LEWISTON — There was plenty of drama in the two doubles matches, but Lewiston showed its strength at singles in a 4-1 victory over Mt. Blue in a Class A North girls tennis quarterfinal Thursday at Coach Anita Murphy Courts.
Within minutes of each other, senior twin sisters Julia and Abby Svor won their respective singles matches, and Lauren Foster later won at No. 3 singles to clinch the match for the fourth-seeded Blue Devils (12-2).
Meanwhile, both doubles matches went to first-set tiebreakers before the teams split the matches in straight sets — first doubles was won by Lewiston and second doubles went to the fifth-seeded Cougars (9-5).
Julia Svor won at No. 2 singles over Cadence Maheux 6-1, 6-0, and Abby Svor beat Haley Walsh at No. 1 singles 6-1, 6-1 after dropping the first game in both sets.
“It kind of woke me up,” Abby Svor said. “I mean, losing the first game is not always the best confidence boost, but winning the next two kind of raised that. And it was the same thing in the second set, I just had to get it back.”
Svor said she was making a lot of unforced errors and Walsh was making good shots.
“Unforced errors is what will cost you,” Lewiston coach Anita Murphy said.
It nearly cost the Blue Devils’ No. 1 doubles team of Julia Paquette and Libby Forgues, who were up 4-1 in the first set before sweating out a 7-6 (4) tiebreak win.
Murphy said she told the duo “to stop making so many unforced errors. This is what hurt them. And go cross-court, you’re feeding the girl at net. And they did. They worked on it a little bit.”
Paquette and Forgues were up 4-1 again in the second set against Mt. Blue juniors Grace Bell and Sadie McDonough, who then battled back to 4-3 before Lewiston’s tandem won 6-3.
“My second doubles team, who went undefeated in the regular season, played first doubles today and they did really well against probably the best doubles team in our league,” Mt. Blue coach Griffin Conlogue said. “Getting to tiebreak that first (set) and then losing 6-3 the second one was a great performance for that duo.”
Murphy said Bell and McDonough were much better Thursday than she remembers them from the regular-season meeting (a 3-2 Lewiston win). She said it was probably the best competition Paquette and Forgues have received all season, which will be good for them when Lewiston goes against top-seeded Brunswick in the semifinals on Saturday.
Foster didn’t play against Mt. Blue during the regular season, so her win gave the Blue Devils an extra advantage from the last time the two teams faced off. It also gave Mt. Blue’s Khloe Dean an unfamiliar opponent. Conlogue thought Dean played great despite dropping the match 6-3, 6-3.
Murphy said that score was too close for comfort, but she was happy that Foster pulled through in one of the key matches.
The Cougars earned their lone point at No. 2 doubles, in which Kelsey Dorman and Tricia Souther Bowering pulled out a 7-6 (4), 6-1 victory over Claudia Cucubica and Emma Omiecinski.
“For my second doubles team to go out there and get a win, one of our team goals this year was to not lose any matches 5-0, and we accomplished that this season,” Conlogue said. “Our season is over, obviously, but it was nice to get a win today at one spot.”
The season for the Blue Devils — who won the 2019 Class A state championship — has at least one more match left. Svor said she thinks her team has a chance to beat Brunswick — which beat Lewiston twice during the regular season — and keep its title defense going.
Murphy agrees.
“I thought we played great today,” she said. “I thought Abby and Julia were outstanding. Made great shots, played great. If they can play like that Saturday, we’ll have a shot.”
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