Whatever else had taken place with the Baldwinsville girls tennis team, one constant was the total domination Kahlei Reisinger had over her singles opponents.
So it was little surprise that Reisinger emerged as the Section III Division I champion in last week’s tournament, which due to a 24-hour rain delay was moved from Syracuse University’s Skytop Courts to Liverpool High School.
No matter the venue, Reisinger rolled as she blanked Maggie Bonomo (Fayetteville-Manlius) 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinals following a first-round bye. Then, in the semifinals, Auburn’s Jenna Jarman, who had knocked out Adriana Speech 6-4, 6-2 in her first-round match, picked off a few games, but Reisinger still prevailed 6-2, 6-1.
This set up Thursday’s final, also at Liverpool, against Jarman’s Auburn teammate, Julia Wagner, who had already beaten B’ville’s Maddie Quilter 6-0, 6-0 in the opening round.
But this match proved no different than the previous rounds, in terms of results. Reisinger worked past Wagner 6-3 in the first set, and then prevailed 6-2 in the second set to remain unbeaten this fall.
In doubles play, Taylor Ferrari and Natalie Kot made it to the semifinal round in Division I, which helped them also advance to the state qualifier.
To start out, Ferrari and Kot roared past F-M’s tandem of Madison Jordan and Alexandra Millimaci 6-1, 6-3, and they had a similar effort against Liverpool’s Alexandra Iannodis and Katelyn Nguyen, winning a 6-1, 6-4 match before falling in the semifinals to the Hornets’ Laurin Goldberg and Sienna Susko 6-0, 6-3.
Hannah Mautz and Katherine Schumacher won over Holly Hash and Lauren Iacovissi (Rome Free Academy 6-2, 6-3, but ran into top seed Samantha Heyn and Marisa Joyce (West Genesee) in the quarterfinals and lost 6-0, 6-1.
Much the same thing happened to Lauren Dusse and Taylor Slink, who rallied from a bad start to earn a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Kristin Inthirakot and Hannah Simmons (Cicero-North Syracuse) before Susko and Goldberg beat them in a 6-0, 6-0 quarterfinal sweep.
Reisinger, Ferrari and Kot would join a field of 16 singles and 16 doubles teams at the qualifier. Three singles and three doubles sides would advance to the Nov. 2-4 state championships at Tri-City Tennis Center in Lapham, near Albany.
And they would all make it to the semifinal round thanks to their work in early-round play Saturday at Skytop. Reisinger, the top seed in singles, continued to roll along, beating Connie Froass (Oneida) 6-3, 6-0 in the first round and stopping Jarman again in the quarterfinals by those same scores.
As for Ferrari and Kot, they held the no. 3 seed in doubles, and got past Rachel Madden and Emily Steates (New Hartford) 6-2, 7-5 in the first round. Then, trailing in the quarterfinals, Ferrari and Kot rallied to beat West Genesee’s Taylor Ginestro and Kayla Llanos 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
