NYA sweeps Sumner, Geroge Stevens Acad.

LEWISTON – The storm clouds threatened for much of the afternoon, but neither overcast skies, spotty sprinkles, or either of Eastern Maine’s champions could keep North Yarmouth Academy from a sweep of the Class C state team tennis titles.

The Panthers’ girls team won its third state title in the last five years and first since 2000 with a 4-1 victory over Sumner of East Sullivan. The boys followed up their first regional title with their first state crown and a 4-1 win over George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill at Bates College on Saturday.

In the boys match, both teams were familiar with frustration in the form of Portland’s Waynflete School. North Yarmouth lost a 3-2 match to Waynflete in last year’s Western Maine final and the GSA Eagles lost by the same score in the state final. One year later, both teams were going for their first state crown.

In the end, it was the Panthers’ experience that won out as Charlie Hudson’s NYA squad finished up an 11-1 campaign led by five seniors, two of whom were co-captains.

“The kids were confident after we lost to Waynflete on a tiebreaker in the decisive third set,” Hudson said. “This group has been together for roughly four years and they came off that match and they said, ‘We’re gonna do it next year,’ and they were focused.”

Only GSA junior Owen Gilmore was able to blur that focus as he knocked off Geoff Kimball 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 in the No. 1 singles match.

“They’re definitely skilled, but when you add in the competition level they play, which is better than ours, that’s a big factor. Combine those two and you get the product we see today,” said GSA coach Larry Gray, whose Eagles wind up 14-2.

Still, Gray couldn’t be dissatisfied with his team’s season, especially after losing 10 of 11 players to graduation last year.

“This is almost a brand new team and we still got back here,” Gray said. “We’ll have to step it up another level to compete down here, but we should be improved next year.”

The title ends a string of frustrating playoff losses for Hudson, who just finished his 25th season with the Panthers.

“We’ve made it to the regional finals three or so times playing in B and C, but we kept running up against some real tough teams,” he said.

In the girls match, coach Julia Seely couldn’t have asked for a better ending to a solid postseason run. In fact, she virtually predicted it.

“I gave them all an envelope with this date on it on our first day of practice to get them focused,” said Seely, who led the Panthers to a 14-2 finish in her second season.

Even so, Seely pulled out even more stops to get them ready once the regular season ended.

“I really felt that just before the postseason there was a lull with all the distractions at school and stuff, so we dropped the JVs from practice and really concentrated on their basic skills and strengths,” she explained.

Seely’s gambit worked to perfection as NYA won 60 of the 88 games against 14-2 Sumner.

Sumner No. 2 singles player, junior Brittany Dunbar, accounted for 17 of her team’s 28 game wins as she outlasted NYA’s Kristen Lothes 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (7-0) to finish as the Tigers’ only unbeaten player this year.

“I didn’t expect to be undefeated this whole year. Hopefully I can continue that next year,” said Dunbar, the only three-sport athlete on the team. “Next year, hopefully, we can take the C title. We have a really strong team coming back.”

Unfortunately for Nikki Marshall, Sumner’s lone senior, won’t be part of that team as she moves on to Arizona State University and its nursing program next fall.

“It was great to be able to lead this team this far,” said Marshall, who won the clinching match in Sumner’s 3-2 Eastern regional final victory. “We just wanted to get here, play our best and have fun. We wanted to win, too, but Eastern Maine champs is fine with us. We never thought we’d get to states, so that was awesome.”

Getting to states was the least of coach Joe Haroutunian’s worries.

“We only had seven players to start with, but one of them didn’t get through because of grades,” he said. “Our seventh player [Terra Sargent] is a girl who never played, but halfway through the season I talked her into it. So she went out and played today with two shots, a serve and a volley … Not bad.”