BRUNSWICK

The MPA high school team tennis regular season has been completed with the postseason expected to get under way today with boys and girls prelim action.

All told, the Brunswick boys and girls, Mt. Ararat girls, Morse boys and girls, Freeport boys and girls, and Lisbon boys and girls have punched their tickets to the season’s next stage.

Today’s action will feature Western Maine Class B girls prelim matches with No. 9 Morse (6-6) going to No. 8 Maranacook (7-5) and No. 10 Freeport (6-6) at No. 7 Oak Hill (7-5).

In Western Maine Class B boys play, No. 9 Morse (2-10) is traveling to No. 8 York (6-6).

In Western Maine Class C, the No. 9 Lisbon boys (4-8), led by Levi Dussault (Second Team All-Mountain Valley Conference), are at No. 8 Winthrop (6-6), while the No. 8 Lisbon girls (6-6) host No. 9 North Yarmouth Academy (7-5).

In the regular season the Lisbon boys lost to Winthrop 4-1 and the Morse girls lost to Maranacook 3-2.

Brunswick

The girls are defending State Class A champions and went 12-0 — all wins by a 5-0 score!

“I knew it was possible that we could (play well),” said head coach Rob Manter. “We have an excellent team. The kids have worked very hard, and I think the focus has really started to increase as we have headed towards the playoffs.”

The second-seeded Dragons are fresh off a 4-1 win over No. 1 Hampden Academy in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Championships.

These two schools could very well meet for the Eastern Maine Class A title on June 5.

The Western Maine regionals are set for Bates College, while the Eastern regionals will be at the University of Maine. State-championship play is set for June 8 at UMaine.

“Home court advantage is huge if it comes down to teams that are close in level,” said Manter. “I am glad that we have secured this advantage for that reason, it makes it easier on the kids in terms of time and travel, and it makes it easier for parents and tennis fans to come out and see this nice team play.

“I do think it will come down to Hampden and us. After playing them Thursday, we know they are good and have the potential to do damage. My team knows that they will have to maintain focus and do there best to beat them again.”

The Brunswick boys are also 12-0 and grabbed the number-one seed in the Heal Point Standings just ahead of 12-0 Bangor (150.8333-148.8889 Tournament Index).

“We get a bye in the preliminary round, then we will play the next two matches at home,” said head coach Sewall Janeway. “Hampden is tough as their only two losses were to powerhouse Bangor. If we play Hampden in the semifinal round on Saturday, we will have our hands full as they are a strong team with a lot of depth.

“I am confident that we can pull off a win, but it will definitely be a battle between two evenly-matched teams. Being the top seed helps us as we will not have to sit on a school bus for two hours right before the match and we will have a friendly crowd of supporters cheering us on at home.”

Joel Soloway (second, third singles, first doubles) is 11-1 with 123-42 record games-won mark.

Number-one singles Mitch Cooney is 9- 2 (128-67), followed by Angelo Gerardi at third singles, first doubles (10-1, 106-43), Ben Lord at first, second doubles (11-0, 115-41), Jimmy Kenyon at first, second singles (8-1, 107-61), Damian Koch at first, second doubles (10-0, 101-28), Henry Ditzel at third singles, first doubles (5-2, 75-41), Xander Knox at first, second doubles (7-0, 80-29), Oliver Smith at first, second doubles (4-0, 50-20) and Patrick Kinee at second doubles (1-0,12-6).

In Eastern Maine Class A girls quarterfinals action on Thursday No. 7 Messalonskee (6-6) is at No. 2 Brunswick (12- 0) and No. 5 Mt. Ararat (7-5) visits No 4 Mt. Blue (9-3).

Eastern Maine Class A Boys Quarterfinal play has No. 8 Skowhegan (4-8) at No. 1 Brunswick (12-0), while in a Western Maine Class B Boys Quarterfinal, No. 5 Freeport (7-5) is at No. 4 Gardiner (7-5).

The Mt. Ararat girls lost to Brunswick and Mt. Blue twice and Hampden once in the regular season. The Mt. Blue losses were 3-2 and 4-1.

Number-one singles player Christine Levesque went 6-6, 8-6 if counting the Singles Qualifier. Second singles player Allison Melcher is 7-5 (8-6) and third singles Amy Segars 6-5 (6-6).

In number-one doubles, Miku Kimura is 8-3 and Isabella Leon 7-2, while second doubles has Eliza Hodge at 7-2 and Priscilla Whitney at 7-3

Other contributors have been Eva Jensen (2-3) and Marie Ring (1-3).

“I feel very good about my team’s chances in the first round against Mt. Blue, because we are quite evenly matched,” said Mt. Ararat’s longtime coach Sheila Bohlin. “The drawback of playing Mt. Blue at their location is that they are perhaps the only school in the KVAC that still has only two courts and those are at a park in Wilton.

“During regular-season matches, we play pro-sets when we go there, but that isn’t appropriate for playoffs. They, of course, want their homecourt advantage. What is really tough is that the last time we played there, the Mt. Ararat numberone player waited three hours to get on the court to play her match. The sun set before it was over. We traveled 10 miles to Farmington and finished under the lights at about 8:30 p.m. Am I worried about that scenario again? You bet.”