker and Françoise Dürr all returned to the Golden Gaters for the 1977 season. The team added John