3 ’Cats advance in tennis
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
Presque Isle’s Liam Hughes, Kayla Girardin and Sara Gilson have advanced to Saturday’s state singles tennis tournament, to be held at Lewiston High School.
All three went undefeated at the Region I qualifier, held last Tuesday at Caribou High School, earning them the right to compete this weekend.
Hughes drew a first-round bye and then defeated Lucas Grant of Houlton, 8-0, and Jake Gendreau of Madawaska, 6-0, 6-4.
Drew Barrett and Freeman Short also competed for the Wildcats in the boys’ draw. Barrett won his first match over Josh Sullivan of Houlton, 8-2, but then lost to Plourde, 8-4. Short was beaten by Houlton’s Steven Phillips, 8-5, in a first-round match.
For the girls, Girardin had a pair of close matches, but prevailed each time. She downed Lindsey Lavoie of Madawaska, 8-6, before coming from behind to topple Abby Stevens of Fort Kent, 2-6, 6-0, 6-3.
Gilson blanked Emily Collins of Madawaska in her opening match, 8-0, before besting Van Buren’s Parise Rossignol, 6-4, 6-4.
Also competing for the Wildcats was Hilary Boucher. Her first-round opponent, Tessa Winship of Houlton, withdrew. In the next match, Boucher was blanked by Sarah Smith of Calais, 8-0.
The PI tennis teams will wrap up their regular season matches this week and the preliminary round of the Eastern Maine Class B playoffs gets under way Tuesday, May 28.
Heading into the match against the Warriors, the PI girls were in sixth place with their 6-4 record. The ’Cats split matches against Madawaska Thursday and then stopped Old Town twice Saturday.
The Wildcat boys are in eighth place with a 5-5 mark. PI also split with the Owls Thursday before taking a pair from Old Town Saturday.
The PVC doubles tournament is being held Saturday, with the girls playing in Hermon and the boys in Brewer.
