Top boys tennis players from six different local high schools had opportunities to advance from the Section III state qualifier held Thursday and Friday at Utica’s Mott Courts and Syracuse University’s Skytop Courts, and many would pull it off.
On the singles side, Fayetteville-Manlius standout Josh Druger beat Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Andrew Mariados in the finals of the state qualifier as they, along with Jamesville-DeWitt’s Robert Dotterer, will each play this weekend at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.
Druger started with a 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Sauquoit Valley’s Chris Mazza, and then routed New Hartford’s John Robert Corasaniti 6-1, 6-3 in the quarterfinals, this following Corasaniti’s 7-5, 6-0 conquest of MPH’s Ryley Amond a round earlier.
The semifinal match had a state tournament berth at stake, and Druger took it, beating Cazenovia’s Nate Romig 7-5, 6-3. Then, against Mariados in the finals, Druger came through again, taking the first set 6-1 and the second set 6-2 to prevail.
Mariados went through a tougher road to that final. He started with F-M’s Jeremy Zhang, who won his opener over Seth Brewster (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) 6-4, 6-3, but couldn’t keep with Mariados in a 6-0, 6-1 decision.
From there, Mariados took out Mexico’s Maximilian Lueders, but needed three sets to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, which led to a semifinal against Jamesville-DeWitt’s Robert Dotterer. To this point, Dotterer had beaten Gabriele Molosi (Oswego) 6-3, 6-1 and F-M’s Riley Ma 6-3, 6-1 after Ma had swept Zach Dunning (Westmoreland) 6-0, 6-0 in his first-round match.
Going to three sets, Mariados clinched the state tournament berth, beating Dotterer by the same 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 as the previous round against Lueder.
This meant that Dotterer had to beat Romig in the consolation bracket final. Romig’s path had included a 6-2, 6-0 win over Bishop Grimes’ Matt Miller after Miller won over Brian Emigolz (Cicero-North Syracuse) 6-1, 6-4 in the first round.
Immune to the pressure, Dotterer dominated the first set against Romig, 6-1, and though the second set proved tougher, Dotterer claimed that one, too, by a 7-5 margin and advanced.
In doubles, meanwhile, it was East Syracuse Minoa’s Brandon Stone and Tyler Underwood finishing second to punch their ticket to the state tournament.
Stone and Underwood began with a 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Jamesville-DeWitt’s Jake Cline and Josh Frank, and then swept West Genesee’s Connor McGuigan and Aaron Wierbinski 6-0, 6-1.
This set up a semifinal where Stone and Underwood faced J-D’s Ishan Gajra and Alex Tso, who had rolled through Colton Mennig and Emily Widger (Morrisville-Eaton) in the first round and Tyler Bertram and Pierce Snyder (Cooperstown) in the quarterfinals without dropping a set.
With an automatic state tournament berth at stake, Stone and Underwood rolled again, beating Gajra and Tso 6-2, 6-1, so the pressure was off in the final, where another West Genesee duo, Brent and Garrett Boleslav, beat Stone and Underwood 6-2, 6-4.
Now it came down to Gajra and Tso against F-M’s Taran Judge and Chris Lansing for the third and final state tournament berth. Judge and Lansing had beat Aaron Laviolette and Evan Maestri (Liverpool) 6-0, 6-0, only to run into the Boleslav brothers in the semifinals and lose 6-0, 6-3.
But when it counted the most, Judge and Lansing pulled through, beating Gajra and Tso 6-3, 6-0 and joining Druger to make it an F-M trio at Flushing Meadows.
All told, the Boleslavs beat two Hornets doubles teams, James DeSorbo and Vince Sorrentino got past Will Cadwalader and John Kelley (Cooperstown) 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 and then handled Connor Jones and Anthony Panasci (Skaneateles) 6-3, 6-4 before the Boleslavs, in the quarterfinal round, toppled DeSorbo and Sorreninto by scores of 6-2 and 6-1.
MPH also saw Cole Meier and Trilok Reddy lose in the first round of doubles to Baldwinsville’s Hunter Cohen-Ciampichini and Nick Walker 6-3, 6-2, while Ryley Amond, in singles,
