LEWISTON — Tennis is one of those intriguing sports where a championship can be decided not by the top players on each team, but by the sixth and seventh guys on the ladder, a second doubles team that usually toils in obscurity.

So it was Thursday at the Western Maine finals, where Falmouth freshman Matt Adamowicz and sophomore Grayson Cohen rallied to a third-set victory that proved decisive in a 3-2 match over top-seeded Thornton Academy.

On a sultry afternoon at Bates College, Adamowicz and Cohen won 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 to give third-seeded Falmouth (14-1) a second straight Class A regional crown and set up a state final date with Mt. Ararat on Saturday at Lewiston High.

“We just didn’t want to let any of our friends down,” said Cohen, who played lacrosse at North Yarmouth Academy last spring. “In the third set we got up early, and we were able to play relaxed and hit hard. At the very end we turned the jets back on.”

Falmouth also won at third singles (Peter Stegemann 6-2, 6-3) and first doubles (Jordan Bruce and Trey Fallon 6-3, 6-3). Stegemann’s unusual style includes forehands and serves with either hand.

“I can’t hit higher balls, and hit with more control and more power,” said Stegemann, a natural right-hander. “Basically, everything you wish your backhand has, I have.”

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Stegemann’s opponent, Jackson Dohse, is a natural left-hander who serves that way but plays points right-handed, with a two-handed forehand and a one-handed (right) backhand.

“I didn’t understand that,” Stegemann said. “I was kind of confused.”

Thornton freshman Carlos Jimenez, an exchange student from Spain, won 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 singles after Falmouth jumped to a 2-0 lead. In a match of talented seniors at No. 1 singles, Victor Menezes finally converted his eighth match point to defeat Aidan McGrory of Falmouth 7-6 (0), 6-3 long after the overall outcome had been decided.

“I’m playing there as a captain,” Menezes said. “You’re representing your school. You’re representing yourself. I knew it would be my last match in high school and I had to give my best.”

In Class B, two-time defending state champion Cape Elizabeth beat Morse 4-1 to set up a state-final rematch with Camden Hills on Saturday at Lewiston High.

The second-seeded Capers (12-3) won in straight sets at first and second singles behind Michael Mills and Luke Gilman, and swept doubles behind Parker Dinsmore and Matt Chipman at No. 1, and Conner Sullivan and Jimmy Salerno at No. 2.

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It was Sullivan and Salerno who won 6-0, 6-4 to clinch the team victory.

“My only concern was that we had never played them,” Sullivan said, “so we had no idea how good they were.”

Indeed, top-ranked Morse (13-2) was making its first appearance in the regional final and Coach Steve Boyce understood the seedings meant nothing.

“We told them at the beginning of the match to have fun and do what you can do,” Boyce said.

“Try to have little victories. Win the first game. Take a set. Just get involved in a point and represent your skill. And for the most part they did.”

Matthew Jarmusz, a left-hander playing at No. 3 singles, picked up Morse’s lone point by outlasting Ethan Murphy 6-5, 7-5 in a match lasting just over two hours.

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“He was very consistent,” Jarmusz said of Murphy, known more for his buzzer-beating lay-in to give Cape Elizabeth the Class B basketball state championship in February.

“His strokes maybe weren’t so smooth but he knew how to work them.”

In Class C, seven-time defending state champion Waynflete blanked top-ranked Hall-Dale 5-0 without dropping more than two games in any set – and that only happened once, in Brandon Ameglio’s 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 2 singles.

The singles state champion, Isaac Salas, won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 1 and Clancy Mitchell 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3.

In doubles, Peter Michalakes and Stephen Epstein at No. 1, and Jake Soley and Jacob Greene at No. 2 each won handily.

The third-seeded Flyers (14-1) split with Cape Elizabeth in the regular season and also defeated Falmouth.

Hall-Dale, from Hallowell and Farmingdale, finished with a 14-1 record.


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