ORONO – The George Stevens Academy boys tennis team entered Wednesday’s Eastern Maine Class C final as the region’s defending champion.

But these defenders had little in common with the squad that won the 2002 title.

No matter. The lone common denominator, junior Owen Gilmore, continued his unbeaten singles run over two years of team play, and the top-ranked Eagles earned a return trip to the state finals with a 4-1 victory over sixth-ranked Madawaska at the University of Maine.

Gilmore, GSA’s second seed a year ago and top-ranked this spring, scored a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Jon Cowie to help the Eagles earn the right to play Western C champion North Yarmouth Academy at noon Saturday at Bates College in Lewiston.

Also representing Eastern Maine in the state finals will be Camden Hills in Class B and Lewiston in Class A. Both advanced with 5-0 victories in the regional finals, Camden Hills over Caribou and Lewiston over Brunswick.

Unbeaten Camden Hills will face Cape Elizabeth in the Class B state final at 3 p.m. Saturday, while Lewiston will face the winner of Thursday’s Western A final between Deering and Cheverus at 9 a.m.

In Class C, 14-1 GSA overcame an early 6-0, 6-0 victory by Madawaska second seed Mat Lavertu over Tyler Weeks and tight first sets in both doubles matches.

“It was nice to go all the way to the states last year,” said Gilmore. “And even though we had different guys moving up to different spots this year, it seemed liked we had the same type of confidence we had last year, and the more success we had the more the confidence grew.”

With Gilmore a constant at the top of the lineup, GSA coach Larry Gray spent much of the season developing his doubles teams, an effort that paid off against a determined Madawaska squad.

The second doubles tandem of Duane Ledien and Ben Bos trailed Madawaska’s Greg Marston and Michael Arnold 5-4 in the first set, but rallied to win 7-5 before scoring a 6-1 victory in the second set.

GSA’s first doubles team of Andrew Lymburner and Andrew Gray had a similar early challenge before emerging with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Myles Morneault and Bryan Sirois.

“We knew we were pretty solid at No. 1 with Owen being undefeated for the last two regular seasons, so we worked on shoring up our doubles,” said Gray. “Basically that’s what we try to do, get control of the net.”

GSA got an additional boost from freshman third seed Zach Huckle-Bauer, who bested Paul Michaud in the lone three-set match, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

No. 6 Madawaska ended its season with a 10-6 record. The Owls return six of their top seven players next year, with only Marston graduating.

“I’m proud of my kids,” said Madawaska coach Allen Guerrette. “There was nothing given away here today.”

In Class B, Camden Hills displayed experience far in excess of its senior-less lineup in downing Caribou to remain unbeaten at 15-0.

“We were a little tight at the beginning, but we’re a young team,” said Windjammers coach Chris Spencer, who lost his anticipated top singles player, Jason Laurita, to a collarbone injury before the season started.

And they weren’t really that tight. Sophomore top seed Peter Stein and freshman second seed Joey Michalakes each won 6-2, 6-3 matches, Stein over Ben Wakana and Michalakes over Sam Hallett, while sophomore third seed Charlie Ash was a 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) victor over Caribou’s Randy King.

“Basically what our coach said was to keep the ball in play and not get too emotional, to not beat ourselves,” said Stein.

The Windjammers’ first doubles team of Evan Dyer and Brandon Scamfer also won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4 over Matt Pirie and Matt Baker

Third-seeded Caribou, 12-3, was able to extend the second doubles match, but the Vikings’ Kyle Sutherland and Matt Bubar fell to Adam Lafleur and Marty Laurita 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-5.

Caribou reached the regional final despite losing its top singles player to academic difficulties at the end of the regular season.

“You hate to say you’re glad to be here even before you start playing, but our kids had to battle through some things to get here,” said Caribou coach John Habeeb. “We’ve got a lot of underclassmen coming back next year, and hopefully this will serve as an appetizer for them.”

In Class A, Lewiston won its first regional title since 1999. Only top seed Adam Wilding was extended to three sets before defeating Alex Wheelwright 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4. Second seed Mike Burke remained undefeated on the season, besting Chris Robinson 6-4, 6-0, while third seed Nate Theriault topped Peter Jacobs 6-0, 6-1.

Jon Damon and Nick Bonenfant were a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Arunabna Chaleravarty and Ben Sheldon at first doubles, while the second doubles team of James Morin and Bryce Bryant earned a 6-4, 6-1 win over Brunswick’s Sam Bell-Hart and Weston Shephard.