UMA wraps up their season against Thomas College
October 6, 2024
The UMA women's tennis took to the courts on Sunday afternoon to play their 1st ever home match against Thomas College. The match was held at Kennebec Valley Tennis Association, which is the home site of the UMA tennis teams for practices and matches. The turnout for support for the team was great!! "When we looked over to the lobby of the tennis center, all the windows were packed with people watching the match", said Head Coach Alex Stern. Much improved since the 1st time UMA faced Thomas College, the overall match was much closer than what the final score reflected. Thomas College won the match 7-2, but UMA gave them all they could handle.
The 1st doubles team representing UMA was Hannah Roberts and Shaelyn Carter who faced Thomas's doubles team of Keira Gilman and Libby Forgues. The first couple of games were back and forth through the set. UMA got off to an early 1-0 lead, but then Thomas came back and took a 2-1 lead. From there it was 2-3, 3-4, 4-5. UMA was hanging on close but then Thomas found a nice rhythm behind some strong hitting and net play from Gilman to pull away and help Thomas win 1st doubles 8-4.
Allie Young playing in the 2nd singles spot for UMA against Lily Daigle from Thomas, knew she was going to be in a battle. The 1st time these two played, it was Allie that won in a 3rd set tiebreak. This time it was more of the same. Allie dropped a tough 1st set where she struggled to get into any kind of solid hitting. It was too many unforced errors from Allie that gave Lily a comfortable 1st set win 3-6. But Allie being the grinder that she is, found another level of play and won the 2nd set 6-2 to force a 3rd set tiebreak. Trying to find a way to keep her energy level up in the tiebreak, Allie kept it close at 5-5, before running out of energy and losing the tiebreak 5-10 to give Lily the win this time for Thomas at 2nd doubles. Asked about her thoughts after the match, Allie had this to say: "Missing almost a week and a half of practice for me was tough. I didn't have the same speed in the 1st set to get to the ball that I usually do. And still being under the weather fighting a case of bronchitis, I was just trying to find ways to ease my breathing any chance I could get."
The 2nd doubles team consisted of UMA players Hayden Hoague and Allie Young who took on Thomas's team of Taylor Juhase and Lily Daigle. Again UMA was right there with Thomas during the first couple of games. Allie Young hitting great shots from the baseline allowing Hayden to finish the point with a volley was happening a lot! And once Hayden found her rhythm from the baseline, then it was Allie also getting some nice looks for the finishing shot at the net. The two of them clicking together was key in keeping the set close, down 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, and 4-5 before the consistent play of Lily and Taylor just was a bit too much for UMA. Allie and Hayden ended up losing the 2nd doubles matchup 4-8 in the end.
In the 3rd doubles matchup, it was UMA's Breanna Davis and Orlane Bognini playing against Thomas's Tracy Lopez and Ceileidh Harnum. The match couldn't have been any closer as it was back and forth the whole set! Breanna and Orlane found a nice chemistry from the beginning of the match and gave Thomas all they could handle. UMA found themself down 7-8 against Thomas and when it mattered found a way to win the game to force a tiebreak at 8-8. In the tiebreak again it was back and forth, but this time Thomas was able to pull away later in the tiebreaker with a 3-6 lead before UMA fought back and took a 7-6 lead...only to see it disappear and lose a heartbreaker 7-9. The tiebreak win gave Thomas the win at 3rd doubles 8-9 and also gave Thomas the overall lead in the match 3 points - 0 points.
At 1st singles, Hanna Roberts again faced Keira Gilman. It was a close matchup the first time these two played back in September, so expectations for another good match did not disappoint! Hannah came out focused and hungry. The whole 1st set was just exchanging games with long rallies and great baseline hitting from both players. Late in the 1st set, Hannah found herself down 5-6 needing to win the next game to force a tiebreak against Keira...and Hannah dug deep and did just that! Forcing the tiebreak at 6-6 gave Hannah a new burst of energy and renewed her focus to keep battling. In a back and forth tiebreak, it was Hannah who ended up coming out with the win 9-7 to end up winning the 1st set 7-6. Going into the 2nd set, Hannah was cool, clam, and focused! Hannah came out and kept her foot on the gas, playing with a lot of confidence and mentally staying strong and focused to win the 2nd set 6-2 to give her a very well earned win for UMA at 1st singles!
