NEWBURYPORT — When Austin Yim, Brindley Fisher and Alex Lambert first joined the Newburyport boys tennis program as eighth graders five years ago, it was all part of a co-op team with Triton.
Numbers, and interst, were that low.
And for their first three years, the Clippers were bottom-dwellers in the CAL.
… Yeah, a pretty big farcry to where the program stands today.
Now senior tri-captains all these year’s later, Yim, Fisher and Lambert — along with the rest of a pretty stellar senior class — have Newburyport boys tennis as a legitimate state title contender in Division 3 this spring. After taking down No. 14 Dover-Sherborn on the brand new Nock courts, 4-1, in the Round of 16 on Wednesday afternoon, the No. 3-seeded Clippers have punched their ticket to the state quarterfinals.
Brick by brick, it’s been a senior class that just keeps building up.
“We’ve definitely gotten better over the years,” said Fisher, a three-time Daily News All-Star and our back-to-back co-MVP along with his changing doubles partners. “We’ve all been playing with each other and against the same guys every year, so we’ve definitely gotten tighter and more connected as a team. We’ve grown, and we’re able to challenge each other in practice every day and make ourselves better.”
It really has been a story of perseverance.
That eighth-grade year back in 2021, the Newburyport-Triton co-op went 4-5-1. Progress was made the next season when the Clippers were able to return to being a standalone program, and the results on the court were a touch better at 7-7 overall with a Division 2 first round exit. Then as sophomores in 2023, it was a 6-9 campaign with no state tournament berth.
Of course it was tough losing to the same CAL teams every year, but they just kept grinding away.
Last year, with classmates Sam Brickman and Conner DeMann stepping up along with then-freshman Luke Palen, Newburyport (11-8) made the Division 3 Round of 16 and won its first playoff match in a decade.
Then this year has just been a totally different story.
“The seniors have been unbelievable this year,” said Newburyport coach Geoff Dawe. “I’m very proud of them for sure, and they work hard. I would love to say that it’s great coaching, but like I tell (assistant coach Chris DiFranco), ‘You drive the van, and I fill in the scorebook.’ Then the kids do everything else.”
After Wednesday’s win, the Clippers (16-1) are three steps away from bringing home the program’s first ever state championship. They won a share of the CAL Kinney title this year, and beat a Lynnfield program that hadn’t lost in the league in six years … twice! There were also two victories over a Mystic Valley team ranked No. 7 in Division 4 — who ironically will play Lynnfield in an upcoming quarterfinal match — as well as a 4-1 win over a Marblehead program that swept them just a year ago.
Newburyport’s lone loss: To defending Division 4 state champion and currently undefeated No. 1 seed, Manchester Essex.
“We didn’t expect to have this much success this year, but we knew we were going to be strong,” said Lambert. “Especially with the CAL teams we play, they’ve been pretty strong over the years, so we knew the competition that we’d face. Then beating Lynnfield and being close against Manchester Essex, that was a big confidence boost for everyone.”
Truly, everyone is doing their jobs this spring.
Yim has been the team’s multi-year starter at No. 1 singles, and he currently holds an 8-6 record this season playing against everyone’s best. Lambert is 13-3 between Nos. 2 and 3 singles, and sophomore Ronan Refour is now a perfect 10-0 after returning from an injury that sidelined him the first few weeks of the season. Fisher and Palen are both 13-2 on the year (and 7-0 as doubles partners), and the team of Brickman and Will Forrest are a combined 25-5 on the season. A team manager last year, Forrest has stepped in admirably after DeMann was lost with an injury before the season even started.
And the best part: Basically everyone on the team is a High Honor or Honor Roll student, with college destinations ranging from Mcgill, Virginia Tech, Providence, UMass Amherst and the University of San Diego.
“We just need to maintain sort of the relaxed style we’ve brought this year,” said Fisher. “We’ve definitely worked hard in practice, but we’ve always wanted to make sure that we’re having fun and enjoying being out there.”
A state championship is so close, but it’s only going to get tougher from here.
Up next, Newburyport draws a state superpower in No. 6 Weston for the Division 3 quarterfinals (date/time TBD). The Wildcats are 13-time state champions over their illustrious history, who have won the last seven in a row between Divisions 3 and 4.
A monumental task, for sure.
But with what they’ve already accomplished this year — and over the past five, really — Newburyport will be ready for anything.
“A lot of the team is seniors, so we want to go out playing our best,” said Lambert. “I think we have a chance against anybody.”