At the end of a regular-season stretch full of challenges and hot temperatures, the Cazenovia girls tennis team geared up for the Section III Class C playoffs with a 5-2 victory last Wednesday over its fellow Lakers from Skaneateles.
As part of a singles weep, Alex Galle shut out Hope Allyn 6-0, 6-0, with Julia Barrett handling Isabella Kroon 6-1, 6-1 and Lucy Langan getting a 6-2, 6-2 win over Brinley Walawender.
Twice, Skaneateles won in doubles as Emma Miller and Ella Danforth, normally singles players, paired up to beat Laura Connor and Julie Silverman 6-1, 6-4, while a single-set match saw Gracie Lee and Marin Doyle prevail 10-8 over Kaitlyn Puffer and Charlie Harris.
Cazenovia countered with Annika Bruno and Lizzy Druke handling Lily Datz and Rachel Feeeny 6-2, 6-4, just as Abby Burrell and Meg Milmoe rolled to a 6-2, 6-0 decision over Caroline Hagen and Melissa Biver.
The Lakers were coming off a stretch where it played four times in as many days from Sept. 19 to 22, falling only to unbeaten CBA 5-2 in that stretch.
It had concluded with Cazenovia beating Marcellus 6-1. Bruno played in singles and beat Madeline Mahoney 6-1, 7-5, with Connor topping Caroline Keegan 6-3, 6-2 and Barrett getting a 6-2, 6-1 win over Marcy Gosson.
Galle and Silverman routed Alyssa Goodwin and Courtney Otis 6-1, 6-1, with Milmoe and Burrell rallying past Mikayla Cusick and Elaina Mahoney 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Harris and Puffer prevailed, 6-2, 6-2, over Kaitlyn Kemp and Morgan Walsh.
After a weekend to rest, Cazenovia was on the court again last Monday, against Homer, and battled through the season’s hottest temperatures to shut out the Trojans 7-0. Lucy Langan started the singles sweep by topping Tessa Brown 6-3, 6-2. Barrett blanked Madison Baker 6-0, 6-0 as Connor handled Nicolo Petriesova 6-3, 6-4.
Two of the doubles matches were single-set races to 10 games, with Burrell and Milmoe handling Sophie Burhans and Alina Heyer 10-0 as Harris and Puffer got past Jamee Triolo and Sidney Neuman 10-1. In the longer matches, Bruno and Druke paired up again, beating Ellis Han and Ally Hammond 6-2, 7-5 as Galle and Silverman topped Catrina and Marlena Kruman 6-1, 6-2.
All of this led Cazenovia to the no. 4 seed in a nine-team sectional Class C bracket, straight into a quarterfinal Monday against no. 5 seed Manlius-Pebble Hill, with the winner likely to face top seed Clinton in the semifinals. The final is Friday at Utica Parkway Courts.
Chittenango also played last Monday, against visiting Manlius-Pebble Hill, and lost a 5-2 decision to the Trojans. Both of the Bears’ points came in doubles, where Shelby Maring and Brooke Stanton prevailed in straight sets. Emma Bailey, Anna Rooney and Alazne Perez all lost their singles matches in straight sets.
The Bears did defeat Jordan-Elbridge 6-1 on Thursday as Keelin Davie, preserving the singles sweep, rallied past Sarah Williams 3-6, 6-4, 10-8, with Coralee Everett beating Abby Skotinski 6-0, 6-2 and Rooney routing Wendy Carter 6-1, 6-0. In doubles, the teams of Maring-Stanton, Bailey-Alexandra Drake and Shannon Koegel-Nadia Cannistra each won in straight sets.
With a 6-7 regular-season mark, Chittenango gained the no. 13 seed in the sectional Class B tournament bracket, but that meant a first-round match Friday against no. 4 seed Jamesville-DeWitt, who claimed a rain-shortened 4-0 decision over the Bears.
In the matches that were completed, Bailey endured a long second-set tie-breaker but lost to Inka Gajra 6-3, 7-6 (10-8), while Koegel had a 6-1, 6-1 defeat to Tara Pollock. Drake and Cannistra got to a first-set tie-breaker, but no further in a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 loss to Lena Jones and Olivia Frison DeAngelis, with Natalie Simmons and Chloe Foran close too, in both sets of their 7-5, 6-4 defeat to Shannon Beaudry and Sonali Patel.
