Ben St. Laurent of Lewiston High School returns a shot during his No. 2 singles match against Caleb Yarnevich of Edward Little High School in Lewiston on Monday. St. Laurent won the match. Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slover

LEWISTON — The Lewiston and Edward Little boys tennis teams both viewed Monday’s rivalry matchup, won by the Blue Devils 5-0, as an opportunity to learn and improve.

“Sort of our focus this year is consistency, we really want to cut down on unforced errors, be able to stay in points longer — that’s the idea,” Lewiston coach Tom Leblond said. “So far, we sort have executed that, but we can always get better. A lot of times your best competition, your best opportunities to get better as a tennis player comes in practice.”

EL (0-4) has had a tough stretch to begin the season, already facing some of the KVAC’s best teams.

“We’ve have been playing some tough teams like Bangor and Camden Hills where it was 6-0, 6-0,” Edward Little coach Matt Closson said. “It’s been nice here at least winning some games and the guys feeling they are having a little bit of success even though the (matches) didn’t come out in our favor. That’s one of the biggest positives, seeing our guys playing a little bit better, feeling a little bit better about the matches moving forward.”

Closson said the Red Eddies are trying to build off of last season’s 1-11 season.

Caden Smith of Lewiston (3-0) defeated Nate McBride 6-1, 6-1 in No. 1 singles. Despite the score, Smith had to make some adjustments between the sets.

“We both got better today. Obviously during the match I could tell his forehand was strong,” Smith said of McBride. “It was his strong point, so I tried to keep it away from his forehand.”

Lewiston’s Ben St. Laurent defeated Caleb Yarnevich 6-0, 6-2 in No. 2 singles.

The match of the afternoon was in No. 3 singles, in which Lewiston’s Sam Frechette defeated Logan Alexander 6-3, 6-2.

“I think all the singles matches, those were good, competitive matches,” Leblond said. “The score didn’t indicate how hard our guys had to work, guys continued to play really well at doubles. I thought our (No. 2) doubles (Jeremy Hepler and Ethan Weiss) are playing really well, as well as with our first doubles (Jacob Smith and Hayden Bavis).”

Hepler and Weiss defeated Kegan Rodrigue and Kayden Kirouac 6-0, 6-0 while Smith and Bevis defeated Cooper Watkins and Josh Hamel 6-0, 6-2.