Whether in the singles division or in the doubles division, area girls tennis players took over last week’s Section III state qualifying tournament at Drumlins.
Berths in this weekend’s state tournament at Tri-Valley Fitness in Latham were on the line, with stars from Christian Brothers Academy, Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt each able to finish in the top three.
Singles belonged to CBA’s Gieselle Vlassis, the freshman earning a third trip to the state tournament and dominating the bracket along the way while her teammate, Grace DelPino, had to make a timely comeback to also advance.
Vlassis strode through her opening-round matches on Tuesday, getting 6-0, 6-0 shutouts over Nicole Farkouh (New Hartford) and Alexis Cruz (Indian River).
DelPino, the no. 3 seed, got her own 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Sophia Farkouh (New Hartford) before handling Utica-Notre Dame’s Emily Lyga 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
Ironically, DelPino’s semifinal was against no. 2 seed, Ellen Lyga, Emily’s sister. The result proved that Ellen Lyga had learned plenty about DelPino’s game from her sibling as she prevailed 6-2, 6-1.
Meanwhile, Vlassis handled Baldwinsville’s Brooke Tutor 6-0, 6-1, and moved on to the championship round, where once again she only surrendered a single game and claimed another 6-0, 6-1 decision.
DelPino now had to beat Tutor in the third-place match, and she lost the opening set 7-5. Just in time, though, DelPino found her top form and claimed the second and third sets by equal 6-2 margins to earn her state tournament berth.
In doubles, J-D’s Mona Farah and Tara Pollock, along with F-M’s Anna Manta and Phoebe Wang, both secured their own state tournament tickets.
Farah and Pollock were the no. 2 seeds, starting out against the Manlius-Pebble Hill duo of Parmees Fazeli and Caroline Mezzalingua and winning 6-1, 6-2 before a 6-0, 6-1 win over Clinton’s Mei Cassidy-Heekin and Madeline Walters.
To win a state tournament berth, Farah and Pollock had to beat Cazenovia’s Alex Galle and Nina Royer in Thursday’s semifinals. Galle and Royer had already eliminated CBA’s Grace Catalano and Aubrey Mills in a 6-4, 7-5 opening-round battle.
Here, though, Farah and Pollock got the best of it, their 6-3, 6-1 decision meaning that they would reach the state tournament, no matter what happened in the finals.
Despite some struggles in the opening round, Manta and Wang beat Skaneateles’ Ella Danforth and Emma Miller 6-4, 6-4 before a 6-0, 6-2 romp over Utica-Notre Dame’s Samantha Fluty and Caitlin Snyder in the quarterfinals.
Up against West Genesee’s Angelina Llanos and Katie Viau in the semifinals (a pair they beat 6-1, 6-1 in the sectional Division I finals five days earlier), Manta and Wang saw Llanos and Viau turn it around and beat them 7-5, 6-4.
Suddenly, immense pressure was on Manta and Wang, but they handled it well, defeating Galle and Royer 6-3, 7-5 to join Farah and Pollock in the state tournament field. An injury in the final ended the J-D pair’s match against Llanos and Viau.
MPH also had Parmees Fazeli win a 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 battle over New Hartford’s Grace LaFountain before running into Tutor in the quarterfinals and taking a 6-2, 6-1 defeat.
