With the Section III playoffs looming, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool girls tennis teams still had to go through one more round of CNY Counties League matches, including one with each other last Wednesday afternoon.
As was the case so many times before, the battle between these neighbors proved a close one, but thanks to a double sweep, the Northstars held off the Warriors, 4-3, exactly the same score as when they first met on Sept. 12.
Liverpool got to three points when Erin Chambrone, down a set and two points from defeat in a tie-breaker, pulled out a 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 victory over Karrah Savage as Katelyn Nguyen blanked Ava Breitbeck 6-0, 6-0 and Julie Schewe routed Breanna Melfi 6-1, 6-1.
Depending on its doubles teams, C-NS had gained three of those points in straight sets. Hanna Costello and Madison Murphy fought to a 6-4, 7-5 win over Megan Blake and Julie Nguyen, with Megan Tryniski and Brenna Duffy handling Valerie Morgans and Annie Trang 6-3, 6-1 as Sydney Franco and Vanessa Luangaphay got a 6-3, 6-4 win over Krystina Sterio and Gretechen Underwood.
So it all hinged on third doubles, where the Northstars’ Sarah Wicks and Sarah Cooper met the Warriors’ Eleni Ioannidis and Diana Kozenyatko. Wicks and Cooper won the first set 7-5 and got within two points of a sweep, only to have Ioannidis and Konayetko pull out a second-set tie-breaker. The third set was long, too, but the C-NS pair won it by a 7-5 margin to get the fourth points.
Back on Monday, Liverpool had a similar close call against Baldwinsville, but had to settle for a similar 4-3 defeat to the Bees despite sweeping all three of the singles matches.
Chambrone went through tie-breakers in the second and third sets, but still pulling out a 6-3, 6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (7-1) victory over Lauren Devine. That completed the 3-0 singles run for Liverpool that had already included Katelyn Nguyen routing Alina Minkova 6-1, 6-0 and Schewe beating Taylor Collado 6-1, 6-4.
Needing just one point in doubles, the Warriors found it elusive. Morgans and Trang lost to Paige Tromblee and Amanda Coogan 6-1, 7-5, with Ashley Wright and Giana LaValle falling to Yasha Parawar and Riley Warren 6-2, 7-5. Ioaniddis and Kozenyatko lost to Kathleen Cassidy and Gabby Fiello 6-2, 6-4 as Blake and Julie guyen took a 6-0, 6-4 defeat to Brooke Tutor and Jennifer Stone.
That same day, C-NS found success, defeating Syracuse East 5-2. That mostly came from a sweep of the doubles matches where the teams of Costello-Murphy, Coooper-Wicks, Nicole Kilian-Morgan Kocher and Hannah Fleet-Keanna Serviss did not drop a set or lose more than three games in any set they played.
Savage was dominant in singles, routing Robika Zathang 6-1, 6-1, but Syracuse East won the other two matches in straight sets as Franco fell to Eve Llanos 6-4, 6-2 and Melfi fell to Meiling Le 6-1, 6-2.
From there, the Northstars went on to blank Syracuse East 7-0 in a rematch a day later, but even that took Breitbeck rallying in singles to beat Llanos 4-6, 6-2, 6-0. Savage blanked Zathang 6-0, 6-0 as Melfi earned a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Le.
The closest of the four doubles matches saw Cooper and Wicks beat McKenzie Napel and Aya Ali 6-1, 6-3. Costello and Murphy, still paired together, won a 6-0, 6-0 decision over Kelly Hunyh and Nyuy Pham, with Tryniski and Duffy beating Fatimah Alowaid and Saba Abdulwaned 6-1, 6-0. Franco and Luangaphay handled Komal Regmi and Susma Magar 6-0, 6-1.
C-NS would beat Syracuse West 7-0 on Friday afternoon, with Savage outlasting Kyaw Kyaw in a long first-set tie-breaker on the way to a 7-6 (10-8), 6-1 win. Wilson played singles and beat Kelsey Lent-Moore 6-0, 6-3, with Breitbeck topping Kayla Pagano 7-5, 6-2. Each of the doubles matches was won in straight sets.
