Whatever happened to the Marcellus girls tennis team in various Section III tournaments, it was already an historic season, since it included the program’s first regular-season league title in 25 years.
But Haley Randall would add to that history by winning the sectional Division III singles championship last Saturday at Mott Courts in Utica, knocking off three different singles players from Skaneateles, including top seed Katelyn Ellison, to claim the title.
As the no. 2 seed, Randall had a first-round bye. Then, in the quarterfinals, Randall beat her first Lakers’ opponents, Olivia Gage, 6-1, 6-1 to clinch a state qualifying meet berth and advancing to the semifinals, where Randall met Gage’s teammate, Louisa Morrow, and romped past her 6-0, 6-1.
And this led to the final, against Ellison. Whatever doubts Randall had were gone the moment she won the first set 6-4, and Randall went on to dominate the second set, too, 6-1, on her way to the division crown.
In doubles, the Marcellus team of Audrey Cerrone and MaryKate McHale would advance to the state qualifier, and then face their own teammates, Ally Burrows and Genevieve Rao, in the semifinals after the latter duo swept Westhill’s team of Cameron and Mackenzie Aiello 6-4, 6-0. Cerrone and McHale beat Maura McNeil and Maddy Pinkney (Skaneateles) 6-4, 6-4 in its quarterfinal.
Then Cerrone and McHale would prevail, 6-3, 6-3, over Burrows and Rao, leading to a final against the top-seeded Skaneateles pair of Makenzi Herbst and Grace Magee. After losing the first set, Cerrone and McHale pushed the second set to a tie-breaker, but Herbst and Magee won it, 7-5, to close out a 6-2, 7-6 decision.
Also for Westhill, Abbey Mullen and Lydia Stevenson won in the first round, but fell in the quarterfinals to Herbst and Magee.