No one this season has come close to upending the Cazenovia girls tennis team within the OHSL Liberty division – but someone just as good did so outside of those league limits.
That would be Oneida, who in the course of last Tuesday’s Chittenango Tournament beat both the host Bears by a 7-0 margin and, in the final, upended the Lakers 5-2, based mostly on the Indians sweeping all three of the singles matches.
Alex Galle got closest to a singles point for Cazenovia, only to fall to Oneida’s Brianna Laureti 5-7, 6-1, 10-6. Julia Barrett ran into Lauren Skibitski and took a 6-2, 6-3 defeat, while Summer Steinhorst, taking a turn in singles, lost to Sydney Lusher 6-2, 6-1.
Meanwhile, the doubles matches were split. Annaka Bruno and Meg Milmoe swept Catherine Brown and Emily Marshall 7-5, 6-4, while Julie Silverman and Lizzy Druke rallied to beat Molly Moyer and Madeline Tallman 2-6, 6-3, 10-8. Lucy Langan and Laura Connor lost in straight sets to Anna Hood and Kylie Chesebro 6-4, 6-3 as Abby Burrell and Jana Harris fell to Mattie Hicks and Meghan Friske 6-4, 6-3.
This followed the match between Chittenango and Oneida, where the Bears could not get on the board – which is something the Bears struggled with, too, when it went head-to-head with Cazenovia in its other tournament match and lost, 6-1, to the Lakers.
Twice, the Lakers had to pull out three-set decisions against Chittenango, including singles, where Galle outlasted Kelly Gloo 6-3, 3-6, 10-5, and in doubles, where Silverman and Bruno paired up for a 6-2, 4-6, 10-8 victory over Coralee Everett and EmmaBailey.
Shannon Koegel recorded an impressive singles win for the Bears, sweeping Barrett 6-2, 6-2 as Steinhorst countered with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Anna Norman. Langan and Connor paired up here, too, beating Mya Strieff and Jessie Gilbert 6-0, 6-1 as Bruno and Miller won, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 over Rachel Cleary and Allie Choi. Burrell and Harris won, 6-3, 6-0, over Nadia Cannistra and Alexis Drake.
Before this tournament, Cazenovia continued to roll in last Monday afternoon’s 6-1 victory over Phoenix. Even though Galle lost in straight sets to Gianna DeRoberts 6-4, 6-3, Langan rolled past Gianna DeRoberts 6-1, 6-2 and Barrett shut out Catherine Musumeci 6-0, 6-0.
In first doubles, Lucy and Laura Connor rolled past Lauren Schmidt and Ashley Kenner-Carbonaro 6-1, 6-0. Steinhorst and Milmoe had a 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Bryn Demong and Molly Thorn. Galle went to doubles and paired with Bruno to handle Emma Fordyce and Katelyn Carbonaro by those same 6-0, 6-0 scores. Harris and Burrell had their own 6-0, 6-0 romp over Larissa Semanchuk-Enster and Jordan Cole.
Following its 0-2 tournament run, Chittenango recovered in a big way Friday with a 4-3 victory over those other Lakers from Skaneateles, where three matches went to three sets – and the Bears won two of them.
Gloo prevented a Skaneateles singles sweep when she outlasted Erica Byrne in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 classic. Otherwise, Bailey had surrendered an early lead in a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 loss to Alex Ditch and Gilbert fell to Mary McNeil 6-2, 6-4.
Needing three of the four points in doubles, Chittenango began to rally when Cleary and Strieff beat Lily Datz and Hope Allyn 6-2, 7-6 (11-9) as Choi and Everett paired up to stop Isabella Kroon and Hope Glowacki 6-1, 6-1.
Then, in the decisive match, Koegel and Norman, going from singles to doubles, trailed Angela Krause and Rachel Feeney following a first-set tie-breaker, but rallied to win 6-7 (7-4), 6-1, 6-4 and claimed the fourth point.
