Caribou, Sumner capture crowns

WATERVILLE – The Sumner Tigers of East Sullivan extended their regional championship dominance while the Caribou girls returned to it after a three-year absence at the Eastern Maine team girls team tennis finals at Colby College Wednesday afternoon.

The second-seeded girls from East Sullivan won their second straight Class C regional crown with a 3-2 win over northern Maine power and No. 4 Madawaska. Later in the afternoon, the top-seeded and unbeaten Vikings defeated No. 3 Camden Hills 3-2 for their first East title since winning the A region title in 2001.

The 12-3 Tigers will take on West champ North Yarmouth Academy (11-3) Saturday in a 10:15 a.m. match at Bates College in Lewiston. The 15-0 Vikings will meet 10-4 Yarmouth at 1:15 p.m. in Lewiston.

The top-seeded and undefeated girls from Mount Ararat High School in Topsham also had to go down to the wire before pulling out a 3-2 match win over No. 2 Lewiston. The 15-0 Eagles will play 14-0 Deering of Portland at 4:15 p.m. Saturday.

In Class C, the deciding match for Sumner was won by their sickest player as Mary Francis overcame breathing problems from a bad head and chest cold, oppressive heat and humidity, and a talented and fundamentally sound exchange student for a 6-3, 7-5 win.

“I’ve been sick all week. I took a lot of time out to cool myself down and I really needed to drink a lot,” said the Sumner junior. “I had to really compose myself and tell myself I love the heat even though I’ve never played when it’s this hot. The last time I played, it was freezing.”

Francis ditched her traditional serve-and-volley attack, didn’t attack the net as much, and tried to be more patient in the second set as Madawaska’s Silvia Segade took leads of 3-2, 4-3 and 5-4 in the second set.

“It was kind of hard. I had to compose myself and tell myself I wasn’t going to lose,” said Francis. “I tried not going for a winner every time and just go back to fundamentals and keep the ball in play. After awhile, I knew I wasn’t gong to lose, even if it went three sets.”

Sumner’s singles players carried the day as the other two wins came from lone senior Brittany Dunbar (6-0, 6-2 over Michelle Lavertu) and Alison Drinkwater (6-3, 6-4 over Kassie Levesque).

In Class B, things broke down pretty much the way Caribou coach John Habeeb expected as the Vikings used their edge in overall depth to pull out a victory.

“Our doubles are usually our strength, but it was our singles players who won matches for us today,” Habeeb said. “Really, it was the middle of our lineup that won it for us today.”

Indeed, the middle run began with No. 2 singles player Michelle Ouellette. The junior dispatched Ruth Gonnella 6-1, 6-0 before senior Lauren Harrigan followed suit and beat Becky Friesland 6-2, 6-0. It all came down to the No. 2 doubles team of sophomore Kylee Morrell and German exchange student Barbar Burgand. The relatively inexperienced pair played like wily veterans as they took care of Abby Rainsley and Brydon Mitchell 6-1 in the first set and beat back a determined rally attempt with a 7-5 win in the second.

“They came through for us, breezing through the first set and then pulling out a really tight second set,” Habeeb said. “If they’d lost the second, that could have really changed things for us with a big switch in momentum.”