Strong play on the doubles side helped the Skaneateles girls tennis team prevail in its second regular-season encounter with rival Marcellus Wednesday afternoon, edging past the Mustangs by a score of 4-3.
The two sides had first met Sept. 1, at Austin Park, where Marcellus had prevailed by that exact same 4-3 margin. The rematch, on the Mustangs’ home court, nearly had the same ending.
What turned things in the Lakers’ favor was a pair of closely fought doubles matches. Katharina Kulik and Kathryn Magee topped Emily Hennigan and Renee Poullott 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, while Elizabeth Belinski and Emily Call needed a third-set tie-breaker to get past Holly Grosholz and Olivia Higgins 7-6, 4-6, 7-6.
This made up for the fact that Makenzi Herbst and Alaina Davis lost their singles matches in straight sets to, respectively, Daniela Henie and Haley Randall. Katelyn Ellison won the other singles contest, though, in a 7-6, 6-3 win over Colleen Stapleton.
Skaneateles started out the week on a strong note, putting together a 7-0 sweep of the Pulaski Blue Devils.
Between them, Herbst, Ellison and Davis lost just one game in singles sweeps of, respectively, Camilla Camilleti, Sam Keeney and Emily Fellers.
Three of the doubles matches were contested. Olivia Gage and Angela Krause blanked Diamond Brossoit and Shanika Scarborough 6-0, 6-0, while Kulik and Magee handled Kristina Gilbert and Valerie Granger 6-1, 6-4. Belinski and Call had a 6-0, 7-5 win over Atlantis Bananno and Kathryn Paye.
Friday’s match with Cazenovia got rained out and must be made up, along with the Lakers’ matches next week against Homer and Westhill.
