Fineman lifts MDI; GSA, Lewiston win Trojans top Vikings for Class B title

WATERVILLE – The lot of a singles tennis player is quite lonely, with nothing else to lean on but your own skills and your own mental toughness.

Paul Fineman carried that individual weight while playing second singles for Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor during Wednesday’s Eastern Maine Class B team championships at Colby College.

But before he left the court, he also carried the weight of his entire team, and did so successfully as he won a final-set tiebreaker in the deciding match as No. 2 MDI edged previously unbeaten Caribou 3-2 for its second straight regional title.

“Once I saw that it looked like our doubles could do the job, I had a sense that it would come down to Paul,” said MDI coach Bob Christie. “I told him after the set, ‘you’re the captain,’ and this [scenario] is what kids talk about, and the fact he won in a tiebreaker makes it even more heroic.”

It turned out to be a day of successful title defenses. Lewiston defeated Bangor 4-1 to win its fifth straight Eastern A crown, while George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill topped Orono 3-2 to claim the Eastern C crown for the second consecutive year and fifth time in the last six years.

In Class B, top-ranked Caribou (14-1) took a 2-1 lead on straight-set victories by top singles player Shane Belanger (6-2, 6-0 over Noah Bracken) and unbeaten Casey Lancaster (6-0, 6-2 over Jamie Thormann) at third singles.

Those were countered by a victory at first doubles by MDI?s James Fineman and Joe Richardson, who edged Taylor Jepsen and Spencer McElwain 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).

That left the second singles and second doubles to be decided in three-set matches. Both looked good for Caribou early.

The Vikings’ second doubles team of Caleb Rosser and Keegan Wakana moved out to a 3-0 lead with a break point for 4-0, while Caribou’s Patrick Savage also scored an early service break for a 2-1 edge over Paul Fineman.

But George Loftus and Ian Campbell of 13-2 MDI then won five straight games over Rosser and Wakana before winning the third set 6-4 to tie the match.

Only Fineman and Savage were left to finish after splitting their first two sets. Both saved match – and team championship – points late in the third before Fineman used a service break to force a final tiebreaker.

Savage won the first two points before Fineman won four straight and six of the next for a 6-3 lead. Savage fought off the first match point, but Fineman used a drop shot to induce Savage to hit the ball into the net and end the match.

“Usually my game plan is to smash the ball back, and I was hitting it deep,” said Fineman of the third set. “I realized that to stay even with him I could just rally it back, but if I wanted to win I had to take the chance and go to the net.”

The decisive moments of the Class C final also involved a tiebreaker.

GSA (15-0) had taken a 1-0 lead when top seed Cooper Mor topped Orono’s Nate Peterson 6-0, 6-2. Second seed Julian Davis also had a comfortable lead at the time, but the Eagles’ first doubles tandem of Henry Owen and Dillon Morris was locked in a tough battle with Orono?s Dan Ohno and Emmitt Harrity.

Owen and Morris won the first set 6-2, but the Harrity and Ohno forced a second-set tiebreaker, in which GSA overcame two Orono set points before finally prevailing 9-7.

Davis then capped off a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Paul Ohno, and GSA was a champion again.

“It was pretty intense, especially starting out behind,” said Morris of the tiebreaker. “It was cool to get back ahead and win, especially when it’s not just at seven [points], but it keeps going beyond.

“It?s hard, it’s tough,” added Owen, who with Morris had lost twice to Orono in the regular season. “It’s not so bad if you’re not in the Eastern Maines, but there’s a lot of pressure. We really didn’t want to go to a third set, because we hadn’t beaten these guys before.”

Orono (12-3) got victories from Nate Curtis at third singles and the No. 2 doubles team of Jordan Dudley and Jan Thoene, both in three-set matches.

In Class A, Bangor was bidding to become the first team since the Rams won the 2002 state championship to win an Eastern Maine title other than Lewiston.

But the second-seeded Blue Devils (14-0) swept the singles matches and also won at first doubles to knock No. 1 Bangor (14-1) from the unbeaten ranks.

Lewiston’s undefeated first doubles tandem of Devyn Cote and Matt Letourneau won the first completed match, defeating Bangor’s Ricky Segal and Aaron Taft 6-1, 6-2.

Second seed Mike Sarrazin, who like Lewiston top seed Mike Butler advanced to the quarterfinals of this year’s state singles tournament, then gave the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead by defeating Bangor?s Will Cutshall 6-1, 6-2.

Butler, a sophomore, clinched the title for the Blue Devils with a hard-fought 6-2, 6-3 victory over Adam Bernstein.

The teams split the final two matches, with Bangor’s second doubles team of Matt Cronan and Ian McDonnell defeating Lewiston’s Andrew Marden and Keagan Cote 6-4, 6-4, and Lewiston third seed Ben McDonough rallying in the second set to remain unbeaten with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Bangor’s Zak Kubetz.

“We played well, but we knew we were coming in against a very tough team,” said Bangor coach Cindi Howard. “We really hadn’t played a team of this caliber until now.”