Caribou High School and Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln each split its state championship team tennis matches on Saturday at Lewiston High School. The Caribou boys captured the Class B boys title while MA won the Class C girls crown.
Perennial power Falmouth claimed both Class A state championships, with the school’s girls team winning its 11th straight state title and 173rd consecutive match in outlasting Lewiston 3-2.
The Falmouth boys defeated two-time defending Class B state champion Camden Hills of Rockport 5-0 in the Class A boys final.
Other state champions were the Lincoln Academy of Newcastle girls in Class B and the Waynflete of Portland boys in Class C.
In Class B, coach John Habeeb’s Caribou boys used depth to capture their first state championship since 2008.
Freeport (12-4) won the first and second singles matches, but Caribou scored straight-sets victories at third singles and in both doubles matches to cap off an undefeated (16-0) season.
Gabe Rand produced the Vikings’ lone singles win, defeating Liam Gould 6-3, 6-3. The first doubles tandem of Bailey Griffeth and Sawyer Deprey emerged from a hard-fought first-set tiebreaker to score a 7-6 (7), 6-3 win over Sully Smith and Aaron Rusiecki at first doubles, and Caribou’s Emerson Duplessie and Seth Beidelman topped Evan McKittrick and T.J. Whalen 6-2, 7-5 at second doubles.
Freeport got its first point at second singles as Clay Canterbury defeated Alec Cyr 6-2, 6-1.
With the match decided, the Falcons then got a second win as top seed Wes Goodman edged Parker Deprey 6-4, 6-7 (6) and 10-6 in a super-tiebreaker.
The Lincoln Academy girls swept all three singles matches to edge Caribou and secure their first state championship by a 3-2 count in a battle of undefeated teams.
The Eagles’ victory was the 15th straight for an West/South girls regional champion over the East/North representative, and marked the first state title for 16-0 Lincoln Academy.
This match had plenty of star power as all six singles players reached at least the Round of 32 at last month’s state singles championships.
LA’s Caitlin Cass, a state singles semifinalist, defeated Caribou senior Gabrielle Marquis, a quarterfinalist, 6-2, 6-3 at first singles. Emily Harris, a Round of 32 qualifier, topped Ashley Matlock (Round of 16) 6-4, 6-1 at second singles and Fiona Liang topped Hailey Holmquist 6-0, 6-1 at third singles in a battle of players who played in the Round of 32.
Caribou topped Lincoln Academy in both doubles matches, with Madison Stratton and Ciara Richards defeating Sandra Thelander and Anastasiya Oliver 6-4, 6-1 at first doubles and Samantha Tourk and Kyra Thibeault emerging victorious at second doubles over Harmony Ingham and May Halm 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-0.
Caribou, which was playing in the state final for the second straight year, finished its season at 15-1.
In Class C, Mattanawcook Academy became the first East/North girls team to win the state crown since the Maine Principals’ Association added the third class for tennis in 1995.
The Lynx, appearing in the state final for the second time in three years, capped off an undefeated (16-0) season by edging Maranacook of Readfield 3-2.
Doubles play was a key for coach Aaron Ward’s club, as Mattanawcook’s tandems of Delaney Kneeland and Sydney Jones and Natalie McCarthy and Emily Tilton both were victorious, as was Lynx second seed Katey Libby.
Libby defeated Maranacook’s Emma Wadsworth 6-1, 6-2 while Kneeland and Jones topped Anna Swimm and Grace Bachelder without losing a game at first singles. McCarthy and Tilton topped Helen Murray-James and Emma Hatt 7-5, 6-1.
Maranacook (14-2) scored its points at first and third singles. Madelyn Dwyer topped MA’s lone starting senior, Natalie Tilton, in a first-set tiebreaker and went on to a 7-6 (5), 6-1 victory at first singles, while Karissa Lucas edged the Lynx’s Emily Tolman 6-4, 6-4 at third singles.
Waynflete captured its 11th straight Class C championship in the boys match without yielding a set to a Mattanawcook team that was making its first appearance in the state final since 1983.
Thorne Kieffer topped MA’s John Farrington without dropping a game at first singles, while Jacob Greene defeated Alex Brown and Nick Wagged topped Griffin Coburn in the other singles matches.
Aiden Kieffer and Ben Adey topped MA’s Branden Oliver and Keegan Dill at first doubles while Chris Register and Shaohao Liu bested the Lynx’s second doubles tandem of Tyler Arnold and Kris Milner.
Waynflete finished its season with a 16-0 record while Mattanawcook, the top-ranked team in the North, finished 15-1.
