ORONO, Maine — For the George Stevens Academy boys tennis team, Tuesday morning’s
Class C North championships extended a streak well earned.
For the Mattanawcook Academy girls team, it was a frustration well overcome.
Top-ranked George Stevens of Blue Hill won its seventh straight Class C boys regional title, defeating No. 2 Orono 4-1 during play at the University of Maine.
“It’s obviously something that’s there, we’ve always been pretty good in tennis,” said George Stevens No. 3 singles player Ben Politte of the Eagles’ title run. “But when I was out there playing, I wasn’t thinking about that. It’s all about living in the moment. We don’t look back at how other teams did. We’re a new team this year, and I think it’s really great how we’ve done.”
The top-seeded Mattanawcook girls, which had lost in the regional finals two of the last three
years, broke through to win their first championship since 2000 with a 4-1 victory over
No. 2 George Stevens.
The Class C North champs advance to Saturday’s 9:30 a.m. state championships at Lewiston High School. The Class C South champions will be crowned Thursday.
The Mattanawcook of Lincoln (13-2) and George Stevens (12-3) girls did not meet during the regular season, lending an air of uncertainty to their championship matchup. But for the victorious Lynx, that was more than offset by their quest to break through after losses to Van Buren in the 2013 and 2015 regional finals.
“It didn’t matter who we played,” said Mattanawcook coach Aaron Ward. “This was our third year back [in four years] to the final, and we were just ready. To finally break through is really sweet for them.”
Mattanawcook jumped out to a 2-0 lead by sweeping the doubles, with the first doubles tandem
of Abby Morrison and Paige Hesseltine defeating Hunter Morris and Tatianna Heggestad 6-3, 6-0, and the second doubles team of Sydney Morrison and Katey Libby topping Juliana Allen and Grace Hyland 6-2, 6-2.
But the team champion wasn’t determined until more than an hour later, when Lynx top seed Ali Hardy capped off a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Erin Niehoff to give Mattanawcook a 3-0 lead.
Much of what kept the final result in doubt stemmed from lengthy matches at second and third singles. Mattanawcook’s Natalie Tilton outlasted Lindsay Nevin 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a 2-hour, 15-minute marathon at second singles, while Abby Frost scored George Stevens’ lone point at third singles with a 2-6, 7-6 (8), 6-3 win over Ava Broderick.
“I think there was a bit of mystery because we hadn’t played them,” said Hardy. “Our coach told us all he could about them, but I think we needed to go in with a clear head and an open
mind. It was anybody’s game.”
The George Stevens and Orono boys split two regular-season matches, but the George Stevens boys took a 2-0 lead in their third meeting on the strength of straight-set singles victories by Politte (6-0, 6-2 over Ben Blood) and third-seeded Beowulf Urban (6-1, 6-0 over Sam Sheppard).
The clinching point came at second doubles, where George Stevens’ Christian Jones and Kent Fang split sets with Thor Van Walsum and Joe Sheppard before pulling away from a 2-1 edge in the third to win 6-0, 5-7, 6-2.
The Eagles (13-2) also won a tight match at first doubles, where Aiden Byrne and Leif
Lyon-Miller edged Alex Fergusson and Brandon Hines 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.
“Today we were generally a lot more focused and really prepared and ready to go,” said Urban.
“We knew who we were playing and what strengths they had, so we were prepared individually
to play to those weaknesses and our strengths.”
Takumi Hoshima earned Orono’s point with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Matt Stephens at first singles.
The Red Riots finished their season with an 11-4 record.
