When the Section III girls tennis post-season switched from team to individual honors, local sides remained heavily present in all four divisions, and by the time a week of action was done, five of them were headed for this weekend’s state tournament at Eastside Racquet Club.
Christian Brothers Academy swept the Division III honors last Tuesday at Gold’s Gym in Liverpool. Olivia Messineo won in singles, dominating Daniela Henle (Marcellus) 6-1, 6-0 in the semifinals before topping her teammate, Colleen Cavanaugh, 6-3, 6-0 in the finals.
Becky Scullin and Shilpa Kamani went to the top of the doubles division. They got past Emily Hennigan and Renee Poullott (Marcellus) 6-3, 6-1 and, in the title match, ripped to a 6-1, 6-1 sweep of Canastota’s tandem of Tracy O’Hern and Stephanie Patterson.
Jamesville-DeWitt monopolized the Division II singles tournament at Turning Stone Resort in Verona. Kyrin Pollock beat Whitesboro’s Colleen Moore 6-4, 6-1 and Rea Puka handled New Hartford’s Claire Hotvedt 6-4, 6-4, setting up a championship match where Pollock came from behind to beat Puka 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
The Red Rams’ doubles team of Natalie Antosh and Katie Cieplicki lost in the semifinals to Jamie Wallace and Broke Willis (Mexico) 7-6, 6-3. while in Division IV at Drumlins Bishop Grimes’ tandem of Amelia Heiselman and Erranan Shattuck fell to Abigail Cornell and Andrea Peters (Beaver River) in straight sets 6-1, 6-1.
They also held the Division I tournament at Drumlins, where Fayetteville-Manlius doubles stars Rhiannon Iorio and Carly Romano beat Madeline Bello and Colleen Morgan (Baldwinsville) 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals.
However, in the finals Iorio and Romano could not put away West Genesee’s duo of Samantha Heyn and Allison Theberge, falling in three sets 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. This came after Heyn and Theberge, in a third-set tie-breaker, got past Caitlin Welker and Jessica Guarino 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.
Now all the local players went to Drumlins for the state qualifier. In singles, Messineo would join the state field as she started with 6-0, 6-0 sweeps over Puka and Liverpool’s Christina Monakhova and beat Lowville’s Julia Guignard 6-0, 6-1 in Saturday’s semifinals to clinch her state tournament berth.
Only against Auburn’s Claire Minnoe in the finals did Messineo stumble, but even here she took Minnoe to three sets in a 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 defeat.
Romano and Iorio got past McKenzie Doig and Kaleigh Koegel (Chittenango) 6-3, 6-1 and also beat Rachel Madden and Alex Romano (New Hartford) 6-3, 6-1. Scullin and Kamani beat Guarino and Welker 7-5, 6-1 to start its tournament run and, in the quarterfinals, got a 6-1, 7-5 win over Cornell and Peters.
Then the CBA and F-M pairs both won their respective semifinals, as Iorio and Romano got revenge on Heyn and Theberge 6-0, 6-3, with Scullin and Kamani handling Elizabeth Buckley and Allison Jones (Utica-Notre Dame) 6-4, 6-2.
So it was a local showdown in the finals, and though Scullin and Kamani beat Iorio and Romano 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, both pairs are joining Messineo at the state tournament.
Antosh and Cieplicki got a 6-3, 6-2 win over Emily Hennigan and Renee Poullott (Marcellus) in the first round and scared Heyn and Theberge in the quarterfinals before taking a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 defeat. Heiselman and Shattuck lost in the opening round to Jamie Wallace and Brooke Willis (Mexico) in straight sets.
Elsewhere in singles, Pollock defeated Leylee Tayefeh (Westmoreland) 6-2, 6-2 in the first round, but fell in the quarterfinals to B’ville’s Kahlei Reisinger by those exact same scores. Cavanaugh got past Whitesboro’s Colleen Moore 6-1, 6-4, but Guignard beat her 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
