Fresh off yet another undefeated regular season, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys tennis team took aim at claiming Section III Class A team and individual honors early this week – which it did.
In the Class A team tournament at Syracuse University’s Skytop Courts, the Hornets won four of the five divisions, and reached the finals in the other, a near-sweep.
Josh Druger rolled through first singles. He swept Nate Bentley (West Genesee) 6-0, 6-0, handled Brian Emigolz (Cicero-North Syracuse) 6-0, 6-1 and continued his dominance in the finals against Auburn’s Scott Milmoe, only dropping one game in each set to win 6-1, 6-1.
Riley Ma, the top seed in second singles, rolled past Mason Soeder (Baldwinsville) 6-0, 6-1, shut out Matt Miller (Rome Free Academy) 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinals and didn’t have to work much harder in the final against Liverpool’s Evan Vogue, winning a 6-2, 6-2 match.
Jeremy Zhang played in third singles, winning his quarterfinal over C-NS’s Rich Dennis 6-0, 7-5 to set up a semifinal against Fulton’s Charles Hyland, which he won 6-3, 6-1. The final, against Baldwinsville’s Griffin Lenkiewicz, proved a battle, but after dropping the second set, Zhang pulled it out 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.
F-M also won in second doubles, where James DeSorbo and Vince Sorrentino ruled. The Hornets pair beat C-NS’s Andrew Hughs and Kyle Spivak 6-1, 6-1, and then got past B’ville’s Austin Dukat and Scott Ferrari 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals.
Against West Genesee’s top-seeded team of Connor McGuigan and Aaron Wierbinski in the finals, DeSorbo and Sorrentino led early, dropped the second set, but then played its best in the homestretch to win the title 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
Only in first doubles did someone beat the Hornets. Taran Judge and Chris Lansing got past C-NS’s Justin Kegebein and Connor Millias 6-1, 6-2, and then stopped B’ville’s Hunter Cohen-Ciampichini and Nick Walker by those same scores, only to run into West Genesee stars Brent and Garrett Boleslav in the finals, taking a 6-1, 6-4 defeat.
Manlius-Pebble Hill dominated in singles play during the sectional Class C-1 tournament at Skytop, starting with Andrew Mariados, who beat Clinton’s Matt Larking 6-0, 6-0 to set up a final against Cazenovia’s Nate Romig, where it proved a bit tighter, but Mariados won 6-2, 7-5.
As for Ryley Amond, he won his second singles semifinal over Skaneateles’ Ethan Weldon 6-0, 6-1, and then rolled through the final, too, over another Cazenovia player, Wyatt Lansing, in straight sets by scores of 6-0 and 6-3.
Going for a singles sweep, Ini Oguntola nearly got it, advancing to the third singles final with straight-set wins over Dmitry Brutsky (Sauquoit Valley) and Leonard Petter (Holland Patent) before a final with Cazenovia’s Mason Stehle that went three sets before Stehle beat Oguntola 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
On the doubles side, MPH added another title thanks to Max Charlamb and Phillip Kim, who beat Connor Frank and Garrett Frank (Clinton) 7-5, 6-2 in the semifinals and then turned back Cazenovia’s duo of David Marshall and Andrew Terry 7-6, 6-1 in the title match.
Cole Meier and Trilok Reddy, playing in first doubles, was two games from a sweep against Cazenovia’s Ben Kmetz and Harry McDonough before dropping a 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 decision in the semifinals. Meier and Reddy staged their own rally to win 6-7, 6-2, 6-3 over Holland Patent’s Dan Redmond and Nick Rubino in the consolation bracket to finish third.
Bishop Grimes, competing in the sectional Class C-2 tournament at Mott Courts in Utica, had mixed results, with all of the pivotal matches against Cooperstown opponents.
Matt Miller won in first singles, sweeping past Alexandria Bay’s Ryan Charlebois 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinals and, in the title match against the Hawkeyes’ Jimmy Anania a day later, won a tough match, taking three sets to stop Anania 7-6, 3-6, 6-1.
All of the losses came to Cooperstown players. Dan Ostaszewski, in the second singles semifinals, fell to Jacob Russell 7-5, 6-2. Knox Wolaver lost in the first round to Lyman Townsend 6-2, 6-2.
In doubles, Clemente Rufo and Zach Schell lost, 6-0, 6-0, to John Kelley and Will Cadwalader, who went on to claim the title. William Hahn and Mario Perez ran into Tyler Bertram and Pierce Snyder and took a 6-1, 6-0 defeat.
