WATERVILLE — Friday’s first and second rounds of the Maine Principals’ Association tennis singles tournament at Colby College was a day for the top seeds to exert their will in relatively quick matches, and for unseeded players to fight through the heat and maybe surprise themselves when they found an extra gear.
Among the top seeds who advanced easily were Bethany Hammond and Vasilisa Mitskevich. Hammond, a Belgrade native who attends St. Dominic in Auburn, is the No. 2 seeded girls player and defeated Mary Morrison of North Yarmouth Academy, 6-0, 6-1.
Mitskevich, an exchange student from Russia attending Skowhegan Area High School, is the No. 12 seeded girl, and beat Presque Isle’s Hilary Boucher, 6-1, 6-0. Play continues Saturday at Colby with the round of 16 and quarterfinals. Mitskevich will play a round of 16 match at 9 a.m., while Hammond will take the court at 10:30 a.m.
“There’s definitely pressure because of people’s expectations, but anyone could win on any given day,” Hammond, who advanced to the semifinals last year, said.
Mitskevich said overcoming the heat was a key, and she just tried to have fun. She had never played Boucher before Friday’s match.
“It makes it more interesting, I guess,” Mitskevich said. “I just played hard.”
Monmouth’s Kasey Smith advanced to the boys second round with a tough 7-5, 6-4 win over Michael Dunning of John Bapst. The match took two and a half hours.
“That was a consistency battle. We had some rallies that must’ve been 35 shots. Games that went to 10 or 15 deuces. It was who could stay mentally in the game the longest. It turned out to be me, for the most part,” Smith said. “I mean, 7-5, 6-4, that’s a match that could go either way. I just had it a little more than him today.”
Smith carried the momentum from his first round win into the first set of his match against No. 9 Thomas Jarmusz of Morse. Smith won a long, grind of a first set, 7-6.
“That was the best tennis I’ve ever played, I think,” Smith said. “It was back and forth the entire time. Lots of great points. In the end, with the tie break, I got a few lucky points early and took it.”
After that, fatigue from Smith’s earlier match set in. Jarmusz took the second and third sets, 6-1, 6-1, to win the match.
“I ran out of gas. I could stay in the points, but I couldn’t finish them in the end. He was finishing them and I wasn’t,” Smith said. “I went into the match thinking, the kid is the nine seed. I’d heard unbelievable things about him. My goal was to win a set, and I did it.”
Mt. Blue’s Eryn Doiron defeated Sarah Phelps of Mt. Desert Island, 6-2, 6-1, in the first round, before falling to No. 4 Julia Brogan of Falmouth, 6-1, 6-0. Hall-Dale’s Clio Barr beat Camden Hills’ Katie Vannorsdall, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 in the first round. In the second round, Barr lost to No. 10 Caroline Ray of Falmouth, 6-2, 6-2.
Waterville’s Emma Cristan beat Alexa Pelletier of Fort Kent, 6-2, 6-0 before falling to No. 11 Margot Andreasen of Portland, 6-0, 6-1. After her win over Pelletier, Cristan said patience was the key in feeling out an unfamiliar opponent.
“I just knew she was very consistent. She would just hit it back to me, so I had to stay patient and play my game the whole time,” Cristan said.
Ilyas Khan of Waterville won a first round match over Washington Academy’s Ben Somes, 6-1, 6-0. No. 2 Isaac Salas of Waynflete later bounced Khan with a 6-0, 6-1 victory.
Among the central Maine players who lost in the first round were Hall-Dale’s Nicole Pelletier, 6-0, 6-0, to Leslie Sandefur of Lincoln Academy; Winthrop’s Megan Chamberland fell to Brewer’s Catelyn Kimball; Hall-Dale’s Andrew Peterson lost to Waynflete’s Brandon Ameglio, 6-3, 6-1; Bryson Camp of Hall-Dale lost to Caribou’s Michael Marquis, 6-2, 7-5; and Sullivan Abbott of Mt. Blue lost to Matthew Jarmusz of Morse, 6-3, 6-1.
In the longest first round match of the morning, Mt. Blue’s Alex Bunnell fell in three sets to Peter Barry of Portland, 5-7, 6-1, 7-5. The match took two hours, 43 minutes.
“That was probably the longest match of my life,” Bunnell said. “I just wasn’t executing at the net. I wasn’t putting away points I should’ve put away.”
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
Send questions/comments to the editors.
