Mavor, Forester lead strong freshman class

Nick Forester swings a tennis racket with either hand.

Graduation claimed only one starting player off the two-time defending Class A state champion Falmouth boys, and Forester ably fills the gap left by Aidan McGrory at No.

“He really loves the game and he works hard at it,” said 45-year head coach Bob McCully, noting Forester carries on a tradition of top-flight freshmen at Falmouth’s top singles spot that started with Brian Patterson, and included Chris Morrison and Justin Brogan.

Ararat is rated higher than Forester on the United States Tennis Association New England U16 rankings.

Another freshman threat is 34th-ranked Dariy Vykhodtsev of Thornton Academy, who beat Forester earlier this month after losing to him twice earlier this year.

All three played in last year’s Betty Blakeman tournament, the biggest event on the state’s summer schedule, with Mathieu eliminating Vykhodtsev in the third round, and Forester falling to eventual finalist and second seed Tyler Adams of USM in three sets in the fourth round.

Forester took up tennis at age 4 and started working with McCartney at 6.

Mavor, the daughter of former collegiate players Brian Mavor (North Carolina State) and Lesya Stasiv (USM), also trains with McCartney as well as her grandfather, Roman Stasiv, like his daughter a native of Ukraine.

Although Mavor attended Harrison Middle School in Yarmouth along with taking some online classes to facilitate her tennis training, she’s doing all her academic work this year with Maine Virtual Academy, the state’s newest charter school.

Although she occasionally trains with Forester, Mavor said she’s happy hitting both forehands and backhands instead of sporting the dual-hand look.