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Six young tennis players from several area towns were members of the Shippan Stormers team that played in the 2010 USTA 14-and-under National Championships during the weekend of Oct. 22-24 in Surprise, Ariz.
Anna Rogers, Prashant Toteja and Brian Niguidula of Stamford, Digby Philpott of New Canaan, Kateri Martin of Darien and Lindsey Evans of Fairfield were the Shippan Stormers who played and each of them won at least one match.
There were 16 teams in the 14-and-under division separated into four flights. Each played every other team in their flight. Team scoring was kept by the amount of games won in singles and doubles matches. The Stormers finished third in their flight. They won 74 games and lost 84. Singles players or doubles teams had to win only four games to win a set.
The Shippan Stormers won all five of their matches against the USTA Intermountain team. Toteja won in boys singles, Martin won her girls singles match, Niguidula and Philpott teamed up to win their boys doubles match, Rogers and Evans won in girls doubles, while Toteja and Rogers teamed up to win in mixed doubles.
The Stormers, based out of the Shippan Racquet Club in Stamford, advanced to the national championships by winning the New England Sectional tournament late in the summer. Darien's George Congdon helped the Stormers win the sectional tournament but did not make the trip to the national tourney.
"There were about 6,000 teams from the whole country that played in this event over the whole year and we were one of 16 teams that made it to the national tournament," said Shippan coach Charl van der Merwe, who accompanied the Stormers on the trip. "Just to be there was a great accomplishment. Now our players know what to work on and what they have to do to play against the best players in the country their age. We had great team spirit. I was very proud of them."
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