In order to have a shot at the Section III Class C team championship, the Skaneateles girls tennis team would have to do something it couldn’t pull off the week before – namely, beat its namesakes from Cazenovia.
Those two clashed in Wednesday’s sectional semifinals, and the result was different from the 5-2 encounter on Sept. 27 – only this time Cazenovia prevailed by a bigger margin, prevailing 6-1.
Only the work of Ella Danforth in singles prevented a shutout. Two games from defeat, Danforth rallied to beat Lucy Langan 2-6, 7-5, 6-4. But Cazenovia claimed the other singles matches as Emma Miller fell to Alex Galle 6-3, 6-3 and Brinley Walawender took a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Julia Barrett.
Of the four doubles matches, only one went to three sets, with Gracie Lee and Marin Doyle pushing Cazenovia’s Charlie Harris and Kaitlyn Puffer before taking a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 defeat.
Elsewhere, Hope Allyn and Isabella Kroon paired up in doubles, but still lost, 6-2, 6-1, to Annika Bruno and LIzzy Druke, with Rachel Feeney and Lily Datz falling to Laura Connor and Julie Silverman 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. Caroline Hagen and Melissa Biver were in a second-set tie-breaker in a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) loss to Meg Milmoe and Abby Burrell.
The sectional tournament had begun Sept. 29, when Skaneateles faced no. 9 seed Watertown IHC and swept right past the Cavaliers 5-0. The toughest of those matches was in first singles, where Miller started fast, struggled in the middle and rebounded to beat Maggie Gonas 6-0, 4-6, 6-1.
Allyn also battled in singles, but beat Marissa Dermody 6-3, 7-5 as Danforth handled Lilly Renzi 6-1, 6-2. In doubles, Datz and Feeney won a 7-5, 6-4 match over Georgia and Josie Barton as Kroon and Walawender worked past Armeet Aujla and Theresa VanWormer 6-1, 6-3.
This moved Skaneateles to last Monday’s quarterfinal against top seed Clinton, but the Lakers quickly proved that the seeds didn’t matter much as it upended the 11-1 Warriors in another 5-0 shutout.
None of these singles matches were close. Miller rolled past Clinton’s Lauren Hutchins 6-1, 6-1 as Danforth topped Julia Smiegal 6-0, 6-2 and Allyn rolled past Elizabeth Militello 6-0, 6-0.
Kroon and Walawender did have to go to three sets in doubles, but rallied past Madeline Walters and Anica Shephard 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 as Datz and Feeney got their own 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Antonia Cardamone and Angela Simonchyk.
