Unbeaten Eagles maintain rhythm Boys top Bapst, girls shut out Lions

ELLSWORTH – The beat goes on for the Ellsworth girls tennis team, and the boys have found themselves a nice rhythm as well.

Both teams remained undefeated and advanced into the Eastern Maine Class B semifinals with impressive victories over the No. 8 Belfast girls and No. 8 John Bapst of Bangor boys on a blustery afternoon at Ellsworth High School.

The Eagles will host the No. 5 Presque Isle girls Saturday afternoon, while the boys await the winner of Friday’s Belfast-Presque Isle quarterfinal. The times of Saturday’s matches will be determined Friday.

The Eagle girls, who extended their regular season unbeaten streak 57 games this season, knocked off the Lions 5-0 to improve their record to 13-0. The boys are also 13-0 following a deceiving 4-1 victory that was much closer than it read on the scoresheet.

“John Bapst is very competitive, and now we can say, yes it was good to have a tough match, but I wasn’t saying that earlier today,” said Ellsworth boys and girls coach Brian Higgins. “Our first match with them was much easier.”

Top singles player Noah John (13-0) wasted little time with John Bapst’s Brian Dunn, posting a 6-1, 6-1 win to put his Eagles up 1-0. John Bapst’s second doubles team of Taylor Lynn and Ned Payne then evened things out by knocking off Shawn Grindle and new partner Casey Lock, a freshman filling in for a teammate who had to go to work, with a 6-4, 6-3 win.

Even after top doubles duo Brian Bohm and Bobby Archer put Ellsworth back up with a 6-3, 6-0 win, things were in doubt as both of the remaining singles matches were up in the air.

“It was a little scary there for a little while,” said Ellsworth No. 3 singles player Homer Pare. “I didn’t know how Adam’s match was gonna come out, so I just went out with the attitude that I had to win.”

So he did with a 6-2, 6-1 decision over Wes Day.

Adam Smith, the No. 2 Eagle, also won with a 7-5, 6-3 verdict over Jon Rudnicki, but it was still a bit too close for comfort – at least it was for Ellsworth’s coach.

“We lost our second singles from last year when Dustan Seavey graduated, so we’re not as strong near the top, but depthwise, we’re probably as good or maybe a little better,” said Higgins. “And they don’t seem to lose their poise this season.”

“I think we’re more laid back this year and we’re just going up there and having fun,” Grindle said. “It’s still competitive, but it’s more of a fun approach.”

Bohm, one of six returning starters from last season’s regional finalist team, said it’s all due to the difference an extra year of experience makes.

“We know each other a lot better this year and I think we may be a little further along than this time last year,” said Bohm, a senior.

Wholesale changes didn’t hurt the Eagles girls, who said goodbye to singles aces Ursula Gammelin, Amy McQuade, and Bekah Metzler and hello to sophomore Meghan Collins plus converted doubles players May Chan and Monica Gardner.

Collins won the clinching match by topping Belfast’s Sarah Tarpley 6-1, 6-4.

“We always win 4-1 or 5-0. I think we’ve only given up two matches our entire season,” Collins said. “I either play first or dead last, and by then it’s usually over, so it was kind of nice to go early and clinch the match.”

Junior doubles duo Kate Beal and Meghan Pelletier started strong and didn’t allow Sigrid Coffin and Laura Sproch to stage one of their patented comebacks as they fashioned a 6-0, 6-4 win. Ellsworth’s very young second doubles team of sophomore Sarah Staples and freshman Cherry Gammelin followed with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Jenny Cameron and Lauren Philbrook.

The other two wins for the Eagles came from Chan, who knocked off Desneige Hallbert 6-1, 6-2, and Gardner, who defeated Sarah Lane 6-4, 6-0.

“The wind was very tough, but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle,” said Chan, who utilized a classic serve-and-volley game to get to the net and win points on well-placed drop shots.

Belfast coach John Cameron, whose Lions also had their season ended by Ellsworth last year in the quarterfinals, said the Eagles are the standard for other teams.

“Mr. Higgins has a nice system and the more success you have, the more kids want to be a part of it,” he said.

Despite the loss of the match – and five seniors to graduation – Cameron saw plenty to smile about.

“Last year we came in here and there were a lot of love games,” he said. “We lost a lot of sets 6-0, 6-0, but everybody today won games, so we’re improving step by step. If we keep doing that year in and year out, we’ll be in good shape ourselves.”