When the Skaneateles boys tennis team made its way to SUNY-Cortland for last week’s Section III Class C-1 tournament, it ran up against plenty of tough competition, though the Lakers won plenty of matches, too.
In first doubles, Matt Benson and Connor Jones would make a big push for the title. As the top seeds, Benson and Jones had a bye to the quarterfinals, where they handled Zach Blanchard and Adam Burbank (Canastota) 6-1, 6-2 before going to the semifinals and beating Clinton’s Connor Frank and Andrew Racioppa 6-4, 7-5.
Benson and Jones would face Pulaski’s Gabe Aguilar and Andrew Lapp in the finals. Agular and Lapp had to survive three sets to win their semifinal against Cazenovia’s Nick Barna and Orson Sproule, and peaked there, unable to keep up as Benson and Jones won the title in straight sets 6-2, 6-0.
The two Laker rivals would decide second doubles. Ryan Baily and Malcolm Lombardi were the top seed, starting out with a 6-1, 6-0 romp over Clinton’s Nick and Tyler Frank and then, in the semifinals, beating Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Jeff Bush and Tommy Zhao by those same scores.
This put Baily and Lombardi against Cazenovia’s Brady Flannery and Tim Kempton in the finals. A close first set went to the Cazenovia pair 7-5, but Baily and Lombardi won the second set, 6-4, to prolong the match, though Flannery and Kempton rolled to a 6-1 win in the final set to finish on top.
Connor Driscoll had to play a first-round match in second singles, but did beat Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Charlie Mann 6-1, 6-2. Then Driscoll won, 6-1, 6-3, over Sauquoit Valley’s Josh Zvirsden before running into the top seed, Cazenvia’s Fabian Grimm, and taking a 6-1, 6-3 semifinal defeat. Dan Judge, competing in third singles, lost in the quarterfinals to Mount Markham’s Brad Litz 6-3, 6-4.
Now the Lakers’ quintet of Benson, Jones, Baily, Lombardi and Driscoll, all head to the Section III state qualifier this week. The top three singles players and doubles teams will advance to the state tournament at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on the first weekend of June.
