Freed from the burden of having to carry a 21-year, 329-match win streak, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls tennis team moved on in a splendid manner.
By the time the Hornets faced Auburn last Tuesday afternoon, six days had passed since the historic Sept. 3 defeat to West Genesee – more than enough time, as it turned out, for F-M to regroup, practice and get fired up again for a busy stretch that would include three matches in a 48-hour span.
Of the three, none was as impressive as the first one, with F-M going up against Auburn Tuesday afternoon and putting together a 6-1 victory over the Maroons, which included a pair of points earned in three-set battles.
In singles, Katerina Attalah made a stirring comeback to beat Katherine Brundage 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, while in doubles Maggie Bonomo and Olivia Wojnovich staged their own rally for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Julia Wagner and Grace Bachman.
F-M, in fact, swept all four doubles matches. Catarina Westergaard and Marissa Broddus roared past Emma Solomon and Amanda Dixon 6-0, 6-1, while Madison Jordan paired with Shannon Fullam to beat Jenna Jarman and Jaime Whitford 7-5, 6-2.
Abby Welker and Mary Trop, who had earned a point against West Genesee when they beat Kelsey Shanahan and Elena Kopp 6-1, 7-5, also got a point against Auburn, sweeping Abbie Connors and Mallory Colella 6-2, 6-0.
Moving to singles play, Shirley Zhang lost, 6-2, 6-4, to Lauryn Husby, but Kristina Liu, gaining a valuable point, had little trouble recording a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Celia Mattie.
A day later, F-M proved even more impressive, shutting out Cicero-North Syracuse 7-0, preserving that perfect mark when Liu, in second singles, came from behind to beat Madison Murphy 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Bonomo beat Brooke Murphy 6-2, 6-0, with Atallah handling Hanna Costello 6-1, 6-2.
Going to doubles for this match, Zhang paired up with Jordan to beat Kristin Inthirakot and Bethany Wicks 6-1, 6-4. Fullam and Wojnovich beat Alyssa Forte and Ellen Iaconis 6-0, 6-4, while the teams of Broddus-Westergaard and Welker-Trop dropped just five games in four combined sets.
When F-M faced Liverpool on Thursday afternoon, it was the team’s third match in as many days, but no fatigue was evident, especially on the scoreboard, since the Hornets matched its C-NS effort, blanking the Warriors 7-0.
Bonomo, Liu and Atallah rolled through singles, with Liu topping Rachel Foster and Atallah stopping Chloe Foster by the exact same 6-1, 6-1 margins.
On the doubles side, only Wojnovich and Fullam got pushed, but survived in three sets to beat Meghan Reilly and Anna Baggett by scores of 6-4, 6-7 (7-3) and 6-4.
Starting the doubles sweep, Jordan and Zhang beat Alexandra Ioaniddis and Katelyn Nguyen 6-1, 6-3. Broddus and Westergaard defeated Julie Pento and Julie Stagnitta 6-2, 6-2, with Welker and Trop continuing their early-season surge, beating Kristin Glor and Anna Krahmer 6-1, 6-1.
