Samantha Heyn has taken this road before. Mikayla Mannara has not.
That doesn’t matter, though, because the West Genesee girls tennis pair is on their way to the Albany area next weekend to compete in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship tournament.
They got to Latham’s Tri-City Fitness Center by virtue of their efforts in last week’s Section III state qualifier, which again was held at Drumlins Country Club’s indoor complex. Out of the 16 entrants in each bracket, only the top three singles and doubles players would advance.
Heyn, a senior, had reached this point in 2014 when paired with Marisa Joyce. Now, with Mannara, a freshman, the Wildcats duo entered the state qualifier as the no. 2 seed, behind only Auburn’s duo of Lauryn Husby and Julia Wagner, who held the top seed after beating Heyn and Mannara in the previous week’s sectional Division I doubles final.
Since they were already close friends, Heyn and Mannara said the pairing between them clicked right away. It showed in the state qualifier, for any time they got in any sort of trouble, they quickly regrouped and, through long rallies and winners, gained the points and games they needed to continue their season.
“You have to be really confident, and not go crazy,” said Mannara.
In that same bracket, Westhill had its sister duo of Cameron and MacKenzie Aiello on hand after their second-place finish in the Division III sectional tournament, and they started out quite well at Drumlins last Tuesday, the Warriors’ tandem defeating Sauquoit Valley’s Isabella Arrigo and Tanya Brutsky 6-1, 6-3 in the first round. Ironically, Brutsky had reached the 2014 state tournament when paired with her older sister, Ella.
All this did was lead the Aiellos straight into the quarterfinals against Heyn and Mannara, who had rolled past Maura McNeil and Maddy Pinkney (Skaneateles) 6-0, 6-0 in its first match. WG’s team won this local showdown, taking the first set 6-1 and overcoming a 3-0 deficit in the second set to win it, 6-3, and advance again.
Now, to earn a state tournament berth, Heyn and Mannara needed to beat Oneida’s Jillian Brodock and Brianna Laureti in Thursday’s semifinals. Each set was hard-fought, but Heyn and Mannara took the first set 6-3 and, withstanding all of the challenges, prevailed 6-4 in the second set to clinch that state tournament berth.
Guaranteed a top-two finish, Heyn and Mannara could relax a bit in the finals, a rematch with Husby and Wagner. And the Wildcats pair led by 2-0 and 3-1 margins in the first set before Husby and Wagner rallied to take it, 6-4, and then won the second set 6-0 to claim the tournament title.
Those pairs are going to Latham, as are the Fayetteville-Manlius duo of Kristina Liu and Shirley Zhang, who beat Brodock and Laureti in three sets in the third-place match to advance. Baldwinsville’s Kahlei Reisinger, New Hartford’s Sarah Corasanti and Mexico’s Givlia Bancale are the singles players.
Following her dominant run to the sectional Division III singles title, Marcellus star Haley Randall found herself holding the no.5 seed in the state qualifier, but that didn’t help her much.
Randall met Fayetteville-Manlius’ Katerina Atallah in the first round and lost in straight set, 6-3, 6-3. Atallah went on to a quarterfinal defeat to Banacle, who had to beat another F-M player, Maggie Bonomo, in the third-place match to join Reisinger and Corasanti on the state tournament team.
As for Heyn, who’s gone through the pressure cooker of a state tournament, she said her advice to Mannara was to just enjoy the accomplishment of getting to the state tournament, and not worry too much about the result.
“It’s very different there (at the state tournament),” said Mannara. “You’re proud of just getting there, because the players are so intense.”
