West sweeps state championships Deering, Greely, Winthrop victors

PORTLAND – Saturday’s State Team Tennis Championship matches were a clean sweep for the Western Maine boys, but they needed more than a few broom strokes to get it done.

Deering of Portland, Greely of Cumberland Center, and Winthrop came away with state titles in Classes A, B, and C, respectively, with wins over Eastern champs Brunswick, Ellsworth, and Schenck of East Millinocket on a hot, sunny day at Deering Oaks Park.

In Class B, the Eagles were aiming for their second state crown in five years, but the Greely Rangers seized momentum early as their second doubles and second singles players won in straight sets.

The key match, although it looked inconsequential early on, was third singles, where John Dillman prevailed in three sets 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. The match clinched the title for the 15-1 Rangers.

Rather than wilt, the Eagles still battled on the court – top singles player Noah John and top doubles players Brian Bohm and Bobby Archer – redoubled their efforts and gutted out three-set marathons.

“They were playing for pride and I was really happy to see them give it their best efforts. There wasn’t anything on the line, but they still played hard,” Ellsworth coach Brian Higgins said.

John prevailed 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4 and the Bohm-Archer duo won with a 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 score.

“I think this is only the second match we’ve lost two or more matches in all season,” said coach Jim Litrocapes, whose Rangers lost 3-2 to Freeport in the regular season. “I was surprised because I thought John might crack a bit if we got up on him early, but he hung tough. They all did.”

This was Litrocapes’ first season at Greely after several as assistant coach for perennial power Cape Elizabeth, who the Rangers beat in the West final to make their first state championship appearance.

“I was almost afraid the kids would have a letdown because today was big, but beating Cape 5-0 was really big,” Litrocapes said. “The big thing was focus and they had that early today.”

Considering three seniors on his team were operating on three to five hours of sleep after Ellsworth’s Project Graduation night Friday, Higgins was quite happy with their effort.

“With things going three sets, it was just a bounce here and there that could have made us the champions. Another day, we might have won,” said Higgins, whose team finished 15-1.

In Class C, the second time was the charm for Winthrop, which lost to Madawaska in the 1999 state final. The 16-0 Ramblers rumbled over 11-3 Schenck, dropping only one set en route to a 5-0 win.

“The kids knew they had their work cut out for them, but they never gave up. We just ran into a buzzsaw today,” said Schenck rookie coach Rick Davis. “We knew their top three were pretty strong and we knew we had to win at least one of those plus both doubles to steal this match.”

The shutout failed to lessen Davis’ satisfaction with this season, in which the Wolverines won the first team title in any boys sport for the outgoing senior class. The Eastern Maine crown was also Schenck’s first in boys tennis.

“Today’s a little disappointing, but we said at the beginning that we just wanted to get to state finals and see what happens, and here we are,” said University of Tennessee-bound senior Canaan York. “Success breeds success and once you get to this point, you don’t want anything less than this.”

York and Davis say they’ve already talked to several students who said they wished they’d played tennis this spring. With the town of East Millinocket pledging to build a new court complex, the future is bright for Schenck tennis.

“Our courts are so bad that a couple teams refused to play us on them,” said Davis. “And in the past, we’ve had to go out and beg or scrounge up kids from other teams to play for us when they could.

“This year we had nine kids on each team and I think younger players are excited about the program now.”

In Class A, the 16-0 Deering Rams made it two straight with a hard-fought 3-2 win over 15-1 Brunswick, which Deering beat by the same score last year. The deciding match was No. 1 singles as senior Pat Conway beat Brunswick junior Danny Hammond 6-2, 1-6, 6-4. It was Conway’s third straight victory over Hammond, who he also beat last year and in this year’s state individual tournament quarterfinal round.