LEWISTON — Never satisfied with her game, Emilie Cloutier always tried to find a way to get better.

“If I was playing someone who I knew I could beat, I always worked on things, to prepare for other matches,” Cloutier said. “And if I was playing someone better than me, it made me play better, and that helped make me a better player.”

At Lewiston High School, even the players on her own team made it imperative for Cloutier to continue honing her skills.

“You have to be ready, especially at Lewiston, because the team is always deep, and you never know who’s worked hard since the last season to get better,” Cloutier said. “You have to be ready all the time.”

This season, Cloutier was equal to the task. A second-year singles player and four-year varsity starter, Cloutier racked up win after win as the Blue Devils’ top singles player. She earned the No. 4 seed at the annual Maine Principals’ Association singles tourney, and played to that seed, reaching the semifinals before falling to top seed Analise Kump of Falmouth.

“My goal from the beginning of the year was to make it to the tournament and then play to my seed,” Cloutier said. “I was proud I could do that.”

More important than that individual honor for Cloutier, though, was the Blue Devils’ finish as a team. A perennial contender and four-time defending state champion, Lewiston, earned No. 5 in a row this year.

“It was different, walking off the court this year, too,” Cloutier said. “The last couple of years, it was like, ‘OK, cool, we won again,’ but this year, as a senior, it was the last thing I was going to do as an athlete at Lewiston, and it was so much bigger.”

On top of the team win, Cloutier, one of the team’s two seniors, earned the deciding third point.

“Knowing that I got the third point made it that much more exciting,” Cloutier said.

For all of her accomplishments on the court, for leading the Blue Devils to a fifth consecutive championship and for a solid, four-year career at Lewiston, Emilie Cloutier is the 2010 Sun Journal All-Region Girls’ Tennis Player of the Year.

All players (or teams) listed alphabetically by last name

Singles

Abby Blaisdell, Lewiston

Emilie Cloutier, Lewiston*

Mary Emerson, St. Dom’s

Frankie Lally, Edward Little

Michelle Nadeau, Lewiston

Kelsey Ouellette, Winthrop

Doubles

Jessica Bowen and Becca Lessard, Lewiston

Paige LeBlond and Brittany Martin, Lewiston

Nikki Scott and Katherine Spahr, Winthrop

Laura St. Pierre and Hilary Gove, St. Dom’s