Squash
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THERE is code hopping and then there is state hopping.
While it is impossible for rugby league players to start playing for NSW and switch to Queensland, or vice versa, two Leeton sisters have managed to qualify for NSW and Victorian squash teams in the same year.
Sarah, 14, and Claire Quinlivan, 16, will not only play for NSW at the Combined High Schools national championships in Brisbane this year, but they will also turn out for Victoria at the Australian championships in Perth.
The pair, along with fellow Leeton High School students Esther and Siarne Deeves and Jonte Schmetzer represented the Riverina at the CHS state squash carnival at the end of June and finished third overall.
The girls team was dominated by LHS, with Sarah, Claire and Esther - in her last year of CHS sport - joined by Kellie Brunker from Deniliquin. Siarne was in the under 15s conveners team.
Individual players in the teams are ranked (Claire one, Sarah three, Esther four) and they played against equally ranked players in the other teams, followed by doubles games in 1-and-2 and 3-and-4 pairings.
The Riverina girls won three out of five matches, against Hunter, Conveners and North Coast.
While Sarah said it had become easier over time to play at that level, Claire said it was still a tough tournament.
"I played the number one in Australia, the number two and the number three," she said.
"Against the number two it was one game each and I was up 9-3, then lost."
At the end of the tournament, the sisters played off for positions in the NSW open team selection for the nationals in Brisbane on August 18 to 21.
Sarah won two games, then lost to Australian number three Tiana Saxby, but did qualify for the under 15s NSW CHS team.
Claire made it through the first two rounds and was also knocked out by Saxby. She was invited with three others to play off for the final two spots and won that game.
It is the second year in a row the sisters have made the NSW team, although both played 15s last year in New Zealand.
However, in what has become an even bigger family affair, Claire, Sarah and their brother Jack, 12, have also been selected in the Victorian team to play at the Australian championships in Perth from September 27 to October 5.
"We decided at at the beginning of the year to play Victorian tournaments," Claire said.
"We had to join through the Shepparton competition, playing Goulburn Valley Squash," Sarah said. "That's how we got selected for Victoria."
They are coached by Tim Batty in a team called BML and have been playing since January to get a ranking.
"Every two or three weeks we go to Melbourne and play people in our age group, to get a ranking for Victoria," Sarah said.
The trio initially played for Victoria at the Australian junior opens in Geelong and got a national ranking - Sarah nine in under 15s, Claire 10 in under 17s and Jack 15 in under 13s - before playing at the Victorian Junior State Titles against juniors from other states.
"It was another knockout tournament with two pools," Sarah said.
"I ended up number one in my pool. I had to play the number one from the other pool, she's the number three in Australia. I came second in the tournament."
Claire admitted she "played horribly and finished last", but lifted her ranking to third in Victoria, while Jack finished third in his age group.
However, because the number-one ranked under 17s player was moved up to under 19s, Claire has became the number two ranked Victorian player and Sarah will be the only Victorian 15 years player at the Australian championships.
The Australian championships will be played as an individual and team competition across 10 days.
As well as playing in the Leeton town competition, the Quinlivans train two or three days a week and also have three days of fitness work, with the majority of weekends spent in Melbourne playing or being coached.
"It's easier with the three kids playing and we all get coached by the same person," Claire said.
"It's good to meet a lot of people, especially now we're playing for two states."