During the last full week of the regular season, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse boys tennis teams each faced major challenges.
In Liverpool’s case, that meant taking on Baldwinsville last Monday afternoon, hoping to avenge a narrow 4-3 defeat to the Bees on April 22. Here, though, the Warriors didn’t even get that close as B’ville again prevailed, this time by a 5-2 margin.
Each of Liverpool’s points came from doubles matches. The Munski brothers won, 6-3,6-3, over Isaiah Demoski and Eric Herrmann, with Kenneth Kraft and Matt Renk needing three sets to defeat Ryan Shirk and Becket Plumley 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.
Elsewhere, Alex Donle and Mike Fensken lost, 6-3, 6-4, to Scott Ferrari and Chris Dotto, with Evan Maestri and Evan Vogue pairing up but unable to earn a set in a 6-1, 6-3 loss to Nick Walker and Mason Soeder.
Up in singles, Lihkits Doddi pushed hard in both sets, but still lost, 7-5, 7-5, to Alex Shaban, while Alexsandar Dzodic had a 6-4, 6-0 defeat to Sam Damato and Aaron Alejo lost, 6-1, 6-3, to Dan Watkins.
In a hard-fought match on Wednesday, Liverpool lost, 5-2, to West Genesee, with both points coming in doubles. Dzodic paired with Nate Dombroski to edge past Ryan Joyce and Brandon Hale 6-4, 4-6, 10-7, while Maestri, paired with Donle, beat James Plunkett and Jimmy Harter 6-7 (8-6), 6-3, 6-4.
One Munski brother paired with Renk, but they lost, 6-2, 6-4, to Pat Copeland and Stefan Atanasov as Ken Kraft and Jake Munski fell to John Northrop and Drew Francisco 6-4, 6-2. Up in the singles division, Vogue challenged Connor McGuigan, but took a 6-4, 6-4 defeat as Fensken lost to Alex Argiro 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) and Doddi taking a 6-2, 6-4 loss to Chris Upwood.
For C-NS, the week also began with a harsh defeat, the Northstars falling 6-1 to West Genesee as two close matches went in the Wildcats’ favor.
Having seen Connor Millias prevail in singles over Argiro 6-2, 6-4, C-NS had Justin Kegebein two games from a singles win, too, but he fell to Upwood 7-5, 2-6, 7-5. In fourth doubles, Trey Nordin-Abbey and Mason Gross led early and got to a third-set tie-breaker, yet still lost, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-8) to Joyce and Hale.
Rich Dennis lost his singles match to McGuigan 6-1, 6-4, while Nate Perrotta and Jack Irwin took a 6-2, 6-2 doubles defeat to Copeland and Plunkett. John Barraco and Jake Tesfai lost, 6-2, 6-0, to Northrop and Harter as Karin Inthirakot and Mitch Eager had a 6-4, 6-1 defeat to Bentley and Atanasov.
A close match with Syracuse East followed on Tuesday afternoon, but this time C-NS pulled it out by a 4-3 margin, helped by a singles sweep where Dennis beat Hanh Duong 6-1, 6-1, Millias got past Robert Collier 6-0, 6-2 and Kegebein had a 6-1, 6-0 win over Ehmoemo Qui.
Needing just one point out of doubles, the Northstars twice lost in three-set matches. Irwin and Nordin-Abbey fell, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, to Rich Llanos and Samir Subba, with Barraco and Tesfai falling to Eh Moo Soe and Friendly Say 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. However, Eager and Inthirakot got the clinching point when they beat Nick Lozaponi and John Hso 7-5, 6-4.
All of this made Wednesday’s 7-0 defeat to Fayetteville-Manlius a bit easier to take. Kegebein hung around longer in the second set of his 6-1, 7-5 defeat to Michael Miller, but Dennis and Gross got just one game between them as, in doubles, Inthirakot and Eager had the closest match, a 6-4, 6-0 defeat to Vince Sorrentino and James DeSorbo.
Yet another close match followed on Thursday afternoon, with C-NS winning every singles match against Baldwinsville, but still taking a 4-3 defeat to the Bees.
Millias needed three sets, but beat David Rush 6-1, 6-7 (9-7), 6-3, while Kegebein beat Dan Watkins 6-3, 7-5 and Dennis handled Alex Shaban 6-1, 6-3. All that was needed was one point out of the four doubles matches.
Tesfai and Baracco led early and got within two games of that honor, but could not quite finish off Demoski and Herrmann in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat. Rose and Eager fell to Ryan Shirk and Sam Damato 7-6 (7-1), 6-0, with the teams of Irwin-Perrotta and Inthirakot-Gross also taking straight-set losses.
