WATERVILLE — Running laps and wind sprints practice after chilly practice this season at St. Dominic Academy helped condition freshman Bethany Hammond for Saturday’s marathon day of tennis at the MPA singles championships.

Three matches and three wins later, Hammond is on her way to the Maine Principals’ Association state singles tournament semifinal round in her first year at the event.

“Her work ethic, it’s helped make everyone else on the team work harder, too,” St. Dom’s coach Kevin Cullen said. “One of the practices we had a couple of weeks ago, we had a really hard day. We ran a couple of miles, we did wind sprints. After we were done, she had a break between sets, and she came over and asked if she could run another mile. That kind of conditioning paid off (Saturday). Three matches in one day is long, and that last match was a long match.”

Hammond, seeded third overall, topped Hampden Academy’s Ashley Woodside 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals in her third and final match of what turned into a warm spring day at Colby College, easily the match in which Hammond faced the quickest pace she’d seen in months, never mind in the tourney.

“It was good to have pace back, it was good to have a tough match like that,” Hammond said.

Things didn’t begin so well for the freshman. Woodside, the No. 6 seed and a senior, parlayed a booming serve, solid groundstrokes and plenty of previous tournament experience into a quick, 2-0 lead in the opening set.

“She made a few freshmen mistakes early on,” Cullen said, “but she sucked it up after that, and she had a lot of support here to help.”

Feeding off a generous crowd that included family, coaches, teachers and classmates, Hammond reeled off wins in eight consecutive games — though one game was erroneously awarded to Woodside after the players lost track of the score on the court.

“I just had to go to the slice,” Hammond said. “I knew I wasn’t going to overpower her, so I had to keep the ball in play. Long points like that, they boost me up and help me play a lot better.”

The catalyst for the switch in strategy appeared to be a simple lob. At a third deuce and down 0-2, Hammond returned an overhead rocket from Woodside, getting to the ball on her backhand — Hammond is a lefty — and lofting it to the backcourt. Woodside got to it, but couldn’t play it back.

“There, she realized she had to play smarter,” Cullen said. “And she did that. She hit a ton of winners, but against a senior girl, a powerful girl, she had to use some of that finesse, too.

“From that point on, she won 13 of the next 16 games,” Cullen added. “Really confident stuff.”

Hammond used every possible advantage being left-handed affords her as a player.

“My serve helps a lot, too, I put a lot of spin on it, and all my slices,” Hammond said.

Hammond never trailed again, though Woodside battled in the second set to keep things close. But a series of double faults and handful of unforced errors only helped Hammond close out the match.

Hammond closed out Julia Richardson of Windham in the round of 32, 6-0, 6-2, and then topped Liv Clifford of Cape Elizabeth at love in the round of 16 to reach the quarters.

Next up for Hammond: A matchup against training partner and friend Maisie Silverman of Brunswick, a senior a veteran of the MPA singles tourney who won in 2012 and finished runner-up in 2011 and 2013.

“We mostly practice together, maybe play some fun matches,” Hammond said.

And who wins?

“It can go either way,” Hammond said shyly. “She wins her fair share of points, and I can kind of hold my own. I’m just going to go in and try to play my best.”

Top-seeded Olivia Leavitt of Falmouth and No. 5 Christine O’Donnell of Waterville will square off in the other girls’ semifinal, both slated for 9:30 a.m. at Bates College’s Wallach Tennis Complex in Lewiston.

Lewiston’s Kyleigh Letourneau also finished her day early Saturday, falling in the round of 32 to No. 10 Emily White of Waynflete, 6-1, 6-1.

Smith loses marathon

Kasey Smith wore down in the second set of his first match Friday, but still managed a win.

Facing a similar situation in his round of 32 match against Zack Disch of Waterville on Saturday, Smith ran out of gas.

Smith, a qualifier from Monmouth, won the opening set using well-harnessed power and an array of shots from the baseline and at net. But Disch figured something out in the second set and carried it into the third, claiming a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory.

“I think we were both dog tired,” Smith said. “I put a lot of energy into that first set, he put a lot of energy into that second set. It evened out in the third and became more about consistency.”

The tell-tale sign of fatigue for both players was in the service game: neither was able to win on their own serve for the first five games of the third set.

“The first five games were breaks,” Smith said. “He just found his serve first, and I couldn’t break him again.

“He started picking on my weaknesses, what I didn’t have today,” Smith added. “His coach probably pointed something out to him.”

Smith and No. 12 Jeremy Grignon of Dirigo fell in the round of 32, while Boothbay’s Nick Gorey carried the final torch for the MVC into the round of 16 after a win by default in the round of 32. He lost in the round of 16 to No. 6 Ogden Timpson of Scarborough.

For Smith, a junior who didn’t grow up playing the game, this year’s foray into the tourney was as much about personal growth in the game as it was about trying to advance.

“Last year, it was, first ball you see, crush it as hard as you can, try to land shots,” Smith said. “Now it’s more, it doesn’t matter how hard you hit it if you hit it out.”

“Kasey’s done very well to get this far,” Monmouth coach Dania Frost said. “He’s been so much more consistent, he’s in the game. He’s stronger, seems to be a bit more focused and he’s using a lot more strategy this year.”

The boys’ bracket was thrown for a loop Friday when top-seeded Justin Brogan of Falmouth withdrew with an injury during a match against Luke Gilman of Cape Elizabeth. Gilman made the most of his chance, advancing all the way to the semifinal rounds with wins over Evan Toothaker of Ellsworth and Bryce Tetreault of NYA.

He will face No. 4 Nick Mathieu of Mt. Ararat in one semifinal after the latter player outlasted Falmouth’s Aidan McGrory, 7-6 (3), 6-3.

The bottom half of the bracket held truer to form, with No. 2 Brendan McCarthy of Falmouth advancing to meet No. 3 Isaac Salas of Waynflete in the other semifinal. Salas topped Timpson in the quarterfinals, while McCarthy ousted Gabriel Torres of Cape Elizabeth.

The boys’ semifinals will also begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday at Bates College.

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