Every head-to-head clash between Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt is special, and in girls tennis, the accomplishments of both programs only adds to the atmosphere.
This time, though, the battle clearly tilted in the Brothers’ favor. With a sweep of all four doubles matches and solid play in singles, CBA earned a 6-1 victory over the Red Rams last Wednesday afternoon to remain undefeated.
Alison Croucher and Rena Steele began that doubles sweep for CBA, winning a tough 7-5, 7-5 match over Megan Frank and Katie Tzizanis. Grace Coyne and Aubrey Mills followed up by topping Olivia DeHoog and Inka Gajri 6-2, 6-2.
Not allowing a game, Karen Simone and Isabella Mead powered past Sophia Foti and Sara Gow 6-0, 6-0, and to complete the doubles sweep, Sloane Nicoletti-Watson and Meredith Strott defeated Sonali Patel and Eileen Tan 6-1, 6-3.
J-D did get a point out of the first singles match, Maya Pollock fighting past Grace DelPino 7-5, 7-6 (7-5). But CBA answered with Mikayla Santulli’s 6-4, 6-4 win over Jungyun Kim and Anna Sasser handling Anna Sofia Hege 6-4, 6-2.
Before all this, CBA handled Cortland 7-0 last Monday, seeing Santulli blank Meeghan Kendall 6-0, 6-0 as DelPino defeated Allison Holl 6-2, 6-1 and Sasser stop McKenna Morris 6-1, 6-0.
In doubles, Croucher and Steele won, 6-1, 6-1, over Kathleen Starr and Taylor Hart. Coyne and Mills beat Boyce and Kayci Olson 6-1, 6-3 as Simone and Mead earned their own 6-1, 6-1 decision over Malena Darling and Elina Thayer.
Another 7-0 sweep followed on Tuesday against Fulton as DelPino and Santulli each won 6-0, 6-0 matches over, respectively, Katie Distin and Hailey Smith, while Sasser rolled past Dierdre Murphy 6-0, 6-1. The doubles teams of Croucher-steele, Simone-Mead and Coyne-Mills also won in two sets.
In its lead-up to the showdown with CBA, J-D fell to 2-2 on the season with last Monday’s 5-2 loss to Auburn, an OHSL Freedom division newcomer who possesses Julia Wagner, one of the top singles players in Central New York.
Here, Wagner joined Anna Streeter in doubles to top J-D’s Tzizanis and Natalie Alweis 6-2, 7-5, igniting a doubles sweep by the Maroons where just one match went to three sets as Gajri and Gow saw an early lead get away in a 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 defeat to Lindsay Jarman and Sydney Merkley.
Up in singles, J-D found more success, Maya Pollock overcoming a rough start to beat Celia Mattie 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 as Kim, getting a singles turn, handled Alexis Calkins 6-0, 6-2. Olivia DeHoog had a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to Makayla Huntley.
A day later, the Red Rams turned it around, beating Central Square 6-1. Pollock and Kim rallied to beat Erin McCarthy and Amy Gardener 2-6, 6-3 ,6-0 to complete a doubles sweep where Tzizanis-Alweis, Gajri-Gow and Sharma-Foti all won in two sets. Hege lost in singles to Alyssa Payne 6-1, 7-5, but Frank topped Victoria Tyrrell 6-3, 6-0 and DeHoog swept Rya Taylor 6-0, 6-2.
And after the loss to CBA, J-D earned yet another 6-1 victory on Thursday afternoon, this one over the Oswego Buccaneers, and by doing so moved back above the .500 mark as its improved to 4-3 overall, 4-2 in the OHSL Freedom division.
