Thanks to its strong contingent of singles players, the Cazenovia boys tennis team got to the brink of upending undefeated Jamesville-DeWitt last Monday afternoon, only to fall just short in a 3-2 defeat to the Red Rams.
In fact, each of the three singles matches proved exciting. Mason Stehle won the first set against David Benaroch and, despite a mid-match slump, prevailed 7-5, 1-6, 6-4, while Wyatt Lansing lost the first set to Josh Rothenberg, and was two games from defeat before pulling out a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 decision.
The first singles match saw Nate Romig win the first set from J-D’s Robert Dotterer, 6-4, and get to a second-set tie-breaker. But Dotterer won that tie-breaker and the set, 7-6, and went on to claim a tense third set 7-5.
That proved to be J-D’s clinching point because, in doubles, Cazenovia lost both matches in straight sets. Ben Kmetz and Harry McDonough fell to Ishan Gajra and Alex Tso 6-3, 6-3, with David Marshall and Andrew Terry taking a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Jake Cline and Josh Frank.
A day later, Cazenovia quickly went back to the win column, shutting out Westhill 5-0. The work began in singles, where Kmetz beat Andrew Domer 6-1, 6-0, McDonough handled Colin Catone 6-0, 6-2 and Tim Kempton beat Noah Rolince by that same 6-0,6 -2 margin.
Even with the Warriors putting its best players in doubles, Marshall paired with Trevor Slocum to beat Ballard Ballard and S Ramirez in three sets 6-4, 1-6, 7-5, while Romig and Terry got together for a 6-4, 6-4 win over Brian Sheridan and Matt Zabycz.
A 5-0 romp over Phoenix on Thursday afternoon followed, the Lakers seeing Stehle and Peterson win 6-0, 6-0 singles matches over, respectively, Scott Williams-Clark and Andrew Smith, with Lansing handling Lorenzo Camponino 6-2, 6-0.
The doubles matches also were decided in two sets. Marshall and Terry beat Kadin May and Brandon Mironti 6-3, 6-2, with Kmetz and McDonough rolling past Ben Bulgrien and Zach VanGorder by scores of 6-3 and 6-2.
But when Cazenovia met CBA on Friday afternoon, it took a 4-1 defeat to the Brothers, only breaking through when Romig routed Dean Vlassis 6-1, 6-0.
Kmetz and McDonough dropped a 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 decision to Steve Castellini and Tommy Daviau, with Stehle falling to Jameson Keppeler 6-2, 6-4 and Lansing running into Greg Maziuk and taking a 6-2, 6-2 loss.
Chittenango managed to beat Phoenix 3-2 last Monday afternoon. In single-set matches, Connor Martin shut out Zach VanGorder 10-0, with Keoni Saturnio holding off Ben Bulgrien 10-8 and Aaron Norman defeating Ned Greenough 10-6. The doubles teams of Sean Austin-Ben Cyr and Zach Falkenburg-Colton Stelakis both took defeats.
Another win followed on Tuesday, the Bears handling Marcellus 5-2, though it was helped by the Mustangs forfeiting two doubles matches as Norman and Stelakis beat Con Clarke and Shawn Manke 6-1, 6-2, in the only contested doubles match.
Up in singles, the matches were split. Saturnio and Mike Ackerman lost, but Martin got past Andrew Kimmer 6-3, 6-4 and Falkenburg worked well on his own, beating Noah LaFever 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
