Windham boys’ tennis falls to Marshwood in an unprecedented match

By Matt Pascarella

Windham varsity boys’ tennis played their second match of the regular season against Marshwood at Windham High School on Tuesday, April 29. Windham lost 5-0, but in this unique match four of the five sets were pushed to tiebreakers. Windham players gave their all and played with everything they had.

Windham junior Carter Mathieu hits the ball over the net
during a boy's tennis match against Marshwood on 
Tuesday, April 29 at Windham High School.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

In the single match Windham junior Nolan McPhail won 6-3, lost 1-6 and lost 6-10 in the tiebreaker.

“I knew I could beat him the first set, I felt really good,” said Windham singles player Nolan McPhail, who was recovering from being sick. “By the end of the first set, I was getting really tired and my stomach started hurting. And in the second set I just fell off and lost that one. By the end, I was trying to save my energy, because I knew we were going to tiebreaker; so, during the tiebreaker I was just trying to stay in there, but he outlasted me, it was still a good game, and it was really close. He got more aggressive, and I got more sluggish and that led to me losing, but I still feel I did well. The first-game nerves weren’t there. I had the mindset where it was like ‘I can win this,’ but it’s just not my day.”

Windham senior Zach Noonan lost his first singles set 4-6, won 6-4 and then lost his tiebreaker 10-2.

Carter Mathieu lost 4-6 and 0-6 in his singles sets.

In the doubles matches, juniors Padrick McGuire and Nate Paulding lost 2-6 and won 6-1. They pushed their sets to a tiebreaker and left everything on the court but unfortunately lost 10-4.

“We pushed so hard during the second set,” said McGuire. “We come into the tiebreaker trying to keep momentum, but going so hard in that second set kind of kills you; we’re going to work toward it and we’re better for it. I think they were a good team, they were definitely communicating, in the end they just pulled it through better than we did. We lost a little bit of the communication towards the end because of the exhaustion, and next time, we’ll be ready.”

Paulding said communication was a lot of it, they’ve known each other since like fourth grade; it’s fun playing together. Once you get to the point of losing that first set, it can be really hard to come back, but it can also be really easy. That can help communication and help play. He said he was a little nervous going into the tiebreaker.

Tiebreakers kind of drain Paulding, sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.

Windham seniors Brian Gilheany and Asher Knott lost their first doubles set 2-6, then won 6-7, then lost the tiebreaker 4-7.

“I’ve never lost a 5-0 match that was this close; four out of five going into a tiebreaker, it’s crazy, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Windham varsity boys’ tennis coach Garry Stone. “And in every case, our guys lost the first one but then won the second one – to me that’s showing some grit. They didn’t roll over, they faced some adversity, and they came back. I can’t be upset with the end result because every kid out there gave everything they had. I’m actually very proud of them even though it looks like we got crushed, we all know that we didn’t; it was very close.” <