Deering, York, Waynflete win titles

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ORONO – Saturday’s boys team tennis tournament state finals weren’t a clean sweep, but a sweep nonetheless for Western Maine.

Eastern Maine’s champions took the best of the West to the wire in all three class finals, but depth was the deciding factor as Deering of Portland, York, and Waynflete of Portland each won state titles on a bright but blustery Saturday at the University of Maine’s Bridge Tennis Complex.

In Class C, Waynflete won the school’s first boys tennis state title with a 3-2 victory over Sumner of East Sullivan. In Class B, York’s Wildcats edged Mount Desert Island 3-2 for the their first state crown since 1990 and fifth overall.

In Class A, 14-1 Deering took its first boys state crown with a 3-2 decision over Brunswick.

Class C

The disappointment of losing a tight match against a solid York team was tempered by the realization of how far the Tigers have come in six weeks.

“I really didn’t know how we’d do,” said Sumner coach Joe Haroutunian. “I knew we had two good players, but doubles was a big unknown, especially after one of the first doubles players quit. Basically, they all learned what to do at the right time.”

Those “two good players” were the only exchange students on the team and the only ones to win matches against Waynflete: Darko Minic of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, who torched John Ervin 6-1, 6-2, and Hozefa Poonawalla of Bombay, India, who pulled out a three-setter with Will Renner 6-2 3-6, 6-3.

Their tennis proficiency has helped revive interest in a boys program that has been suffering in terms of interest and numbers the last few years.

“With all the publicity tennis has been getting lately, that’s showing people that tennis is here too,” said senior doubles player John Albee. “It’s gotten the whole school really pumped up about the program.”

After having to beg two baseball players to fill in on a part-time basis on the second doubles team down the stretch this season, Haroutunian is guardedly optimistic about how this season will affect the team’s popularity next year.

“We’ll see what it does for our program. I hope this kind of thing will inspire grammar school groups,” he said.

It was quite a culture shock at first for Poonawalla as he traded a population center like Bombay for the sleepy surroundings of Sullivan, but he gradually adapted.

“At the start it was totally different because in the evening we didn’t know what to do,” said the 17-year-old son of Yusuf and Fizza Poonawalla who, along with sister Nishreen, attended Hozefa’s match Saturday. “You either go bowling or watch TV. But after I made some friends, we’d play pool and stuff. During the winter, we had a lot of ice fishing trips, so that was fun. I even fell through the ice once. I was skating near the shore so I was able to walk out.”

That was more than three months before helping Sumner boys tennis break the ice with its first Eastern Maine title.

Class B

The MDI boys also enjoyed an historic season with their first Eastern title ever. If not for the strong play of York’s singles players, the Trojans might also have their first state title.

Top singles player Todd Spelman was simply too much for MDI’s Michael Garrity, and Garrity knew it.

“I knew he was going to be really, really tough. I wasn’t expecting a victory, but I wanted to be competitive and give him a good battle,” said Garrity, who’s off to UMaine to study engineering.

Since losing in the state singles tourney semis, Spelman has simply been unstoppable, dispatching opponents with machine-like precision and dropping only four games in his last three matches.

Spelman, who won the 1998 state singles title, didn’t even wait for the comparison question.

“Oh, this is much better,” Spelman said with a big smile. “Winning the singles was exciting, but winning the team championship is better… We wanted this.”

It has been a long, gradual climb for York, which lost to West champ Fryeburg in the 1998 quarterfinals and state champ Fryeburg in the semis last year.

The Trojans swept the doubles play as No. 1 duo Ian Jones and Sylvan Herskowitz beat Tim Boorman and John Quinn in straight sets (6-2, 6-3) and No. 2 team Eric Johnson and Josh Liebow rallied from an opening 2-6 loss to take the next two, 6-1 and 6-2.

That left it to the other two singles: York No. 2 man Dustin Freeman vs. Will Hathaway and Matt Morrison vs. MDI’s Nick Loftus. It was a tall order as Freeman was one of two players (Spelman was the other) who hadn’t lost a team match all season, and Morrison was the Wildcats’ Mr. Clutch in the playoffs with the deciding victory in a 3-2 West final win.

Freeman showed why teammates call him the “human backboard” as he missed little and returned virtually everything en route to a 6-2, 6-4 win. Meanwhile, Morrison used Loftus’ patient baseline game against him and beat him with lobs and crosscourt winners whenever he came to the net before he clinched it for the ‘Cats with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

“Our doubles put us in a position to win, but we just couldn’t steal one of those singles matches,” said MDI coach Bob Christie. “Their top three were something like 31-2 coming in, so we knew it would be tough. Our guys just couldn’t bear down and get in a rhythm early.”

Class A

It was payback time for the Deering Rams as they got a third chance against the team that beat them 4-1 and 3-2 in the 1996 and 1997 state finals, respectively.

The match came down to a singles duel between Deering’s John Clark and Brunswick’s Eric Wilson, who won the first set 6-4 before Clark rallied in the second to win 6-4. Clark capitalized on the momentum switch by storming to a 6-1 victory in the third set clincher and dethroning the defending state champs, who wind up 14-1.