Doubles duo lifts GSA girls to victory Eagles boys beat Orono again

VEAZIE – All matches are created equal in team tennis, meaning the second doubles competition that often involves younger competitors just breaking into the varsity ranks has just as much meaning as a clash of top singles players.

And thanks to the play of second doubles teammates Julie Paine and Addie Bugbee on Monday, the George Stevens Academy girls team remained undefeated with a 3-2 victory over Orono.

It was the Blue Hill school’s second win of the spring over Orono, the two-time defending Eastern Maine Class C champion that defeated GSA in last year’s regional final.

But it wasn’t clinched until the final moments, as Paine and Bugbee withstood a comeback by Brigida Garcia and Michelle Georgia to earn an 8-6 victory in the final match of the day.

With both teams battling a challenging wind, Paine and Bugbee won three straight games to take a 7-4 lead then Garcia and Georgia rallied to win back-to-back games before the GSA tandem finally broke serve to win the match.

“When you have two equal teams, whoever has the strongest second doubles is going to wind up winning, and the last couple of times we’ve had that,” said GSA coach Tim Farrar, whose team faces another tough test Wednesday against Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor.

“I think both teams are lucky. I had 28 girls come out for tennis this year and I think [Orono coach] Dean [Armstrong] had close to that, so both schools have a strong JV program and we’re both trying to come up with the strongest second doubles team we can. Whoever does is going to wind up going pretty far, and luckily enough so far we’ve been able to squeak two wins out.”

As in its season-opening win over Orono, GSA used victories in both doubles matches and one singles match to outlast the Red Riots.

Second singles player Winslow Brokaw pulled away from Orono’s Kate Weatherbee for an 8-4 victory, while the first doubles tandem of Hillary Lawsing and Annika Treyball topped Megan Quintal and Margaret Payne 8-1.

Orono (4-2) got victories from top seed Katie Foley and Maridawn Lamb at third singles. Foley defeated Brittany Olivari 8-2, while Lamb bested Morgan Springer 8-2.

“The last couple of years we’ve generally had better doubles than Orono and they’ve had better singles than we have,” said Farrar. “So we have to try to eke out a win out of the singles, and it’s continued that way so far this year.”

While the final score was the same, there was no drama in the boys match, as GSA stayed unbeaten by sweeping the singles matches in its 3-2 victory.

This also was a rematch of last year’s Eastern C final, which was won by GSA.

The Eagles’ singles contingent of junior Cooper Mor and seniors Julian Davis and Austin Dobson each remained undefeated individually.

Mor, who reached the state singles round of 32 last year, won the last four games of his match to pull away from Orono’s Nate Peterson 8-3.

“I double-faulted more than I would have liked and missed some shots that I shouldn’t have, but I hit some OK ones, too,” he said. “I played better toward the end of the match.”

Davis topped Orono freshman Paul Ohno 8-1 at second singles, while Dobson defeated Dennis Weyer 8-3.

“Cooper was one last year, Julian was three and Austin was four and played some third singles, too,” said GSA coach Mark Hurvitt. “It’s just the fact that they’ve been playing singles for a couple of years, and they’ve been playing pretty well this year.”

As it did earlier this spring, Orono swept the doubles matches. Parker Hall and Nate Curtis topped Henry Owen and Dillon Morris 8-5 at first doubles, while Emmitt Harrity and Dan Ohno powered past Max Reiter and Michael Senter-Zapata 8-1.