So it finally happened – the Fayetteville-Manlius girls tennis team dropped a point in a head-to-head match against a CNY Counties League foe.
Through four matches, the Hornets had outscored foes 28-0, and it won again last Monday against Baldwinsville, though the 6-1 margin reflected a rare moment of vulnerability.
B’ville’s duo of Katherine Cassidy and Gabby Fiello lost the first set to F-M’s Martha Welker and Gretchen Ayoub 6-0, only to take the second set 6-3 and, two games from defeat, finish strong to claim the third set 7-5.
Elsewhere, F-M still rolled. Maggie Bonomo and Diana Polovock topped Jennifer Stone and Taylor Collado lost, 6-3, 6-2, with Katerina Atallah and Patrice Calancie handling Abby Coogan and Alina Minkova 6-1, 6-2. Rachel Liu and Abby Charlamb put together a 6-0, 6-1 win over Riley Warren and Yasha Parawar.
Up in singles, it proved no different, F-M sweeping all three matches. Kristina Liu started it with a 6-3, 6-0 conquest of Brooke Tutor, with Keara Polovick stopping Paige Tromblee 6-0, 6-1 and Anna Manta beating Lauren Devine 6-3, 6-1.
F-M would drop a second point Wednesday when it beat Auburn by that same 6-1 margin. The Maroons’ Julia Wagner, one of Section III’s top singles players, got pushed by Atallah as she took a singles turn, but Wagner still prevailed 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).
Otherwise, it was all Hornets, from Liu routing Alexis Calking 6-0, 6-1 and Manta beating Makayla Huntley by those exact same scores to a doubles sweep.
Bonomo and Calancie topped Katherine Brundage and Sydney Whitney 6-0, 6-2, with the Polovick sisters back together to beat Emma Solomon and Samantha Lesch 6-1, 6-0. Charlamb and Welker won, 6-2, 6-0, over Lindsay Jarman and Sydney Merkley, with Drapeau and Rachel Liu earning a 6-2, 6-0 decision over Shelby Blanchard and Alexa Lawrence.
East Syracuse Minoa had a close 4-3 defeat to Oswego last Tuesday afternoon, where Kim Pham claimed a 6-7 (10-8), 6-1, 10-8 singles epic over Lauren Boshart. In three sets, Noelle Zesky and Shejia Hujdur won, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, over Grace Hibbert and Bri Batchelor, but Emily Moziak and Robin Walters could not hold on to their lead and fell to Alexa Hardesty and Kelly Lizotte 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.
In Wednesday’s 6-1 non-league defeat to Westhill, the Spartans again saw Pham prevail, getting past Katherine Missert 6-3, 6-2 in first singles. Ellie Huard and Amber Unislawski each took 6-0, 6-2 losses to, respectively, Giovanna Buccina and Kaleigh Danaher, with the Warriors earning all four doubles points in two sets.
ESM did get into the win column on Thursday afternoon against 0-3 Fulton, keeping the Red Raiders’ skid going as the Spartans prevailed 7-0.
Bishop Grimes could not get a point from Westhill in last Monday’s 7-0 defeat. Still, the Cobras pushed two of the singles matches to three sets, with Rachel Christie falling to Buccina 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 and Katie Knittel also going to the wire, but taking a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 loss to Danaher.
Then Grimes fell to Phoenix 5-2 on Friday, though Knittel won in three sets to claim a marathon match over Catherien Musumeci 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (12-10). Elsewhere in singles, Christie lost to Brielle DeRoberts 6-2, 6-2, with Wolaver running into Gianna DeRoberts and taking a 6-4, 6-2 defeat.
Also in three sets, the doubles team of Mary Castricone and Gina Martin beat Lauren Schmidt and Ashley Kenner-Carbonaro 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-4, though the Firebirds claimed all of the other contested matches in straight sets.