GSA captures first state tennis crown Cape Elizabeth tops Camden Hills in ‘B’

LEWISTON – That feeling of familiarity, rather than being a comfort to George Stevens Academy tennis coach Larry Gray, felt more like an empty space in his stomach as he and his players drove down from Blue Hill to Lewiston High School early Saturday morning.

The trip has become an annual one for the Eagles the last three years, but the first two ended in disappointment with resounding losses.

“You come down here hoping to have a good time, you know?,” Gray said. “You know you’re a decided underdog before you set foot in the place.”

That was the case again Saturday, despite GSA’s top East seeding and 14-0 season match record against Waynflete of Portland’s 13-2 record and No. 3 West seeding. After all, the Flyers had won two of the last four Class C state boys team titles.

So it was more a sense of stunned relief than celebration that came to Gray after top singles player Owen Gilmore clinched GSA’s first-ever state tennis championship with a tough 6-4, 6-4 victory over Johnny Asen.

“I’m shocked, to be honest with you. I thought I was going to become the [Minnesota Vikings and four-time Super Bowl losing coach] Bud Grant of George Stevens,” said Gray, who led two girls basketball teams, one golf team, and the last two boys tennis teams to the state finals only to come away with losses each time.

In other boys action, Cape Elizabeth won its third straight B crown with a 3-2 win over Camden Hills in a rematch of last year’s final. Unbeaten Lewiston took the A title with a 3-2 decision over Biddeford.

Gilmore, whose victory gave the Eagles a 3-2 win over Waynflete, capped a sterling career on the courts with a three-year unbeaten streak in team matches and a major hand in his team’s undefeated season.

Gilmore had to summon some intestinal fortitude of his own after taking a 5-1 lead in the second set only to watch Asen break his serve twice to make it 5-4. He then went ahead 40-15 on his serve to set up two game, set and match points, but Asen won the next two points and made it deuce.

“I kind of let up at one point in the second set. I tried to stay focused as much as I could,” Gilmore explained. “I knew it didn’t matter what I’d done before as long as I could get that point and the next one. You get those and all the stupid mistakes you made before don’t matter.”

The senior won both points on solid returns and led the celebration.

Gilmore’s heroics were only made possible by GSA’s deep doubles tandem of top team Andrew Lymburner and Mark Ensworth and No. 2 duo Brad Dunham and Colin Pareila, each of which pulled out tight wins and were unbeaten this season.

Lymburner and Ensworth rallied from a 3-6 opening-set loss to win the next two, 6-3 and 6-4.

“We started off bad, but we knew we could stick with them because we knew we could play well and they were making errors, too,” Lymburner said. “We kept hitting shots, they kept missing some, and we win.”

“We just tried to be patient and kind of wear them out because we knew we could play better,” Ensworth added.

Meanwhile, Dunham and Pareila were gutting out back-to-back tiebreakers for wins of 7-6 (7-4) and 7-6 (7-4).

“We were aggressive. We went out there and we weren’t scared,” said Pareila. “We went to the net and took it to them.”

In Class B, the 14-2 Windjammers made the third one anything but easy for coach Andy Strout’s 16-0 Capers as they matched them win for win to set up a deciding match in No. 1 singles: CE’s Garret Currier vs. CH’s Peter Stein.

Currier took the opening set convincingly 6-1, but Stein had a surprise for him in the second. He used a patient style and deep returns to keep Currier off-balance and frustrated while building up a 4-1 lead.

But Currier regrouped, broke back twice on Stein, and won five straight games to ice it.

“After 2-0, I could tell he was frustrated and I started coming back, but when I had a game point when I was up 4-3 and he won, that kind of changed things for me,” said Stein.

Just another do-it-the-hard-way win for the Capers.

“The operative term for this team is battle,” said Strout. “There were probably three or four changes in momentum in the last couple games alone. It just shows you how important every single game – every single point – is.”

Strout will get no argument on that point from ‘Jammers coach Chris Walker-Spencer.

“If we get most of the breaks today, maybe we can win by as much as 4-1,” he said.