Brunswick High School girls tennis coach Rob Manter was confident his team was superior to fourthseeded Mt. Blue prior to Wednesday’s Eastern Maine Class A championship at the University of Maine.
But, other thoughts kept creeping into his mind.
Did the two-plus hour bus ride cause problems for his second-seeded Dragons? Was Mt. Blue’s upset of top-seeded Hampden Academy a sign the Cougars had improved 10- fold since his squad won 5-0 twice during the regular season?
Manter’s worries were for naught, as Brunswick rolled to a convincing 5-0 win to advance to Saturday’s scheduled State Class A title match against Western A champ Portland, a 4-1 victor over Scarborough in the Western A final. With rain in the forecast, a decision on Saturday’s contest will be made on Friday.
“It was very important to get off to a quick start, and knew that we had to get in there and get it done,” said MacMullen.
“We came in with some energy, and I didn’t have the usual nerves and we got those first games out,” added Bobker. “We know we can be successful as a team when we work together, and the experience of last year, playing at this stage, helped a lot.”
Before three-time Maine Principals Association schoolgirls finalist and Brunswick’s No. 1 player Maisie Silverman had hit her first shot, the Dragons had clinched the match. Leah Soloway put away Savannah Swain by the same 6-0, 6-0 score at No. 3 singles, followed moments later by a 6-0, 6-0 victory for Ali Stankiewicz over Makenzie Thompson at No. 2 singles.
“I wanted to stay focused, and once I won my first two games I knew that I was hitting my spots and had the confidence to continue playing well,” said Soloway. “The season has gone surprisingly well for me after playing doubles last season. I feel that the singles strategies for me have come along well.
“I am glad that we get to come back to the state championship. It will be amazing if we can win it, and I feel that we have a good shot at it if we can keep playing like this.”
“Everybody played well today,” said Manter. “I felt coming into the season that we could go far again this year. My job was to make them less confident during the season and keep them focused. I am very proud of them.”
Brunswick completed the sweep as the No. 2 doubles tandem of Ari Kasabian and Elizabeth Day took a hard-fought 6-3, 7-5 win over Mt. Blue’s Thia Bridges and Eryn Doiron, and at No. 1 singles, Silverman defeated Cougars No. 1 Mackenzie Conlogue, 6-1, 6-0.
“This was the third time playing Brunswick, and I felt that they played loose against Hampden Academy, and we tried to do that today, but Brunswick had a day,” said Mt. Blue coach Judy Upham. “We were hoping for more games today. It just didn’t happen.”
“We felt that it was doable against Brunswick today, maybe get some more points, but they have improved a lot since we played them last,” said Bigos. “Playing Hampden, we hadn’t played them. Our goal was to get past the first playoff match and we played three.”
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