CENTRAL NEW YORK – One more week of the regular season remained and the Skaneateles boys tennis team was determined to maintain its perfect mark within the Onondaga High School League Liberty division.
It did not hold, though, as Christian Brothers Academy hosted the Lakers last Friday and claimed most of the points, handing Skaneteles a 4-1 defeat.
Hatcher Gutchess, paired with Marcus McClanahan, were able to win in doubles 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-3 over Fabrizio Arezzo an Finn Doyle, but Ethan Pickup and Nick Cerimeli lost, 6-3, 6-1, to John Engle and Will Vandemeer.
And CBA swept all three singles matches. Max Karpinski lost to Chanu Yang 6-1, 6-1, with Marty McNeil falling to Gabriel Yang by those same scores and Jake Salzhauer taking a 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Soren Kang/
Homer challenged Skaneateles last Monday afternoon, and it took Salzhauer winning a crucial three-set singles match to pull out a 3-2 decision over the Trojans.
Gutchess and McClanahan won in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4 over Conor Powers and Jackson Henderson, with McNeil doing the same against Jake Camp 6-4, 6-1 in singles
Karpinski lost in singles, while Salzhauer got pushed to a third set by Raymond Meng, but earning the clinching point by winning 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 as Cerimeli and Pickup lost to Nik Kruman and Brandon McLaughlin 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
A 5-0 shutout of Mexico followed a day later, the Lakers seeing Karpinski, Salzhauer and McNeil all win their singles matches in straight sets as Gutchess and McClanahan had to battle in doubles to top the Tigers’ Jacob Hill and Johannes Burkhart 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.
Marcellus had no trouble in last Monday’s 5-0 win over Phoenix, with Chris Barbaro and Tucker Guerrina each winning 6-0, 6-0 singles matches over, respectively, Liam Campanino and Cayden McKay, with Matt Vitale routing Isaiah Gordon 6-0, 6-1. The doubles teams of Dan Fox-Tyler Szalach won, as did Guerina, paired with Mike Devereaux.
But things turned around a day later, Marcellus falling to Holland Patent by that same 5-0 margin as the Golden Knights, improving to 10-1. claimed every set. Vitale fell 6-4, 6-3 to Jeff Dewar, with Fox and Szalach part of the closest doubles match, a 7-5, 6-0 defeat to Chris Kelly and Dylan McGuire.
A tight match Thursday had Marcellus holding off Manlius-Pebble Hill 3-2, with the key point earned by Fox and Barbaro, who rallied in doubles to beat Abe Salomon and Kevin Fratositanu 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.
Szalach, in singles, beat Evan Cook 6-2, 6-1, with Devereaux and Harry Hoey handling Jamie Petterson and Andrew Comprik 6-1, 6-2. Vitale lost in singles as Guerina took a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) defeat to Alex Fung.
In its fourth match in five days, Marcellus lost 4-1 to Homer, having to forfeit one singles match and preventing the shutout when Barbaro and Vitale paired up to beat Jake Camp and Conor Powers 6-1, 6-0.
West Genesee saw its season-long struggles continue in a 7-0 loss to Baldwinsville last Monday where it did not win a set in any of the seven matches. Noah Ruston and Joe Paoli, pairing up in doubles, put up some resistance, but took a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Max Funicello and Nick Licciardello.
At least the Wildcats got a point in Wednesday’s 6-1 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse. Ruston and Paoli combined in doubles to blank Brady Petranchuk and Daniel Jordan 6-0, 6-0, but the Northstars claimed every other point in two sets.
WG doubled its point total Thursday in a 5-2 defeat to Liverpool, whether it was Noah Ruston routing Evan Miller 6-1, 6-0 or Paoli and Nate Ruston topping Aiden Hunter and Navjeevan Singh 6-3, 6-3.
