Fresh off their head-to-head clash for the Section III Class A team title on Oct. 6, girls tennis teams from Fayetteville-Manlius and Christian Brothers Academy set out to earn more honors in sectional division singles and doubles tournaments.
In Division I at Syracuse University’s Skytop Courts, F-M had no one touch them in singles, with Katerina Atallah and Anna Manta earning finals berths against each other.
Atallah dropped one game in her early matches, and that came against teammate Phoebe Wang, who had handled Auburn’s Celia Mattie 6-0, 6-1 in her quarterfinal, only to lose 6-1, 6-0 to Atallah in the semifinals.
As for Manta, she rolled past Paige Tromblee (Baldwinsville) 6-1, 6-3 in the quarterfinals before a tough 7-5, 6-4 semifinal win over Tromblee’s B’ville teammate, Brooke Tutor.
In doubles, three of the four semifinalists were from F-M, with Rachel Liu and Keara Polovick needing to beat their teammates, Maddy Drapeau and Cassie Wojtasiewicz 6-1,6-3 in the semifinals.
Waiting for them was West Genesee’s Mikayla Mannara and Katie Viau, who had taken out F-M’s other team, Alexis Ahn and Martha Welker, 6-1, 6-2 in the other semifinal after Ahn and Welker had not dropped a set in their first two matches.
Both finals took place Friday in Oneida, with Atallah outlasting Manta 6-3, 6-2 for the singles title, but Liu and Polovick unable to keep up with Mannara and Viau, who prevailed 6-1, 6-2.
Meanwhile, in Division III at Skytop, CBA’s Gieselle Vlassis had the top seed in singles and did not drop a game against Rachael Feeney (Skaneateles) and Gianna DeRoberts (Phoenix) in the early rounds.
Then Vlassis beat Cazenovia’s Laura Connor 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals. The final pitted Vlassis against another Cazenovia star, Alex Galle, who in the semifinals had toppled CBA’s Grace Glowaki 6-4, 6-2, but never got close against Vlassis, who again won 6-1, 6-1.
The doubles division featured a run to the title by CBA’s Grace Coyne and Grace DelPino. Rolling through the early rounds, Coyne and DelPino found themselves against teammates Grace Catalano and Aubrey Mills in the semifinals.
It turned out to be a lopsided match, going 6-1, 6-0 in favor of Coyne and DelPino as they advanced to face the Skaneateles duo of Ella Danforth and Emma Miller in the finals, where Coyne and DelPino dominated in a 6-1, 6-1 victory.
At least Danforth and Miller had prevented an all-CBA final. Mary Kilmartin and Isabella Mead had to go through a 10-game opening-round match, but then won twice in straight sets.
This led to the semifinal, where Kilmartin and Mead jumped out in front, only to have Danforth and Miller catch them and then prevail 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. Elsewhere for CBA, Calista Albring lost in the opening round of singles.
Jamesville-DeWitt was in Division II at Utica Parkway, where Tara Pollock was the top seed in singles and did not disappoint, sweeping her way to the championship.
Pollock turned aside Kathryn Brown (Oneida) 6-1, 6-2 and Nicole Farkouh (New Hartford) by those same scores in the quarterfinals before a 6-1, 6-1 win over Chittenango’s Brooke DiFlorio in the semifinals.
The final pitted Pollock against New Hartford’s Grace LaFountain, After claiming the first set 6-2, Pollock had a bit more of a battle in the second set, but still put away LaFountain 6-4.
On the doubles side, J-D’s Olivia DeHoog and Inika had a quarterfinals comeback as they rallied past Oneida’s Kaylyn Curro and Sophia Docous 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. Then DeHoog and Gajra lost in the semifinals to Whitesboro’s Kylie Cleary and Karlie Cubino 6-2, 6-3.
Sophia Proe and Riya Sharma reached the doubles quarterfinals before a 6-0, 6-0 defeat to Oneida’s Sydney Lusher and Lauren Skibitski. Olivia Frison DeAngelis and Lena Jones lost in the round of 16 as Anna Sofia Hege lost in the opening round of singles.
East Syracuse Minoa was also in the doubles division, where Christine Andrews and Erin Houghtaling lost 10-4 to Oneida’s Mattie Hicks and Sophia Skinner in the first round.
In Division IV at Utica Parkway, Manlius-Pebble Hill had Parmees Fazelli reach the singles semifinals, where she challenged Utica-Notre Dame’s Emily Lyga before taking a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 defeat.
Also for the Trojans, Genevieve Morrow reached the quarterfinals before falling to UND’s Ellen Lyga, with Sara Antonevich and Bishop Grimes’ Katie Knittel falling in the first round, Knittel in a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 loss to Watertown IHC’s Lilly Renzi.
MPH, in doubles, had Ava Benedict and Halle Erwin top Olivia Golden and Isabella Ricci (Westmoreland) 6-2, 6-1 to reach the semifinals, only to fall to UND’s Samantha Fluty and Caitlyn Snyder 6-0, 6-0.
