Eight teams made their way to the Sea Island Resorts facility in Georgia this past weekend to christen a new U. S. Squash national championship, namely the U. S. Siblings tournament, which also served as the kick-off to the 2007-08 North American doubles schedule. Given the success in recent years of the U. S. Father & Son championships, whose third edition this past spring was by far its best attended to date, this three-flight tourney (brother/brother, sister/sister and brother/sister), as well as the inaugural Mother & Daughter event set for this coming spring, constitute a natural complement, and this first-ever edition augurs well for the future of events of this nature.

So too does the quality of the three pairings who made it into the winner’s circle in their respective categories; Matt Jensen combined with Jeff Mulligan last season to reach almost every ISDA quarterfinal, as well as the semis of the early-spring tour stop in Denver, where they toppled the No. 1 ISDA-ranked team of Paul Price and Ben Gould; Jensen’s older brother Dan has been a top-20 PSA player for a number of years. Together they marched through the Open draw without losing a single game, including in their final against the Wyant brothers, Tim and Chris.

Meredeth Quick and her older brother Preston both won their respective Open titles in the 2007 U. S. National Doubles at the Merion Cricket Club last March, Meredeth with Fiona Geaves in a suspenseful final against reigning Canadian National champs Narelle Tippett Krizek (a former WISPA top-25) and Steph Hewitt that came down to a simultaneous-championship-point, and Preston with John Russell in a straight-set final-round win at the expense of Clive Leach and Scott Butcher. The Quick siblings, who won the 2006 U. S. National Mixed title and fell to Krizek and Price in the ’07 final, were declared the winners of the brother/sister portion of this Sea Island event (for which Tournament Chairman Gould ran a full “Open” draw comprised of all eight teams for the brother/brother event, into which he incorporated a round-robin among the all-sister pairings to determine the winner of that category) as the only “mixed” team among the eight entries.

The Quicks, who had out-played Krizek and her sister Natarsha Tippett McIlhinny in the Open quarterfinals before losing to the Jensens, rebounded against Harrison and Marshall Sebring in the third-place playoff, while the Tippett sisters captured the sister/sister championship over Dana and Benay Betts, then also won the Open fifth-place playoff by defeating Sam and Peter Halpert.

By all accounts, the tournament weekend provided an amazing experience for all 16 of its player participants, a number that is expected to rise significantly in coming years. The Sea Island Resort (which also plans to host an ISDA pro doubles tour stop this coming spring, the first ranking event south of the Mason-Dixon line in the history of that Association) is considered one of the best in America, featuring a pool/beach near which, as one player observed, one could “lie on perfectly mowed bright green grass under palm trees,” as well as a five-star golf course, on whose 18 exceptional holes a number of the squash players spent much of their free afternoon time. In addition, the Wyant family hosted the Saturday evening tournament dinner-dance at their house near the resort, which starred a chef that had prepared dinner at the White House just last month. Players had unlimited free access to all of the facilities at the resort the entire weekend, and there was universal praise for the efforts of Gould and the Wyants (“well above and beyond any normal tournament” according to one participant; “the best tournament I have ever been to,” said another), as well as strong optimism for a much larger turn-out and a correspondingly higher profile for this Sibling Nationals event going forward.

Tournament Recap

Saturday’s Results
Round One
Jensons Vs Vollmers 15/7,15/10,15/12
Quicks Vs Tippetts 15/10,14/18,15/5,17/14
Sebrings Vs Betts 15/10,15/11,13/15,15/5
Wyants Vs Halperts 17/14,15/9,12/15,15/4

Semi/Finals of the conso:
Tippetts Vs Vollmers 15/7,15/6,15/7
Halperts Vs Betts 15/11,7/15,15/7,8/15,15/6

Semi-finals of the main draw:
Jensons Vs Quicks 15/12,15/12,15/13
Wyants Vs Sebrings 15/6,14/17,15/10,15/7

Sunday’s Results

Brother-Brother Final & 1st/2nd place play-off:
Matt Jenson/Dan Jenson def Tim Wyant/Chris Wyant: 15/9,16/13,15/9

Sister-Sister Final:
Narelle Tippett Krizek/Natarsha Tippett McElhinny def Benay Betts/Dana Betts: 15/8,12/15,15/5,15/9

Preston Quick/Meredeth Quick win the Brother-Sister as the only entrants in that division

3rd/4th place play-off:
Preston Quick/Meredeth Quick def Marshall Sebring/Harrison Sebring: 15/8,15/9,14/15,15/5

5th/6th place play-off: Narelle Tippett Krizek/Natarsha Tippett McElhinny def Peter Halpert/Sam Halpert: 16/18,15/6,15/5,15/9

7th/8th place play-off: Dana Betts/Benay Betts def Meridith Vollmer/Paige King: 15/9,15/8,15/9