LEWISTON – The Lewiston High School tennis teams and coaches spent the first hour of their scheduled matches against the Messalonskee girls and Mt. Blue boys cleaning off the courts after a brief downpour coated them with puddles.

Over the next hour, while spectators kept their eyes to the sky and hoped that more rain would hold off, the teams quickly mopped up their opponents.

Victories at No. 1 and 2 doubles and at No. 3 singles gave the Lewiston girls a 3-0 win over Messalonskee, with both remaining matches suspended due to the weather. On the boys’ side, Lewiston got wins at No. 2 and 3 singles and at No. 1 doubles and took the match 3-1.

“Things went just about the way we expected,” Lewiston girls’ coach Anita Murphy said. “When we won 3-2 during the regular season, those are the three matches that we won, so it was good that the girls were able to repeat those performances.”

The No. 1 doubles tandem of Roxanne Healy and Katie Nadeau were the first to finish, defeating Bethany Chapin and Jess Brutin 6-0, 6-1. Moments later, Amanda Bergeron slid by Amanda Sawyer 6-0, 6-1, and the No. 2 doubles team of Katelyn Ouellette and Ashley McWhorter followed close behind with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Katie Stevens and Doreh Taghavidinani.

“Once I saw the two doubles teams go up 3-0 early, I was a little less nervous,” Murphy said.

Alli Bleakney of Lewiston led Deahna Giguere 5-4 in the first set when play was called, and the No. 2 singles match between Beth Melanson of Lewiston and Lindsey Ford never started.

With startling efficiency, Lewiston boys’ No. 2 singles player Adam Wilding upended Mt. Blue’s Peter Tinguely 6-0, 6-0 in less than 30 minutes to put the Blue Devils up early.

Lewiston’s No. 1 doubles pair of James Morin and Michael Sarrazin followed with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Wes Hines and Arnold Ross, while Lewiston’s No. 3, Nick Bonenfant, battled hard and came out ahead of Joe Fowler, 6-2, 6-2.

“It was getting slippery near the end,” Bonenfant said. “I was trying to have a little bit of fun with it and slide around, like I was on clay. (Fowler) got much better from the beginning of the year and we had a lot of good points.”

“Even though we won 4-1 earlier this season, some of the matches were really close, and I thought that if they had a good day at No. 3 singles and at No. 1 doubles, they might have a chance to take us 3-2,” Lewiston coach Ron Chicoine added.

Mt. Blue’s Jon Gaither and Nate Underkuffler won a super-tiebreak 10-4 after they and Lewiston’s Ben Bergeron and Luke Bonenfant split sets to give the Cougars their lone match win.

The Lewiston boys will host Hampden Academy on Saturday in the Eastern semifinals, while the girls will host Brunswick. The girls defeated Brunswick earlier this season, 4-1. The boys have not yet faced Hampden, which will provide a stern test at singles with state singles runner-up Eliot Potvin playing No. 1. Both matches are scheduled for 3 p.m.

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