On the brink of closing out an undefeated regular season, the Cazenovia boys tennis team could not quite get there.
The Lakers took a 4-1 defeat to Christian Brothers Academy last Tuesday afternoon in a battle that featured three matches that went the full three sets – and the Brothers won all of them.
In singles, Nate Romig snared a point for Cazenovia when he defeated Dan Mantooth 6-1, 6-4. But Wyatt Lansing lost, 7-6, 6-0, to Dean Vlassis, and in the first of those three-set encounters, Eli LaGorga played well in the middle of the match, but struggled at the ends against Greg Maziuk, taking a 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 defeat.
Ben Kmetz and Harry McDonough, playing in first doubles, led early, but fell to Ryan Croucher and Brooks Werner 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. By similar scores, Galen Okoniewski and Mason Stehle fell to Steve Castellini and Tom Daviau.
Two days later, Cazenovia met Skaneateles, and this latest Laker duel went in Cazenovia’s favor by a 4-1 margin as it won both of the doubles points, Okoniewski and Lansing pairing up to beat Ryan Bailey and Malcolm Lombardi 6-4, 6-4.
Up in singles, LaGorga could not hold on to his early advantage in a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Connor Driscoll. However, Romig roared past Zach Driscoll 6-1, 6-0, while Stehle worked through two tough sets to beat Luca Kunz 6-4, 7-6.
Chittenango dropped a pair of 6-1 decisions to East Syracuse-Minoa last Monday, as the quartet of Connor Martin, Kyle Brazell, Max Smith and Jacob Fields struggled in singles. On the doubles side, Petr Byrtus and Conor Delaney took a 7-5, 6-2 defeat to Matt Bullis and Brandon Stone.
Then, in Tuesday’s 5-2 defeat to Mexico, Martin, two games from a singles defeat, rallied to outlast Gary Monroe 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, while Byrtus staged his own comeback and claimed a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 decision over Brendon Pullen.
But the Tigers claimed every other point, including a doubles match where Smith and Aaron Purcell lost to Joe Domicolo and Ben Pelow 6-0, 3-6, 6-1. Brazell, paired with Delaney, lost to Jason Ray and Mitchell Shambow 7-5, 6-4.
In Wednesday’s 6-1 loss to Cortland, the Bears’ lone point came when Martin and Delaney, paired in first doubles, turned back the Purple Tigers’ duo of Kaleb Fairbanks and Luke Petrella 7-6 (7-5), 6-0. Byrtus, Brazell, Fields and Dan Cleary managed to win just three games in their eight sets of singles play.
Chittenango fell to Homer by that same 6-1 margin on Thursday afternoon and, once again, Martin and Delaney accounted for the lone point in a 6-1, 6-2 doubles win over Tom Natale and Brian Shultis. Norman did play a strong match in singles, but fell to Alex Cottrell 7-5, 6-1, with Byrtus taking a 6-2, 6-3 defeat to Jack Stokoe in first singles.
