Once more, the Baldwinsville girls tennis team took aim at an elusive Section III Class A championship, knowing that, once more, the long-reigning dynasty at Fayetteville-Manlius stood in the way.
They would clash Saturday afternoon at Mott Courts in Utica, and the battle was as good as advertised, with four different matches going to three sets. And the Bees won two of them, but still fell inches short of toppling the Hornets in a 4-3 decision.
The semifinals, held last Wednesday afternoon, had proven lopsided. F-M had no trouble with no. 4 seed Auburn, eliminating the Maroons 6-1, while B’ville didn’t even let no. 3 seed Cicero-North Syracuse get on the board in a 7-0 shutout.
Thus, 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. What they never figured was that the sectional final, pushed back 24 hours by Friday’s rains, would prove even closer.
As expected, Kahlei Reisinger dominated in first singles, beating Maggie Bonomo 6-1, 6-0, but each of the other two singles matches went the limit.
Bridget Brown got the jump on Kristina Liu with a 6-1 win in the opening set, only to struggle from that point forward as Liu won the next two sets by equal 6-2 margins. Taylor Slink lost the first set, 6-1, to Shirley Zhang, and then won the second set 6-4, only to fall in the final set to Zhang by that same margin.
Two of the doubles matches went the distance, and went in B’ville’s favor. Natalie Kot and Amanda Coogan came from behind to knock off Katerina Atallah and Patrice Calancie 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, to Natalie Kot and Amanda Coogan, with Lauren Dusse and Jennifer Stone also losing the first set 6-4 to Madison Jordan and Olivia Wojnovich, but sweeping the second set 6-0 and claiming the final set 6-4.
F-M still got the two points it needed, though when Catarina Westergaard and Rachel Liu topped 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).
Before all this, B’ville routed Liverpool 7-0 in last Tuesday’s regular-season finale. Reisinger and Brown each won 6-0, 6-0 singles matches over, respectively, Katelyn Nguyen and Nicole Sedlock, with Amanda Coogan defeating Maya Paletto 6-2, 6-0.
In doubles, the closest match saw Fiello and Riley Warren beat Julie Nguyen and Chloe Foster 7-5, 6-1. Kot and Slink shut out Alexandra Ioannidis and Rachel Foster 6-0, 6-0, with Dusse and Stone handling Anna Baggett and Elena Ioannidis 6-1, 6-0. Minkhova and Cassidy won a 6-3, 6-2 decision over Grace Traino and Alyssa Barry.
