Long after the first four matches produced a 2-2 tie, Brunswick boys tennis player Dasol Kim and Mt. Ararat’s Trevor Mayo walked onto the court for the third and final set, with the last remaining point left to be decided in a mid-season battle between the top two teams in Eastern Maine Class A.
Meanwhile, Mt. Ararat dropped its first match (5-1) since last year’s State Class A championship match against Falmouth. The Eagles have little time to recover, with talented Hampden Academy slated to come to Topsham on Thursday (4 p.m.), while the Dragons play host to Brewer on Friday.
“Our two doubles teams rolled, and it was just up to one us singles players to come out on top,” said Kim after his two-hour match. “We anticipated having a good team this year, so this is a big win.”
Brunswick controlled doubles, with the top duo of JD Souza and Ollie Smith picking up a point with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Mt. Ararat’s Mike Crawford and Jon Roux. At No. 2 doubles, the Dragon pair of Ben Lord and Luke Emerson quickly won 6-1, 6-2 against Joey Reed and Leonardo Medeiros for the afternoon’s first point.
“Playing Mount Ararat is always a challenge, but we just try to take it one match at a time and practice hard,” said Smith after teaming with Souza in deadlocking the match, 2-2. “JD and I have great chemistry, best friends, and we play soccer together, so doubles for us is no different.”
At singles, 2014 Maine Principals Schoolboys finalist Nick Mathieu defeated Brunswick’s Ross Munn, 6-0, 6-0.
“We are doing better, working better as a team, and having some tough matches,” said Mathieu. “This team has been working hard and it shows on the court. I feel like I can improve in several areas. For me, it is about the team. We have a lot more pressure. Last year, there was no pressure since we hadn’t been there before.”
Both teams and a small gathering of supporters crowded behind the fence to watch the match between off-court friends Mayo and Kim transpire. In the opening set, Mayo jumped out to a 5-1 lead before Kim began finding his game. Despite dropping the set, 6-3, Kim began placing his shots in the corners, forcing Mayo to roam side to side. Kim captured the second set, 6-2, and jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the third.
But, Mayo had one more push left in him, holding his serve then breaking Kim to even the set, 3-3. Kim broke back at love to go up 4-3, but once again Mayo had an answer to tie the set again, 4-4.
From there, Kim won a 10-point battle on Mayo’s serve for a 5-4 lead, and held his serve to complete the Dragons’ victory.
Brunswick coach Sewall Janeway feels his team’s confidence is growing despite not having a set lineup as of yet.
“Things have gone pretty well, with some early success and a tough match with Mt. Blue (a 3-2 win on Monday),” said Janeway. “We have a strong team with a lot of depth. We still need to do some challenge matches.”
For Mt. Ararat coach Don Foley, his hopes for an undefeated season were dashed, but last year is still in his Eagles’ minds, when Mt. Ararat ran the table in the East from the No. 5 seed for the Regional title.
“We have been doing very well, and this was a big one, a match that will tell us where we are,” said Foley. “The confidence for this team is huge. Players like Trevor Mayo, who played doubles last year, is doing well at number two singles, which shows the growth. Peter (Mao) coming in as a freshman has done very well, and Nick (Mathieu) is Nick. He is pretty consistent and is very dependable.
“We are confident in our number one doubles, and Leonardo (Medeiros) and Joey (Reed) are coming together. We tell the kids to challenge themselves every day.”
From here, the challenges are present in the second half of the schedule for both teams, with Hampden Academy, Lewiston and Mt. Blue looking to knock the Eagles and Dragons down a peg as the season progresses, making the postseason tournament as unpredictable as ever.
For Area Tennis scores, turn to B3.
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