Chittenango’s girls tennis duo of Tanya Czielser and Brandyn McDermott worked their way to the Section III Division II doubles championship with a pair of come-from-behind wins Tuesday at Utica Parkway Courts.
When the tournament started, Cziesler and McDermott owned the top seed and a first-round bye, and it won once on Oct. 23 in Utica to set up its semifinal match against the Fulton team of Rachel Guernsey and Kali Kearns.
Cziesler and McDermott lost the first set, 7-5, but dominated the match the rest of the way, taking the second set over Guernsey and Kearns 6-2 and the third set 6-1 to advance to the finals.
Once there, Cziesler and McDermott squared off with New Hartford’s tandem of Alex Romano and Katie Steates, who had needed their own three-set effort to beat Ashi Masrani and Katie Cieplicki (Jamesville-DeWitt) in the semifinals.
Again, Cziesler and McDermott lost the first set, this time by a 6-4 margin. Again, they came back, winning the second set 6-4, then surviving a tense third-set tie-breaker to prevail 7-6 and take the title.
Now the Chittenango pair advances to the state qualifier, which starts Thursday at Drumlins Country Club in Syracuse. Cziesler and McDermott hope to advance to the Nov. 6-8 state championships at Eastside Racquet Club in Manlius.
