CENTRAL NEW YORK – Once more, the Fayetteville-Manlius and Christian Brothers Academy girls tennis teams would get the showdown they both wanted in the Section III Class A team tournament.
Meeting in the semifinal round on a warm Thursday afternoon, the top-seeded Hornets and no. 5-seeded Brothers battled all the way to the end, and though the Hornets prevailed 5-2, that didn’t reflect how close it really was.
F-M moved its top singles player, Anna Manta, to doubles, where she paired with Ava Abruzzese to beat Aubrey Mills and Grace Catalano 6-4, 6-1 as Natalie Hugo and Maya McKenzie won 6-3, 6-4 over Isabella Mead and Lily Geneocco.
Meanwhile, in singles CBA had Gieselle Vlassis blank Trisha Adavikolanu 6-0, 6-0, while Julia DelPino routed Katya Quinn 6-0, 6-1. The Hornets countered with Angela Iskander’s 6-2, 6-2 win over Rowan Doyle.
So it all turned in doubles, where F-M’s Laura Scalzetti and Madison Chamberlain lost the first set 6-2 to Audrey Schaefer and Meredith Sommers, rallied to win the second 6-2 and then pulled out a tense 7-5 third set.
It was even more exciting in third doubles, where after getting shut out 6-0 in the first set, Brooke Tester and Parisa Ahmed got a 6-2 second-set win over Hana Kang and Allie Mancini and, in a third set pushed to a tie-breaker, Tester and Ahmed won it 9-7.
CBA had to work hard just to reach this round, claiming a 5-2 quarterfinal over no. 4 seed Baldwinsville that featured three matches which went to three sets, all won by the Brothers.
Pulling off another comeback, Catalano and Mills beat Reagan Doan and Ayla Kalfass 3-6, 6-0, 6-4, with Schaefer and Sommers getting a 5-7, 6-2, 10-6 win over Sophia Fiorentino and Isabella Iannitti.
Kang and Mancini won 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 over Alexandra Cavino and Megan Stack-Couture, with Vlassis, in singles, rolling past Hannah Gould 6-1, 6-0 as Doyle beat Ella Tromblee 6-2, 6-1.
By contrast, F-M rolled past Oswego 7-0 in its quarterfinal match, with Manta, Adavikolanu and Iskander dropping just one game in six sets of singles play. It was the same in doubles, with the closest match a 6-0, 6-2 romp by Ahmed and Tester over Kamryn Bletch and Anna Michalski.
After it survived the battle with CBA, F-M had to turn around and, 24 hours later, meet Auburn in Friday’s final. But that proved a formality for the Hornets, who shut out the Maroons 7-0 for another sectional tile.
All of the doubles matches were won in straight sets. Hugo and Quinn outlasted Abigail Carr and Claire Diffin 7-5, 6-4, with Abruzzese and McKenzie handling Taylor Chadderdon and Elizabeth Spin 6-4, 6-1.
Ahmed and Tester only needed two sets to get past Emma Merkley and Cara Visale 6-3, 6-3, with Chamberlain and Scalzetti rolling past Emerson Brown and Audrey Carr 6-1, 6-1.
Back in singles, Manta handled Alexandra Vitale 6-0, 6-1 as Adavikolanu won 6-3, 6-1 over Ella Bouley. Pushed to a third set, Iskander turned back Emerson Brown 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to complete F-M’s shutoutl.
