Girls tennis: Lewiston defeats rival Edward Little

Honora White, right, of Lewiston High School hands tennis balls to Mariah Kirouac of Edward Little High School on Thursday during their No. 2 singles match in Lewiston. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — The Lewiston girls tennis team was happy, and a little relieved, to beat rival Edward Little on Thursday.

The Red Eddies won the teams’ first match last spring, which was their first victory over the Blue Devils in 40 years.

In this season’s first rivalry showdown, Lewiston won 4-1.

Though the Blue Devils did win the second meeting with the Eddies last year, it was nice to get the first one this year.

“It feels good, because it was kind of sad when they said we hadn’t lost to EL in something like 20 years,” Lewiston’s Lexi Landry said. “I’m glad we got it this time.”

Landry and her playing partner, Nadifo Heban, won the most tightly contested match of the contest, at No. 1 doubles. After the Blue Devils duo won the first set 6-1, Edward Little’s Katie Morgan and Leah Britting battled in the second set before falling 6-4.

“We kind of tried to have a conversation in between each play, to like work on what we were messing up on,” Heban said.

She and Landry are getting used to long matches, having played a three-setter a day earlier.

“We just like tell each other not to give up, and keep each other going,” Landry said. “I think by ourselves, we would; together, we keep each other standing.”

Lewiston coach Lorraine Bowen said that she was most impressed with the Blue Devils’ No. 2 doubles duo, Whitney Perkins and Sarah Mack, who defeated Anaya Egge and Carly Wang 6-1, 6-0.

Mack said that she and Perkins learned from their three-set loss against Mt. Ararat on Wednesday.

“Last match, we didn’t do too well because we didn’t communicate, but this match we got it together and we were able to pull out a victory,” Mack said.

Edward Little’s lone winner was Mya Vincent, who defeated Emma Omiecinski 6-0, 6-0 in No. 1 singles.

Vincent credited “being aggressive and keeping my feet going” for her win.

“Mya really served well today,” Edward Little coach Kirk Egge said.

In No. 2 singles, Lewiston’s Honora White defeated Mariah Kirouac 6-1, 6-2. Claudia Cucubica beat Emma Meserve in No. 3 singles 6-1, 6-0.

“I feel pretty good about it. I played really well, I think,” said Cucubica, who was bouncing back from her first loss of the season. “I made some errors, but it’s natural, I guess.”