One more time, the Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt girls tennis teams would meet each other, but in a high-pressure situation during Saturday’s Section III Class B team tournament semifinals, played indoors at Drumlins because of the wet and cold conditions outside.
Just as in two regular-season meetings that were split, it would be close, decided by a 4-3 margin. But it was the Brothers prevailing this time to advance to the team finals.
Three of CBA’s points were attained easily enough. Olivia Messineo put away Kyrin Pollock 6-1, 6-0 and Colleen Cavanaugh did the same to Rea Puka 6-2, 6-1, while in doubles Shilpa Kamani and Becky Scullin, unbeaten in 2011, had a 6-4, 6-0 sweep of Natalie Antosh and Katie Cieplicki.
J-D countered by having Amanda Lee, in third singles, beat Amanda Ojugbeli 7-6, 3-6, 10-3, while Mary Miller and Karly Platenik overcame a terrible start to beat Evie Lopoo and Olivia Rotondo 0-6, 7-6, 10-2. Another point tie-breaker was needed when Elena Marchetti-Bowick and Hannah Stefl, who also started poorly, beat Jenna Bartolotti and Shannon Fitch 1-6, 6-2, 10-8.
One point remained to be decided, in fourth doubles. Two CBA ninth-graders, Sarah Roberts and Elizabeth Sasser, had to knock off J-D’s unbeaten duo of Hali Greenhouse and Lexi Lerman – and did so, prevailing in two close sets 7-5, 6-4.
CBA breezed through the opening round, shutting out Camden 7-0. By contrast, Wednesday’s quarterfinal with Chittenango was a 4-3 thriller where Messineo, Cavanaugh and Ojugbeli won their singles matches in straight sets.
However, the Bears countered with three straight-sets doubles points. In the decisive contest, Shilpa Kamani and Becky Scullin trailed McKenzie Doig and Kaleigh Koegel and were on the brink of defeat, but survived a second-set tie-breaker and came back to prevail 1-6, 7-6, 6-4 to earn the clinching point.
In J-D’s 5-0 shutout of Ilion in the first round, every match was won in straight sets. Amanda Lee and Karley Platenik had to work a bit harder to get past Min Lin and Kacey Visser 6-4, 6-1, but Kyrin Pollock, Rea Puka and Hannah Stefl lost just one game in six sets of singles play.
The Red Rams then took out Oneida 4-2 in the quarterfinals. Pollock and Puka both won in singles, while Natalie Antosh and Katie Cieplicki got the crucial point in doubles by fighting past Connie Froass and Paige Pendleton 7-5, 6-7, 7-5. Stefl and Elena Marchetti-Bowick got past Rachel Markle and Julie Sarensky 6-3, 6-4.
