LEWISTON — When Freeport Coach Jay Harper receives the tennis schedule each April, he passes it along to his team. This year, however, he made a few additions.
“I wrote in the dates of the (Class B South) quarterfinals, the semifinals, the finals and the states,” Harper said. “I did that because I felt this team could do it.”
The Falcons proved him correct Thursday at Bates College. Freeport, seeded second, beat No. 5 Cape Elizabeth 4-1 to advance to the state finals Saturday for the first time in school history.
Freeport (12-3) hadn’t even reached a regional final since Harper’s first year in 2001.
“I haven’t done it in a long time,” Harper said about penciling in the playoffs, “but I felt really good about this year and I wanted them to think it, too.”
Also advancing to the state finals were Falmouth in Class A and Waynflete in Class C, both of them top-seeded and unbeaten at 15-0. On Saturday at Lewiston High, Freeport will face Caribou in Class B, Falmouth will play Camden Hills in Class A and Waynflete will meet Mattanawcook Academy in Class C.
In the regular season, Freeport lost only to Waynflete (twice) and Cape Elizabeth, by 3-2 at home after thumping the Capers 5-0 in Cape Elizabeth.
Aaron Rusiecki, who plays first doubles with Sullivan Smith, was one of the two missing Freeport regulars in the earlier loss to Cape Elizabeth (9-6).
“We were definitely confident but we knew they would come to fight,” Rusiecki said. “We had to be on our A game.”
Both doubles matches stretched to three sets, but Rusiecki and Smith delivered the clincher with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory after Clay Canterbury and Liam Gould won in straight sets at second and third singles. Wes Goodwin completed the singles sweep at No. 1 without dropping a game.
Sam Berman and Sam Roberts of Cape Elizabeth rallied to win 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 at second doubles to briefly make it 2-1 in the overall match.
“It’s surreal right now,” Canterbury said, “but we’ve got to keep pushing. It’s very important to maintain calm and stay hydrated, and not treat this like it was the final. We’ve still got another match to play.”
Andy Strout, whose Cape Elizabeth team was bidding to reach the state final for the 22nd time, wasn’t sure how this season would end after losing five of last year’s top seven players.
“I had no idea,” he said, “but these guys came together, worked hard all year long, and I think we peaked at the end.”
In Class A, Falmouth rode the singles dominance of Nick Forester, Alex Klemperer and Matthew Ray to straight-set victories by a combined 36-6. Matt Adamowicz and Calvin Spencer were equally efficient at first doubles (6-0, 6-3). At second doubles, Jake Leavitt and Nick Shapiro survived four match points before completing the sweep with a 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (10) victory over Nico Sacco and John Moran of No. 2 Portland (13-2).
“I was very pleased,” Falmouth Coach Bob McCully said. “I knew they had good doubles.”
Sacco was one of the six Portland seniors who graduated Wednesday and spent most of Saturday night at a Project Graduation celebration.
“It was a good run,” said Bulldogs Coach James Siegel. “For a team that has no year-round players, I think we did quite well.”
In Class C, No. 1 Waynflete set the stage for an 11th straight state title by dispatching No. 2 Hall-Dale (11-3) by a 5-0 score.
The Flyers – with Thorne Kieffer, Jacob Green and Nick Wagg in singles, and Aiden Kieffer, Ben Adey, Shuhao Liu and Cooper Sherman in doubles – won 60 of 63 games.
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