It didn’t take long for the Skaneateles girls tennis team to run into the kind of conditions – high winds, cooler temperatures – that can make fall matches so unpredictable.
Yet the Lakers handled that situation with poise and confidence, going to Cazenovia and defeating its namesakes in a 7-0 shutout during the season opener on Aug. 28.
The only close call came in second singles. Olivia Gage lost a first-set tie-breaker to Cazenovia’s Ava Gurney, but rebounded to claim the match 6-7 (7-4), 6-3, 6-1.
Elsewhere in singles, Katelyn Ellison handled Lucy Connor 6-1, 6-3, while Louisa Morrow also won in straight sets, taking out Vivian Wilt 6-4, 6-1.
Leading the doubles charge, Grace Magee and Makenzi Herbst defeated Anna Barrett and Allison Cooney 6-3, 6-1, with Liz Belinski and Angela Krause just as impressive in turning back Brittany Wright and Lucy Langan 6-0, 6-2.
Erica Byrne and Julia Torrisi did not give up a game in their doubles match, blanking Summer Steinhorst and Kelly Cowan 6-0, 6-0, with Maddy Pinkney and Maura McNeil getting a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Julia Barrett and Alicia Clarke.
It was much the same for the Lakers in last Tuesday’s 7-0 win over Phoenix. Ellison stopped Gianna DeRoberts 6-1, 6-1, with Gage beating Alexandra Galle 6-2, 6-2 and Morrow dominating Lauren Schmidt in a 6-0, 6-1 decision.
During the three doubles matches that were contested, the teams of Magee-Herbst, Belinski-Krause and Pinkney-McNeil dropped just one game in six combined sets. Byrne and Torrisi also earned a point.
A bigger early-season test was supposed to come Thursday, at Westhill, but the Lakers handled this one with ease, too, claiming every set as it drubbed the Warriors 7-0.
Gage, with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Katie DeVeyra, led a singles charge that included Ellison handling Katherine Missert 6-0, 6-1 and Morrow beating Alyssa Wall 6-3, 6-1.
Byrne and Torrisi played the closest doubles match, but still beat Hannah Lesselroth and Meaghen Burrows 6-3, 6-3. Pinkney and McNeil handled Frost and Rachel Zepetello 6-3, 6-2, with Herbst and Magee rolling past Caitlin and Mackenzie Aiello 6-1, 6-0, and Belinski and Krause getting a 6-0, 6-1 win over Lydia Stevenson and Abby Mullen.
With a 3-0 start and first place in the league, Skaneateles would look to stay there this week in matches against Manlius-Pebble Hill and Bishop Grimes.
