On Monday, Monmouth dropped a 3-2 boys tennis match to Winthrop, which is always at or near the top of the Mountain Valley Conference. Monmouth has stayed competitive this season although the Mustangs have a rookie coach in Tyler Hunt and sophomores at each of the top two singles spots.

"We're a very young team and pretty inexperienced," Hunt said. "Nobody who was playing singles last year is playing singles this year."

Hunt believes the Mustangs have no real weak spots in their lineup, and the biggest thing he would like them to add the rest of the season is more confidence.

"That's what you want to see from all your players, especially at that age level," Hunt said.

Noah Bosworth and Morgan Bergeron are the sophomores at the No. 1 and 2 singles positions, and Hunt is pleased with both of their games.

"They both possess a good all-around game," Hunt said. "Both hit really good ground strokes."

Another thing Hunt was happy to see was the community support at Monday's match. Tennis matches usually don't draw large or loud crowds, but Hunt said the good-sized crowd at this match created an exciting atmosphere.

"We had more fans than we've ever had at any of our matches," he said. "It was nice to see that atmosphere, of people cheering them on."

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It's almost time to get rolling for the state singles championships. The meetings to determine seedings are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, and the regional singles qualifying round is Saturday.

Saturday's Eastern regional matches will be played at UMaine-Presque Isle, Brewer High School, the Buker courts in Augusta and Mt. Ararat High School.

The Western regional matches will be at South Portland High and Deering High, with satellite sites at Waynflete, Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth, Cheverus, Falmouth and Deering Oaks.

All matches until the qualifying round (in which the winner advances to the Round of 40) will be one Pro Set to eight games.

All matches from the qualifying round forward will be best two of three sets. The Round of 40 will be held May 30-31 and June 2 at Bates College.

• • •

It's almost impossible to be any more dominant than the Waterville girls tennis team has been this season. The Purple Panthers are not just 7-0, they have lost only one of 35 possible singles and doubles matches this season.

"A lot of them take lessons," Waterville coach Donna Nale said. "Because we have a lot of juniors this year, I think they know the routine so they just kind of hit the ground running.

"They're just a real responsible group of girls. They like each other, so they feel the responsibility toward each other."

Junior Katherine Batten is playing No. 1 singles for Waterville, with Jen Nale (Donna's daughter) as second singles. Coach Nale said Batten's best assets are her work ethic and coachability.

"She's just very dedicated to tennis," Nale said. "She's been taking lessons all year long, with the goal of playing singles and winning."

Donna Nale said that Jen, a sophomore, is playing with more confidence this season after gaining experience last year.

"She's very athletic, and I think that makes up for her not having the time, because of basketball, to play all year long," Donna said.

Nale added that the Panthers have several talented freshmen, including Sarah Walker -- who has played some No. 3 singles this year -- and a couple freshmen on the junior varsity squad "who will most definitely be coming up" next season.

Matt DiFilippo -- 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com