Lewiston High School’s Cole Ouellette returns a shot during his Round-of-16 match at the MPA singles tennis tournament at Colby College in Waterville on Saturday.

Cole Ouellette had a lot of expectations to live up to this season. As a junior in 2016, he helped lead the Lewiston Blue Devils to a state championship appearance when he defeated Evan Backus of Mt. Blue in a three-setter. That performance helped him win the Player of the Year honors a year ago.

In 2017, it was almost a repeat performance. Ouellette helped lead the Blue Devils to another state championship appearance. This time, it was a battle with Brunswick. But unlike 2016, he didn’t have a marathon match to earn Lewiston a point. He defeated Dasol Kim in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1. In the regular season, he lost to Kim twice.

In the singles tournament, he reached the quarterfinals with wins over Peter Stegemann (Falmouth) and Jacob Greene (Waynflete) before falling to the No. 1 seed Nick Mathieu (Mt. Ararat) in straight sets 6-1, 6-1.

He used that singles tournament experience to help in the team tournament.

“I got back from the singles tournament, I thought I was playing well there,” Ouellette said after a win over Hampden Academy in a Class A North semifinal match. “I tried to bring what I had playing there to the team event. I am trying to be consistent on my first serves and make the opponent work for every point.”

With the success Ouellette had this season, it didn’t come without its challenges. It took most of the season to get into a rhythm.

“Just playing (more), just playing,” Lewiston coach Tom LeBlond said after the Hampden Academy victory. “Early in the season, obviously he plays a lot of hockey. After the high school season was over, he had the Maine Moose. They went out to Michigan, they played out there and then he came back and played some. He was then involved in some kind of junior hockey tryout for a while. Now he’s playing more every day, he had couple of nagging injuries. The big thing with him is he got his serve going. He’s always been a kid who has had all the shots.”

nfournier@sunjournal.com

2017 Sun Journal All-Region Boys’ Tennis

FIRST TEAM

Cole Ouellette, Lewiston, Sr., Singles

Tom Marshall, Mt. Blue, Sr., Singles

Noah Toussaint, St. Dom’s, Sr., Singles

Sam Frechette, Lewiston, So., Doubles

Ben St. Laurent, Lewiston, Fr., Doubles

Tristin McFarlane, Mt. Blue, Sr., Doubles

Cole Dorman, Mt. Blue,  Sr. Doubles

SECOND TEAM

Chris Marshall, Mt. Blue, So., Singles

Caden Smith, Lewiston, So., Singles

Robbie Kurtz, St. Dom’s, Fr., Singles

Cam Gallant, Mountain Valley,  So., Doubles

Jesse Pelletier, Mountain Valley, Sr., Doubles

Ben Ferrence, Lewiston, Sr., Doubles

Asier Garcinuno, Lewiston, Sr., Doubles

Comments are not available on this story.