LEWISTON – The battle of the two remaining unbeaten KVAC boys’ tennis teams proved not to be much of a battle at all.
With just two matches remaining in the season for both Lewiston and Brunswick, the Blue Devils firmed up their hold on Eastern Class A’s No. 1 seed with a convincing 4-1 win over the Dragons at the Franklin Athletic Complex tennis courts Wednesday.
“This was our toughest competition so far this year,” said Lewiston No. 2 singles player James Morin. “Now we have a goal to be able to finish the season undefeated.”
Morin won his match, seemingly with ease, 6-0, 6-0 over Matt Didisheim.
“It wasn’t as easy as that score would say,” said Morin. “He had only lost one match before today, so I knew he could play well. He is a good player, I just had a good day.”
Adam Wilding, meanwhile, also breezed, winning at No. 1 singles 6-0, 6-1 over Sam Bell-Hart.
None of Wilding’s matches this year has lasted longer that 45 minutes, and Wednesday, his match was four games old before the No. 1 doubles tandem of Nick Bonenfant and Dave LaBonte had even played a point.
LaBonte and Bonenfant started slowly at 2-2 in the first before pulling away for a 6-3, 6-1 win over Weston Shepherd and Chris Durkin.
“This was easily the best team we’ve faced all year,” said LaBonte. “We didn’t play that well early, but they were good. They were making their shots and we were missing ours.”
Mike Sarrazin also won at singles, defeating Evan Pease 6-0, 6-2.
The Dragons’ only point came at No. 2 doubles, where Nick Tompkins and Johannes Kirsch upended Casey Poussard and Ben Bergeron 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3).
“For a regular-season match, that’s going to be the toughest for us,” said Lewiston coach Ron Chicoine.
“At second doubles, we have all young players. They have the skills, but they don’t have the match toughness.
“Over the next few weeks leading up to playoffs, that’s what we’re going to work on all the time. We’ll need that second doubles point going into the playoffs.”
“Lewiston has the team to beat,” said Brunswick coach Rob Manter. “They proved that today. I think we are missing one good, tough player at the top that would slide everyone else down one notch, but even then, they are strong. Without question, they are the strongest team in our conference, and probably in the East and in the state.”
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