Team moved on to state championship at UMO’
One Caribou tennis team advanced to the Class B North regional final, while the other fell just short.
The fourth-seeded Viking boys, after beating No. 5 Winslow in the quarterfinals Thursday, 5-0, and knocking off No. 1 John Bapst in the semifinals Saturday, 3-2, earned the right to play No. 2 Camden Hills in yesterday’s championship match, schedule at the University of Maine at Orono. Both teams enter with overall records of 13-1.
The Caribou girls, ranked No. 1, blanked No. 8 Erskine Academy Thursday in quarterfinal action before succumbing to No. 4 Camden Hills at home Friday, 3-2. It was the first loss of the season for the Vikings after having won 13 in a row.
The boys’ team had lost to John Bapst in a regular season match on May 21, but bounced back for a victory played at the indoor facility in Hampden Saturday.
Caribou’s losses came in first and third singles, with Ethan Plourde and Emerson Duplissie-Cyr coming up short in their matches. However, the No. 2 doubles team of Austin Cheplic and Gabriel Rand won big, and after the No. 1 doubles team of Austin Scott and Bailey Griffeth lost its first set in a tiebreaker, they rallied.
“We knew Alec Cyr’s match in second singles was pivotal and after he won his first set, the doubles team told me after that first set that no way they were going to lose,” said Caribou coach John Habeeb. “They played great.”
Scott and Griffeth went on to win, 6-4, 6-3, and Cyr took the second in a tiebreaker that ended 10-8, giving the Vikes the upset win.
In the girls’ semifinal, both Conner Spencer and Ashley Matlock earned relatively easy straight set victories in their singles matches, but a hobbled Gabrielle Marquis was beaten by Jana Spieker in first singles, 6-1, 6-2.
Despite each Caribou doubles teams earning first-set wins in their matches, Camden Hills came from behind to pull out wins to advance to the championship, where they played undefeated Waterville on Tuesday at UM-Orono.
“It was a hard loss to take,” Habeeb said, “but we had two players (Marquis and doubles player Danielle Hanson) battling injuries and it made it tough playing on back-to-back days. Conner and Ashley played very well in their singles matches, but it wasn’t enough.”
