Fryeburg’s Justin Chaffee pulls off one of the few upsets of the day.
By Justin Pelletier
Staff Writer

LEWISTON – For eleven hours on Saturday, 40 boys and 40 girls battled each other for the right to advance to the state singles final four.

As the day wore on, the makeup of the field started taking on a familiar tone.

By the time the shade started eating away at the sun-drenched courts, all three girls and two of the three boys left in the draw from last year’s final four found themselves in familiar territory – back in the final four.

Erin Moakler of Greater Houlton Christian Academy, Laura Stein of Camden Hills and Kelly Graham of Kennebunk all advanced easily into the semifinals, all advancing for the third consecutive year.

Joining them this year was Tracy Nale, a senior from Waterville.

The girls’ and boys’ semifinals and finals will be played Thursday at Waynflete school in Portland.

Nale’s match, a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over Amy Sarrazin of Lewiston, was easily the most entertaining of the quarterfinal matchups.

Both players slugged it out from the baseline in a rematch of last year’s battle of No. 1’s in the Eastern Semifinals in Waterville. Sarrazin won that one in three sets.

“The fact I started behind might have helped,” said Nale. “That might have played on her emotions a bit, that she had the lead and lost it. It was such a good match.”

Nale advances to face Moakler, the No. 1 seed that had perhaps the easiest walk into the final four. She bested Julia Clukey of Cony in the first round 6-0, 6-2, and then showed her mettle against Alex Hardenbrook of Kennebunk, dropping the first three games before winning the final 12 to take a 6-3, 6-0 win.

Her next opponent, No. 8 seed Jillian Cohen of Brunswick, withdrew due to illness, giving Moakler a pass into the semifinals.

Of those who played all of their matches, Graham had the easiest time, dropping just one game in three matches, that one to Katie A. Morin of Lewiston in the first round.

Graham defeated Jen Crouch of Waynflete and surprise quarterfinalist Jenna Finegold of Deering at love to reach the final four.

Stein topped Jessica Maurice of Deering, Kristy Parvanta of Winthrop and No. 6 seed Louise Taylor of Yarmouth to reach her third consecutive final four.

Boys’ Bracket

Pat Conway and Ian Robinson have been here before. Both players advanced into the final four again this year after relatively easy matches. Joining them, however, are two gate-crashers.

Garrett Currier of Cape Elizabeth took advantage of a missing No. 4 seed and an upset to No. 5 Justin Tardiff of Biddeford to sneak into the final four.

Currier’s route through included wins over Jonny Asen of Waynflete and Alex Wheelright, Brunswick’s No. 1 player.

No. 6 seed Justin Chaffee of Fryeburg thrilled those left to watch his match with a three set win over No. 3 seed Bryan Brown of Bangor. Brown was the only player from last year’s final four present at the tournament to miss the opportunity to go back.

Prior to knocking Brown off, Chaffee went through Chris Robinson of Brunswick and Mike Burke of Lewiston.

Burke and teammate Nick Bonenfant were the lone qualifiers from Lewiston this year. Burke made it to the round of sixteen before bowing out to Chaffee, and Bonenfant suffered a defeat to Seth Johnson of Schenck in the preliminary round.