ELLSWORTH — Yarmouth figured it was in rebuilding mode after losing nine seniors from the team that won the 2013 Class B state title.

Emily Parker was the lone senior on the 2014 team and didn’t know what to expect. She gathered her young teammates for summer practices, pushing them to maintain the high standards the Clippers had established.

The season began with a four-set loss to Greely.

Yarmouth didn’t lose again and was never really tested.

Parker was on the sideline Saturday when her Clippers wrapped up another state title, a three-set victory over Machias at Ellsworth High School.

“I was nervous. My legs were shaking and I was just ready to jump off the bench and go charge the court,” Parker said after celebrating a third state championship in her four seasons.

“It’s been tough. It’s a really young team, which is kind of difficult. I would have loved to share this opportunity and this award with another senior, but I’ve enjoyed being the only senior as well.”

Yarmouth won its final 15 matches, seven of them against Class A competition. None of them went to five sets. The Clippers’ dominance was apparent from the outset Saturday in an opening-set 25-9 victory. Machias (13-3), appearing in its first state championship match and with a roster of only seven players, regrouped and made things more difficult. The second set was 25-20 and the third 25-17.

“I made a mistake in the first game,” said Machias Coach Kelly Woodward. “I messed up their rotation, and that makes a big difference when you only have seven girls and so I couldn’t fix it. I think that really got them kind of flustered and turned around. We pulled our energy up. We were just pumped just to be here. We were excited.”

Yarmouth, which dressed 16 players and substituted liberally, was intent on avoiding long rallies against the gritty Bulldogs.

“They work their tails off. They’re a fantastic group of girls,” Yarmouth Coach Jim Senecal said of Machias. “Whenever we were playing a tentative type of game, that played right into Machias’s advantage. That is a team that is very, very hard to beat in a slowdown game. But we didn’t play that way. We played aggressive, and that was great.”

Yarmouth junior Kenzie Sheehan scored a point in the second set that showed it was going to be the Clippers’ day. She backhanded a shot that somehow landed just inbounds, turned to her teammates and shrugged as if to indicate that it was not planned.

Senecal praised his senior outside hitter for her role in Yarmouth’s latest championship, but was already looking to the future. The Clippers could be a budding dynasty.

“She held it together,” he said of Parker. “She’s the one who took the leadership role right after last season ended, got everybody there in the summer, made sure they were participating in some of their offseason stuff. She’s quite a kid, very special.

“We’re excited about next year.”

Mark Emmert can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:

memmert@pressherald.com

Twitter: MarkEmmertPPH