Neon green polymer balls whizzed back and forth across the shiny floors of the Gleason Family YMCA’s basketball court, whacked with ferocious intensity by sweaty pickleball players.

Sunday saw the Y’s first ever pickleball tournament, with six teams participating. Though the sport – which is a combination of table tennis, regular tennis, and badminton – is popular among older individuals, there were players of all ages at Sunday’s match.

The Y began offering pick-up pickleball games in December 2015. The games are led by YMCA Senior Wellness Director Lu Brito, and take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Brito said he saw enough interest in the sport to hold a round robin tournament.

Kim Mitchell, who has been a part of the Middleborough-Lakeville pickleball league for a year, got into the sport, after her father had a heart attack on the court playing it. Though her father is fit as a fiddle now – not to mention the pickleball ambassador for the Middleborough-Lakeville league – Mitchell said that she had vowed never to let him play alone on the court again.

“I went to watch him, and I was hooked,” Mitchell said, before returning to watch the game at hand.

Spectator Linda Schuessler, of Marion, said she is a pickleball newbie, but loves the sport.

“I play here and these guys … are so kind. They have been great … and they put up with me,” Schuessler said, and laughed.

She plays tennis, too, and said the two sports feed into each other.

“What I am finding is that a lot of people who play this have been tennis players,” Schuessler said. “But it is actually more like ping pong to me.”

Geoff Swett and Lauren Harper won the tournament.