One streak ended for the Fayetteville-Manlius girls tennis team this fall, but another one, of far greater importance, continued.
The Hornets are Section III Class A champions for the 22nd year in a row, perpetuating its reign by defeating Baldwinsville 4-3 in the sectional final on a warm, windy Tuesday afternoon at Utica’s Mott Courts.
So a season that included West Genesee defeating F-M 4-3 on Sept. 3 to halt a run of 329 consecutive match wins ended with the Hornets battling back to to the top, and needing every bit of its energy to keep Baldwinsville from snatching the sectional crown.
F-M and B’ville had met twice early in the season, on Aug. 28 and Sept. 15. Both of them ended in 4-3 decisions. The two sides expected another encounter in the sectional final since West Genesee again chose not to compete in the team portion of the sectional tournament.
Many of the Hornets and Bees had also competed the day before in the sectional Division I singles and doubles tournaments at Auburn, so they had little time to rest before their championship showdown.
Both sides easily claimed one singles point, as F-M’s Kristina Liu handled Natalie Kot 6-2, 6-0, but Madison Jordan ran into two-time sectional singles champion Kahlei Reisinger and took a 6-0, 6-1 defeat.
When B’ville’s Bridgett Brown came from behind to beat Katerina Atallah 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, it left F-M needing to win three of the four doubles matches – and that would not prove easy.
Only Mary Trop and Abbey Welker, in fourth doubles, rolled through their match, beating Katie Cassidy and Amanda Coogan 6-0, 6-0, while the Bees countered with Gabby Fiello and Emma Funicello getting past Marissa Broddus and Catarina Westergaard 6-4, 7-5.
Shannon Fullam and Olivia Wojnovich won the first set over Maddie Quilter and Jennifer Stone 6-4, but dropped a second-set tie-breaker 7-6. Regrouping, Fullam and Wojnovich battled their way to a 6-4 win in the third set for the third point.
Even more drama surrounded the match between F-M’s Maggie Bonomo and Shirley Zhang and B’ville’s Lauren Dusse and Taylor Slink. Losing a first-set tie-breaker, Bonomo and Zhang claimed the second set and then, surviving a tense third-set tie-breaker, pulled out the match 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 over Dusse and Slink, and secured another championship for the Hornets.
