Even as the weather turned perfect, the West Genesee boys tennis team spent most of the first week of May resting up for its most important match of the season.
And when it came on Friday afternoon, the Wildcats were ready for it. Relying on terrific balance between its singles and doubles players, the Wildcats gave 9-0 Liverpool its first defeat of the season by a score of 5-2.
Of the three singles contests, two went in WG’s favor. Jon Papzides toyed with Kevin Zylka in second singles for a 6-1, 6-2 victory, while Craig Shepard needed just two sets to dismiss Dan Salem 6-2, 6-2.
The Wildcats would also go 3-1 in doubles. Jeff Kurtz teamed with Eric Tressler to beat Ryan DeAngelis and David Anthony 6-3, 6-1, while Aaron Speach and Josh Barrett rolled past Mike Buckenmeyer and Mike Vaughn 6-4, 6-3.
In three tough sets, Tim Gallivan and Andrew Tunguz beat Scott Rosenheck and David Sanderson 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. As that was going on, Kunal Shetty took a 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) loss to Nick Schneider, and the team of Matt Zell and Mike Spicer lost to Kenny Schiefer and Mike Lazara 6-2, 6-1.
A day earlier, the Wildcats returned to action and moved to 8-0 with a 7-0 shutout of the Auburn Maroons.
Kurtz blasted Brandon Emperato 6-1, 6-0. Both Papazides and Shepard won in 6-0, 6-0 matches — Papazides over Tom Ferlenda, Shepard over Jesse Sorenson.
Over in doubles, Dan Kalbach and Aaron Keohane had a shaky start, but still beat John Poweski and Josh Gleason 6-4, 6-1. Shetty and Eric Tressler had a 6-1, 6-2 win over Chris Graber and Sakari Nikinmea.
Tim Gallivan and Spicer maintained the pace, topping Zach Sears and Bill Kick 6-1, 6-1, as Speach and Jay Tinklepaugh got past Kevin Anderson and Tim Marangola 6-3, 6-1.
Right after beating Liverpool, the Wildcats took care of Nottingham Saturday in a 7-0 sweep to move to 10-0 overall.
Shetty, Papazides and Shepard dropped just five games in six sets of singles work. It was much the same in doubles, as every match was won in straight sets. Keohane and Mike Webster beat Sadik Mehmedovic and Fuad Alic 7-6, 6-2, in the closest competition of the adventure.
With this perfect mark, WG had one monstrous obstacle remaining on the road to a perfect season — Fayetteville-Manlius. Their showdown is on Tuesday afternoon, on the Wildcats’ home courts.
