Boys Tennis

Lewiston 4

Windham 1

There was no way to know for sure, but Windham’s No. 2 doubles player, Ben Hodge, had a pretty good idea about the outcome of Saturday’s Class A state final when he saw the Eagles’ No. 1 doubles team sitting courtside during the third set of his match.

Hodge, a senior playing in his final set at Windham, tried to avoid hearing anything about the other four matches that were taking place against Lewiston.

When he saw Nick DiFiore and Dylan Saucier, though, he knew the Blue Devils already had the three points they needed to win their fourth straight state title.

“They didn’t have a good look on their faces, so it was kind of obvious,” said Hodge.

At that point, it didn’t matter. He couldn’t be distracted. The Blue Devils may have been up 3-0 – they later won, 4-1 – but Hodge and his playing partner, Justin Kuliga, were locked in.

They had fought back from being down 4-1 in the first set to force a tie-breaker. Then, in the second set, they rallied to win, 7-5. So, the overall team score didn’t mean much when the third set of their match was tied 4-4. Hodge and Kuliga were immersed in the moment.

They beat Lewiston’s Ben McDonough and Andrew Marden, 6-7 (7-5), 7-5, 6-4, to give the Eagles their only point in the match.

“It was pretty important to me – my last match – and you don’t have many opportunities to come to states,” said Kuliga. “Even though we lost as a team it’s nice to know that we won and it’s Ben’s last year, his last match.”

It’s attitudes like this that have Windham coach Wayne Martin believing his program is headed in the right direction – despite the loss.

“You look at us every year for the past four years and we’ve taken it one step farther,” he said. “Now we just want to be consistent. We don’t want go back. We want to be consistent and competitive every year.

“We’ve got a feeder program in place and we’ve got some good coaches in our feeder system. So things are looking good for our program and the future of our tennis program.”

The No. 2 doubles match was the fourth to finish on Saturday. Prior to that, Lewiston’s Mike Butler beat Windham’s Adam Mitchell, 6-1, 6-0, in third singles. In second singles, Lewiston’s Mike Sarrazin beat Jeremy Egan, 6-4, 6-0.

As expected, though, both doubles matches were close.

“We knew that their doubles teams were pretty solid,” said Lewiston coach Ron Chicoine. “We had scrimmaged them early in the preseason and they had take a couple of doubles matches off us. I felt like our singles matches were stronger, but their team had a good game plan.”

The Eagles’ No. 1 doubles team of DiFiore and Saucier won the first set 6-3 and went up 3-2 in the second set before losing the match, 6-3, 3-6, 3-6.

“In the second set we came in pretty confident. We just kind of went slow and we lost,” said DiFiore. “And in the third set there was just tons of pressure and we just kind of cracked. We weren’t playing the game that we normally play because we knew in our heads it was a really big deal.”

DiFiore and Saucier pulled to within 5-3 in the third set and were within one point of getting it to 5-4, but Lewiston’s Matt Letorneau and Devyn Cote fought back, got it to deuce and won on an unforced error.

“You’re looking at the top four doubles teams in the state,” said Martin. “Those kids are playing singles on every other team, so the talent level was very good today. We saw some good tennis. But as far as the doubles go, it was three-setters and fun to watch.”

In the final match of the day, No. 1 singles, Lewiston’s James Morin beat Andrew McFarland, 6-1, 6-3.

“It was close, a few points here or there,” said McFarland, a senior. “I should’ve probably pulled out that second set, but he played well and came back.”

Still, though, McFarland wasn’t too disappointed.

“It was a great season,” he said. “I think we accomplished what we wanted to do when we got to the Western Maines and won those. That was really good.

“Lewiston’s just such a good team every year. We played well. I think we definitely proved something to them, because I think they were sort of overlooking us.”

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