Next weekend, Cazenovia boys tennis doubles players Chris Rogers and Jon Cipiti will make their way to the USTA National Tennis Center in Queens to compete in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship tournament.
The Lakers’ duo earned that honor by virtue of a second-place finish in the Section III tournament, held last Thursday and Friday at Syracuse University’s SkyTop Courts.
As one of 16 surviving teams from the sectional round, Rogers and Cipiti needed, in all, three wins to finish among the top three that would advance to the state championships.
Rogers and Cipiti got two of those wins on Thursday, setting up a semifinal against East Syracuse-Minoa’s tandem of Parker Stone and Daryll Johnson. Cazenovia’s pair easily won the first set 6-2, and when it survived a second-set tie-breaker to prevail 7-6, a berth in the state tournament was assured.
Still, Rogers and Cipiti could win the overall sectional title if they beat Oneida’s Trevor Haskell and Paul Froass in Friday’s championship match.
It played out over an hour and 47 minutes. Rogers and Cipiti won the first set 6-4 with a late break, but after a questionable double fault early in the second set, they ceded control as Haskell and Froass won that set 6-1, then overcame several service breaks to win the third set 6-3.
Stone and Johnson won the third-place match to join Rogers-Cipiti and Haskell-Froass as the doubles teams heading to Queens. On the singles side, Clinton’s Jake Crawford and two CBA players — freshman Matt Nardella and his twin brother, Colin — also advanced.
In particular, Rogers will have a busy weekend. After playing at Flushing Meadow, he is scheduled to come back to Syracuse to play in Sunday’s inaugural Upstate/Downstate Football Classic at the Carrier Dome, as he was named for his record-breaking work as a kicker for the football Lakers.
