WATERVILLE — Based on the results of Lewiston and Brunswick’s two recent girls’ tennis matches, two things looked like a safe bet in Wednesday’s Class A East championship.
One, the final score almost certainly would be 3-2, as it was when the Blue Devils won the collision that ended the regular season, and when the Dragons returned the favor in the KVAC title tilt.
And two, if the Devils were destined to win the championship, the sophomore second doubles tandem of Lizzy Michaud and Chloe Morin probably wouldn’t be the ones to swing it in Lewiston’s direction. Gillian Doehring and Sabina Smith beat them twice in straight sets.
“We lost the first two against them by a lot, but we just came out there and said, you know what, we’re going to have fun and play our best, and that’s what we did,” Michaud said. “We didn’t look at it as a really hard thing. We just had fun.”
In a stunning turn of events, Michaud and Morin breezed to Lewiston’s easiest win of the hot afternoon, 6-1, 6-3. Kyleigh Letourneau and Alanna Taylor backed it up with singles triumphs to give the Devils their 20th regional title and first since 2011.
Brunswick was seeking its fourth consecutive championship.
“Both Ron (Manter, Brunswick coach) and I both knew it was going to be a battle. It was going to be 3-2 either way,” Lewiston coach Anita Murphy said. “My second doubles just played unbelievably well. They came back. We worked on some of the strategies that I thought they should use.”
Lewiston (15-0 in regulation matches) will face either Falmouth or Scarborough in the state meet Saturday on its home court at LHS. The match starts at 1 p.m.
Michaud and Morin’s resurgence was doubly important in light of Maddi Stoll and Katherine Kunhardt’s 6-3, 7-5 victory for Brunswick in first doubles over Claudia Dionne and Maddie LeBlond. That was the bellwether match in each previous meeting, with the winners’ team eking out the overall victory.
After a three-day rest due to graduation and rain, Lewiston practiced indoors Tuesday. Ron Chicoine, Murphy’s son and the former Lewiston boys’ coach, showed up and put the sophomore tandem through a strategic session.
“It was a lot of net drills. That made me feel more aggressive, because I used to be really scared,” Morin, who is in her first season as a varsity player and only her second year ever playing tennis, said. “I just said I’m going to go for it.”
The idea was for Morin to use her natural ability to lob the ball, keeping Doehring and Smith on the run near the baseline.
That made them susceptible to Michaud’s overhand smash, which combined with her strong serve was a potent combination.
“Lizzy is such an aggressive player that she attacks, and she was pretty good at placing,” Murphy said. “They both played equally well today. Usually Lizzy is the one who will be more aggressive and have to carry.”
Murphy made sure the prosperity didn’t get into her young team’s head. She cautioned Michaud and Morin during the changeover between sets to clear the slate and play as if the match were starting from scratch.
A late service break allowed them to put it away. Three times during the match, Morin and Michaud trailed love-40 in a game and rallied to win it.
“What I saw out of Chloe today was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I am extremely happy,” Michaud said.
Taylor’s two previous wins over Liz Day didn’t come easily, and she, too, fell behind love-40 in the opening game.
She roared back to win that one, breezed 6-1 in the opening set and led 3-0 in the second before Day retaliated and forced a tiebreaker.
“She’s a really good player,” Taylor, a junior, said of Day. “When I get annoyed, she knows how to work with me to get her point.”
The last four games of the set ended in service breaks.
Taylor served for the match at both 5-4 and 6-5, earning the second opportunity when a nifty drop shot nicked the tape and fell in.
Day warded off a match point to pull even at six. Taylor then survived set point in the tiebreak before escaping, 8-6.
“Alanna likes to scare me. Sometimes she’ll get a really slow start. Sometimes she’ll lose the first set and win the next two,” Murphy said. “I felt confident that she was going to pull it out, but momentum was kind of on the Day girl’s side. She was getting that feeling.”
Taylor’s win left it up to Letourneau, whose match ran behind the two on either side of her due to lengthy rallies and a first set that went the distance.
She won the first five points of a tiebreaker and cruised from there, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, to clinch the championship for Lewiston.
“This is my last sports season at Lewiston High School, and I finally got my title. I’m so happy,” Letourneau said. “It was one point at a time. I needed to get every single point. Every point is so critically important.”
Murphy used her coaching session after the opening set to tell Letourneau to calm down.
“I could tell she was tight. I could see it in her body language. She needed to relax, and she did,” Murphy said. “I think the tiebreaker kind of helped a little bit, gave her a little positive.”
It was a race between Murphy and Letourneau to get on their smartphones and text the player’s family the good news. Letourneau’s parents recently moved to Virginia Beach, where she will be joining them June 16 to attend Old Dominion University.
First singles between Maddi Roy of Lewiston and Kira Wolpow of Brunswick was a scintillating, 2-hour, 20-minute marathon. Wolpow won 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Taylor remained undefeated on the season with her victory. Letourneau has only one loss.
Lewiston also won its most recent state title in 2011, concluding a streak of six.
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