With a Section III Class C-1 championship secured, the Skanetaeles boys tennis doubles team of Matt Benson and Connor Jones went after more glory during the Section III state qualifying tournament – and found it.
Three berths in the state championships were at stake, so only an appearance in the finals guaranteed that Benson and Jones would go to New York City’s USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where the U.S. Open is held every summer.
Due to the draw, Benson and Jones had to win three matches just to get to the semifinals.
It all began with Benson and Jones sweeping Watertown IHC’s Bugeon Choi and Nick Lapointe 6-0, 6-0, but then it got tough. West Genesee’s Connor McGuigan and James Plunkett matched the 6-3 victory of the Skaneateles pair in the first set to force a third, but Benson and Jones pulled it out, 6-4, in that final set..
Two Jamesville-DeWitt pairs now stood in the way. Ishan Gajra and Alex Tso would push Benson and Jones during the opening set and won a lopsided second set, but in the third set the Lakers’ pair again proved clutch to pull out a 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 decision.
So the semifinal match between Benson and Jones, and J-D’s top pair of Robert Dotterer and Peter Hatton, would determine an automatic state tournament berth.
With the venue shifted on Wednesday to Syracuse University’s Skytop Courts, Dotterer and Hatton proved too tough, prevailing in straight sets 6-0, 6-1.
Still, if Benson and Jones beat the Fayetteville-Manlius duo of James DeSorbo and Vince Sorrentino, it would get into the state tournament. That was not the case, though, as DeSorbo and Sorrentino got the first set 6-2 and the second set 6-3.
Aside from the teams of DeSorbo-Sorrentino and Dotterer-Hatton, Section III will also send Cooperstown’s Tyler Bertram and Pierce Snyder to the state tournament, joining three singles players – Cazenovia’s Nate Romig, F-M’s Taran Judge and Auburn’s Scott Minnoe.
