When the Section III girls tennis tournaments got down to its decisive phase, Jamesville-DeWitt was guaranteed to earn the Division II singles title.
That was because the Red Rams’ Kyrin Pollock and Rea Puka both made the finals after early-round matches played last Monday at Syracuse University.
Pollock and Puka both had first-round byes and easily made it through the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Pollock blanked Whitesboro’s Sarah Palczynski 6-0, 6-0, while Puka had to work a bit longer against another Whitesboro player, Victoria Pellegrino, but still won 6-0, 7-5.
After a 24-hour rain delay, the J-D pair met in Thursday’s final at Liverpool, and it was never close. Pollock made all the shots and earned a 6-0, 6-1 sweep of Puka for the singles championship.
In doubles, J-D’s Hannah Stefl and Karly Platenik got to the semifinals before Broke Wills and Jamie Wallace (Mexico) topped them 6-0, 6-3. Two teams from East Syracuse-Minoa, Jeanine Kohler-Caitlin Underwood and Adisa Husejnovic-Jackie Moshier, lost in the early rounds, as did Samantha Lobello and J-D’s Elise Catania on the singles side.
Fayetteville-Manlius girls singles star Sienna Susko got past a familiar rival – Baldwinsville’s Kahlei Reisinger – on her way to the Division I singles title match.
As in their memorable Sept. 7 match where F-M’s long win streak ended, Susko came from behind, losing the first set to Reisinger 6-4, but dominating the second set 6-0 and claiming the final set 6-4. While that was going on, Meaghan Creamer and Shirley Zhang suffered first-round defeats.
The final on Thursday at Liverpool would pit Susko against Auburn’s Claire Minnoe. It could not have started better for Susko, who tore past Minnoe 6-0 in the first set, but the Maroons’ top seed settled down and earned a 6-0 decision in the second set and a 6-2 victory in the third set to deny Susko.
In doubles, the teams of Allison Donella-Alexandra Millimaci and Jessica Guarino-Laurin Goldberg both made the semifinals, but both lost there. Guarino and Golderg fell in three sets to Marisa Joyce and Samantha Heyn (West Genesee) 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, with Donella and Millimaci getting a 6-2, 7-5 defeat to B’ville’s duo of Natalie Kot and Amari Pollard.
Four local tennis teams went into the Section III team tournament quarterfinals on Friday afternoon, and three of them kept going, including F-M, the top seed in Class A, who turned back Rome Free Academy 6-1.
The Hornets won all the doubles matches in two sets, with the teams of Maggie Bonomo-Lyndsey Rand and Shannon Fullan-Gina Rhee both getting 6-0, 6-0 sweeps. Up in singles, Zhang beat Lauren Iacovissi 6-2, 6-1 as Millimaci routed Jasmine Miller 6-0, 6-1.
F-M will get to face CBA in the semifinals (B’ville and Auburn meet in the other semifinal) after the no. 5 seed Brothers defeated no. 4 seed Whitesboro 5-2, mostly based on a doubles sweep.
Jenna Bartlotti and Shannon Fitch rallied to beat Kaitlin Bartczak and Emily Krol 3-6, 6-2, 6-0. Anna Kambhampaty and Trisha Maini survived a long battle to beat Grace Freidel and Shannon Knapp 4-6, 11-9, 10-8 as the teams of Evie Lopoo-Sarah Rotondo and Sarah Roberts-Elizabeth Sasser each won in straight sets.
In singles, Amanda Ojugbeli lost, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2, to Tori Pelligrino, but Mikayla Santulli gained an important point for the Brothers, topping Jonelle Orasio 6-1, 6-4.
J-D, protecting the Class B no. 2 seed, beat Marcellus 5-2 in the quarterfinals to set up a semifinal match with no. 3 seed Mexico as Oneida and Cazenovia meet in the other semifinal.
The Red Rams got a singles sweep from Puka, Elise Catania and Karley Platenik. Pollock teamed with Hannah Stefl in doubles to beat Emily Hennigan and Renee Poullott 6-3, 6-2, while Samantha Mignacca and Allison Semmel took out Megan Charles and Tierney Clark 6-3, 6-3.
Only Manlius-Pebble Hill exited, the result of a 3-2 defeat to top seed Beaver River in the Class C quarterfinals.
The Trojans’ teams of Caroline Blanck-Sarah Malavenda and Christina Cerio-Scarlet Jaworski both won in straight sets, but Beaver River won every singles point, the closest of them coming when Olivia Shepard lost to Andrea Peters 6-3, 6-4.
