CENTRAL NEW YORK – In order to win the Section III Class B team championship, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls tennis team would need to get past three tough opponents in four days – and almost pulled it off.
Two of them, New Hartford and Whitesboro, were put away before Thursday’s championship match where the no. 3 seed Red Rams would challenge top seed Oneida at Utica Parkway Courts – and, by a single set and a single point, fall to the Express 4-3.
J-D was trying to deny Oneida a sixth consecutive sectional title and ninth in 11 years, and quickly got three of the points it needed.
Mona Farah and Olivia Clark won 6-1, 6-1 over Myah Rainbow and Tessa Myatt, with Kendall Cabiles and Laila Khalil getting past Ariel Wojdyla and Camryn Alsante 6-2, 6-0. Up in first singles, Asha Viswanathan rolled past Kaylee French in a pair of 6-3 sets.
Now the Rams needed a fourth point. Olivia Quackenbush lost 6-2, 6-1 to Emily French, but a much closer singles match had Yara Farah go to two tiebreaks yet get turned back by Maddie Barretta 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4).
With Ella Azria and Jaeda Robinson falling to Lexi DeGroat and Phoebe Fuller 6-2, 6-4, it fell on Wenyan Ma and Anna Hasegawa, who went through three close sets and split the first two, only to have Oneida’s Peyton Hoang and Sage Hanifin pull it out 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
J-D started its post-season run turning back no. 6 seed New Hartford 6-1 in last Monday’s quarterfinal round.
Clark’s rally to beat Julia Battaglia 4-6, 6-2, 10-5 in singles augmented straight-set wins by Viswanathan and Yara Farah, while in doubles Azria and Robinson needed three sets to get past Majda Sabanovic and Leah Brennan 6-1, 2-6, 10-7.
Then J-D upended no. 2 seed Whitesboro 4-3 in the semifinals, with the drama coming in three doubles matches that went to three sets.
Viswanathan and Mona Farah had already won in singles in straight sets, with Quackenbush and Yara Farah prevailing in doubles in two sets.
Ultimately, the Rams clinched the win in fourth doubles when Cabiles and Kayva Arasu held off Anglelina Myalik and Angelina Osilvskiy 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 6-2.
Two other times, J-D had leads in doubles and could not hold on. Azria and Robinson fell 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 to Ariana and Liana Levkovets, with Hasegawa and Ma losing to Sophia Montana and Samara Gorgi 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
