Ella Perham of Brunswick hits a serve during a Class A North quarterfinal match against Edward Little on Thursday in Brunswick Eli Canfield/The Times Record
BRUNSWICK — It had been nine days since the Brunswick girls tennis team faced an opposing school.
Did the Dragons anticipate any rust heading into its Class A North quarterfinal match Thursday?
“We have all the confidence in the world with ourselves,” said Brunswick coach Mary Kunhardt. “They all felt pretty confident going into today, it was just about execution.”
The top-seeded Dragons rolled past No. 8 Edward Little 5-0 to reach the regional semifinals Saturday, where they will face either No. 4 Lewiston or No. 5 Mt.Blue.
“There’s no pressure when looking at the seedings,” said Brunswick first singles standout Coco Meserve. “It’s more of a confidence booster, knowing we’re the team to beat is fun for us.”
The Brunswick boys also hosted Edward Little on Thursday, and rolled to a 5-0 victory. The Dragons will host Camden Hills in the regional semifinals.
Calvin Doherty topped Jonah Chen 6-0, 6-2 at first singles, while Issac Albaugh secured a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Simon Hayes in second singles.
In doubles, Alex Sharon and Jacob Scrapchansky earned a 6-0, 6-0 win over Kayden Kirouac and Shane Kilby. Nick Ewert and Nathan Levi completed the sweep with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Jameson Treadwell and Luke Pawina.
The Red Eddies defaulted the third singles match.
On the girls side, it was the first postseason action for Meserve, who did her best to stay calm despite the added burden of the postseason.
Lia Rand of Brunswick hits a serve during a Class A North quarterfinal match against Edward Little on Thursday in Brunswick Eli Canfield/The Times Record
“I knew what I was going up against today, which definitely helped calm the nerves,” said Meserve. “I just made sure to focus and play my game. We had a whole bonding moment before the match which was awesome. It truly felt like there was something extra on the line today.”
A promising season for the Red Eddies (6-5) comes to a close, but not before they earned their first playoff victory in over a decade, their first under head coach Kim Clark. The Red Eddies won a prelim match prior to the quarterfinal showdown Thursday.
“This season was a huge success for us,” said Clark. “We made huge strides, had fun, and got to a point in the postseason that he hadn’t seen in quite some time.”
It was just the fifth match all season in which the Dragons had a full roster, much to the surprise of Kunhardt.
“Our depth really came into play during that portion of the season,” she said. “That just shows the level of talent our program holds up and down the lineup.”
Coco Meserve of Brunswick follows through during a Class A North quarterfinal match on Thursday at Brunswick High School. Eli Canfield/The Times Record
Meserve defeated Edward Little’s Mya Vincent rather easily, 6-1, 6-2.
“This season was great, I think I learned a lot about my tennis game and what I need to do to take that next step,” said Vincent, a sophomore in her first season of tennis. “Going into the season I wasn’t so sure we’d get to this point, so I’m just so proud of all the work we did this season.”
“We’ve really been hitting our stride lately,” added Brunswick’s Anna Barnes, who earned a 6-0, 6-1 win over Molly Vincent in the second singles match. “We just want to keep this going into Saturday and hopefully beyond.”
The Dragons got a win from Ella Perham at third singles, 6-2, 6-0 over Paige Morgan of Edward Little. Lia Rand and Abby Sharpe of Brunswick defeated Izzy Trembley and Mai Lulu at first doubles, 6-0, 7-5. Brunswick’s Sadie Levy and Emily Davision prevailed at second doubles with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Rahasya Kame and Mariah Kirovac.
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