Rams boys tip Devils for ‘A’ title Ellsworth girls, boys sweep Eastern B crowns

HAMPDEN – For one team, winning an Eastern Maine title simply meant getting one step closer to its ultimate goal. For another, it was the latest highlight of a dream season which they hope will produce one more trophy. And for a third, it was an unexpected bonus to an already surprisingly successful season.

The Ellsworth girls, Bangor boys, and Ellsworth boys tennis teams are on their way to the state championships courtesy of victories in Thursday’s Eastern Maine Class A and B tennis championship matches at Bangor Tennis club. The Lewiston girls capped a marathon day of tennis with a 3-2 win over Brunswick for the A crown.

It was the first regional title for a Bangor tennis team since the boys team won in 1995. The Rams needed a huge comeback effort from top doubles team Pat Frazier and Bret Brookings plus solid, composed efforts out of Nos. 1-2 singles players Bryan Brown and Kyle Cutshall to edge Southeast Division champ Lewiston 3-2 for the East A crown.

In Class B, Ellsworth’s girls shook off rocky starts in the doubles matches and staged comebacks to win both in three sets before sweeping the singles en route to a 5-0 win over fellow perennial tennis power Caribou. Ellsworth’s boys made it well worth the trip for Eagles fans as well as coach Brian Higgins as they knocked off Camden Hills 4-1.

Ellsworth’s boys will meet West champ Cape Elizabeth at 11:30 a.m. and Bangor will take on Deering of Portland at 2 p.m. at the state championship matches Saturday at Portland’s Deering Oaks Park. In the girls state final pairings, Ellsworth will play Yarmouth at 11:30 a.m. and Lewiston will meet McAuley of Portland at 2 p.m.

Class A: Bangor coach Rick Ylagan figured he’d need a win from at least one of his doubles teams if the Rams were going to pull out a victory. He was right on the money as the 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 comeback win by Dustin Roy and Scott Nason proved crucial.

Their victory knotted the team match at 1-1 after Lewiston’s No. 2 doubles team took a 6-3, 6-1 win. After No. 3 singles player Keith Moran put the Blue Devils back on top with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Jeremy Yardley, it was up to No. 2 Ram Kyle Cutshall to even the score.

Cutshall looked every bit the senior leader he’s been counted on to be as he dispatched Lewiston freshman Adam Wilding 6-2, 6-1 with a solid serve-and-volley attack which allowed him to set up innumerable overhead smash winners.

That left the fate of Bangor’s senior-laden team squarely in the soft hands of freshman Bryan Brown, who once again delivered with calm beyond his years and a near-perfect control game featuring almost unerring placement and reliable service.

It was a matchup of the emotion, power, and experience of Lewiston’s Brian Willer vs. the composure, finesse, and youth of Brown, who parlayed three key service breaks into a 6-4, 6-3 triumph over the Devils’ mobile senior. Willer’s blistering serves and volleys were handled superbly by Brown in the match-clinching win.

“It all started with our number one doubles team. They got us going today and they came through against Brunswick last weekend,” said Ylagan, whose Rams are now 15-0 after netting the school’s third regional tennis title. “And once again, it ended with Bryan, who just has tremendous poise.”

In Class B, Ellsworth’s boys and girls combined to win five of the six three-set matches they had to battle through to win the girls’ sixth regional crown in seven tries and the boys’ second straight and fourth overall.

“We had to replace four seniors and our doubles teams were pretty much all new, so I would have considered it a successful year if our boys had gotten to the quarterfinals,” said Higgins. “With the girls it was different because we expected to win this last year after bringing everyone back from a state runner-up team in 2000.”

That was before the Eagles were humbled 4-1 by Camden Hills in last year’s regional final. It was a crushing loss that went a long way toward Ellsworth’s unbeaten season (15-0) and return finals trip.

“Yeah, that was tough last year because we expected to be back at states,” said senior Monica Gardner. “We might have looked past that final to states, but we weren’t going to do that this year.”

It was Gardner’s 6-1, 6-2 win over Kelsey Albair that clinched the match for Ellsworth Thursday, but that didn’t cause either No. 1 singles player Meghan Collins or No. 2 May Chan to slack off. Collins beat Beth Bubar 6-0, 6-0 and Chan rallied for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Lauren Harrigan.

Comebacks were the order of the day in doubles as senior duo Kate Beal and Meghan Pelletier outlasted Caribou’s Jessica Belanger and Jessica Drost 1-6, 6-1, 7-5, and junior duo Sarah Staples and Ursula Gammelin downed freshman pair Michelle Ouellette and Amanda Pooler 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2.

“We got yelled at because we were paying too much attention to the other doubles match,” Gammelin said with smile. “It’s funny because once we started winning, we got them going, and then they started coming back, too.”

The boys also took their cue as No. 2 singles senior Adam Smith won 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 against freshman Peter Stein, and top doubles pair Casey Lock and Andrew Kirby shook off a slow start for a 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 win over Charlie Ash and Marty Laurita.

Camden, now 13-3, was even younger than Ellsworth as the Windjammers replaced all seven of last season’s players with a junior, three sophomores, and three freshmen.