Caribou juniors Gabrielle Marquis and Alec Cyr have earned top-12 seeds in the upcoming state high school tennis singles tournament.
Marquis, who is seeded for the second consecutive year and made it into the Round of 16 in 2016, is No. 8 for girls. Cyr drew the 11th seed in the boys’ division.
“Gabby and Alec have both worked extremely hard to get state recognition,” said their coach, John Habeeb. “They took numerous trips to Bangor and Fredericton to play indoors and are players who took lessons at an early age and continued to hone their skills in competitive game play throughout the years.”
Marquis will play the winner of the opening round match between Miriah Chapman of PCHS and Cassie Ridge of Brunswick in the Round of 32 on Friday, May 26, at Colby College in Waterville. Cyr takes on the winner of the match between Matt Morse of Camden Hills and Decian Archer of Kennebunk, also in the Round of 32 that same day.
Ashley Matlock of Caribou also drew a first-round bye and awaits the winner of a Round of 48 match between Ellie Hodgkin of Erskine or Aubra Linn of Hampden Academy.
Also on the girls’ side in the Round of 48, Sarah Morneault of Presque Isle matches up against Natalie Tilton of Mattanawcook and Kelly Nicklaus of Caribou squares off against Meredith Kelley of Falmouth.
“Kelly probably has the toughest draw of anybody,” Habeeb said, noting she plays an 8:30 a.m. match and plays again at 12:30 p.m. if she wins the first one.
For the boys, Caribou’s Parker Deprey has an opening-round match against Peter Barry of Portland, Van Buren’s Travis Lebel takes on Zach Flanner of Hampden Academy and Andre Daigle of Presque Isle plays Rudi Schnetzer of Belfast, all in the Round of 48.
All eight Aroostook County players had advanced following the May 13 Region 1 qualifier played in Caribou.
The Rounds of 48 and 32 of the state event will take place Friday, May 26, at Colby College in Waterville and the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals are scheduled for Saturday, May 27, also at Colby.
The semifinals and championship matches will be played Monday, May 29, at Bates College in Lewiston.
