For the second time in as many years, members of Marion’s Sippican Tennis Club 18 and Under team will get the opportunity to compete in the National Championships. The team qualified for the October tournament after recently winning the New England Championship.

In the summer’s regular season, Sippican went undefeated against nearby teams such as Norton, Plymouth, Franklin and Brockton. This 6-0 record sent Sippican to take on Fairhaven for the title of Eastern Massachusetts champions.

By defeating Fairhaven, Sippican earned the right to represent eastern Massachusetts at the New England Championships and faced off against teams from western Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Vermont. The two-day competition took place at the UMass Amherst courts on Aug. 12 and 13.

Alex Bilodeau, Margo Cannell, Victoire Keane, Becky Kendall, Josh Lerman, Julia Nojeim, Sam Pasquill, Ollie Sughrue, Owen Sughrue and Parker Tonissi played for the team.

On the first day of matches, Sippican faced two teams from Vermont and the Connecticut team. Out of a possible 40 games to win in each match, they won 40, 35 and 23, respectively. Sippican finished day one with 98 out of a possible 120 games won, placing 12 games behind the leading western Massachusetts team and tied for second with Connecticut.

Day two began with a match between Sippican and the first place team from western Massachusetts. In arguably its most important match, Sippican pulled out all the stops to earn a 35 to 20 victory over western Massachusetts. This put the defending champions three games ahead going into the final match of the tournament.

This match was against New Hampshire, and Sippican Coach Chick Renfrew doubled up two of his players in an attempt to secure as many games as possible. The strategy worked for Renfrew and Sippican as it earned the team a perfect 40 games. This combined with a close match between the contenders from western Massachusetts  and Connecticut clinched the New England Championship for Sippican. The team ended the tournament with a 12 game lead over the second place team in the score of 173 to 161.

The New England Championship title means Sippican will represent all of New England in the National Championship this October in South Carolina. Preparations are only just beginning as the team looks forward to going to competing again on a national scale.