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| Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg Erin Patton, left, has a drink of water and converses with doubles partner Alexa Massey during a changeover in Saturday’s PVC tournament held in Caribou. The Viking duo placed third in the event. |
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
CARIBOU – The girls tennis team at Caribou High School has grabbed the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Eastern Maine Class B playoffs.
The squad, coached by John Habeeb, posted another undefeated record after last Tuesday’s 5-0 victory over Houlton in its regular season finale. The 12-0 Vikes dominated the Shires by winning all five matches by 8-0 scores. Carlee Pinette, Ashley Richards and Katie Keaton were singles winners, while the doubles teams of Alexa Massey-Erin Patton and Clara Collins-Makayla Bouchard also came out on top.
Waterville is also perfect at 12-0 and gained the No. 1 seed, 7.8 tournament index points ahead of Caribou in the final Heal Point standings which were released last week.
In a quarterfinal round match expected to take place Thursday, the Vikings will take on the winner of the preliminary playoff between Foxcroft Academy, the No. 10 seed with a 4-8 record, and Oceanside of Rockland, ranked seventh at 8-4.
A Caribou win will allow the team to host a semifinal match, which is tentatively scheduled for Saturday. The Eastern Maine championship is at 10 a.m. next Wednesday, June 6 at Colby College in Waterville, with the state final also to be played at Colby Saturday, June 9.
Habeeb’s Viking boys team missed out on the post-season after winning just two of 12 matches on the campaign. Caribou, which placed 14th out of 16 teams in the division, closed out the year with a 4-1 loss to Houlton. The lone winner for the Vikes was Lucien Caverhill, who downed Cody Woods, 8-5. Mike Marquis and Tyler Willey were defeated in singles matches, while Zach Gorence-Dustin Coty fell in No. 1 doubles and Caribou forfeited its second doubles match.
In the state singles tournament held Friday and Saturday at Colby College, three Caribou girls players competed, with Ashley Richards making it into the “Round of 16” before being eliminated.
Richards beat Winthrop’s Amber Pritchard in the first round, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, and then downed George Stevens Academy’s Sotherd Steer, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5) before falling 6-0, 6-0 to top-seed Maisie Silverman of Brunswick.
Pinette drew a first-round bye before losing to Brunswick’s Ali Stankiewicz in the next round, 6-1, 6-4.
Keaton was beaten by Wendy Goldman of Hall-Dale in an opening-round match, 6-1, 6-3.
Caribou hosted the Penobscot Valley Conference doubles tournament Saturday and the Viking duo of Massey-Patton took third place.
After drawing a bye, the Massey-Patton combo defeated Ellsworth’s Olivia Mora and Sarah Shelton, 8-3. In the semifinals, the Caribou team was beaten by Jessica Toothaker and Rachel Ball, also of Ellsworth, 9-7, but it then prevailed in the consolation match over Brittany Overlook and Nicole Overlook of Hermon, 8-0.
The Viking girls’ other doubles team, consisting of Collins and Emma Duplissie-Cyr, was beaten by Mount Desert Island’s Dylan Stillman and Allie Stanley, 8-5, in the first round of the event.
The Caribou boys had one team entered, with Gorence and Coty defeated by Evan Toothaker and Alec Toothaker of Ellsworth in the first round, 8-2.
The overall champions were Jessica Toothaker-Ball on the girls’ side and Brandon Albee-Dustin Murphy of Ellsworth for the boys. Fourteen girls teams and 14 boys teams participated.
