A day full of intense competition on Oct. 29 helped produce the nine players that will represent Section III at this weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association girls tennis championship tournament.
At the same Eastside Racquet Club where the state event will be held, top players from the area gathered for this state qualifier.
In singles, CBA freshman Lianna Artessa would dominate the field. She beat Oneida’s Melanie Bobay 6-0, 6-1 in the first round, then stopped Auburn’s Melissa Coughlin 6-0, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
Clinching her spot, Artessa routed New Hartford’s Shereen Asmat 6-0, 6-1. Only Westhill’s Allison Haynes gave Artessa any kind of fight, in the second set of their final, but Artessa still prevailed 6-1, 7-5 to claim the championship.
Haynes secured her state berth by beating Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Christina Douglas 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals. In the consolation match for the third and final berth, Douglas came out on top, beating Asmat 7-5, 6-1.
Meanwhile, in the doubles tournament, a great battle developed, as Kristen Hemingway and Lindsey Crawford (Fayetteville-Manlius) met the Oneida sister tandem of Brianne and Aubrey Bobo in the finals.
Both were in, due to impressive runs throughout the day, and in the first set, the Bobos prevailed 6-4, then took the second set to a tiebreaker.
Just a few points from defeat, Hemingway and Crawford rallied, took the tiebreaker 7-6, then beat the Bobos in the third set 6-4 to claim the title.
For the third and final spot, F-M’s duo of Cara Yanger and Samantha Martin were two games from defeat, only to rally and beat Marcellus upstarts Laura Lieflander and Rachel Pavlas 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
