CENTRAL NEW YORK – Whether it was Jamesville-DeWitt in Division II, Christian Brothers Academy in Division III or Manlius Pebble Hill in Division IV, area high school girls tennis players found plenty of glory during this week’s Section III singles and doubles tournaments.
In the Division II singles tournament no one got close to J-D’s Mona Farah, who did not drop a game in any of her first three singles matches as the top seed and then, in the finals, romped past Whitesboro’s Lauren Levitano 6-0, 6-1.
CBA would rule in Division III doubles, placing both of its top teams in the finals, where Julie Zdep and Maddie Evans won a 6-4, 6-2 decision over the no.4 seeded team of Audrey Schaefer and Maddie Kanervko.
Zdep and Evans were the no. 15 seeds and had to win five matches for the sectional title. Three of them were claimed in straight sets before a semifinal where they beat the no. 3 seed, Westhill’s Phoebe Gummar and Samantha Burkett, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 as Schaefer and Kanervko upended top seed Kate Williams and Claire Vaccaro (Cazenovia) in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.
Then there was MPH, where Amitees Fazelli was the top seed in singles and rolled to the championship. She beat Ryleigh Ostrosky (Sauquoit Valley) 6-1, 6-1 and Ostroky’s teammate, Brynn Weaver, 6-0, 6-1 before a final where she earned a 6-1, 6-1 decision over Copenhagen’s Rylee Presley.
Nearly equaling that effort in doubles, the Trojans’ duo of Rose Fallon and Fariel Migeed made it to the finals and led early before seeing it get away in a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Utica Notre Dame’s Alyssa Capuana and Isabella Zalocha. Already in the tournament, Capuana and Zalocha had beaten MPH’s team of Amy Walsh and Mira Zhang 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.
As for Fayetteville-Manlius, its close win over Baldwinsville to retain the sectional Class A team title did not carry over into the Division I sectional tournament, where the Bees swept to the singles and doubles titles.
Shreya Bhattacharya and Lindsey Chong did reach the doubles final for the Hornets only to take a 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 defeat to B’ville’s Elaina Nesbitt and Sonia Nadzan, who beat another F-M side, Caitlyn McLain and Julia Kim, 6-2, 6-1 in the semifinals.
Over in singles, the Hornets’ Erin McLain reached the semifinals only to fall 6-1, 6-0 to B’ville’s Alya Kalfass, who ended up dropping the final to her Bees teammate Mira Nadzan.
Sonia LaHaye reached the quarterfinals before Kalfass swept her 6-0, 6-0, with Mariah Sun taking a round-of-16 defeat. Smareen Mangat and Sadie Toole lost in the doubles quarterfinals.
CBA saw Sarah Clark and Rowan Doyle meet each other in the Division III singles quarterfinals, Doyle taking that match 6-2, 6-1 before a semifinal loss to Skaneateles top seed Eva DeJesus, the eventual champion, who had topped Claire Schaefer in the quarterfinals.
In Division II doubles J-D’s Yara Farah and Asha Viswanathan made it to the semifinals and took top seed Emma Effinger and Lauren Franco (Homer) to a third-set tiebreak, only to lose 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) as Effinger and Franco went on to the title.
East Syracuse Minoa had Kelly Li and Erin Murnane both lose their singles matches in the round of 16, exactly where it ended for J-D’s Olivia Clark, too, as Olivia Quackenbush fell in the first round.
The Spartans’ doubles team of Sophie Jones and Rhiannon Cobb had a round-of-16 loss, one round ahead of the duos of Oso Ikhide-Jewelianna Hallock and Caroline Sitnik-Lila O’Brien, with J-D having Ella Azria and Anna Hasegawa take their own opening-round defeat.
