WATERVILLE — Hall-Dale’s Wendy Goldman bounced around the court, smiling and complimenting her opponents on nice shots and exclaiming after her own bad shots.

But mostly, Goldman was just refocusing after putting a shot in exactly the right place. Goldman defeated Caribou’s Katie Keaton and York’s Emily Campbell on Friday to earn a spot in the final 16 of the girls state singles tennis championships.

The first- and second-round girls and boys matches were played at the Alfond-Wales Tennis Facility at Colby College. In addition to Goldman, Waterville’s Colleen O’Donnell, the No. 8 seed, advanced in the girls tournament and Messalonskee’s Jai Aslam won two matches to earn a spot on today’s boys schedule.

On a dreary day that became chilly as darkness approached, the matches began on time at 8:30 a.m., but were soon delayed for about 90 minutes. Goldman’s match against Keaton, for example, was slated to begin at 10 a.m., but they didn’t get on the court until 11:30.

Caribou, like Hall-Dale, went undefeated in the regular season. But Goldman had little trouble in winning the match, 6-3, 6-3.

“I went in knowing that she’s probably going to be a good player; they had a really strong team,” Goldman said. “I just tried to stay as consistent as possible and really get my pace off of her pace and see where they got me.”

Campbell, the co-12th seed on the girls side, had about a 5-inch height advantage on Goldman.

“I definitely knew when she was at net she had a huge range,” Goldman said. “I wasn’t really going to try to lob her, because I knew she could probably get most of my lobs. So I really focused on pounding it to her backhand when she was at net and I think that really worked.”

It worked so well, in fact, that Campbell’s father introduced himself to Goldman after the match and said, “You played wonderful. That was fun to watch.”

Still, the match wasn’t easy. Goldman trailed 5-4 in the first set before breaking Campbell’s serve twice on the way to a 7-5 win. In the second set, Campbell won two straight games to get within 3-2, but Goldman again broke her serve and finished off a 7-5, 6-2 win.

Goldman’s biggest struggle was probably with her cold. She was two points away from winning the match when she couldn’t stop coughing and had to ask Campbell to hold her serve.

“I’m a little sick, but I’m getting over it,” Goldman said. “Maybe it helped.”

Aslam, who plays No. 1 singles for the Messalonskee boys, has made remarkable improvements to his game over the past two years.

Appropriately, Aslam treated the occasion like a party. He had the crowd whooping it up as he made shots behind his back and between his legs. He cruised in both of his matches, defeating Maranacook’s Jason LaPorte, 6-3, 6-3, then beating Kennebunk’s Charlie Merry, 6-2, 6-0.

“That’s just in the moment, I guess,” Aslam said. “It makes it fun. If you’re not going to have fun, there’s no point in playing.”

Aslam will now face Waynflete’s Patrick Ordway, the defending state champion and No. 1 seed, at 9 a.m. today.

Against LaPorte, Aslam trailed 3-2 in the first set, but shook off his frustration and won the final four games of the set. Aslam said he went in knowing nothing about Merry, but he won that match easily.

“I just tried to get a lot of balls in play,” Aslam said. “That’s my game, just to keep rallies going a long time, trying to outlast people.”

Aslam’s reward is a match against probably the best player in the state.

“It’ll be fun to play someone that good,” Aslam said. “I’ve never played anyone that good. It should be fun, even if I — well, I probably will lose.”

On the girls side, Oak Hill’s Darby Beaulieu lost to Deering’s Molly Gallagher, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. Winthrop’s Amber Pritchard also dropped a tough match, falling 7-6 (3), 7-5 to Caribou’s Ashley Richards. Gallagher and Richards each went on to win a second match on Friday.

Hall-Dale’s Spencer Shagoury fell to Bangor’s John Szewczyk, 6-4, 6-4. Maranacook’s Matt Surette lost to Scarborough’s Alex Henny, 6-0, 6-1. Henny might have been under-seeded, as he then went on to a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Presque Isle’s Connor Shaw.

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

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