The Presque Isle boys’ tennis team was able to sneak past Oceanside in the preliminary round of the Eastern Maine Class B playoffs Monday afternoon, earning a date with No. 2 Camden Hills in the quarterfinals.
The Wildcats improved to 9-4 on the season following the 3-2 victory in the match played at UMPI. No. 7 PI relied on its senior singles players to pull out wins over the No. 10 Mariners. Chase Norton won by default over Henry Berry in No. 1 singles, 6-3 and 4-1. In No. 3 singles, Chris Carroll survived a test from Eliah Thorbjornson by winning, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
The Wildcats’ other victory came in No. 1 doubles as Denny Young and Alex Brewer defeated Steven Goodridge and Logan Finnegan, 7-5, 6-2.
PI’s Byron Winslow lost his second singles match to Nate Philbrook, 6-1, 6-0, while the ’Cats’ No. 2 doubles team of Colin Daigle and Isaac Madore fell in straight sets to Kyle Water and Alden Mason, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5).
The Presque Isle girls are scheduled to travel to Foxcroft Academy for a prelim match this afternoon against the Ponies, beginning at 4 p.m. The Lady Wildcats went 7-5 during the regular season to earn the ninth seed in the division. Foxcroft, with an 8-4 record, is seeded eighth.
The winner earns the right to make the trip to Bar Harbor to play No. 1 Mount Desert Island in the quarterfinals.
The Wildcat teams ended the regular season last Tuesday by being swept by Caribou in a match played on the UMPI courts.
The boys fell, 3-2, with PI’s wins coming in first and third singles. Norton notched an 8-5 triumph over Michael Marquis, while Carroll doubled up on Ethan Plourde, 8-4.
Caribou earned the other wins as Brendan Cyr defeated Winslow in second singles, 8-2, while the Vikings’ No. 1 doubles team of Austin Scott and Alec Cyr got past Young and Brewer, 9-7, and the No. 2 duo of Emerson Duplissie-Cyr and Seth Beidelman downed Daigle and Madore, 8-1.
The Viking girls rolled to a 5-0 triumph as Gabrielle Marquis bested Hilary Boucher, 8-1, in first singles; Conner Spencer stopped Michelle Cawley, 8-1, in second singles; and Makayla Bouchard prevailed over Sarah Morneault, 8-2, in third singles.
Doubles matches saw the Caribou combinations of Ashley Matlock-Ciara Richards and Danielle Hanson-Taylor Fournier-Belanger take wins by forfeit.
In the state singles tournament played Friday at Colby College in Waterville, Boucher gained a first-round win over Hampden’s Kelly Martin, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2; but then lost in the second round to No. 12 Vasilisa Mitskevich of Skowhegan, 6-1, 6-0.
Chase Norton was beaten by Windham’s Jordan Crowley in their first-round match, 6-3, 6-1.
