A strong season for the Skaneateles girls tennis team culminated with the Lakers’ doubles team of Angela Krause and Mary McNeil advancing to the Section III state qualifying tournament, held last week at Drumlins.

Krause and McNeil earned this spot with their semifinal appearance in the Section III Division III tournament semifinals, as the top four finishers in each of the four divisions advanced to the qualifier, where the top three finishers, singles and doubles, would advance to this weekend’s state championships in Port Chester.

In the opening round last Tuesday morning, Krause and McNeil went up against Westhill’s Abby Mullen and Lydia Stevenson. After losing the first set 6-4, Krause and McNeil rebounded to win the second set by that same margin, only to fall just short as they lost yet another 6-4 decision in the final set.

If Krause and McNeil could take any solace from the close defeat, it was that Mullen and Stevenson had little left for its quarterfinal and lost, 6-1, 6-0, to the no. 2 seed, West Genesee’s MIkayla Mannara and Katie Viau, in straight sets.

Mannara and Viau went on to finish third in the qualifier and advance to the state tournament, joining two other teams, Maggie Bonomo-Katerina Atallah (Fayetteville-Manlius) and Briana Laureti-Lauren Skibitski (Auburn) on the Section III team that also includessingles players Julia Wagner (Auburn), Sarah Corasanti (New Hartford) and Kristina Liu (F-M).