Nothing that the West Genesee boys tennis team achieved in the Section III state qualifying tournament on May 22 and 23 could compare to the history it made ending the 267-match win streak of Fayetteville-Manlius and then winning the sectional Class A team title.
Still, the Wildcats’ doubles team of Matt Mannara and James Plunkett made it to the semifinals and, with their season-long efforts, advanced to last week’s state championships.
In the opening rounds May 22 at Utica Parkway, Mannara and Plunkett routed Ray Burynski and Sam Ward (New Hartford) 6-0, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals, and then handled Oneida’s Aidan and Ajay Hicks 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.
The semifinals had Mannara and Plunkett run into Jamesville-DeWitt’s Essex Glowaki and Dhruv Nanavati, who beat them 6-1, 6-1.
Then, in the third-place match Thursday at Nottingham High School, F-M’s Rohan Dhawan and Riley Ma beat the Wildcats’ pair 6-0 in the first set and 7-6 in a second-set tie-breaker
Still, Mannara and Plunkett earned spots in the state tournament alongside the F-M and J-D duos, along with Christian Brothers Academy’s Ben and Dean Vlassis, who won the doubles title at the qualifier.
So it was on to the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, annual site of the U.S. Open, where Mannara and Plunkett took advantage of their opportunity to compete against New York State’s best.
Paired against Plattsburgh’s Calvin Gosrich and Ben Keever in the first round, Mannara and Plunkett swept them 6-0, 6-0, leading to the round of 16, where they ran into Horace Greeley’s Kenta Togo and Zach Wallis and, despite a strong second set, took a 6-0, 7-5 defeat.
Earlier, in the state qualifier,, WG’s Stefan Atanasov and Max Mekker won over Dan Gavilondo and Teddy Williams (Cazenovia) 6-0, 7-5 in the opening round, but lost 6-1, 6-0 to the Vlassis brothers in the round of 16.
Westhill had Tom Chaddock and Mike Ferrara blank the Skaneateles duo of Nate Fouts and Andrew Neumann 6-0, 6-0, to reach the quarterfinals before a 6-3, 6-0 defeat to Glowaki and Nanavati.
The Warriors’ Jackson Bradley and Ryan Rolince in the field, but they lost in the opening round 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to Cazenovia’s duo of Teddy Coughlin and Liam Flannery.
Over in the sectional state qualifier in singles, Marcellus had Andrew Kammer in the field, but he could not get out of the round of 16, taking a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Homer’s Ben Herman.
J-D’s Peter Hatton won the singles title, with Mexico’s Joe Ocker second as Baldwinsville’s Antonio Marsallo beat Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Jacob Starke for the third and final state tournament berth.
