Caribou High School split its state championship team tennis matches on Saturday at Lewiston High School. The Caribou boys captured the Class B boys title and the Caribou girls were runner-up in their competition.
Coach John Habeeb’s Caribou boys used depth to capture their first state championship since 2008.
Freeport (12-4) won the first and second singles matches, but Caribou scored straight-set victories at third singles and in both doubles matches to cap off an undefeated (16-0) season.
Gabe Rand produced the Vikings’ lone singles win, defeating Liam Gould 6-3, 6-3. The first doubles tandem of Bailey Griffeth and Sawyer Deprey emerged from a hard-fought first-set tiebreaker to score a 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 win over Sully Smith and Aaron Rusiecki at first doubles, and Caribou’s Emerson Duplessie and Seth Beidelman topped Evan McKittrick and T.J. Whalen 6-2, 7-5 at second doubles.
Freeport got its first point at second singles as Clay Canterbury defeated Alec Cyr 6-2, 6-1.
With the match decided, the Falcons then got a second win as top seed Wes Goodman edged Parker Deprey 6-4, 6-7 (6-8) and 10-6 in a super-tiebreaker.
The Lincoln Academy girls swept all three singles matches to edge Caribou and secure their first state championship by a 3-2 count in a battle of undefeated teams.
The Eagles’ victory was the 15th straight for a West/South girls regional champion over the East/North representative, and marked the first state title for 16-0 Lincoln Academy.
This match had plenty of star power as all six singles players reached at least the Round of 32 at last month’s state singles championships.
LA’s Caitlin Cass, a state singles semifinalist, defeated Caribou senior Gabrielle Marquis, a quarterfinalist, 6-2, 6-3 at first singles. Emily Harris, a Round of 32 qualifier, topped Ashley Matlock (Round of 16) 6-4, 6-1 at second singles and Fiona Liang topped Hailey Holmquist 6-0, 6-1 at third singles in a battle of players who played in the Round of 32.
Caribou topped Lincoln Academy in both doubles matches, with Madison Stratton and Ciara Richards defeating Sandra Thelander and Anastasiya Oliver 6-4, 6-1 at first doubles and Samantha Tourk and Kyra Thibeault emerging victorious at second doubles over Harmony Ingham and May Halm 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 6-0.
Caribou, which was playing in the state final for the second straight year, finished its season at 15-1.
