Two full weeks before school got underway, Cicero-North Syracuse’s girls tennis team stepped into CNY Counties League competition, and in its second match found the win column in the most satisfying way possible.
Having fallen 5-2 to Auburn in its season opener, the Northstars went to rival Liverpool on Friday afternoon and, amid a string of exciting doubles matches, did enough to edge the Warriors 4-3.
All four of the doubles contests went to three sets, but C-NS had the advantage of already possessing three points from singles sweeps.
Brooke Murphy got it started for the Northstars, dispatching Rachel Foster 6-1, 6-1, and it took just as long for Nicole Perrigo to work past Megan Blake 6-2, 6-0. After a close first set, Madison Murphy got away from Julie Nguyen 6-4, 6-0.
Liverpool fought back in doubles, starting with a comeback from Eleni Ioannidis and Nicole Sedlock, who fought past Scorzelli and Hanna Costello 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. Alexandria Ionnadis and Julie Schewe went to a third-set tie-breaker to beat Salmons and Abigail Ellis 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3).
In yet another match to go to a final tie-breaker, the Warriors’ Anna Baggett and Chloe Foster prevailed, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), over Megan Tryniski and Brenna Duffy.
And the fourth doubles match also went to three sets, but C-NS gained the clinching point when Gabby Rawda and Christine Gregory, having lost the first set to Valerie Morgans and Alyssa Barry, were two points from defeat in a second-set tie-breaker, but rallied to win it and then took it 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.
In last Wednesday’s season opener, the Northstars visited Auburn, where it managed just one point in singles and doubles play during a 5-2 defeat to the Maroons.
Perrigo, in third singles, worked past Kylie Blanchard 6-1, 6-4. But Madison Murphy had a 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5) defeat to Lindsay Jarman, while Brooke Murphy hung close for a while, but lost to Celia Mattie 7-5, 6-2.
The other point came in fourth doubles, where Rawda and Gregory beat Meghan Smith and Sydney Merkley 6-4, 6-0. Scorzelli and Costello lost, 7-5, 6-3, to Emma Solomon and Maggie Lesch, with Salmons and Ellis falling to Jaime Whitford and Anna Streeter 6-4, 6-4.
