In a remarkable effort, Cazenovia’s girls tennis sister duo of Edie and Lucy Connor won three matches, two of them going to three sets, and advanced all the way to the semifinals in Tuesday’s Section III Division III tournament at Mott Courts in Utica.
As a result, the Connors earned a berth in this week’s Section III state qualifier, one of 16 teams vying for three berths in the state tournament Nov. 2-4 at Tri-City Tennis Center in Latham, near Albany.
Not even seeded when the Division III tournament got underway, Edie and Lucy had to win an extra round just to get into the main 16-team bracket, which they did by beating Maura McNeil and Maddy Pinkney (Skaneateles) 6-1, 6-2.
And then the fun started. Against no. 4 seed Sarah Roberts and Elizabeth Sasser (CBA) in the round of 16, the Connors split the first two sets and was down to a third-set tie-breaker, but pulled it out 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.
Just as exciting was the quarterfinal match that would determine the place in the state qualifier. Mexico’s duo of Haleigh Marek and Brooke Wills pushed Edie and Lucy to another third set – and again, the Connors pulled through, this time in a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 decision.
Only in the semifinal round did the sister act run out of steam, the Connors running into no. 2 seed Grace Hunt and Mary Kate McHale (Marcellus) and leading early again, only to succumb in a third straight three-set match 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Cazenovia’s other doubles team in the tournament, Natalie Roszel and Vivian Wilt, led big early and got to a third-set tie-breaker in their opening match, only to fall to Jordan-Elbridge’s Morgan Conroy and Emma Stanton 2-6, 6-1, 7-6.
Up in Division II, Chittenango’s team of Jessica Hogan and Ashley Jackowski won, 6-4, 7-6, over Olivia Melton and Adriana Sotolongo (Jamesville-DeWitt) in the opening round before a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Cortland’s Lyudymila Levitskaya and Delaney Marshal in the next round.
