Justin Chaffee reaches the Final Four in Maine Championships

Fryeburg Academy's Justin Chaffee has made it to the Final Four in the Maine State Tennis Championships. Chaffee was one of three Raiders to compete at the championships on Saturday at Bates College and Lewiston High School. Joining Chaffee on the hardcourts were his brother, Chris Chaffee, and Lori Royer, the top ranked girl at Fryeburg Academy.Both tournaments had 40 participants playing in preliminary and first, second and 3rd round matches. The field was reduced to boys and girls state semi-finalists with the final fours and state championship being contested this Thursday, at the Waynflete School tennis center in Portland (12:30pm). Coach Doug Walo was pleased with the play of Justin Chaffee and will be on hand Thursday for the semifinal.The following is a recap of the day for the Raiders. Royer played in a first round match against Katie Morin from Lewiston. She lost 6-0, 7-5 with the second set being a see-saw contest.Chris Chaffee won his first round match 6-1, 6-1 against Greg Whitaker from Presque Isle. That win advanced him to the round of 16 where he faced the No. 8 seed Mike McCrillis from Cheverus. "Mike and Chris are good friends and good competitive rivals," Coach Walo said. "They split the first two sets 7-5 for McCrillis and 6-2 for Chris. The third set was filled with drama and probably the best displays of sportsmanship in the tournament. McCrillis jumped ahead 4-1 and Chris stormed back to tie the match at 4-4. McCrillis broke Chris to go up 5-4 and then the drama continued. Chris was winning the tenth game of the set 40-5, within a point of breaking McCrillis bake to tie the match at 5-5 and suffered severe cramps in both thighs."The trainers worked on Chris to stop the cramping, but he had difficulty getting the cramps to stop," he continued. "In a show of true sportsmanship, McCrillis waived the ten minute injury time limit to give Chris all the time he needed to get healthy and complete the match. Chris was able to stop the cramps but realized even if he came back and won the match, he probably would not be able to complete the state quarterfinal match against the #1 seed, Pat Conway from Deering. In another display of sportsmanship, Chris reluctantly retired from the match with McCrillis, giving his friend and rival the quarterfinal berth." Justin Chaffee, the tournament No.6 seed, advanced to the semi-finals by beating first round opponent Chris Robinson from Brunswick 6-2, 6-2. His round of 16 opponent was Mike Burke from Lewiston. Justin survived a tough first set 7-5 and then easily displaced Burke 6-1 on in the second set. His quarterfinal match against Bryan Brown of Bangor was truly a comeback for the ages. Justin lost the first set 6-4 and was down 4-1 in the second set. He was playing hard but Brown had an answer for all his advances. Justin continued to fight and proceeded to win the next five games to take the second set 6-4. "The third set was special," Walo said. "Brown held serve in the first game. The game was a marathon and let all know we would be there for a while. Both held serve and Brown went up 4-3. Justin was broken in the sets eighth game to go down 5-3. Both players were experiencing cramps but were fighting through them. Brown was serving to win the match and was within two points closing out the match, but Justin would not stop grinding. He fought to break Brown and never lost another game, winning the final set 7-5 to advance to the state semi-finals."