MDI’s Jameson Weir plays a ball during his doubles match win over Ellsworth May 12. “It’s always nice to smoke Ellsworth,” said the junior after the Trojans won the boys match overall 5-0.
MDI’s Jameson Weir plays a ball during his doubles match win over Ellsworth May 12. “It’s always nice to smoke Ellsworth,” said the junior after the Trojans won the boys match overall 5-0.
ISLANDER PHOTO BY ZACH LANNING
MDI’s number one singles player, Westy Granholm, warms up before his 8-2 victory over Ellsworth’s number one, Kai Barrett, on May 12.
ELLSWORTH — The Mount Desert Island High School boys’ tennis team has been on a roll this season, serving and volleying their way to a first-place spot in the Class B North Heal Point Standings with a 9-1 record.
The team’s latest stretch of wins began with a 5-0 demolition of Ellsworth High School on May 12. The Trojan’s top two singles players, Westy Granholm and Max Friedlander, defeated Ellsworth’s Kai and Koa Barrett by a score of 8-2 in each of their separate matches. Ellsworth’s number three singles player, Owen Frank, tested MDI’s Treyan Nelson for a while, but ultimately fell to Nelson 8-4.
Doubles pair Owen Kelly and Bowdoin Allen defeated Ellsworth’s Sam Kaplan and Silas Montigny 8-2 while MDI’s Jameson Weir and Evan Ankrom beat Luke Perry and Pablo Little-Seibold 8-0.
“It feels good to win, as always,” said Ankrom after his doubles match victory. “We all just love playing tennis, so we’re just out here having fun and we’re getting some wins along the way.”
The senior recently switched from playing in singles matches for the Trojans to playing on the team’s number one doubles squad along with Weir. The pair have had to work through some early kinks but have quickly become a strong unit, adding to the formidable lineup that MDI can roll out against opponents.
“There’s definitely a lot more communication moving from singles to doubles,” Ankrom explained. “We have to be on the same page all the time. We’ve been trying out some new things like serve and volley and poaching on the first serve. As long as we stay solid, a lot of the points we lose are us making errors. So, as long as we keep the ball in play, I think we’re going to be really successful this season.”
The Trojans followed up their win over Ellsworth with back-to-back wins over Brewer on Monday and Tuesday of the following week. The results of the team’s match against Old Town on Wednesday were unknown at press time. A rematch against Ellsworth will wrap up the regular season on Monday, May 22, with the preliminary round of the playoffs beginning on Friday, May 26.
A potential rematch with the Eagles may become a reality in the first round of the playoffs depending on the winner of Ellsworth’s match with Hermon later this week. If MDI remains as the one seed, they will face the eight seed, which is currently Hermon, though Ellsworth sits just one seed above the Hawks in the seventh spot.
Before the regular season wraps up, however, a number of Trojans will compete in the MPA State Singles tournament, slated to run May 19-22. Granholm is the highest seeded MDI player in the tournament, slotting in at number seven, while Friedlander will compete as the ninth seed. Ankrom also qualified and will take on Mt. Blue’s Carson Zundel for a chance to move on to the second round.