Weekend rain played havoc with the state team tennis tournament schedule. Any regional semifinal postponed from Saturday will be made up this afternoon, indoors if necessary.
One impressive result from Saturday was the No. 3 Portland High girls avenging a May defeat with a 4-1 victory over No. 2 Cheverus in the Western Class A tournament.
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The Bulldogs mistakenly went to the Racket & Fitness Center in Portland, only to discover their match would be taking place in Falmouth at Foreside Fitness & Tennis. Coach Bonnie Moran said two of her girls got lost while navigating between the sites and had to cut short their warm-up time.
In addition, half of her first doubles team, sophomore Annette Denekas, was out of state for a funeral, so Moran did some shuffling. Fortunately for the Bulldogs, they have plenty of depth, as evidenced by three of their tandems reaching the semifinals of the SMAA doubles tournament last month.
After getting swept in singles by Cheverus a month earlier, Portland won two of three singles matches Saturday. Junior Sophie Hulbert rallied to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory at No. 1, and freshman Margot Andreasen won 7-6 (5), 6-2 at No. 2.
“They were absolutely determined,” Moran said, “and played as well as I’ve ever seen them.”
Sophomore Kayla Berg and senior Nyaliep Deng dropped only two games in a decisive victory at first doubles. Junior Lily Bruenjes and senior Ellen Jewett had a tougher time at second doubles, eventually prevailing by a score of 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-5.
Portland (12-2) will face top-seeded McAuley (13-0) on Wednesday at Bates College for a berth in the state finals. They met once in the regular season, with McAuley sweeping singles for a 3-2 victory on May 18.
THE WESTERN CLASS B boys’ tennis final will pit No. 3 Cape Elizabeth (12-2) against No. 1 Falmouth (12-0). They have met twice before, with Falmouth winning 5-0 at home and 3-2 in Cape Elizabeth.
Including the state singles tournament, the top two players from each school have met three times, with Falmouth’s Justin Brogan and Brendan McCarthy each holding a 2-1 advantage over Cape Elizabeth’s Matt Gilman and Satchell McCarthy. In both regular-season meetings, the third singles match has gone three sets.
“I think we’ve improved in places we needed to improve in,” said Cape Elizabeth Coach Andy Strout, also noting the Western Maine Conference doubles title won by sophomore Eli Breed and freshman Luke Gilman. “Anything can happen.”
The order of play Wednesday — at Bates for Western Maine and Colby for Eastern Maine — is classes B, A and C. In case of rain, the Eastern Maine matches would be pushed back to Thursday, but the Western Maine matches would be played indoors in Portland.
IF RECENT GAMES are an indicator, Cheverus could be primed for a run at defending its Class A state baseball title.
On Friday, the Stags got ready for the regional tournament by winning the Telegram League championship. The Stags traveled to South Berwick for a semifinal with Marshwood and won 3-2 in eight innings. Then they traveled to Scarborough for the final against Windham, which beat Scarborough 2-0, in the other semifinal.
Despite being tired from the bus rides, Cheverus found the energy to rally with a seven-run, seventh inning to beat the Eagles, 10-8.
As the fourth seed in Western Maine ‘A’ tournament, the Stags host No. 5 Westbrook in the quarterfinals Thursday at 4 p.m. The teams played for the regional title last year with Cheverus winning, 2-0. Both lost several players through graduation, particularly the Blue Blazes.
Cheverus Coach Mac McKew said his team’s experience in winning it all last season has been a factor throughout the season and certainly lately. After a midseason mini-slump, the Stags enter the state playoffs with a nine-game winning streak, including the two wins in the league playoffs. Their streak began with three wins in as many days over South Portland, Portland and Westbrook. Cheverus beat the Blue Blazes, 4-3, in eight innings. Cheverus was 5-4 going into the South Portland game
This fact: Cheverus has been involved in eight, one-run games and has won seven of them.
There’s still more work to be done before the Stags take the field against Westbrook on Thursday. They want to shore up their defense. Cheverus made seven errors against Windham in the Telegram final.
There should be some close games in the Western Class A playoffs.
The regular season was back and forth, with the top seeds knocking off one another while even the middle and lower seeds, like Biddeford and Kennebunk, got into the act with upsets.
DRESSED IN HIS GREEN cap and gown, Israel Davis, a senior at Carrabec High in North Anson, received his diploma while standing on the top step of the awards podium Saturday afternoon at the Class C track and field championships at Alumni Field in Augusta.
Carrabec started its graduation exercises at 10 a.m. Saturday, which was also the starting time for the track meet.
“I’m here today because I put so much time and effort into my sports that I couldn’t imagine missing this for anything,” Davis said.
The Cobras’ 4×100 relay team of John Layman, Elliot Gorr and Hunter Williams and Davis finished in a tie for seventh place with Maine Central Institute. Davis also competed in the 100, shot put and 1,600 relay.
Next fall, he intends to begin studies in diesel technology at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor.
“He’s a once-in-a life-time kid,” Carrabec Coach Anthony Feldpausch said. “He’s a hard worker. He’s leader on the team, and he’s a leader in the school. I’m going to miss him next year.”
— Staff Writers Glenn Jordan, Tom Chard and Paul Betit contributed to this report
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