LEWISTON — The top seeds advanced to the second day of the MPA state singles tennis tournament after making quick work of their opponents Friday at Bates College.
Edward Little’s Mya Vincent, the girls No. 1 seed, defeated Camden Hills’ Charlotte Delehey 6-0, 6-0 in the second round, while the boys No. 1, Falmouth’s Xander Barber, beat Mt. Blue’s James Stinson by the same score.
Vincent said she wanted to stay focused and limit her errors against Delehey.
“Being consistent was what I needed to do throughout the whole match,” Vincent said. “If I hit it hard, it was either going to go wide or long. So it was all about consistency.”
Vincent said Delehey hit some shots that gave her some trouble.
“She had some good shots,” Vincent said. “Some of them were too good, I had to clap for her.”
Barber, the eighth-ranked player in the country, said he used his strengths against Stinson.
“I went out there and played my game,” Barber said. “I had a good serve, and hopefully we get through these next few rounds and some tougher matches in the semis and finals.”
Barber will play at Dartmouth next year.
Mt. Blue coach Zac Conlogue said Stinson did his best against the top-ranked player in New England.
“He played a very special player — he got a few points off of him,” Conlogue said. “Xander is a very good player though, and I think he will do some good things in this tournament.”
Stinson battled in his opening-round match against Harrison Withee of Hampden Academy. Stinson won the first set 6-1, lost the second 2-6, and won the third set tiebreaker 1-0 (7).
“He came out hot; we had the early match at 8 o’clock, 6-1 first set, and he was playing awesome,” Conlogue said. “(He) kind of went away from the game plan a little bit, and the third set happened. He got through the first round, he’s only a junior, so it was a good experience for him.”
UPSETS
Edward Little’s Jonah Chen, the 12th-seed, was one of the seeded boys players to lose in the second round after having a first-round bye.
Charles Segal of Greely defeated Chen 6-3, 6-1. It was the second time this season Segel has defeated Chen. The two met in a preseason scrimmage.
“He ran into a tough opponent,” Edward Little boys coach Greg Vincent said. “He had a better game today, and I think Jonah was disappointed. We still have the team playoffs coming up, and one more regular season match. I think he’s still looking forward to that, but I think he wanted to at least get to the Round of 16.”
Greg Vincent said Chen started slow, and Segal didn’t allow Chen to get back into the match. Vincent added that Segal was more consistent throughout the match.
Yarmouth’s Andre Violette defeated Sam Poth, the eighth seed from John Bapst, in the second round.
Violette won the first set 6-4, Poth took the second set 6-4, and Violette won the third set tiebreaker 1-0 (2).
“Going into it, I thought I could do it,” Violette said of pulling off the upset.
In the first round, Violette had a three-set match in which he defeated Philip Delle Karth of Thornton Academy 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (5).
The other upsets were Henry Kerr of Waynflete beating ninth-seeded Max Friedlander of Mount Desert Island 6-1 in straight sets. Gabe Berman defeated the No. 11 seed Isaac Swan of Medomak Valley 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (7)
Arianna Cote of Thornton Academy defeated the girls No. 11th Charlotte Williamson of Falmouth 6-2, 6-3.
OTHER AREA PLAYERS
Edward Little boys lost its other two players in the first round. Cape Elizabeth’s Gabe Berman defeated Calvin Vincent 6-2, 6-0, and Mt. Blue’s Diego Vazquez ousted Luke Pawlina 6-1, 6-2.
“They ran into tough opponents,” Greg Vincent said. “Calvin played pretty well, he just ran into a better player today. Same with Luke, he didn’t have his best game, but he played well, too.”
Mt. Blue lost Carson Zundel early, losing to Evan Ankrom of Mount Desert Island 6-1 in straight sets. Zundel had an elbow injury that hampered him earlier this season reappear this week.
“With that elbow, he couldn’t get anything going today,” Conlogue said. “His serve was off and he had a hard time getting into long rallies. He showed life every now and again, but he couldn’t sustain it long enough.”
Vazquez lost his second-round match to 10th-seeded Quinn Federie of Yarmouth 6-1, 6-0.
Logan Tardiff of Waterville earned a walkover win against Mountain Valley’s Owen Sevigny.
On the girls side, Lewiston’s Emma Omiecinski was the only other area player besides Mya Vincent to reach the second round.
Omiecinski defeated Ashlyn Bouchard of Caribou 1-6, 7-6, 1-0 (4) in the opening round, then fell to Waterville’s Karin Zimba 6-3, 6-0 in the second.
“It took me a couple of games to figure out her play style,” Zimba said of Omieceinski. “Once I did, I started adjusting how she plays and it reflected in my game.”
Zimba said Omieceinski made her move around and had a lot of short shots.
In her first match, Zimba beat Mt. Blue’s Gracie Ross 6-1, 6-0.
Adea Cobaj of Yarmouth defeated Winthrop’s Sophia Blanco 6-4, 6-3. Anna Drake of John Bapst took down Spruce Mountain’s Aubrey Kachnovich 6-3 in straight sets.
ADEY OVERCOMES CRAMPS
Waynflete’s Jeff Adey was already trailing in the second set 4-3 of his second-round match against Finn Castucci of Hampden Academy. Then his legs started to cramp.
Adey, though, battled through the pain and battled back to win the set 7-5. He took the first set 6-4.
“Every point was a grind, I could feel it,” Adey said. “I got some fluids in me, and he was really nice to come over and help stretch me out. I appreciated that.”
Castucci wasted little time before going to the other side of the court to tend to Adey until the trainer got to the court.
Adey said his serve was working before his legs cramped, but had to adjust it afterwards.
“I stopped serving as hard, as I wasn’t jumping and I wasn’t making trips to the net as much, so I could stay at the baseline to try not to cramp up again,” Adey said.
WIND PLAYS A FACTOR
While it was sunny throughout the afternoon, the wind played a factor in some of Friday’s matches.
“It was very windy; it was kind of brutal trying to figure out where the ball was going to land every time,” Mya Vincent said.
Mya Vincent said that when the wind died down, she was able to move around and drop some shots in.
Barber said the wind played a small role in his match.
“The wind made it tough to serve,” Barber said. “It’s much nicer playing inside, but it’s not bad today. It’s sunny out and as good as you can get in Maine.”
The courts provided protection for Zimba in her matches.
“The facilities blocked the wind pretty well,” Zimba said. “It wasn’t too bad.”
SATURDAY’S SLATE MOVED UP
The competitions resume in the morning at Bates. The start time has been moved up to 8:15 a.m. in an effort to beat the rain that’s slated to arrive in the afternoon.
Saturday’s action was originally slated to begin at 9 a.m.
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