At 1st singles, Hanna Roberts again faced Keira Gilman. It was a close matchup the first time these two played back in September, so expectations for another good match did not disappoint! Hannah came out focused and hungry. The whole 1st set was just exchanging games with long rallies and great baseline hitting from both players. Late in the 1st set, Hannah found herself down 5-6 needing to win the next game to force a tiebreak against Keira...and Hannah dug deep and did just that! Forcing the tiebreak at 6-6 gave Hannah a new burst of energy and renewed her focus to keep battling. In a back and forth tiebreak, it was Hannah who ended up coming out with the win 9-7 to end up winning the 1st set 7-6. Going into the 2nd set, Hannah was cool, clam, and focused! Hannah came out and kept her foot on the gas, playing with a lot of confidence and mentally staying strong and focused to win the 2nd set 6-2 to give her a very well earned win for UMA at 1st singles!
Allie Young playing in the 2nd singles spot for UMA against Lily Daigle from Thomas, knew she was going to be in a battle. The 1st time these two played, it was Allie that won in a 3rd set tiebreak. This time it was more of the same. Allie dropped a tough 1st set where she struggled to get into any kind of solid hitting. It was too many unforced errors from Allie that gave Lily a comfortable 1st set win 3-6. But Allie being the grinder that she is, found another level of play and won the 2nd set 6-2 to force a 3rd set tiebreak. Trying to find a way to keep her energy level up in the tiebreak, Allie kept it close at 5-5, before running out of energy and losing the tiebreak 5-10 to give Lily the win this time for Thomas at 2nd doubles. Asked about her thoughts after the match, Allie had this to say: "Missing almost a week and a half of practice for me was tough. I didn't have the same speed in the 1st set to get to the ball that I usually do. And still being under the weather fighting a case of bronchitis, I was just trying to find ways to ease my breathing any chance I could get."
Orlane Bognini playing at 3rd singles and Shaelyn Carter playing at 4th singles were some great matchups as well for UMA. Both players had long points and long games.There were many opportunities to win more games from both Orlane and Shaelyn in their matches, but just weren't as consistent in the end as their opponents. And at 5th singles, Hayden Hoague was trying to figure out the tricky play style from Tracy Lopez that kept Hayden a little off rhythm for the match. In a nice win for UMA though it was at the 6th singles spot where Breanna Davis (UMA) played against Ceileidh Harnum. From the beginning in both sets, Breanna did a great job of putting pressure on early and getting off to a 3-1 lead in both sets. When it got closer, it was nice to get that early lead, because then Breanna was able to hold off Ceileidh to win the match 6-3, 6-3.
Although UMA lost the overall match to Thomas 2-7, in just their 3rd and final match of the season, against an experienced team, UMA has shown the improvement from the 1st time that these two teams faced off and more importantly UMA has shown that they are going to be a force in college tennis for teams moving forward. Head Coach Alex Stern is optimistic about the future of UMA tennis: "Once we get a few more recruits in for next year and bring back the core group from this year, special things are going to happen for the UMA women's tennis team. This group of girls are some of the hardest working and most committed girls I have ever coached. They all want to keep getting better and they all want to be here practicing and playing as much as possible. As a coach, I never have to beg them to practice, they want to put the work in, and that is the atmosphere that I want to keep creating here at UMA."
Here are the match results below:
Thomas defeated UMA 7-2
1st doubles: UMA: Shaelyn Carter and Hannah Roberts lost to Thomas: Keira Gilman and Libby Forgues (4-8)
2nd doubles: UMA: Hayden Hoague and Allie Young lost to Thomas: Taylor Juhase and Lily Daigle (4-8)
3rd doubles: UMA: Breanna Davis and Orlane Bognini lost to Thomas: Tracy Lopez and Ceileidh Harnum (8-9; (tiebreak 7-9))
1st singles: UMA: Hannah Roberts defeated Thomas: Keira Gilman (7-6 (9-7); 6-2)
2nd singles: UMA: Allie Young lost to Thomas: Lily Daigle (3-6; 6-2; 1-0 (5-10))
3rd singles: UMA: Orlane Bognini lost to Thomas: Libby Forgues (1-6; 1-6)
4th singles: UMA: Shaelyn Carter lost to Thomas: Taylor Juhase (2-6; 0-6)
5th singles: UMA: Hayden Hoague lost to Husson: Tracy Lopez (3-6; 1-6)
6th singles: UMA: Breanna Davis defeated vs Thomas: Ceileidh Harnum (6-3; 6-3)