SACO — The No. 1 seeded Thornton Academy boys tennis team topped visiting Gorham 5-0 in the Class A South quarterfinals Wednesday afternoon.

Although the Trojans pulled off the 5-0 sweep, each game was competitive and forced the best out of TA’s top seven.

“We’ve had some time off which is good but I think we were a little bit rusty today. There’s a lot going on, we’ve got to make sure when we come out on Friday that we are more focused, execute better and a little more energetic,” said TA coach Andrew Carlson. “We got the job done — there were spots of really clean play but there were spots that we needed to clean up. We were good today, but we have to be better on Friday.”

Dariy Vykohdtsev, who made it to the state semifinals in the singles tournament, beat Thomas Matthews 6-0, 6-0 while Jakub Jurasek took a 6-1, 6-0 decision over Connor Sweatt. 

Balasz Balati wrapped up the singles portion of the match with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Jayden Gaudreau.

TA’s first doubles pair Asher Thompson and Adam Lovejoy had its work cut out, gutting out a 6-2, 2-6, 10-4 extra-set win over Ryan Firmin and Dylan Weeks. Jack Xiao and Caleb Richard would get TA’s fifth point with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Drew Eid and Sean Pocock.

The Trojans improve their overall record to a perfect 13-0 this spring, but Carlson hopes to see his club come out sharper in the semifinals on Friday.

“We talk point to point, game to game, set to set and match to match … we need to be better. The guys know that, it’s a long grind to the season and although time off is good it can sometimes cause you to turn the switch off so our guys were a little sluggish at times.”

Carlson also hopes to see the Trojans continue to grow in the postseason, and continue to perfect their game in each round.

“We’ve got to get over that sluggishness and be more energetic and execute better. We want to continue to progress and in a tournament like this you need to get better … if you don’t continue to get better then it doesn’t matter what you did in the regular season,” said Carlson.

The Trojans will face either Scarborough or Cheverus in the its fifth straight semis appearance. Regardless, TA will have its hands full as the top-five seeds are among the most talented programs in the state.

“When you get into the semifinal any of the four teams are capable of advancing. All you have to do is get confidence and get a little momentum,” said Carlson. “There’s minor differences between winning and losing matches — a game here or a point there, the result of the entire match could be different.”

— Associate Sports Editor Alex Sponseller can be reached at [email protected].