So compact is the regular-season schedule in local high school girls tennis that Section III teams were getting underway before the end of September.
A week before that happened, West Genesee and Marcellus squared off against each other on Sept. 24, with the Wildcats dominating the doubles side of the ledger on the way to beating the Mustangs 5-2.
Even though Danielle Bertelli won in singles over Courtney Otis 6-0, 6-2, Marcellus nabbed the other two singles matches. Abby Vetsch, trailng a set and facing a second-set tie-breaker, somehow came back and beat Andrea Wierbinski 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, while Maddie Conklin prevailed in two sets over Anastasia Mello 6-4, 6-4.
But it proved quite different in doubles, where only Phoebe Nelson and Andrea Andreeva got pushed on WG’s side, but still won a 6-2, 6-3 decision. Otherwise, the teams of Mikayla Mannara-Katie Viau, Lauren Ferris-Meghan Mello and Angelina Llanos-Natalie Thurston lost just two games in their six combined sets.
Yet the Wildcats’ next match revealed, again, how far it was from the top rung in the CNY Counties League occupied solely by Fayetteville-Manlius, who came to Camillus and shut out the Wildcats 7-0, just as it had done six days earlier.
Only one of the seven matches went to three sets, with Mannara and Meghan Mello part of it. The pair managed to shut out F-M’s Katerina Atallah and Patrice Calancie in the second set, but that came in the midst of a pair of 6-2 sets won by the Hornets’ duo.
Ferris and Anastasia Mello had a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Diana Polovick and Kristina Liu, with Nelson and Llanos falling to Martha Welker and Gretchen Ayoub 6-2, 6-3. Up in singles, Wierbinski, Bertelli and Thi Tran combined to earn just four games against the F-M trio of Maggie Bonomo, Keara Polovick and Anna Manta.
WG went from there to facing Auburn on Wednesday afternoon. By balancing its lineup among singles and doubles players, the Wildcats were able to edge the Maroons 4-3.
Andreeva lost in singles to Makayla Huntley 7-5, 6-2, but Mannara handled Celia Mattie 6-1, 6-3 as Anastasia Mello routed Maggie Sciria 6-0, 6-1. This led to doubles, where Wierbinski and Meghan Mello lost, 6-1, 6-2, to Julia Wagner and Sydney Merkley, while Ferris and Viau fell to Katherine Brundage and Emma Solomon 6-1, 7-6 (7-3).
Thus, the Wildcats needed to win both of the remaining doubles matches, and did so. Thurston paired with Llanos, and they beat Lindsay Jarman and McKenna Loerzel 6-3, 6-4, with Nelson and Bertelli getting together to get past Shelby Blanchard and Alexa Lawrence 6-0, 7-5.
Westhill took on Jordan-Elbridge last Tuesday, with the Warriors handling the Eagles 6-1. In singles play, Katherine Missert paced the Warriors, beating Toni Malvaso 6-2, 6-0, with Giovanna Buccina beating Amelia Younis 6-1, 6-0 and Avery Yeates handling Kayla Corgnell 6-0, 6-1.
Moving to doubles, Miranda and Marissa Malvaso got J-E on the board thanks to a 6-0, 6-1 rout over Lydia Stevenson and Abby Mullen. Otherwise, Westhill handled matters as the teams of Liz Kilpatrick-Madelyn Sherlock, Dominique DeMatties-Liz Kilpatrick and Claire Fagan-Elise Raineri all won in two sets.
Marcellus ran into OHSL Liberty division leader Cazenovia and could not gain a point in a 7-0 defeat to the Lakers, seeing Courtney Otis nearly take the first set before falling to Julia Barrett 7-5, 6-2 as Maddie Conklin lost to Lucy Langan 6-3, 6-3 and Abby Vetsch had a 6-2, 6-0 defeat to Alex Galle.
Among the doubles sides, Micah Mixon and Hannah Tarolli lost to Lucy and Laura Connor 6-3, 6-1, with Caroline Keegan and Marcy Gosson taking a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Summer Steinhorst and Megan Milmoe. Anna Canny and Alyssa Goodwin lost, 6-2, 6-2, to Annaka Bruno and Lizzy Druke, with Grace Vensel and Allison Clancy making some inroads during a 6-2, 6-4 loss to Abby Burrell and Jana Harris.
As it so happened, Westhill and Marcellus would square off with each other on Wednesday afternoon, and helped by a hard-earned singles sweep, the Warriors prevailed, 6-1, over the Mustangs.
Yeates trailed Tarolli in third singles and had to go to a third-set tie-breaker, but still pulled it out 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), while Missert beat Vetsch 6-4, 6-1 and Buccina had a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Otis.
It was Mixon and Coughlin putting Marcellus on the board in doubles thanks to a 6-4, 6-4 win over Mullen and Sherlock. Grace and Katie Lesselroth answered for Westhill by beating Gosson and Keegan 6-2, 6-4 as Stevenson and Elizabeth Mengucci topped Canny and Vensel 6-2, 7-5. Cami Cortez and Zoe Hynes won, 6-2, 6-3, over Clancy and Linn.
Then both teams entered the Section III Class B team tournament, Westhill as a no. 9 seed facing no. 8 seed Homer, Marcellus as a no. 12 seed taking on no. 5 seed Carthage. Those first-round matches took place Thursday afternoon, with the Warriors edging the Trojans 4-3 and the Mustangs falling to the Comets 3-2.
This meant that Westhill would go to the quarterfinals and try to upend undefeated, top-seeded Oneida, but it could not grab a point from the Indians in a 7-0 defeat. In singles, Buccina fell to Lauren Skibitski 6-3, 6-0, with Danaher falling to Sydney Lusher 6-1, 6-2 and Missert taking a 6-2, 6-0 loss to Brianna Lauretti.
Oneida also claimed all four of the doubles matches, though one of them did go to three sets. The Lesselroth sisters dropped a 6-7 (7-2), 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) decision to Catherine Brown and Emily Marshall, while the teams of Mullen-Stevenson, Sherlock-Mengucci and Cortez-Hynes all lost in two sets.
