Morang has stroke of luck

An act of sportsmanship has sent Ellsworth High’s Amy Morang into next weekend’s State Singles Tennis Tournament Round of 40.

Morang, the No. 3 singles player for the Eagles, had battled through two victories early in Saturday’s Eastern Region II (Eastern Maine) preliminary action at the University of Maine’s Orono campus.

She had defeated Ann Redman of Hermon 8-0 in the first round and eked out a 9-8 (7-5) win over Jenny Wight of Old Town in the second round to set up a qualifying-round match against Marie Hansen of Bangor, the region’s eighth-seeded player.

Hansen built a 7-5, 5-0 lead before defaulting the match to Morang.

According to tournament director Ron Marks, Hansen had a previous commitment scheduled for next weekend and instead of not showing up and having the East lose that spot, the Bangor High player defaulted the match, sending Morang to the Round of 40, set next weekend at the UMaine campus.

Morang’s day highlighted a day of statewide tennis action. Other prelims held included the Eastern Region I (Northern Maine, at Presque Isle), the Eastern Region III (Central Maine, at Augusta and Brunswick), and the Western Region.

Ten players qualify for each gender out of the Eastern Region II prelim, five from the Eastern Regions I and III, and 20 from the Western Region.

At Orono, of the 10 boys seeds expected to advance, three failed to do so.

Kenny Allen of Foxcroft Academy upset No. 8 Todd Oldenburg of Bangor 8-2 in the second round en route to advancing and Dileep Surapaneni of Bangor ousted No. 7 Josh Anchors of Orono in the qualifying round.

Freshman Robbie Butler of Orono, the ninth seed, had a previous commitment and could not compete. Jeremy Niles of John Bapst turned out to be the qualifier from that bracket.

Top-seeded Christian Balmer of Ellsworth (who did not lose a game Saturday), No. 2 Constantine Markides of Old Town, third-seeded Mark Farmer of Schenck of East Millinocket, No. 4 Eric Maddocks of Hampden, No. 5 Sam Judd of Mount Desert Island, No. 6 Ryan Delano of Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, and No. 10 Ben Curtis of Old Town also advanced.

On the girls half of the draw, only five seeded players move on to next Saturday.

The top five seeds – Julie MacDonald of Hampden, Biba Kunert of Ellsworth, Nellie Fox of MDI, Kathrin Drechsler of MCI, and Jaime Ferris of Brewer move on.

Laura Welles of MDI took advantage of a no-show by No. 10 Holly Phillips of Orono en route to her qualifying win; Ally Port of Bangor knocked off ninth-seeded Jess Foreman of Ellsworth (an unseeded qualifier last year) 6-4, 6-1 to advance, Sasha Blood of Brewer handled No. 7 Stephanie Smith of Old Town 6-3, 6-2 to advance, and Sara Minogue of Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln upset No. 6 Anne Kuhn of Dexter 6-3, 6-4.

At Presque Isle, the top three singles players from the Caribou girls advanced to next weekend’s action.

Anne Bernard, Lise Carter, and Chelsea Belanger were three of five girls to qualify from the Eastern Region I ranks.

Two of the three Vikings girls cruised into the Round of 40 with little trouble. Belanger, a late edition to the draw, upset second-seeded Andrea Leishman of Calais 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 to advance. Christina James of Woodland and Heather Piper of Presque Isle also advanced.

In boys action, unranked Erik Salminen – who has played No. 1 for Caribou for most of the season – let his play do the talking by cruising into the Round of 40 with a 6-4, 6-0 win over second-seeded Salvadore Victoria of Presque Isle. Joining Salminen in next week’s Round of 40 are Lloyd Ayer of Calais, Arnaud Deraemaeker of Houlton, Toby Morrill of Van Buren, and John Gibson of Calais.

At Augusta and Brunswick, a total of 10 qualifiers move on to Saturday.

In the boys draw, Peter Haase of Waterville, John Gasink of Cony, Cam Potts of Waterville, Geoff Oldread of Camden-Rockport, and Seth Meyer of Cony advanced.

In the girls brackets, two-time defending state singles championship Anna Chai of Cony did not lose a game. Other qualifiers included: Laura Woods of Morse; Kate Ervin of Waterville, Tanya Birenbach of Gardiner, and Shanna Gagnon of Gardiner.