Now that they were together in the Onondaga High School League’s Liberty division, the Cazenovia and Chittenango boys tennis teams could have head-to-head meetings each spring.
With the weather warming up and the sun out, the two neighbors clashed twice in the span of a week, and it was the Lakers winning both times.
It started last Monday afternoon, with Cazenovia sweeping all three doubles matches, emerging with a 4-1 victory over the Bears.
Eli Lagorga got it started in first singles, earning a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Josh Carpenter. Galen Okoniewski worked past Scott Barrett 6-2, 6-1, while Connor Eisworth defeated Kyle McGinnis by scores of 6-4 and 6-1.
Moving to doubles, Chittenango got on the board when Conor Delaney and Rich Kiss roared past Wyatt Lansing and Mason Stehle 6-1, 6-1. The Lakers countered when Bob Kmetz and Harry McDonough shut out Jacob Fields and Austin Purcell 6-0, 6-0.
Friday’s rematch had shuffles in personnel and a slightly different point distribution, but the same result as Cazenovia edged Chittenango 3-2 this time around.
This time, the Bears sent Kiss and Delaney to singles, and both would win. Kiss beat Lagorga 7-6, 6-4, while Delaney put away Lansing 6-3, 6-1.
In doing this, Chittenango gave up its doubles edge, which Cazenovia exploited. Eisworth and Okoniewski beat Carpenter and McGinnis 6-1, 6-1, with Ben Kmetz and Harry McDonough beating Scott Paikin and Austin Purcell 6-4, 6-2. Stehle played in third singles and earned a 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Fields.
In between these matches, Cazenovia lost a 4-1 decision to Skaneateles, only getting on the board when Eisworth defeated Zach Driscoll 6-4, 6-4.
Lagorga and Okoniewski both dropped their singles matches in straight sets, while Ben Concilla and Harry McDonough went to three sets in doubles before taking a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 loss to Tom Bronk and Griffin Walawender.
And the Lakers’ struggles continued in Thursday’s 4-1 defeat to Westhill. Lagorga beat Dan Haynes 6-3, 6-1 in first singles, but Okoniewski and Eisworth both fell in straight sets. Lansing and Stehle fell to Brian McMullen and Jared Ristoff 6-1, 6-1, while McDonough and Kyle Markowski had a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Flether Chapin and Alex Skeele.
By a 6-1 margin, Chittenango fell to Fulton, as again Delaney and Kiss break up the possible shutout with their 6-0, 6-0 sweep over Logan Carvey and Jacob Strauss. Palkin lost to Javier Pajaron 6-1, 7-5 in the closest singles match, with Carpenter and McGinnis battling hard in a 6-3, 7-5 loss to the Red Raiders tandem of Joel Monaghan and Zach Perry.
The Bears also lost, 3-2, to Marcellus, even though Delaney and Kiss beat Andrew Herold and Mike Raymond 6-3, 7-6, while Carpenter and McGinnis handled Geoff Golick and Sean Koloski by those same scores.
The problem lay in singles, where Chittenango’s trio of Purcell, Fields and Paikin won just one game in six sets against the Mustangs’ set of John Kramer, James Garzia and Alex Pirro.
