Only the cold and wet weather that emerged late last week stopped the Fayetteville-Manlius girls tennis team’s run through the Section III Class A tournament. It also threatened to keep rivals CBA and Jamesville-DeWitt from clashing in the Class B semifinals.
But it all cleared out by Saturday, in time for the Hornets and Brothers to advance to Monday’s finals at Utica Parkway Courts. F-M would meet Liverpool for the Class A title, while CBA takes on top seed New Hartford for Class B honors.
The Hornets, as the top seed, began its playoff run last Tuesday by sweeping no. 8 seed Oswego 7-0 in the quarterfinal round. Allison Vizgaitis, Sienna Susko and Carly Romano dropped just three games in six sets of singles play against the Buccaneers.
Much the same was true in doubles as Meghan Muraco and Caitlin Welker’s 6-1, 6-1 win over Cathryn Darling and Allison Yule was the closest match. The teams of Rhiannon Iorio-Katie Muller, Olivia Calancie-Kara Goldberg and Allison Mitchell-Laura Thomson won with similar ease.
Baldwinsville was the Hornets’ semifinal opponent on Saturday, and it turned into another 7-0 verdict (the team’s 288th consecutive match win) where, again, all the matches were won in straight sets.
Susko beat Kahlei Reisinger 6-0, 6-3, with Romano handling Amari Pollard in a pair of 6-2 sets and Vizgaitis beating Taylor Ferrari 6-2, 6-0. The closest doubles match featured Muraco and Welker putting together a 6-3, 6-3 win over Sarah Corcoran and Colleen Morgan.
As this was going on, in the Class B semifinals CBA was shutting out J-D 7-0. In both singles and doubles, the Brothers dominated the Red Rams.
Olivia Messineo has won 106 of 107 sets in singles play, and kept it up here by beating Kyrin Pollock 6-0, 6-0. Meanwhile, Shilpa Kamani topped Hannah Stefl by those same 6-0, 6-0 scores, and Colleen Cavanaugh took out Natalie Antosh 6-3, 6-1.
The only real drama in doubles came when, in three sets, Laura Bulman and Sarah Kitts beat Elena Marchett-Bowick and Ashi Masrani 7-5, 5-7, 10-2. The teams of Nicole Kalhorn-Becky Scullin, Shannon Fitch-Lauren Mastroeni and Jenna Bartolotti-Chrissy Thomson-Basha all needed just two sets to prevail.
CBA, as the no. 7 seed in Class B, had yet another meeting with no. 10 seed Chittenango in the opening round and pulled out a 4-3 victory over the Bears.
Much of that was because the Brothers dominated in singles. Messineo shut out Ami Petosa 6-0, 6-0, with Cavanaugh beating Shelby Bogle 6-4, 6-1 and Kamani putting together a 6-0, 6-2 win over Sierra Sleight.
As for doubles, the team of Amanda Ojugbeli and Thomson-Basha fell just short in a 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 loss to Kaitlyn Brant and Rose Mashie. But in a similarly close match, Kalhorn and Scullin earned the clinching point, going through a tough third set to beat Tanya Cziesler and Brandyn McDermott 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.
In Wednesday’s quarterfinal against no. 2 seed Cazenovia, the Brothers had an easier time of it, rolling past the Lakers 6-1.
Between them, Messineo, Cavanaugh and Kamani lost just four games in sweeps of the Cazenovia trio of Elizabeth Palmer, Laura Gregg and Sarah Kate Glass, but it proved tougher in doubles.
Bulman and Sarah Kitts needed three sets to beat Marissa Barrett and Kelly Furlong 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 as the teams of Kalhorn-Scullin won in straight sets. Also, Ojugbeli teamed with Jenna Bartolotti for a 6-3, 6-2 win over Rebecca Marsch and Sidney Stehle.
J-D had got there by beating no. 6 seed South Jefferson 4-1 in the quarterfinals. Kyrin Pollock and Natalie Antosh won their singles matches in straight sets, while Katie Cieplick and Ashi Masrani beat Julianne Rehley and Maddy Wetterhahn 6-3, 7-6. Elena Marchetti-Bowick and Hannah Stefl got a 6-2, 6-3 sweep over Austin Stevens and Emmaline Voss.