Caribou’s Michael Marquis, Ethan Plourde and Gabrielle Marquis earned trips to the state singles tennis tournament later this month after winning two matches apiece in the regional qualifier held in Caribou Saturday.
It will be Michael Marquis’ second trip to the state event. He beat Isaiah Littleton of Houlton, 8-2, in the opening round before ousting Van Buren’s Thomas Lajoie in the qualifying round, 6-1, 6-2.
Plourde was the No. 5 seed, besting Luke Gendreau of Madawaska, 8-2, before upsetting Houlton’s Christian Crane, the fourth seed, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, to claim a bid.
Gabrielle Marquis, a freshman, was the No. 2 seed for the girls and moved on thanks to an 8-0 blanking of Lindsey Gendreau of Van Buren and 6-0, 6-0 set wins over Tessa Winship of Houlton.
The three will play in the state tourney at Colby College in Waterville May 30 and if any are victorious that day, June 1.
Also competing for Caribou were Brendan Cyr, Makaya Bouchard and Conner Spencer.
Cyr was seeded third and won his opening match over Brandon Sytulek of Van Buren, 8-0, before falling to No. 6 Chase Norton of Presque Isle, 6-1, 6-4.
Bouchard shut out Caitlin Gray of Fort Kent, 8-0, but then lost to top-seed Courtney Parent of Van Buren, 6-3, 6-2. Spencer beat Fort Kent’s Brooke Jandreau, 8-1, and then lost to PI’s Hilary Boucher, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.
In team play, the Viking boys moved to a perfect 8-0 after blanking Madawaska Monday. Marquis and Cyr did not surrender a single game while sweeping their singles matches, while Austin Scott and Austin Cheplic prevailed in first doubles and Emerson Duplissie-Cyr and Seth Beidelman collaborated for the victory in second doubles. Third singles resulted in a double forfeit.
Caribou had also beaten Fort Kent and Houlton in matches played last week. The Vikings are currently in third place in the Eastern Maine Class B standings.
The Caribou girls marched to their seventh consecutive win by handing Madawaska at 5-0 defeat. Marquis, Spencer and Ashley Matlock all blanked their opponents in singles. The duo of Ciara Richards and Danielle Hanson was an easy winner in No. 1 doubles, as were Taylor Fournier-Belanger and Kyra Thibeault in second doubles.
The Vikings, in sixth place in the Heal Point standings for EM Class B, had also beaten Fort Kent and Houlton in dual matches last week.
Caribou has another busy week ahead. The team hosts Presque Isle this afternoon, travels to Bangor Saturday to play a full match against Old Town and complete a suspended match against John Bapst and wraps up its regular season Tuesday at Presque Isle.
