H.S. tennis: Lewiston boys grind out a victory, girls cruise into semis

Julia Svor, from Lewiston, plays in the tennis quarterfinals at Lewiston High School on Thursday afternoon. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

LEWISTON — Four words from Lewiston’s boys’ second doubles player Ethan Weiss summed up not only his and Jeremy Hepler’s match, but also the Blue Devils’ entire contest against Hampden Academy in the Class A North quarterfinals at the Franklin Tennis Courts on Thursday:

“It was a battle.”

Weiss and Hepler won their match against Will Drake and Drew Johnson 6-3, 2-6 and 6-4 to clinch the No. 2 doubles match and give Lewiston a 3-2 win over Hampden.

“It was stressful, overwhelming. Overall, it was fun,” Weiss said.

Lewiston (10-3) coach Tom Leblond knew how importance the two doubles matches were going to be because the Broncos’ top two singles had strong showings in the state singles tournament last weekend.

“A lot of times during the playoffs, especially the second time against this team, it was going to come down to that,” Leblond said. “Both their one and two reached the round of 16 in the boys’ singles, so we knew those were going to be tough matches for (Lewiston’s Caden Smith and Ben St. Laurent). It ended up, (Hampden) was able to take those two matches.”

Lewiston will host Brunswick on Saturday in the regional semifinals.

The Broncos (6-7) seized an early lead when No. 2 singles player Elliot Small defeated Ben St. Laurent 6-2, 6-2.

The tide began to turn for the Blue Devils in the third singles tilt when Sam Frechette defeated Bryce Nickels 6-4 and 6-3. As Frechette closed out Nickels, the first doubles team of Hayden Bavis and Jacob Smith defeated Oliver Boise and Owen Flannery 7-6 (7-1), 6-1.

The Broncos jumped out early in that match and held a 5-4 and 6-5 leads in the first set before losing the tiebreaker.

“Well going down 5-4, I had the serve, I knew I had to serve them out and get some big serves in,” Jacob Smith said. “I started to get my first serves in. Those serves started to challenge them a little bit. I had been getting a lot of my second serves in and not my first serves in. That brought us to 5-5.”

Doubles competition has been challenging for the Broncos this season.

“All year, our doubles have struggled a bit,” Hampden Academy coach Alex Townsend said. “That’s where we would lose, on the doubles, but it was a well-fought match.”

The Broncos’ No. 1 singles player Zach Flannery tied the match at 2-2 by defeating Caden Smith 6-2, 6-2.

Flannery knew how big that point was for his team with second doubles the only other match still going on.

“Since I am a senior, this could be my last match,” Flannery said. “It was really important, and I just realized the gravity of the situation while I was playing my match.”

Lewiston girls face adversity

The No. 1 seed in the girls’ A North tournament, Lewiston had to overcome not having two of its three singles players for the quarterfinal match against Cony. Both Abby Svor, the Blue Devils’ No. 1 player, and Lauren Foster, the team’s No. 3 player, missed the match due to illness.

The Blue Devils’ depth rose to the occasion, though, as they came away with a 5-0 victory over the Rams (4-9).

“I told them they needed to step it up,” Lewiston coach Anita Murphy said. “Just because our number one player was out didn’t mean that we couldn’t step up and take charge. They did. Even changing my first doubles, I don’t like to break my doubles up, but I felt I needed a third singles player who had experience.”

Abby’s sister, Julia, moved up the ladder to the No. 1 spot for Lewiston (13-0) and defeated Hannah Kibbin 6-2, 6-1. Kibbin, who went down with an injury early in the first set, finished the match, but Svor made sure she kept Kibbin moving.

“I tried to get her moving around and get back into the game if she she hit one long,” Svor said.

Roslynn Wailrus moved up to No. 2 singles for Lewiston. She also won in straight sets, defeating Victoria Levette 6-1, 6-0. Maddy Foster, who normally plays No. 1 doubles, filled in at third singles and only lost three games, winning 6-1 and 6-2 against Sydney Halle.

Cony coach Wilbur Shardlow was impressed with the skill the Blue Devils had.

“When you played a team this skilled, which is wonderful to see because looking at some of the freshmen girls, you don’t get to that level without a lot of work,” Shardlow said. “I told my girls if you sit back and wait, you are in trouble. You have to make things happen, you have to be more aggressive.”

Thursday was the first time all season that Molly Chicoine and Jill Pelletier played together in a match, but they still won in straight sets 6-0, 6-1 over Melody Herrington and Kenzie Lewiston.

The chemistry was built over a couple of games.

“We just warmed up before the (match), and we played and we won,” Chicoine said. “After we won the first couple of games, we were like, ‘We got it, we got some momentum.’ It felt good.”

In No. 2 doubles Amy Sperandio and Emma Paquette defeated Ally Cunningham and Katie Boston 6-3, 6-1.

The Lewiston girls will host Camden Hills on Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

nfournier@sunjournal.com

Maddy Foster, from Lewiston, plays in the tennis quarterfinals at Lewiston High School on Thursday afternoon. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Julia Svor, from Lewiston, plays in the tennis quarterfinals at Lewiston High School on Thursday afternoon. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Sam Frechette, from Lewiston, plays in the tennis quarterfinals at Lewiston High School on Thursday afternoon. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Hayden Bavis from Lewiston, serves the ball in the tennis quarterfinals at Lewiston High School on Thursday afternoon. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Jeremy Hepler returns the ball in a doubles match with teammate Ethan Weiss in foreground at the tennis quarterfinals at Lewiston High School on Thursday afternoon. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)