Much to its credit, the Cazenovia boys tennis team did not confine its challenges to its own league.
The Lakers scheduled a match against Fayetteville-Manlius last Monday afternoon, and the Hornets, who have not lost to any Section III foe since 1998, made it 267 in a row by keeping Cazenovia off the board in a 7-0 decision.
By far, the main highlight was a first singles showdown between Lakers star Nate Romig and F-M’s Riley Ma. Romig claimed the first set 6-4 and was two games from victory before Ma pulled out the second set 7-5, and went on to take the third set 6-3.
None of the other matches was as close. Fabian Grimm fell to Taran Judge 6-0, 6-1, with Mason Stehle taking a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Tom Miro, while in doubles Nick Bama and Orson Sproule had the closest contest, taking a 6-1, 6-3 defeat to Vince Sorrentino and James DeSorbo.
Brady Flannery and Tim Kempton fell to Ravi Dhawan and Vince Grasso 6-3, 6-0, with Teddy Coughlin and Liam Flannery running into Luke Qi and Jeremy Zhang in a 6-1, 6-0 defeat. Andrew Peterson and Hunter Marshall lost, 6-0, 6-1, to Richard Wang and Rohan Dhawan.
A day later, the Lakers prevailed, 4-1, over Manlius-Pebble Hill, seeing Grimm rout Trilok Reddy 6-1, 6-1 as Stehle got past Charlie Mann 7-5, 7-6 (7-5). Liam Flannery lost a 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 decision to Keerthi Martyn, but the doubles teams of Bama-Sproule and Kempton-Brady Flannery both won in straight sets.
Another big match followed on Wednesday afternoon, Cazenovia taking the measure of Christian Brothers Academy and not quite getting to the top in a hard-fought 3-2 defeat to the Brothers.
Romig, to earn his singles point, had to go to three sets, but a strong start and finish helped him beat Dean Vlassis 6-1, 6-7 (7-5), 6-1. Kempton and Brady Flannery lost equal6-0, 6-3 decisions to, respectively, Jameson Keppeler and Ben Vlassis.
Grimm and Stehle paired up in first doubles and, in another three-setter, beat Tommy Daviau and Geoff Parkes 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, but in second doubles Bama and Sproule had a 7-6, 7-5 defeat to Milan Gupta and Shivam Navaroti.
To end this challenging week, Cazenovia met another undefeated side from Jamesville-DeWitt on Friday afternoon, unable to snare a point from the Red Rams in a 5-0 defeat.
In a tight first singles match, Grimm got the first-set tie-breaker from J-D’s Tyler Glowaki, but still took a 6-7 (7-3), 6-3, 6-3 defeat. Sproule fell to Alex Tso 6-2, 6-2 as Bama had a 6-1, 6-3 defeat to Ishan Gajra.
Moving to doubles play, Romig paired with Stehle in a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Robert Dotterer and Peter Hatton, while Kempton and Flannery would struggle against Tyler Lux and David Benarch in 6 1, 6-1 defeat.
To start its last full week of the regular season, the Chittenango boys tennis team met OHSL Freedom division-leading Mexico last Monday and could not get on the board in a 7-0 defeat to the Tigers, who improved to 8-1, its lone defeat of the season coming to Jamesville-DeWitt on April 22.
Chase Gordon was in the closest of the four singles matches, falling to John Ocker 6-0, 6-4. Sean Austin, Zach Falkenburg and Trevor Crystal also fell in singles play, the trio only getting two games in six combined sets.
Meanwhile, in doubles, Aaron Norman and Ben Cyr had a 6-3, 6-1 defeat to Ben Pelow and Josh Yerdon, with Mike Ackerman and Matt Lanphear falling to Paul Winterfield and Zach Lawler 6-2, 6-0. Devin Hodges and Holden Lalor lost to Dan Mullen and Anthony Edwards 6-1, 6-2.
