Though it could not quite go all the way to the top, West Genesee’s girls tennis doubles team of Samantha Heyn and Marisa Joyce still accomplished what they wanted in the Section III state qualifying tournament.
With their second-place finish, Heyn and Joyce earned a return trip to the state championships, which start this Saturday at Tri-City Tennis Center in Latham. They also qualified for the state tournament in 2012, dropping their opening-round match and going 1-1 in the consolation bracket.
Starting out as the no. 2 seed in the 2013 qualifier, Heyn and Joyce won twice in the opening rounds on Oct. 19 at Syracuse University’s Skytop Courts, beating Grace Hunt and Mary Kate McHale (Marcellus) 6-4, 6-1 in the first round and then topping Jillian Broddock and Jenna Russ (Oneida) in the quarterfinals.
When the scene shifted to the indoor courts at Drumlins Country Club on Wednesday, Heyn and Joyce needed just one more win for a state tournament berth, and got it in the semifinals of the qualifier.
Heyn and Joyce dominated Baldwinsville’s tandem of Taylor Ferrari and Natalie Kot in a 6-2, 6-1 decision. Ferrari and Kot had beaten WG’s duo of Taylor Ginestro and Kayla Llanos 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the previous round.
Up against the top seeds from Fayetteville-Manlius, Laurin Goldberg and Sienna Susko, in the championship match, Heyn and Joyce lost the first set 6-3, and were down 2-3 in the second set when an injury forced the Wildcats’ duo to end the match.
Still, Heyn and Joyce joined Goldberg and Susko and the third-place finishers, Dana Bever and Ella Brutsky (Sauquoit Valley), on the Section III team headed for Latham. B’ville’s Kahlei Reisinger, Auburn’s Julia Wagner and Jamesville-DeWitt’s Kyrin Pollock are the singles representatives.
