CENTRAL NEW YORK – Yet another strong regular season for the Cazenovia girls tennis team means that it will be favored going into the Section III Class C team tournament which got underway late this week.
With the top seed, Cazenovia has a bye right into Monday’s quarterfinal where it faces no. 8 seed Skaneateles less than a week after it beat those other Lakers 5-2.
Winning all four doubles matches, Cazenovia had Lila Campagna and Ava Galton needing three sets to beat Makayla Barron and Madelyn Vance 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, but otherwise they went in straight sets.
Claire Vacarro and Katie Williams topped Katie Danforth and Livia Lovenguth 6-2, 6-1, Charlotte Rushing and Claire Henry beat Georgia Kriedler and MaryKate Holst 6-1, 6-1 and Audrey Henry, paired with Bailey Burns, won 6-2, 6-2 over Charlotte Carroll and Addy Pavlus.
Leah Bell and Madden Cobb both lost in singles – Bell 6-1, 6-2 to Eva DeJesus, Cobb 6-3, 6-3 to Addison Zieler – but Nora Berg dominated her match with Desi Pienaar winning 6-0, 6-2.
Before all this, Cazenovia turned back Phoenix 6-1 last Monday afternoon, improving its overall record to 11-1 as it easily won all three of the singles matches over the Firebirds.
Bell got it going 6-0, 6-3 over Finley Harwood, with Cobb subduing Gabrielle Reynolds in a pair of 6-2 sets and Claire Henry getting past Claire Pritting 6-3, 6-3.
Moving to doubles, each of the matches went 6-2, 6-1 for Cazenovia. Vaccaro and Williams beat Elizabeth Bullis and Annabella McKay, while Campagna and handled Maddy Hart and Regan Southworth. Rushing and Audrey Henry defeated Candela Munoz and Hailey Szkowski.
On Thursday, the Lakers won again 6-1 over Manlius Pebble Hill with Cobb featured in singles as she beat Jenny He 6-1, 6-3 and Berg claiming the other singles point as Bell lost to Amitees Fazelli 6-3, 6-3.
Williams and Vaccaro topped Mira Zhang and Rose Fallon in another 6-3, 6-3 match while by those same scores Rushing and Audrey Henry got past Nia Lewis and Sophia Dowhy. Campagna and Galton won 6-3, 6-0 over Audrey Arnold and Amy Walsh. Burns and Claire Henry handled Sarah Ma and Hailey Castrillon 6-2, 6-0.
Chittenango faced Homer Monday and lost 6-1 to the Trojans, who dominated doubles, the closest match coming when the Bears’ Hope Rock and Margaret Geer fell to Cate Larison and Lucy Goodwin 6-1, 6-3.
Up in singles, it was Natalie Fox preventing the shutout with a massive comeback and a third-set tiebreaker to pull it out against Emma Dart 1-6, 6-0, 7-6. Otherwise, Evelyn Keville fell to Mackenzie Skodzinsky 6-2, 6-3, with Molly Uryniak taking a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Aubrey McGrath.
But the Bears turned it around a day later blanking Mexico 7-0 as, in single-set matches to eight games, Uryniak and Leah Ezzo both won by the same 8-6 margin over, respectively, Morgan Benton and Jessica Hill.
Fox beat Nataleigh Smith 8-4, with Margaret Geer and Jeannie Gomez dominating Addison LaRue and Lea Schmidt 8-1. Campbell Reed and Hope Rock beat Isabella Redhead and Mackenzie Hopp 8-3 as, by that same score, Erica Ezzo and Saige Burton topped Lillian Haynes and Gabriella Bickford.
Then came a narrow 4-3 win over Cortland Thursday where, in single-set matches to eight games, the work was split between singles and doubles.
Again in singles Fox was victorious, topping Arya Patel 8-3, with Leah Ezzo beating Alivia Reif 8-1. In doubles Burton and Erica Ezzo won 8-4 over Emma Casey and Harper Starinsky as Reed and Gomez teamed to beat Emelia Johnson and Cassilyn Elliott by that same 8-4 margin.
Chittenango beat Westhill 4-3 on Friday with the Ezzos pairing up to beat Reagan Rogers and Stella Kaczor 8-1 as Keville and Molly Douglas turned back Julia Flegel and Reilly Coleman 8-2. Geer and Savannah Oaks won 8-5 over Ivana Spaseveski and Emily Taylor, with Fox blanking Anna Jackson 8-0 for the only singles point.
