The Hall-Dale girls tennis team finished undefeated in the regular season for the second consecutive year. The Bulldogs will host a quarterfinal match Thursday against either Monmouth or Wiscasset.
“It wasn’t a goal, wasn’t a thought,” Hall-Dale coach Guy Cousins said. “We lost four players from last year’s team, so we really had only three people that were part of that starting lineup (and) returned. We’ve had some great additions, couple of freshmen coming in, couple of underclassmen really stepping up and developing play, and they’ve just jelled as a team, and they really support each other and compete.”
Wendy Goldman, who won two matches in the Round of 48, plays No. 1 singles. At No. 2 is freshman Clio Barr, who lost the first match of her career, but hasn’t lost since. Junior Shelby McGibney has made the transition from No. 2 doubles to No. 3 singles.
Both doubles teams are also doing their part for the Bulldogs. In fact, neither has lost a match this spring.
“My first doubles team is made up of a senior who returned from a year studying abroad (Jana Parsons), and teamed up with a freshman (Nicole Pelletier),” Cousins said. “They’re undefeated, and just really play some really nice, attractive-looking tennis that’s very competitive, very aggressive.”
At No. 2 doubles is junior Anais Truman and sophomore Maura Stottler, both of whom returned from last season’s team.
“They’re undefeated, and they’ve had some close matches where they’ve really come from behind,” Cousins said. “They were down 2-5 at set point the other day, and they came back to win, 7-5. So they really know how to reach down and really grab the heart, and really get it into the competition.”
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The Waterville boys tennis team will host a preliminary round game against Camden Hills when the team tournaments starts Tuesday. Waterville coach Jim Begin doesn’t mind that, because the Purple Panthers ended their regular season on May 21. Aside from Callum Thomas competing in the Round of 48, the Panthers have been essentially dormant for the past week.
“I’m really anxious to play, because we haven’t played in a while,” Begin said. “This is the big boys’ time, so they’re looking forward to it, as I am.”
Begin has made the most of the week off. He said Waterville is focusing on two major areas of the game.
“We’re trying to establish our position on the court,” Begin said. “We have a tendency of running through our shots, especially approach shots. So we’ve been working on pausing a little bit, making that shot, establishing the position for the next volley or the next overhead.
“And then, trying to put away games that we lead 40-15, which we have not done a good job of in the last couple matches.”
To attack the second problem, Begin has been like a basketball coach who runs his team through last-second situations in practice.
“We’ve been up all the way, but we’ve sort of let up a little bit at 40-15,” Begin said. “We were really lax in those points. So we’ve been working on a lot of scenarios like that — OK, you’re up 40-15, you’ve gotta win this point. If you don’t win this point, you lose the game.”
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Messalonskee junior Jai Aslam said he was hoping to take a game against Waynflete’s Patrick Ordway on Saturday in the boys singles Round of 16. Ordway, the No. 1 seed and defending champion, beat Aslam, 6-3, 6-1. Those are four of the five games Ordway lost in his three tournament matches.
Messalonskee boys coach Ed Hinkley said the reason for Aslam’s success is simple: He took the initiative to get better during the offseason.
“There’s not a very good development program in this area for kids, and there needs to be a tennis development program,” Hinkley said. “You don’t get to Jai’s level just by coming out for the tennis team in the spring. It doesn’t work that way. The only way that you get to that level is that you have to do work outside (the high school season).”
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The Oak Hill girls came into this season with three Western B final appearances in the last three years, but they also entered the spring without a lot of players who helped make that happen.
After losing four quality seniors, it was clearly a rebuilding year for the Raiders. Still, they used a deep roster to finish 8-4 and earn the No. 5 seed in the Western B tournament.
“I think this is a good season,” Oak Hill coach Jamie Boucher said. “I’m pleased with them. Whatever we do at the end is good. They came together. I don’t think one time in my 12 matches we’ve had the same lineup, so we’ve had to adjust.”
Boucher said the lineup changed so often because of other commitments, like AP testing, but also because he had 10 quality players and wanted to get all of them involved.
“The last two or three years, we just played my (top) seven, pretty much,” Boucher said. “At the bottom of the ladder, there were four equal people. So we just rotated my second doubles, so they all had an opportunity to play. So all those 10 players have contributed somewhere in that 8-4 season.”
Junior Darby Beaulieu moved from No. 3 singles to No. 1 singles this season, and junior Gabby Green did a nice job switching from No. 2 doubles to No. 2 singles.
One surprise was senior Amanda Bloss, who played as a sophomore but didn’t come out for the team last spring. Bloss took over the No. 3 singles spot and has held it all season.
“She beat the people that I was thinking were going to be singles,” Boucher said. “She doesn’t play a lot, but (she’s) athletic, and can get the ball in play, and play smart.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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