With the Section III Class B first singles championship secured, Cazenovia boys tennis star Nate Romig went after a much bigger prize during the Section III state qualifier – and came within inches of going all the way to next weekend’s state tournament.

Play began on Thursday at Mott Courts in Utica, where Romig met Auburn’s Tom Alexander in the opening round and beat him in straight sets 6-2, 6-4.

What followed was a tense quarterfinal against Fayetteville-Manlius standout Riley Ma. Romig took the first set 6-4 and, two games from victory, could not quite finish it off, Ma taking the second set 7-5. But in the third set, Romig took over and rolled to a 6-1 decision.

Now in the semifinals, Romig only needed to beat Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Andrew Mariados to earn a berth in the state tournament, but with Mariados only playing his second match of the day, he had far more reserve, and Romig ended up on the wrong end of a 6-2, 6-3 defeat.

Thus, a trip to the state tournament at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens hung on the third-place match a day later, at Drumlins, when Romig, now refreshed, met Ma’s F-M teammate, Josh Druger, who lost the other semifinal to West Genesee’s Brent Boleslav.

And it turned into a classic. Romig won the first set, 6-4, and in the second set kept matching serve with Druger, leading to an epic tie-breaker. Up 4-2 at one point, Romig saw Druger catch up, and they traded points again, all the way to 12-12, before Druger finally broke Romig’s serve and took the tie-breaker 14-12 to claim the set 7-6.

Somehow, Romig shook off this disappointment and played a brave third set, trailing 5-3 before earning back the break to tie it, 5-5. One last time, though, Druger broke Romig’s serve and then held on to it, winning the final set 7-5 and the match.

Meanwhile, in the championship match, Mariados ran into West Genesee’s Brent Boleslav, who prevailed 6-4, 6-3, though both joined Druger in advancing to the state tournament.