WATERVILLE, Maine — The first chance to play in a state championship match proved humbling for Camden Hills Regional High School tennis players Matt Morse and Josiah Krul.
As freshmen for the Windjammers in 2014, the duo combined to win only one game in their singles matches as Cape Elizabeth displayed the presence of a perennial power while scoring a 5-0 victory.
Three years later, it was a Camden Hills team, led by its three fourth-year varsity players, that displayed that championship presence. Coach Noah Capetta’s club captured its second straight Class B state title Saturday with a 5-0 victory over Yarmouth at Colby College.
The back-to-back crowns make Camden Hills the only boys team from the Eastern/North region to win a state tennis championship regardless of class since Lewiston captured the Class A title in 2011.
“We knew Yarmouth would be tough, but we’d been training hard since the beginning of the season, for 10 weeks really, so this is the culmination of a lot of hard work,” Capetta said. “We won in convincing fashion (Saturday), and I think having been here before definitely worked to our advantage.”
The all-senior singles tandem of Morse, Colby Arau and Krul led the way, each winning in straight sets to go with straight-sets victories by the underclass doubles teams of Cooper Russell and Henry Cooper and David Poutasse and Noah Heidorn as the Windjammers capped off a 16-0 season.
“I think there wasn’t that much pressure because everyone on our team is close and there’s so much depth that on any given day sometimes I’ll lose to the bottom guy in the program when he’s having a good day,” Arau, a varsity doubles player for three years at Camden Hills before moving up to second singles this spring, said.
“In any given moment someone can come in and take a spot, so maybe there was some pressure because of the fear of losing your spot, but it’s not the pressure of losing a match because we’re sharpening each other every day and working so hard every day that we can get a good result if we fight and play well.”
The three seniors concluded their careers with a four-year team record of 58-6 to go with four regional titles and the two state championships.
As sophomores the Windjammers fell to Cape Elizabeth 4-1, but last spring they broke through to edge the Capers 3-2 and win their first state title since 2005 after being hardened by playing a predominantly Class A regular-season schedule for the first time.
“We knew after we won last year that we’d be looked at as the top dogs now,” Krul said. “Especially going back to Class B for the regular season this year we definitely had every right to be cocky, I guess, but it was a huge mindset of ours not to let it get to our heads because the pride always precedes the fall, and we didn’t want to be the team that falls because we got in over our heads.
“We weren’t going to let ourselves be cocky until we were holding that trophy over our heads and even now it’s not worth being cocky. It’s really humbling to be here. It feels really good.”
Camden Hills will have to restock its singles contingent next year, but with four varsity starters back along with four exhibition players from the 12-member varsity roster the Windjammers should remain one of the area’s top programs.
Perhaps the biggest change looming as the team looks toward the future is its reclassification by enrollment to Class A starting next spring.
“We played an ‘A’ regular-season schedule last year and it was tougher,” Capetta said. “We still had good results and finished 11-1 but there were a lot of 3-2 wins. We had a lot more convincing wins this year in B, but as it goes in tennis, it depends on the year. Sometimes Waynflete (of Portland) in Class C might be the best team in the state so it’s somewhat independent of class how good the schools are, but I expect ‘A’ will be a little bit tougher.”
