It took patience, but Mt. Ararat junior Nick Mathieu and Falmouth senior Julia Brogan finally emerged from the MPA singles tennis tournaments clutching championship trophies.

“It feels amazing,” said Brogan, the third seed whose previous attempts ended twice in the semifinals and once in the quarterfinals. “It’s been my goal to get to the finals since I was a freshman.”

Brogan made quick work of No. 4 Rosemary Campanella, a Wells sophomore, 6-1, 6-0 in the girls’ final Monday afternoon at The Racket & Fitness Center in Portland.

Mathieu, a three-time finalist seeded first, needed twice as long to dispatch pesky freshman Dariy Vykhodtsev, the third seed from Thornton Academy, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

“I was very tight coming into the third,” Mathieu said. “I just had to calm down and forget about the past, to be in the present moment. I’m lucky I was able to find that zone where I could just stay focused on the match.”

Rain forced the semifinals and finals – originally scheduled for Bates College in Lewiston – inside for the third time in four years. After regional qualifying, the fields of 48 boys and 48 girls were whittled down Friday in Portland and Saturday at Lewiston High to the top four seeds in each bracket.

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For girls, that pitted Campanella against No. 1 Lana Mavor, a freshman from Yarmouth, in one semifinal Monday morning and Brogan against No. 2 Bethany Hammond, a St. Dominic sophomore who was runner-up in 2015, in the other.

Mavor, unbeaten in the regular season, injured her back in a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Brogan on May 13 and sat out her next two team matches. She was able to win a singles match Friday and two more Saturday without much trouble but looked very uncomfortable Monday against Campanella, who jumped to a 4-0 lead before Mavor walked gingerly off the court, both hands on her lower back.

“It just locked up,” she said. “I couldn’t move.”

She withdrew, sending Campanella into the finals. Meanwhile, Brogan narrowly avoided a three-set match with Hammond by winning 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) in the other semifinal.

“It was a tough match,” Brogan said, “but I got the experience and I was able to get my nerves out.”

Campanella was more rested for the final, of course, but Brogan controlled play from the start, breaking Campanella all seven games she served. Brogan closed out the first set with a backhand lob just beyond the reach of Campanella’s swinging overhead attempt.

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Up 3-0 in the second, Brogan won the first point of the fourth game by chasing balls so far to each corner that she collided with both side curtains. Campanella eventually dumped a forehand into the net.

“I wasn’t ready to give away free points,” Brogan said. “This was my last opportunity as a senior to win and I really wanted to fight and leave everything on the court.”

Brogan and Campanella met in the women’s final of last summer’s Blakeman tournament and again in last month’s season opener. Brogan won handily last summer but in April their first set went to a tiebreak.

“Julia’s always played very consistent against me and that typically seems to get her the win,” Campanella said. “I’m a lot more erratic when I play her.”

Brogan took a much different approach to Campanella than to the left-handed Hammond, who is more of a finesse player.

“With Bethany, I can hit more pace,” Brogan said. “With Rose, if I hit a lot of pace she’s going to hit a harder ball back. So the key with her is to get it out of her strike zone and move her side to side and wait for your opportunity. I was doing a lot of cut shots and lobs to try and get her moving.”

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The boys’ semifinals also included an injury withdrawal. In a battle of unbeaten freshmen, Vykhodtsev trailed No. 2 Nick Forester of Falmouth 4-3 in the first set when Forester stepped on a stray ball from the adjacent Brogan-Hammond match and took a hard tumble, injuring his left knee. He played two more games, won by Vykhodtsev, before calling for a trainer and eventually realizing he could not continue.

“When I would walk, I’d feel it buckle,” Forester said, “which I knew wasn’t a good thing.”

“I feel bad for Nick,” Vykhodtsev said. “I know he worked really hard for it.”

In the other semifinal match, Mathieu overcame an upset bid by Cape Elizabeth senior Michael Mills, the fourth seed, to win 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 after Mills had jumped to a 3-0 lead.

“I was pretty happy when I saw it was raining this morning,” Mathieu said. “I love the indoors. I like to hit fast and to the corners.”

The final opened inauspiciously for Vykhodtsev, who was born in Ukraine and moved to New Hampshire when he was 8 before coming to Maine last year.

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Mathieu broke serve and love with help from two double faults by the freshman, but Vykhodtsev hung in, feathered a few drop shots and forced the junior into a few mistakes of his own. There were five service breaks in the opening set before each player settled down in the second, which remained on serve until Vykhodtsev broke Mathieu to take a 5-3 lead and won the set on a Mathieu double fault.

“He played a great set,” Mathieu said. “He takes the ball very early. I’m lucky I knew that coming in because I’ve played him so much. If you don’t know that, he’s a very tricky player.”

Mathieu broke at love to open the third and held serve for a 2-0 lead. He broke again in the fifth game and served out the match at love, clinching the title with a forehand winner up the line.

“I tried to move my opponent around,” Vykhodtsev said. “I felt like I was being successful with that but my opponent played better today.”

Give it time. As Brogan and Mathieu proved, patience and persistence eventually pay off.


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