PI tennis teams reach post-season
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
PRESQUE ISLE — Both Wildcat tennis teams earned the right to compete in the Eastern Maine Class B playoffs.
The PI boys, ranked eighth with an 8-4 record, hosted No. 9 Belfast (7-5) in a preliminary match held Tuesday. The ’Cat girls, at 5-7, garnered the 11th and final seed and traveled to Hermon to take on the No. 6 Hawks, also on Tuesday.
The quarterfinal round is scheduled for Thursday. A win by the Wildcat boys against Belfast would allow them to travel to take on top-seed and undefeated Ellsworth, while if the PI girls were able to upset Hermon, the next opponent would be 10-2 Ellsworth, the third seed in the division.
The semifinals are set for Saturday and the EM finals will be played next Wednesday, June 6 at Colby College in Waterville.
To wrap up the regular season, Presque Isle took on Fort Kent last Wednesday. The boys scored a 4-1 win as Connor Shaw and Drew Barrett won their singles matches and the doubles teams of Chris Carroll-Quinn Graves and Mike Michaud-Freeman Short also came out on top. No. 2 singles player Osman Castro suffered PI’s lone loss of the afternoon.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
SARAH GILSON of the PI Wildcats, right, puts her arm around doubles partner Hilary Boucher during a break between points at Saturday’s PVC tournament held at Caribou High School. 
The Wildcat girls were beaten by the Warriors, 3-2. Notching victories for PI were the No. 1 doubles team of Sara Gilson and Hilary Boucher and the No. 2 doubles team of Jenna Hallett and Chelsey Carroll. All three ’Cat singles players, Dani Wolland, Kayla Girardin and Melissa Carson, came out on the short end of their matches.
In the state singles tournament held at Colby College Friday, after drawing a bye in the first round, Shaw was beaten in the “ Round of 32” by Alex Henny of Scarborough, 6-0, 6-0. He was the only PI player to qualify for the tourney.
Presque Isle did have entrants in Saturday’s Penobscot Valley Conference doubles tournament held in Caribou. For the boys, Short and Graves teamed up and fell in the opening round to John Bapst’s Quest Teichman and Josiah Simko, 9-7, while Barrett and Carroll were beaten by Mount Desert Island’s Woofie Kaiser and Kyle Greaves, 8-2.
Gilson and Boucher were able to win their first-round match in the girls tourney, beating Stephanie Parent and Kate Chow of John Bapst, 8-4, but they then fell to MDI’s Madeline Brown and Caroline Cook, 8-6.
Hallett and Carroll lost in round one to Olivia Mora and Sarah Shelton of Ellsworth, 8-5.
