For the entirety of her three-year high school career, Alice Korzekwa has been among the best tennis players in Aroostook County. Now, the Presque Isle junior has solidified her place as one of the best in Maine.
The Maine Principals’ Association last week seeded the Wildcats’ top singles player No. 9 in the state, making Korzekwa the only athlete from The County — boy or girl — to automatically qualify for the state singles tournament later this month.
Automatic qualification is awarded to the top 10 players in the state, regardless of class, by Universal Tennis Rating. The system provides a weighted average of ratings from up to 30 of an athlete’s most recent matches within the last year.
The selection grants players a bye past a regional qualifying round and the round of 52 in the state tournament.
It’s a different view for Korzekwa, who qualified for the tournament through the regional round in her freshman and sophomore years. She bowed out of each tournament in the round of 32, where she’ll start her run this season.
“It feels like my time on the court has paid off. It’s very rewarding to be granted a seed,” Korzekwa said in an interview this week. “But also there’s a lot more pressure on me because I’m a top-10 seed, and so I feel like I have to defend that title when I’m down there.”
The singles tournament, which will be played from May 14 to 16 at Bates College in Lewiston, has been dominated historically by athletes from southern Maine.
Since 2007, only one tournament champion has come from north of Damariscotta. Only one Aroostook tennis player, Greater Houlton Christian Academy’s Erin Moakler, has ever won the singles title. Moakler won in 2002 and 2003.
“I don’t feel entirely like an outsider,” Korzekwa said. “But I definitely do find myself being a little more nervous because it’s not what I’m entirely used to, going down and playing them.”
Korzekwa describes her play style as focused on power, working to put balls away early in rallies and not let opponents hang around. It’s a skillset she’s been able to hone in recent matches.
“I think I’ve definitely been a lot more consistent and been a lot more confident in matches,” Korzekwa. “I can actually play how I [want to] play and not really come down to my opponent’s level. I think that’s going to bring me far this year.”
As a team, Presque Isle has started the season 3-0 without losing a single match. Korzekwa swept opponents from Houlton and Mount Desert Island high schools 8-0 in abbreviated eight-game pro set matches.
“Alice is incredibly talented,” Wildcats head coach David Levasseur said. “Not only has she proven herself in high school, but throughout the whole calendar season, she’s been playing downstate through UTR matches, so her UTR score shows that she’s one of the best in the state and deserves her spot.”
The only games she’s dropped in the young season were to her teammate, Sabine Wells-Puckett, whom Korzekwa beat in an April 27 intrasquad match.
Wells-Puckett, a junior, earned her second consecutive berth to the state singles tournament through the qualifying round over the weekend. She’s the No. 18 girls player in the state and advanced to the round of 16 in the tournament a year ago.
Other qualifying Aroostook girls include Caribou’s Adriana Deschaine and Isabella Albert, Houlton’s Ryan Perfitt and Van Buren’s Emily Lapierre.
On the boys side, Presque Isle’s Jacob Bennett and Garrett White, Caribou’s Ben Bouchard and James Bennett and Fort Kent’s Mason Pelletier made up the region’s five qualifiers for the singles tournament.
For Korzekwa, Aroostook’s top-ranked player, the initial goal is to make it past the round of 32. A quarterfinal berth would be great, her coach says, but the main expectation is to secure that first win, and then see where Korzekwa’s newfound confidence can take her.
“I played the No. 1 seed in the state my freshman year and she smoked me pretty badly,” Korzekwa said. “I’m hoping I can at least have a better turnout if I do end up playing her. I just want to go down there and have fun and hopefully get farther than last year.”
