Smith key for ‘Jammer boys; Leonard, Baumhardt lift girls

ROCKPORT – With Camden-Rockport leading 2-1 and his team hunting for the crucial third point, Russell Smith was playing what his coach scornfully calls “mini tennis.”

Playing between the service lines vs. using the entire court is not acceptable tennis to boys boss John Lippman. And that’s what Smith and Ellsworth’s Tim Lock were doing through a tight second set at Megunticook Golf Course in Camden Saturday.

Despite overhitting through the first set, the Windjammers senior notched a 6-1 first-set win by forcing Lock to race around chasing shots.

Then came the set of cautious don’t-hit-it-out tennis during which neither Lock or Smith could shake loose of the other.

“He was playing pretty well and he was hitting most of my shots back and I was missing a couple,” Smith said. “We were hitting a lot of chip shots, the balls were low. He held serve much better in second set than he did in the first.”

Smith eventually squeaked out the 7-5 tiebreaker to win 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) and secure Camden-Rockport’s 4-1 Eastern Maine Class B schoolboy tennis semifinal win over fourth-seeded Ellsworth.

With the win, the Windjammers earned the right to play the winner of Monday’s semifinal between No. 7 Mount Desert Island and No. 3 Hampden in Wednesday’s regional final at the University of Maine.

Ellsworth, which shares coach Brian Higgins with the girls team, arrived after 4 p.m. for the 3:30 match and had little time to warm up.

The second-seeded Ellsworth girls defeated No. 7 Mount Desert Island 3-2 Saturday morning.

“We all improved in the second set,” Higgins said. “Every second set they were competitive.

“Every one of them came off and said, `I’d like to have my first set back again.’ They saw what they were up against. They found they could hit with these guys and win some games.”

The victory also clinched the top-ranked Windjammers’ sweep in the semifinals following the girls 4-1 morning victory over No. 4 Houlton in a similar fashion.

Tied at 1-1 after the doubles teams split, second and third singles players Abbie Leonard and Christina Baumhardt were left to decide the match.

Houlton’s Kristen Erickson played a patient, cautious game against Leonard in the No. 2 singles match as each waited for the other to make the first mistake.

Leonard overcame a late bout of unforced errors in the first set for the 6-4 win. Erickson took the a one-game lead in the second set with a baseline game but Leonard tied it up at 5-5 and crashed through to a 7-0 tiebreaker win.

“At the beginning of the year, she was having a real hard time finding those singles lines,” C-R girls coach Mike Grey said of Leonard, a former doubles player. “Each game she’s gotten a little bit bettter. When she has confidence, she’s really on.”

Graduation last spring left Grey’s team with two returning players, Leonard and Stein, then the No. 3 singles player.

Fortunately for the ‘Jammers Saturday, Christina Baumhardt transferred in February, and managed to knock off Houlton’s No. 2 Christina Higgins in three sets.

Baumhardt’s fondness for the net got her into trouble early as Higgins’ lobs fell just inside the baseline for a 6-4 Higgins first-set win.

But Baumhardt’s net play got her through the second set as she consistently drew the Houlton junior off to one side and beat her with a short cross-court shot for a 7-5 win.

“My serve was off [in the first set],” said Baumhardt of her sidespin-heavy serve. “I kept double-faulting. I was more consistent [later].”

Once Baumhardt took the second set, it was hard to stop the sophomore, although Higgins attempted to exploit her looping backhand.

“Keeping it away from her on the net and at the lines and sending it to her backhand,” Higgins said of her game plan. “I caught on mostly to that in the second set, but she was on.”