Last Tuesday, the Caribou Parks and Recreation Department hosted the County Doubles Tennis Tournament at the Teague Park tennis courts for area youths between the ages of 8-18. More than 50 players representing Caribou, Presque Isle and Van Buren participated.
Contributed photo/Brent Jepson
The Caribou doubles team of Zac Gorence, left, and Tyler Willey was among those in action at last Tuesday’s County Doubles Tennis Tournament held in Caribou. Doubles teams competed in 10-12, 13-15, and 16-18 male/female age brackets by playing eight-game pro sets.
Teams earned two points for every first-place finish and one point for a runner-up finish at the County Singles Tournament (held July 28 at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and Mantle Lake courts) and County Doubles Tennis Tournaments.
Caribou was in the lead after the County Singles Tournament with 10 points. Van Buren was in second with four points, Presque Isle third with three points and Limestone tallied just one point.
At the end of the doubles tourney, Caribou earned seven more points and ended with a final point total of 17. Presque Isle scored seven more points to come in second place with 10 points, while Van Buren finished in third place with eight total points.
This was the 27th consecutive year that Caribou has taken home the team title following the annual youth tennis tournaments.
In the 10-12 girls’ division, six teams had entered the competition. Van Buren’s Parise Rossignol and Alexis Ouellette came out on top in the final by posting a well-played 9-8 (7-5) tie-breaker victory over Hillary Boucher and Jordi Legassie of Presque Isle.
Rossignol and Ouellette won their semi-final match over Gabrielle Marquis and JoJo Fields of Caribou, 8-0, while Boucher and Legassie beat their Presque Isle teammates Jenna Hallett and Lydia Short in a barn burning 9-8 (11-9) tie-break match. Both teams looked sharp and played courageously throughout the beautiful weather, but the tandem of Rossignol and Ouellette would not be denied their first title.
The 10-12 boys’ age bracket had nine teams looking to take home the championship. In the end, it was a Caribou vs. Presque Isle final. Top-seeded Michael Marquis and Ethan Plourde of Caribou cruised in one semi-final over Denny Young and Nathan Rossignol of Presque Isle, 8-0, while second-seeded Chris Carroll and Austin Albert of Presque Isle survived an 8-5 marathon match over Gabe Massey and Dave Smith of Caribou. Plourde and Marquis applied superior skill and strategy to upend Carroll and Albert in a well-played 8-5 final.
Contributed photo/Brent JepsonGabrielle Marquis, right, serves the ball as teammate Jojo Fields watches during the County Doubles Tennis Tournament in Caribou.
There were some surprises in the 13-15 girls’ division as five teams tried to make it to the championship match. Second-seed and last year’s champions Haley Lizotte and Natasha Bourgoin of Van Buren played well but lost in a hard-fought semi-final match to Caribou’s Alexa Massey and Ashley Richards, 8-6. In the other semi-final, top-seeded Carlee Pinette and Katie Keaton of Caribou easily dispatched Michelle Cawley and Sara Gilson of Presque Isle, 8-0. The pair of Pinette and Keaton went on to win the title match by defeating teammates Massey and Richards, 8-3.
The 13-15 boys’ age bracket had a seven teams competing for the championship. It was not a good day for the top two seeded teams as both were beaten in the semi-finals. Top-seeded Ethan LaPlante and Mark Levasseur of Van Buren were upended in one semi by Mike Picard and Conner Shaw of Presque Isle, 8-2. Second-seeded Hayden Dow and Liam Hughes of Presque Isle were also upset in their semi by Brandon Ouellette and Connor Lapierre of Van Buren, 8-5. Picard and Shaw cruised in the final match by overwhelming Ouellette and Lapierre, 8-5.
Only three teams competed in the 16-18 girls’ division. However, the finals pitted familiar high school tennis rivals from Caribou and Presque Isle against each other and offered one of the most intriguing final matches of the entire tournament.
Presque Isle’s No. 2-seeded Brittany Bearden and Allison Dean outlasted Van Buren’s Rebekah Levesque and Tonya Godin, 8-3, to earn a place in the finals, while No. 1-seeded Jenna Selander and Laura Collins of Caribou had a bye into the final match of the day. What a match this was as you didn’t want to “turn the channel.” Bearden and Dean got off to a roaring start. They jumped ahead of the Caribou team by rattling off six of the first seven games played to take a 6-1 lead. However, the team from Caribou took a page out of “Rocky III” and grabbed the “eye of the tiger” to win the next seven games in a row to pull off an unbelievable 8-6 come-from-behind victory.
The boys’ 16-18 age bracket had only four entries but had several talented players competing for the title. Second-seeded Matt Vick and David Levasseur of Van Buren survived a tough semi-final match with Nick Willey and Phil Smith of Caribou, 8-5, before facing top-seeded Ben Picard and Caleb Mathers of Presque Isle in a much-anticipated final. Mathers and Picard made their final bid after vanquishing Nate LaPointe and Derick Rossignol of Van Buren, 8-0. Presque Isle took the final with an 8-3 score.
Other players for Caribou were Erin Patton, Emily Patton, Mitchell St. Peter, Gabe Rand, Brandon Manter, Matt Theriault, Seth Beidelman, Bailey Griffeth, Zachary Gorence, Tyler Willey, Jacob Plavnik, and Ronald Lund. The Caribou Parks and Recreations Department’s tennis teams are coached by 27-year veteran John Habeeb and assistant coaches Casey Lancaster and Nick Willey.
