One thing that the Baldwinsville girls tennis team did not let itself do was feel content in the wake of handing West Genesee its first loss of the season on Sept. 25.
In the aftermath, the Bees were impressive in dismissing Auburn 6-1, and then turned around last Monday afternoon and put together a 7-0 shutout of the Liverpool Warriors.
It was particularly lopsided in singles, where Kahlei Reisinger’s 6-0, 6-0 win over Katey Padden began a run where Jennifer Stone slid past Rachel Foster 6-2, 6-1 and Maddie Quilter took out Chloe Foster by similar 6-2 and 6-1 margins.
Only in first doubles did the Warriors really make a push, seeing Alexandra Ioannidis and Katelyn Nguyen push Natalie Kott and Lauren Dusse to a third set before the Bees’ pair prevailed in a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 decision.
Taylor Slink and Emma Funicello paired up to beat Julie Pento and Anna Baggett 6-3, 6-4. Funicello also paired up with Gabby Fiello as they stopped Pento and Julie Stagnitta 6-2, 6-2, with Maya Bryant and Marissa Tommarello handling Kristen Glor and Ahnika Krahmer 6-2, 6-3.
Just one more regular-season match remained, and B’ville had no trouble there, too, blanking Syracuse West 7-0 last Wednesday afternoon.
While Reisinger got her latest 6-0, 6-0 win over Jessica Hodell, Quilter romped past Ceikaiyla Cheeks 6-0, 6-1 and Stone had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Sophia Kinne. In the three contested doubles matches, the teams of Kot-Dusse, Slink-Bridgett Brown and Bryant-Julia Costello lost just one game in six sets of competition.
That meant the Bees would finish at 9-3, with two of those defeats coming to Fayetteville-Manlius, and each of those were 4-3 verdicts decided late in the matches.
Of course, the Bees and Hornets could have another encounter in the Section III Class A team tournament, and they hold the top two seeds since West Genesee, as in years past, has chosen not to play in this tournament.
Only six teams qualified, and B’ville will take on no. 3 seed Central Square or no. 6 seed Auburn in next Wednesday’s semifinals, while F-M will meet either no. 4 seed Oswego or no. 5 seed Cicero-North Syracuse. The final is Thursday at Mott Courts in Utica.
