For each of the area’s high school boys tennis teams, the final week of the regular season offered plenty of chances to finish strong.
And for West Genesee, the big moment would come Thursday afternoon, when it took on Baldwinsville in a showdown of two of the CNY Counties League’s elite.
WG would have some strong moments — but not enough of them to upend the Bees, who improved to 9-1 by defeating the Wildcats 5-2.
Both of those points came in doubles. Brett Smith and Lucas Hendrickson, who earned a rare point against Fayetteville-Manlius the week before, routed Cody Buck and Kevin Pregent 6-1, 6-1, while Erik Breault and Shane Heyn overcame a rough start to fly past Kevin Thompson and Shaun Devlin 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Elsewhere, the teams of Eric Weller-Brad Shepard and Mike Plunkett-Andrew Albert both took straight-set losses, and in singles Tanner McGuire, James Buttner and Tyler Arnold all took defeats without getting more than three games in any single set.
Three days earlier, WG beat the precipitation – and also beat Utica Proctor in a 6-1 decision that featured a doubles sweep on the Wildcats’ part.
Heyn and McGuire survived a first-set defeat and second-set tie-breaker to beat Corey Carter and Anthony Choing 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. Shepard and Plunkett beat Dan Guarnd and Kevin Burnet 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) as the teams of Albert-Brett Smith and Buttner-Arnold both prevailed in straight sets, too.
Up in singles, Hendrickson beat Matt Wosenie 6-2, 6-3, while Breault got a 6-4, 6-4 win over Jim Leen. Weller lost to Kevin Voe 6-0, 6-3.
