To fans of Fayetteville-Manlius girls tennis, the story was familiar – a Section III Class A team championship – as was the way that it was achieved.
Once more, the Hornets were challenged by Baldwinsville. Once more, F-M prevailed, but it had to endure four different three-set matches in Saturday’s final at Utica’s Mott Courts before it could claim a 4-3 victory over the Bees.
The Hornets got there by turning back Auburn 6-1 in last Wednesday’s Class A semifinal, while B’ville shut out Cicero-North Syracuse 7-0 in the other semifinal. So both teams were in great form, and expected a battle, remembering that F-M had pulled out a 4-3 decision the last time they had met on Sept. 24.
In doubles, the points were split. Catarina Westergaard and Rachel Liu got F-M on the board, rolling past Alina Minkhova and Katherine Cassidy 6-2, 6-1, while Mary Trop and Abby Welker endured a second-set tie-breaker, but beat Gabby Fiello and Marissa Tommarello 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).
Each of the other doubles matches went the distance, and went in B’ville’s favor. Katerina Atallah and Patrice Calancie started fast, but gave up the lead and fell, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, to Natalie Kot and Amanda Coogan, with Madison Jordan and Olivia Wojnovich meeting the same fate, falling to Lauren Dusse and Jennifer Stone 4-6, 6-0, 6-4.
Up in singles, F-M knew that it couldn’t get close to B’ville star Kahlei Reisinger, who indeed defeated Maggie Bonomo 6-1, 6-0, so it needed the other two points – and got both of them in three-set battles.
Shirley Zhang won the first set 6-1 over Taylor Slink, and then shook off a 6-4 defeat in the second set to win the final set by that same margin. Even more importantly, Kristina Liu overcame a 6-1 rout by Bridget Brown in the first set and won the next two sets by equal 6-2 margins for the clinching point.
Christian Brothers Academy made it to the championship round in Class B, doing so last Wednesday afternoon in a dramatic 4-3 semifinal victory over no. 7 seed New Hartford.
Both sides easily attained one singles point, CBA’s Mikayla Santulli handling Rachel Duchnycz 6-1, 6-1 as Alison Croucher lost, 6-0, 6-0, to Sarah Corasanti. Handling a tough second set, Anna Sasser defeated Nicole Faroukh 6-1, 7-5 to give the Brothers the edge.
Now needing two points in doubles, the Brothers saw the teams of Sloane Nicoletti-Watson-Rati Saini and Karen Simone-Rhea Saini lose in straight sets.
But Raquel Santoro and Grace Coyne beat Jenelle Edwards and Sarah Antenovich 6-1, 6-2, and in the pivotal three-set battle, Hannah Kang and Virginia Nash finished strong, knocking off Maya Pedula and Sydney Gape 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 for the clincher.
The no. 3 seed Brothers advanced with last Monday’s 5-2 victory over Whitesboro in last Monday’s quarterfinals, sweeping all four of the doubles matches.
Nicoletti-Watson and Rati Saini beat Hayley Lawter and Isha Smith 6-4, 6-4, the closest of the four contests. Simone and Rhea Saini handled Karlie Cubino and Sydney Nicolette 6-1, 6-3. Kang and Allison Brown got past Natallia Dzeraventes and Ashley Kim 6-2, 6-1, with Santoro and Coyne topping Lee and Marlo Femia by those same scores.
Whitesboro made it more difficult in singles, having Tori Pelligrini beat Alison Croucher 7-5, 6-4 and Nicole Duegaw get a 6-3, 6-0 win over Anna Sasser. But Mikayla Santulli rescued a point for CBA with her 6-2, 6-3 sweep over Tanya Kuts.
Only in Saturday’s final did CBA get stopped by unbeaten Oneida, who shut out the Brothers 7-0. Of the seven matches, only one even went to three sets, with Croucher and Santulli falling to Jillian Broddock and Samanatha Lusher 2-6, 7-6, 6-0. The Indians won every other match in two sets.
Oneida had defeated Jamesville-DeWitt 6-1 in the quarterfinals, the Red Rams’ lone point coming when Maya Pollock, in first singles, blitzed Brianna Lauretti 6-1, 6-0. But Jungyun Kim lost a 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 decision to Lexi Skibitski, and Julia Skeval fell to Lauren Skibitski 6-4, 6-1.
Also, the Indians won all four doubles matches in straight sets as the teams of Kim Driesen-Mai Driesen, Maggie Mannion-Natalie Alweis, Diamond Cole-Katie Tzizanis and Olivia Dehoog-Sara Gow never won more than two games in any set they played.
Manlius-Pebble Hill started out as the no. 11 seed in the Class C sectional bracket, but knocked off no. 6 seed Waterville 3-2 in a tense opening-round match before elminating no. 3 seed Beaver River by that’s same margin in the quarterfinals.
Against Waterville, the Trojans lost both doubles matches, the teams of Hannah Ebner-Lily Grenis and Meg Curtis-Amina Kilpatrick each falling in straight sets.
Thus, it needed a singles sweep, and got it when Grace Del Pino rallied in three sets for a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Autumn Fallon. Annie Weiss blanked Helen Chadderdon 6-0, 6-0, with Anna Szombatha defeating Madyson Bridge 6-0, 6-1.
Then, after MPH took out Beaver River, another tough match awaited in Wednesday’s quarterfinal against no. 2 seed Skaneateles, who had beaten the Trojans 6-1 on Sept. 8. Exactly one month later, the Trojans earned another point, but not enough to reverse results in a 5-2 defeat to the Lakers.
MPH made its stand in singles, where Walsh beat Olivia Gage 6-2, 6-4 and Del Pino rolled past Angela Krause 6-0, 6-5. But Weiss lost, 6-0, 6-4, to Erica Byrne, and none of the Trojans’ four doubles teams could earn a set, Ebner and Grenis getting close in a 6-1, 7-6 defeat to Maura McNeil and Maddy Pinkney.
