Without losing a set in three matches on a hot Tuesday afternoon, Cazenovia girls tennis star Alex Galle made it to the finals of the Section III Division III tournament.
They held all of the opening-round matches at Syracuse University’s Skytop Courts, where Galle, as the no. 2 seed, rolled past Grace Lesselroth (Westhill) 6-1, 6-1 and got through a second-set tie-breaker to beat Maria Young (Lowville) 6-0, 7-6.
Then, in the semifinals, Galle handled Christian Brothers Academy’s Grace Glowaki 6-4, 6-2, setting up a final against Glowaki’s CBA teammate, Gieselle Vlassis.
It was Vlassis who had stopped Laura Connor 6-1, 6-1 in the other semifinal. Prior to that, Connor had beaten Crystal VanOrnam (Canastota) 6-2, 6-2 and got past Krysta Stupp (General Brown) 6-7, 6-1, 6-0.
Rain pushed the final to Friday, where in temperatures at least 30 degrees colder than it was earlier in the week, Galle did her best, but Vlassis proved far too tough, prevailing by the same 6-1, 6-1 margin as she did against Connor.
Two of the Lakers’ doubles teams also played in the sectional Division III tournament, but each lost in the round of 16.
Kaitlyn Puffer and Nina Royer ran into South Jefferson’s Paige Crandall and Alyssa Stevenson, taking a 6-4, 6-1 defeat, while in the next bracket Abby Burrell and Charley Harris lost 6-2, 6-1, to CBA’s Mary Kilmartin and Isabella Mead.
Chittenango took part in the Division II sectional tournament at Utica Parkway, where Brooke DiFlorio made an inspired run to the semifinals and, by doing so, joined Galle in advancing to this week’s state qualifier at Drumlins.
Having survived a 10-2 opening-round match with Cortland’s Lindsey Bush, DiFlorio then beat Marlena Kruman (Homer) 6-2, 6-3 and, in the quarterfinals, turned back Oneida’s Emily Marshall 6-4, 7-6.
With the pressure off, DiFlorio saw her run end in the semifinals with a 6-1, 6-1 defeat to Jamesville-DeWitt top seed Tara Pollock.
Delaney Dawkins, also playing singles for the Bears, losing 10-7 to Homer’s Ally Hammond, while Anna Rooney had a 10-2 defeat to Oneida’s Kathryn Brown.
Three doubles teams were present for Chittenango, but none made it out of the opening round.
Shelby Maring and Brenna Stanton lost, 10-8, to J-D’s Olivia Frison DeAngelis and Lena Jones, with Riley Ellis and Sarah Lanphear falling to Olivia McArthur and Shelby Miller (Whitesboro) 11-9. Abbie Austin and Keelin Davie had a 10-4 defeat to another Whitesboro duo, Yanna Pavlyukovets and Kaitlyn Williams.
