Though it had yet another Section III Class A team title secure, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls tennis team did not have as easy a time of it in the aftermath.
During the the sectional Division I tournament at Liverpool High School, just one Hornets side made it all the way to the finals – the doubles team of Laurin Goldberg and Sienna Susko – but they finished on top in the most dramatic match of the entire week of sectional play.
From a no. 2 seed, Goldberg and Susko did not drop a game in either of its first two matches against Meredith Chesare-Kelly Skinner (Oswego) and Lauren Dusse-Taylor Slink (Baldwinsville), and rolled to 6-0, 6-3 semifinal victory over another Bees duo, Taylor Ferrari and Natalie Kot.
Back at Liverpool on Thursday, Goldberg and Susko went up against West Genesee’s top-seeded duo of Samantha Heyn and Marisa Joyce. After losing the first set 6-4, Goldberg and Susko won the second set by that same margin, and dragged the third set into a long tie-breaker.
Two points from defeat, Goldberg and Susko pulled through, broke Heyn and Joyce’s serve, and then won that tie-breaker 9-7 to take the final set 7-6 and earn the sectional title.
In Division II, where Jamesville-DeWitt took residence, Kyrin Pollock was never challenged on her way to the sectional singles championship.
It sarted last Monday at Utica Parkway Courts, where Pollock, the top seed, breezed past Carisma Cherukuri (New Hartford) 6-0, 6-0 and Rachel Markle (Oneida) 6-1, 6-0 to reach the semifinals, and then blanked Markle’s Oneida teammate, Connie Froass, 6-0, 6-0.
Not able to play the final against Whitesboro’s Tori Pellegrino until Thursday, Pollock didn’t let the delay affect her one bit, routing Pellegrino 6-1, 6-0 for the championship. Pollock lost just two games in the entire tournament.
In Division IV, Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Elizabeth Clarkson won the singles title from a no. 4 seed, rallying past Ashley Stocking (Lowville) 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 and then upsetting top seed Autumn Fallon (Waterville) 6-0, 6-3 before a 6-3, 7-5 finals win over Stocking’s Lowville teammate, Theresa Dines.
Olivia Sheppard also earned a trip to the state qualifier with her run to the semifinals, capped by a dramatic 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 quarterfinals victory over the no. 3 seed, Beaver River’s Andrea Peters, before Dines beat her 6-2, 6-0 in the semifinals. MPH’s Caroline Blanck lost in the opening round.
Bishop Grimes’ top doubles team of Tina Hoag and Jordan Vaught backed up its no. 2 seed, beating Courtney Lehman and Jasmine Roggie (Lowville) 6-2, 6-1 and then surviving a three-set semifinal battle with Maxie Grogan and Rachel Roberts (Herkimer) 6-3, 5-7, 6-1. Tired from these matches, Hoag and Vaught lost to Dana Bever and Ella Brutsky (Sauquoit Valley) 6-0, 6-1 in the finals.
In Division II doubles, J-D’s Karley Platenik and Maya Pollock made it to the state qualifier by defeating Braelie Kempney and Morgan Paige (Carthage) 6-1, 6-0 and also getting past Kassidy Kearns and Julia Ludington (Fulton) 6-4, 6-3. The run ended there, though, as Oneida’s Jillian Broddock and Jenna Russ beat Platenik and Pollock 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals.
J-D’s Elise Catania beat Rachel McNeil (Homer) 6-2, 6-1 in her opening singles match, only to run into Froass in the quarterfinals, where Catania lost in three sets 6-2, 5-7, 6-0. East Syracuse-Minoa’s Jeanine Kohler lost in the opening round to Oneida’s Jenna Didio 6-1, 6-1.
Samantha Williams, originally set for singles, moved to doubles with Diane Choi, and the pair fought off Emma Bonk and Megan Shimkus (Indian River) 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 before a quarterfinal defeat to Oneida’s Samantha Lusher and Lexi Skibitski 6-0, 6-3.
In Division I doubles, F-M’s teams of Shannon Fullam-Abby Welker and Madison Jordan-Alexandra Millimaci did not even make it out of the first round. Fullam and Welker lost to Richelle Brousseau and Bethany Wicks (Cicero-North Syracuse) 6-3, 6-2, while Jordan and Millimaci had a 6-1, 6-3 loss to B’ville’s Taylor Ferrari and Natalie Kot.
Over in singles, the Hornets’ trio of Maggie Bonomo, Shirley Zhang and Kristina Liu all won opening-round matches, only to fall in the quarterfinals. Bonomo lost to top-seeded B’ville star Kahlei Reisinger 6-0, 6-0, while Zhang ran into Auburn’s Lauryn Husby in a 6-1, 6-1 defeat and Liu lost to another Maroons player, Julia Wagner, by those exact same scores.
